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and fellow poet Sylvia Plath, and their daughter Frieda. Their son, Nicholas, was born the following year. Ted Hughes lived in the town until his death in 1998.

Carol said: 'He sometimes used to call it his bolthole. I think although a lot of his life took him out of Devon he always felt he could retreat back to Devon because he loved the countryside, he loved the rivers of Devon.

'He felt a privacy in North Tawton and people were very respectful of that. There was very little local intrusion into his life at all. That was important to Ted.'

Writing to a friend Ted said: 'As you see we're in Devon, peace, space, London departed like a headache. So from now on I hope my life will be privacy, my own thoughts, my own amusements, my own time with occasional raids on the world.'

The blue plaque can be seen at 14a The Square, opposite North Tawton Town Hall.