In 1196 Torre Abbey was founded as a Premonstratensian Monastery by William Brewer. The abbey owned much land in the area, and by the Dissolution was the richest monastery of its Order in England. The monastery itself was partly built with quarried stone from nearby Corbyn Head under the permission of the De Cockington family of nearby Cockington manor.Cockington, The Prettiest Village in England, Pg 2() It remained that way until February 1539 when it suffered the same fate as all other monasteries, surrendering to the ministers of Henry VIII during the dissolution of the monasteries following his split from Rome. The canons of Torre Abbey founded the nearby town of Newton Abbot in the early thirteenth century as the New Town of the Abbots.
