St Andrew's rededication 4th, 5th 6th March 2011

The church interior was destroyed by a freak flood caused by hailstones blocking drains, it affected a lot of the East Devon area on the night of 31st October 2008.

Thursday.

The team gave the church a good clean through, I had the lovely task of polishing the medieval pews. Then the servery was laid up ready to serve the drinks and biscuits for the 220 school children. Then Brenda, Alan and I put up the History display, the boards were a nightmare, the panels did not all come from the same set!!! Phillip came over and gave us a hand, bless him.

Friday.

The older children came down about 11am and worked in groups around the church, with various worksheets on the stained glass windows, the graves, the images in the carvings, and then after lunch the rest of the school came down and they had a story time all about the church cat and the church mouse. Then the parents arrived for what would have been the school assembly. The children did readings all based on the word “heart”, using the spelling.  The school music club sang so beautifully.

The next service was the funereal of Mrs. Nora Chipperfield, aged 96 and her  burial in the churchyard.

Saturday.

The team came in and put the portable pews back in and re laid the servery ready for tea, The village gathered at the Nog Inn for the Big Parade about 1:30 pm. Some 200 or more, not that many dressed up, but we all followed the piper through the housing estate, banners from various groups and clubs held aloft, down to the church, the parade garnered another 100 or so as folk joined from the streets and houses we passed. We all crowed in to the church, where Rev Cate gave a welcome speech and blessing, Val Stringer spoke to launch the “Friends of St. Andrews” charity and we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and serving tea and cakes.

Sunday.

The church was cleaned through and made ready for the Rededication service with Bishop Bob, Bishop of Crediton. He is a lovely man and wondered all around the church greeting folk and talking to all  during his address, all very relaxed with laughter and applause, good rousing traditional hymns. The choir struggled with the hymn tune “Feniton Court”, they did not ask the congregation to sing and I can see why it is not popular, very tricky!!!! It does not flow.  The churchwardens were thanked for all the hard work, as was Rev. Cate, all very emotional. Then we set to and served the finger buffet.

The pews were then all turned to face the font ready for the christening of young Isaac, his family waited until the church re opened to get it done he is a school boy now and did a reading at his own christening, I did not stay for that, but took the chance to go home and walk the dogs.

Then it was back gain for Evensong, boy this was different, very different, all very relaxed and you’ve guessed it, clappy happy, dancing, shouting out prayers as and when, voicing random praises, singing very repetitive verses. At times felt very uncomfortable with it!!!! But did enjoying the singing, as I can’t sing, but no one could hear that!!! And……… there was my son playing the Saxophone. He has not played that since he left school!!! But he had been practising and made a good fist of it. He did not want a mic on it, so that if he did get it wrong it would not be heard, but those sat near the band said they loved hearing it. So very chuffed with that.   Then we served all the food left over from the lunch. I don’t want to eat any more cake for a while.

A wonderful weekend was had by all. I just hope the village will come back and help keep the church in the main stream of village life.

Bricks In the Feniton Area

Long Park

Escot House

                 

When Exeter’s trade with the Netherlands was at its height in the 17th and early 18th centuries, ships returning to Devon were commonly loaded with mixed cheap cargoes including bricks, which acted as ballast on the journey home. Dutch bricks were much smaller than English ones, and were often cream or fawn in colour, contrasting with the red bricks of Devon, so they can easily be distinguished nowadays.

Many examples of such bricks can be seen in the buildings and garden walls of Topsham, close to the quays where they were unloaded. They are found in smaller numbers at Exeter and in the neighbouring villages and towns.

The cottages and the Escot estate properties built by the Kennaways have red brick with white or cream bricks as decoration. The Kennaway family were merchants and I wonder if the white bricks used to build Escot House, dated 1838 rebuilt after the fire, came from trade with the Dutch. One other house in the area has a white brick, which is Long Park, near the railway station. A fine example of the red brick with white is Colesworthy House built by the Wheatons c. 1890, but sadly now it is painted white, and the fine brickwork is lost. A recent owner came from the North and hated all the brick back to back housing, so had it painted. The Talewater Brickyard was part of the Escot estate.

