Trevannion Close is one of a number of comparatively recent developments in land that formerly belonged to the Widey Estate that is named after a prominent local figure in the English Civil War.
Widey Court was used a Royalist base during the siege of Plymouth and Colonel John Trevannion was one of Sir Ralph Hopton’s (who is also commemorated in a place name in the area) royalist lieutenants (Slanning, Godolphin and Brevil Grenville were others).
Trevannion was part of the Cornish army that at one time was camped around Plympton, with instructions to look out for parliamentary reinforcements trying to make their way into Plymouth. Plympton, incidentally, unlike Plymouth, was happy to subscribe to the royalist cause. Trevannion, with Sir Nicholas Slanning, was also later involved with an unsuccessful struggle at Modbury.
The name, Trevannion, itself, incidentally, is explained simply as deriving from the farm, or homestead of a person called Enyon and is the same as that of the place names Tevanion, St Breock and St. Mewan (spelt Trevenyon in 1326).
