Mutley Plain

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View of Mutley Plain looking north from the junction with North Hill

Mutley Plain is a street in Plymouth, Devon. The main street of Mutley, a dense Victorian suburb,the term is often applied to the whole area despite the area being named 'Mutley'. The road itself is a very busy dual-carriageway,the B3250, with eight sets of traffic lights/pelican crossings. A far cry from the smart tree lined avenue built in late Victorian times and improved over the next half century as a plush local shopping place for both its own dense busy neighbourhood and the affluent area to the north.

1 History
2 Railway
3 Today
4 References

[edit] History

Mutley Plain lies on the route of an ancient road linking Bilburgh, a Bronze Age settlement on the coast at Sutton Pool which later formed the nucleus of the city of Plymouth, to the north. Mutley was originally the name of two parishes to the west of this road in the valley of the Houndiscombe Brook, the land to the east being part of the parish of Lipson.^[1]

Before the Norman invasion in 1066, Higher Mutley was held by Alwin of Tamerton, and Lower Mutley by one Goodwin^[clarify], but at the time of the Domesday Book (1086) both were held by Odo^[clarify], from Judhel of Totnes. In the Domesday Book the two parishes were said to be worth five shillings each. Lower Mutley had two farms while Higher Mutley consisted of ten sheep, one farm and two smallholdings

[edit] Railway

A tunnel was driven beneath Mutley Plain by the South Devon Railway Company and was opened to traffic on 2 April 1849. Formerly this was the site of Mutley Station, opened 1 August 1871 and known as the 'Station of the Gentry'.^[2] It was closed 2 March 1939, and has since been replaced by a car park.

[edit] Today

Mutley Plain still presents mainly as a shopping area but in recently the large numbers of students living nearby has led to the opening of many takeaways, eleven theme bars/public houses and thirteen charity shops. The area is also home to most of Plymouth's estate agents.

The Baptist church is the remaining architectural feature. The only green space is a small park on Moor View Terrace, which is often frequented by drunks, and a school playing field, but Central Park and the large cemetery are nearby.