building The town formed around a bridge which was built in or before the 10th century between the royal estates of
Alvington, to the west, and
Chillington, to the east, hence giving it the name of Kyngysbrygge ("King's bridge"). In 1219 the Abbot of
Buckfast was granted the right to hold a market there, and by 1238 the settlement had become a
borough. Kingsbridge is, in fact, a combination of two towns, Kingsbridge and
Dodbrooke. Dodbrooke was granted its own market in 1257 and had become a borough by 1319. While Dodbrooke was originally considered to be the dominant of the two, Kingsbridge later expanded to include it. The town consists of two ecclesiastical
parishes:
St. Edmund's in the west and St.
Thomas Becket at Dodbrooke in the east. St. Edmund's Church, in mainly
Perpendicular style, retains some 13th-century features including a
font, but was enlarged and reconsecrated around 1414 and was mostly rebuilt in the 19th century. The parish church of St. Thomas Becket displays a particularly well-preserved
rood screen, restored in 1897. A map of the town was drawn up in 1586 recording land belonging to
Sir John Petre. In 1798 the town mills were converted into a woollen manufactory, which produced large quantities of cloth, and
serge manufacture was introduced early in the 19th century. During the 19th century the town had an active coastal shipping trade, shipbuilding, a tannery, other industries and a large monthly cattle market. The chief exports were cider, corn, malt, and slate. and by Rachel Joyce as the setting for her 2012 novel
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. In October 2021 Embankment Films started filming in Kingsbridge for the big screen version of
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, starring Jim Broadbent, Penelope Wilton, Monika Gossmann and Bethan Cullinane. The film was released in April 2023. The town centre retains many 18th and 19th century buildings. The Shambles, or market arcade, was rebuilt in 1796 but retains its 16th century granite piers. The former grammar school, now the
Kingsbridge Cookworthy Museum, was founded and built by Thomas Crispin in 1670. ==Modern day==