“promoting a sustainable community for Kingsteignton and respect for its residents both present and future” Some History Kingsteignton is a parish of some 12,000 inhabitants. For many years, and for historic reasons, it has  been dominated by corporate, commercial bodies which have strongly influenced its development.  KREAG was formed to ensure that the bottom line profit of these commercial bodies does not come at  the expense of the quality of life of Kingsteignton residents.  KREAG is entirely non-political and has support from across the whole moderate political spectrum.  Whilst there can be no denying that the ball clay industry  forms a great part of Kingsteignton’s heritage  and has been a major employer for the last 200 years, the character of this relationship has changed  over the last thirty years. This process has accelerated since the industry has been in foreign ownership.   Recent years have been characterised by job losses and centralisation. Gone are the local administrative  headquarters, transport workshops, sawmills and underground mines. Now management is distant and  massive quarries are serviced by relatively few men working massive drag-line excavators and trucks as  the norm. Where the industry once just scratched the surface of the landscape it now devours it leaving  massive craters and tips which scar the local environment on a scale never seen before.  In the quest for clay great areas of the parish which contained mature deciduous woodland have been  transformed into barren wastelands and several historical features of Kingsteignton’s heritage have been  lost.  Pictured Left,  John Acres Lane, shown here in 1978, was once a favoured  Sunday afternoon stroll for many residents.  The ‘lane’ is now used by lorries accessing the  Heathfield tip, managed by Viridor on behalf of the local  authority. The name comes from the nearby Heathfield  Farm which is now all but demolished.  Picture Right: Copyright Robin Scott and licenced for reuse under  the Creative Commons Licence Pictured here in it's heyday of the 1930s, Teignbridge  House, a Palladian mansion that stood near Teign Bridge,  was demolished in the mid 1960’s. Kelly’s Directory mentions  that the British Braille alphabet was written by a guest whilst  staying there. According to the Devon Place Name Society  survey, the first record of a house on the site was in the  Middle Ages. Similarly, the site of Fishwick House that stood  nearby, was first mentioned in a Subsidy Roll in the 1300’s,  but now all we see there is a clay tip.   Twinyeo Farm, one of the four manors in Kingsteignton  mentioned in the Domesday Book was purchased in 1989  by WBB and immediately flattened. No attempt was made  to carry out any archaeological survey in order to record  one of the most important sites in the history of the parish.   Horsemills Cottage was inhabited by a local family up to the  late 1960's when cracks appeared in the building owing to the  proximity of the No.7 mining adit. The family was moved out  and the site now lies under a clay tip of WBBM. With a name  that points to a mill powered by horses rather than water, it is  yet another important part of the village heritage that has  been lost to the winning of clay.   Lower Preston Cross cottages, seen here in 1978,  can be found on the Tithe Map of 1836. They suffered  demolition in the early 1980s when the course of the  Chudleigh Road was pushed further towards Preston to  facilitate clay extraction.   The lake at Newcross, pictured in August 2004, was formed as  underground watercourses filled a disused clay pit. It was  designated a nature reserve and enjoyed by many residents  over very many years for the peace and tranquillity afforded.  There was wildlife aplenty and the site was home to rare fungi  and insects.   Pictured right is Newcross in October 2007 after the lake  had been drained and filled with clay waste. Planning  permission has been granted for residential development.   Follow us See it on a map