Feniton History Group held the 79th Meeting in the Nog Inn

The evening started off with today’s history!! The local election for Devon County Council. Hugh asked us about the history of wards in East Devon. This link helps a little:

The latest change is the reorganisation of East Devon, Feniton is now with Honiton, after being part of Ottery Rural for many years, the changes being brought about by evening out the number of electorate in each ward. We found it very strange that Whimple is now matched with Blackdown.

Geoff has been a polling office and told us about the legal responsibilities he had, including the power of arrest!

Field names were mentioned and how the names evolve over time, we have a couple of fields, Harvey’s and Peek’s, which are named after the family who lived in the adjacent house. Our neighbours have one named “Hundred Acres”, needless to say it is very small!

Next topic was horses, how the police use them to handle crowds at football matches, in the South West the horses are stabled with the Avon and Somerset Constabulary.

Many of us can remember horses doing the milk and bread deliveries, also the rag and bone man  who used them into the 1970s. Colin’s father was still using a horse in the late 1940s.

Bob went to see a Civil war enactment and was very interested by the whole event depicting the English Civil War.

Skirmishes are not classed as important, we nattered about Jenny’s battle research of Fenny Bridges in 1549.  Our newer members have not seen the PowerPoint of Jenny’s research, so it was suggested we ask Jenny if we can show it one evening in the Nog.

We noted that some famous Battles were designated to the wrong fields, Bosworth and Hastings to mention a couple. Canons were loaded with all sorts of full of shot to wipe out the opposition.

Many battle sites seemed to be devoid of finds in later years, the followers would have cleared the fields of anything of value, even the dead had their teeth removed.

Bill has been reading Graeme Smith’s book, which he can recommend, The Awakening of Abraham Brown. Bill also is interested in finding out more about magnet fishing in canals and rivers. his would bring up anything metal thrown away, old bikes and shopping trollies come to mind!

We nattered about the Thames Mud Larks and their finds on the tide line.

Alan has a flint and would love to find out if it is a worked tool or just split by mature.

Geoff visited Sidbury Manor gardens, a big house with tired walls. It is the family home of the Caves. Open to the public each April for the National Garden’s Scheme.

Bob told us about his recent purchases. We mentioned the collection of medals on the BBC Antiques Roadshow. These covers the service of a man who served in the Boer War, WW1 and WW2. Some soldiers were denied medals, the Duke of Wellington did not approve them. 

Next meeting on Thursday 1st June in the Nog Inn at 8 pm.


Don’t forget the Rogation Walk on Sunday 21st May, 2:30 pm at Beechwood Farm, Green Lane.