During the sixteenth century, Tiverton was part of a Europe-wide network of trade in goods and services, with people from France and Germany coming to live in the town.
For centuries, people have come to Tiverton to work. In Tudor times people journeyed from France, Belgium and the Netherlands. As Britain expanded its trading reach, Tiverton’s population steadily diversified.
The tax assessment of 1524 suggests that there were four men listed who came from abroad, and who were probably all here because of their involvement in Tiverton’s cloth trade.
Gold Street is Tiverton’s cultural quarter of the town today, but 400 years ago it was filled with cloth merchants. The area between Gold Street and the River Lowman was known as ‘Little Germanie’. As early as 1524 there are records of people from Europe coming to Tiverton. Names such as John Agaunt, Simon Bylhole, Michael Chaundeler, John Cleve and John Frenshman are listed.