We had another evening consisting of a good natter
about various topics, the old chapel at Sidmouth Junction, sad that
we could not have made use of it for the village as an arts centre and café.
Being an old building the upkeep would have been a problem.
Something I omitted from last month was the amount of £66.00 raised by Jim Rider’s talk. This has been passed to the Church. I have received a note from Jo Chown thanking us and hoping we will continue to make use of the building in this way.
Brenda
bought along an interesting article about Sidmouth junction Station shown in
the form of a model in a railway magazine, very well made, though Alan says the train on the branch line is
wrong it would have been a tank engine suitable to run the line without being
turned around.
The
conversation then moved on to Moles, Badgers and hedgehogs and the plans to
re-wild rural areas.
The
Boundary Stone unveiling and walk was a great success, the Group hope to make
this an annual event on Rogation Sunday.
Brenda
is researching the cottages now known as Parr Cottages. This building has a
long and varied history, being the local inn or cider house, a room was used by
the Men’s Club. Brenda now has the minute books which from 1924 onwards. The
club was started by the Rev. Watson to give men something to do. John Virgin
was running it when it closed.
The
rooms there were used like a village hall, the parish council held their
meetings there, it was also used for the large ploughing match lunches,
wonderful write ups in the newspapers of the day. The men were asked to use the
facilities rather than the garden! The
rooms played a big part in the social life of the village.
We
talked about how Post Cards were delivered same day compared to modern day
communications, how many of us during our school days found the teaching of
history uninspiring.
Hugh
told us about his interests in the
history of Plymouth Argyle football team. The whole town had a half day closing
for the match days and the dockyard also let their employees off. Seeing
the local sports news Hugh must be very chuffed to see his team off to Wembley!
My brother who lives in Hampshire tells the Portsmouth followers are
devastated!!
Jenny
and George are taking the Western Uprising PowerPoint to Honiton this week.
Jenny has kindly honoured us with the copyright to safeguard it.
Thank
you all for a jolly evening. Shout if I have left anything out.
Our next meeting is on 2nd June,
when we look forward to having Graeme with his metal detecting and field
walking find.
