Feniton History Group held the 70th meeting in the Nog Inn

Very sadly I have to report that since our meeting the Boundary Stone has  been uprooted, and is now back in my garage. We will have to discuss what we do about this at the next meeting. The ownership of the stone was also muted.

We had our usual lively and varied discussion, hope I have remembered it all!

2017 will see the 50^th anniversary of the closure of the Railway Station. Brenda and Alan remembered the village was promised better transport links by bus, which, never came about!

 Geoff tells The Devon Record Office (Southwest Heritage) has set up a new database of its holdings.  http://devon-cat.swheritage.org.uk/

 Brenda has found some wonderful maps of Feniton Court in the DRO.

The Feniton Carnival was remembered, it was set up to raise funds for the Youth Centre, the last one was held in the late 1980s. The village groups borrowed tractors and trailers from the local farmers. The WI did a float relating to “Boy George” and also one “Ascot” where the ladies became rather tipsy on all the wine! Another float was “Citizen Smith”.

Chris reported all is in hand for the restoration of the Patteson Cross Obelisk, and a fund raising event is taking place in Feniton Church 23rd September. We have been asked to put up one of our display boards, we have the material from the event held previously. 

Alan spoke about place name pronunciation, how people from away say the names wrong. It all has to do with dialect and localisms!!  This led onto how the lack of road signs after the war lead to confusion in the Devon Lanes.

Brenda is still gleaning wonderful snippets regarding Parr Cottage and its history as the village Inn, reading rooms and men’s club. She has found an inventory which contained things like spittoons, a lot of the expenses went on lamp oil, coal and daily newspapers.

The education act of 1870 upset the farmers who had to let their farm lads go to school! It was thought the working classes did not need education.

Bill has been busy with the Carving Group and it is now a very popular craft for villagers.