To start off I must say how sorry
we are to hear of all our members who are unwell at present and wish them a
very speedy recovery.
The boundary stone, is in
hand, David will kindly get a firm quote
and Susie Bond has emailed EDDC on the matter.
Janet has kindly handed Brenda her
mother's local history file. Mrs Peek lived at the Iron Gate Lodge, Escot.
Brenda will extract notes that are relevant to the village.
One of the Rectors the Rev.
Churchill was mentioned, here are the notes we have on him:
Charles CHURCHILL 1642-1656
He was the son
of Thomas Churchill of Wolsen, Ottery St Mary. He graduated from Exeter College
Oxford with a ~A in 1632 and an MA in 1635. At a Visitation to Feniton in 1638
he is described as a curate and was installed as rector on 23rd January 1642 on
the presentation of Walter Trosse. The living was then worth £140. It was
difficult undertaking the ministry at this time, with the country on the verge
of a civil war. It has been recorded that he was a man of "ruddy
countenance" with a jovial laugh. He suffered from a "Scorbutick
Humour" (Vitamin C deficiency) "and had never other than a red
face". During the Revolutionary period of 1649-1660 many beneficed clergy
were deprived of their livings, their tithes and. rectories in favour of
Presbyterian ministers. This was the fate of Charles Churchill. He is recorded
as being ejected in 1654 or 1656 (but it was more likely 1657). He was brought
before the "Commissioners for ejecting Scandalous and Ignorant
Ministers" where he was charged with being "a person distempered with
Liquor", the evidence being his red face. This charge he refuted, he
nearly got himself into further trouble by laughing heartily at his own joke,
made at the expense of one of the "tryers," "that Major Saunders
drove furiously, there was no holding the plough after him". His final
conviction was due, we are told, to the evidence that he "suffered his
children to play cards for pins," and also that he was a notorious
Cavalier. After treating the Commission with scant ceremony he was evicted.
Following his ejection he lived in poverty in Somerset where his wife and four
children, one probably being Alexander, shared the harshness of his exile until
in 1660, when he was restored to the living at Feniton where he remained until
his death.
We had a very lively
discussion on the notion of producing a book of the Village History.
The enthusiasm was wonderful., I am
sorry to be the only one who felt we are taking on too much with the costs and
unknown market!!!
George, Brenda, Jenny, and Val will
look at the project in more depth. Geoff who has done this in the past
explained it is not an easy task and could be very costly.
The general consensus was a 40,000
word soft backed A5 or Quarto with text and photos.
Below are the ideas George and I
gleaned from the folk we met at the DFHS AGM:
It was recommend that we look at a website called
"Lulu", here you can set up your book and order as many copies as you
require.
Another suggestion was the Short Run Press, based in Exeter
Or as was suggested at our last meeting we do it as a series
of self printed books leading up to a complete series. George has kindly
suggested that he would help with printing by purchasing a laser printer for
the purpose.
The Branscombe Project use Creeds of Bridport
http://www.creedsuk.com/ Thank you to Sue Dymond for this suggestion.
My misgivings are: We don't do money, we don't have a
structure in place to deal with applying for grants, we have no formal set up
or constitution.
Dates for your diary.
Devon History Society on Saturday, 1st November, 2.15pm The
Christopher Jago Memorial Lecture The Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549 and the
siege of Exeter Professor Mark Stoyle in The Guildhall, Exeter. Members who are
going have their tickets. This is a ticket only event.
Next meeting in the Nog Inn 8pm on 6 Nov 2014
The WW1 coffee morning in the Church to mark
Remembrance 10:30 to 12:30 Sat 8 Nov. We
will need cakes etc and if anyone has any WW1 recipes perhaps we can make them
up for the day. I suggest we can put the boards and display up on the day, say
9:30 am.