A seem of white ball clay runs across the county from Peters Marland to Newton Abbot. The white clay was used in the making of fine pottery, china pipes, for tobacco. The less valuable stoneware clays to produce the pale cream bricks that are a feature of many West Country buildings, as well as drain pipes, chimney pots and wall tiles - notably Candy & Coin of Heathfield, near Bovey Tracey, Hexter Humpherson in Newton Abbot and the Marland brick works in North Devon. http://www.clayheritage.org/pages/welcome.htm

W.G.Hoskins in his book “ Devon” states that brick was very rare in Devon. George Rolle rebuilt Stevenstone in St. Giles in the Wood in the 1540s using brick. Brick was not used in any quantity until the 1690s.

The Customs House on Exeter Quay is of red brick, built in 1681, one of the oldest brick buildings.

There is a field in Strete Raleigh, near Whimple, called “Brickfields” a look at the old tithe map for that area may be useful. There were brickworks on the way out of Ottery St Mary up Chimeway.

Jo Chown received a Christmas Card from a distant relative called Raymond Harris who Alan Powell knows too.  In the card they included an old photo of the family and said it had been taken in front of 'Bricklands' now Appletree Cottage behind the Nog Inn.  I don't know if this is of any interest but will try to get to the next meeting and bring it with me. I do know that there is a considerable seam of very dense clay which runs in front of Myrtle Cottage which one could easily make bricks from! [Jo. Chown]

Heraldry

Members of the Group have been researching the coats of arms in the Church. The pillars carry the Malherbe and Ferrers on the capitals.

On the screen behind the pulpit are two small bosses, we now believe this to be of the arms of the Acland Family, who lived in Feniton Court.

The 18^th meeting on 17^th Mar 2011 at the Nog Inn

Many thanks to the folk who came on parade.  It was a good event Pam, thank you. The photos were run the lap top. If anyone wants copies give me a shout.

The Rev. Danny : Has asked us to be custodian of the old chapel sign board, I have yet to collect this . Brian Stork has kindly said he will look at the repairs it needs. Thanks Brian.

Jenny, while in the Museum raised a query as to what Mocaden is, it is a light woollen fabric used for under garments.

The canon at Feniton Court:    Yes it was on the front of Feniton Court,. The barrel was about 4 ft long and stood on a chassis with solid iron wheels. [John Bishop] It was presented to Beatrice Acland for her service during WW1 for setting up an Australian Field Hospital in Hertfordshire. Its whereabouts now are unknown.

Further to our discussions on bricks and brickyards, the white bricks used in the local houses built by Kennaway may have come from the seam of white ball clay runs across the county from Peters Marsland to Newton Abbot.  Escot house is of white brick , as is Long Park.

I was able to glean more about the Rev. Smith from the Crockfords Clerical Directory. He drove the last car up to Hembury Fort from Curscombe. [John Bishop], but Brain remembers driving a rally car up there in the 1970s!!

The Malherbe family talk, is now arranged for the  Fri 6^th May in the church. Pam has very kindly taken on the publicity for this event. Please let all your friends and family know!

The second of our talks is about Cadaver Tombs, David is to confirm the date of this, more details next month. It will be a general talk lasting some 30 mins + Q & A.

Val Stringer would like a history article to place in the “Friends” Newsletter, ie one of the families. Any volunteers to set about this task please?

Leslie Alford of Payhembury   asked me about a  photo of football match in the 2008 display. Geoff has the display in his loft and will look it out in due course, thanks Geoff.

Sadly the two village websites have not seen any improvement, so George has kindly offered to carry on with this, despite his hard drive failing. Thank you George. I am to look into running a “Blog” for the group.

We  will discuss the display in the church at the next meeting, it will be good to have it up in time for the May talk. I have a set of display boards now for the Group’s use.

Alan entertained us with some very local dialect sayings from the villagers who coined them, Frank Gibbins, George Gear, Cyril Hill, this was of great interest and sparked a lively discussion. Thank you Alan.

The 17^th meeting on 17 Feb 2011 at the Nog Inn 

As there was so few of us we had a good natter over a glass of beer!!

Alan discussed with us about the alignment of the Straight Way Head Road to Taunton. The lanes in the old village, had been altered, the left hand lane into Green Land from the Old village was an old quarry and the original road would have passed through the property known as Beechwood.

