Feniton History Group 31st Meeting

It was good to meet up again after our beak last month.

The research and displays we staged for the Art Fund event in the village were very well received, this also means we have done some very useful property and family research for our archives. The total amount raised was well above expectation at £1,137.00.

I would like to thank the members for all their hard work in staging the event. The display depicting the Prayer Book Rebellion by Jenny is a real master piece.

During the last few months I made some notes I thought the Group would find of interest and these were discussed:

Look into the Enclosure act in relation to Feniton.

We would benefit from having copies or the fiche for the Land Tax Assessments for the village, to get them photo copied at the DRO would be very expensive at .25p per sheet, so I will enquire if we can buy the set of fiche, we do have a £25 donation from the Art Fund and £7 from the Railway CD sold at the DRO Open Day. I hope this will cover the cost.

The Parish Record Transcripts are well on the way to completion, we need permission of the Rector and Churchwardens to put them on the Internet, either on our Blog or on the Devon GENUKI website, the preferred option.

We discussed spelling and how important it is to keep an open mind when looking for place and surnames.

The Hayridge Hundred and the Peasant's Revolt Poll Tax of 1381 was another point raised, there are documents relating to this may be worth a look, if they are readable!!

We discussed the origins of the chapel at Fenny Bridges, the one intact by the old A30 was probably built  for the Wesleyan Centenary in 1839, the early chapel was thought to be in the garden of the Mill. The bodies buried at the chapel were reinterred in the churchyard in 1949.

In the Baptism Register in mentions the Salter family lived "In the corner", Geoff checked this out in the DRO and it is though this phrase was used to differentiate between the various Salter families there at the time, 1549 to 1625. Thanks Geoff.

Other topics,    "Hull" the name for the box the priest used to shelter in to take a burial in the graveyard on a wet day!

 Bones found on Woodbury Common though to be Cornish Rebels, the bones showed the men were very tall, perhaps due to good nutrition from the fish diet, then we talked about how we make assumptions on things when the full evidence is missing! 

Clerks comments in their Registers.

Origins of the name of Chelsea Farm, something to ask about.

Memories of flooding in the past. bought on no doubt by the current wet weather and floods in the area. I hope I have remembered everything! It was a very full evening.