Buckfast Close

This is one of the many streets on the post-war Ham estate which owes its name to a well-known English abbey or medieval priory. Buckfast Close leads into Tewksbury Close and onto Ham House itself.

Buckfast Close is named after the abbey located 15 miles from Plymouth at Buckfastleigh. Although the present Benedictine house was only established in the late 19th century, the grand building stands on the site of one of the richest and oldest monasteries in the South West. There was a monastery established there almost 50 years before the Norman Conquest.

The name Buckfast is of a straightforward origin. Recorded in 1046 as Bucfaesten, it comes from the Old English words 'bucc' and 'faesten', which gives us a 'place of shelter for bucks' (male deer).

EH 24 October 2000