In 1841 the Turnpike Trust proposed a road from Fenny Bridges to Broadclyst Heath, and also from Fairmile to the Country House Hotel.

The Ottery /  Payhembury road four cross way, now known as Patteson’s Cross was called Spence Cross. Now with the monument to  John Coleridge Patteson (1 April 1827 - 20 September 1871) was an Anglican bishop and martyr. Patteson was educated at The King's School, Ottery St Mary, Eton and then Balliol College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1853 in the Church of England. His old tutor at Eton, George Augustus Selwyn, was the first Bishop of New Zealand, and he persuaded Patteson to become a missionary to the South Seas. In 1855 Patteson set out to found the Melanesian Mission. He founded a college on Norfolk Island for native boys, toured the islands on the ship Southern Cross, and learned many of the local languages. In 1861 he was made Bishop of Melanesia.

On 20 September 1871 he was murdered on the island of Nukapu in the Solomon Islands, where he had landed alone. Natives killed him as revenge against the abduction of some natives by white men months earlier. Two Norwegian historians (Thorgeir Kolshus and Even Hovdhaugen, 2010) have claimed he was murdered because he had an inappropriate, non-sexual relationship with the chief’s wife  Patteson’s brother confirms this in a letter. His death became a cause celebre in England and increased interest both in missionary work and in improvement of the working conditions in Melanesia.

His life is celebrated in the Church of England as a saintly one, and he is commemorated with a Lesser Festival on 20 September. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Coleridge_Patteson 

Now don’t forget we are taking part in the Church Parade on Sat 5^th March, 1:30 pm at The Nog / Station in dress suitable to depict the 1800s.

The 16^th meeting on 20^th Jan 2011 at the Nog Inn.

Good to see everyone after the Christmas and New Year break. Welcome to Sylvia Harper, we hope you will be able to come again.

David and Val spoke about the plans for the church in March. The men who died in WW1 to be carved give them a roll of honour. 

There was a good response to ideas for our role the parade. Featuring the 1800s. We will need a placard or poster to carry on the day. Can someone come up with a design please?  Brenda suggested we brought along our chosen costumes to the next meeting. [17^th Feb]

The Group will put up a table and may be a board display in the church over the weekend. [4^th – 6^th Mar] If you have anything to put on display please give us a rough idea of it at the next meeting, this is to gauge the space we need.  My thoughts are, the list of Rectors, the pew carvings, photos, the stain glass windows, the flood, churchwardens, church accounts etc.

The holes in the pew ends were for a “dickie seat” a servant would sit on the end of the Master’s pew.

Professor Gordon, a keen researcher of the Malherbe name will be giving a talk on his research in the church on the 6^th May 2011 at 7:30pm. David is arranging this. I will arrange a visit to the Devon and Exeter Institution in June.  

George has been busy with the website design and is looking for files and photos to add. Thank you for taking this on for us. For ideas on this these sites are worth a look:

http://www.westendlhs.hampshire.org.uk/

http://www.kingston-bagpuize.com/about-site.htm

http://www.moretonhampstead.org.uk/

George  - the Rootsweb Organisation host websites, this link gives more detail.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~websites/ 

The 15^th meeting on 9^th Dec 2010 at the Nog Inn.

It was good to see you all such a cold night.

There were several points discussed. One being the body found under the church porch, I remembered reading about a body in similar circumstances at Christow, near Exeter:

Nathaniel Bussell, the parish clerk, is said to have been shot by the Roundheads on February 19th 1631, and to have been buried in the porch where he fell, because he refused to deliver up the keys of the church for the building to be ransacked. The stone is there with the inscription:—Nathaniel Bussell 46 years clark here dyed 19th February, 1631. The date seems a little too early for him to have lost his life at the hands of the Roundheads [cf. Civil Wars 1642-1651].  Ref: http://www.wissensdrang.com/stabb049.htm

Chris. Saunders brought up a previous item regarding local brickworks, there was one situated at Street Raleigh, being a field name in that area. It would  be worth checking the tithe map for the field.


The research into the coats of arms on the church pews was passed around. The ones relating to the Northcote family have been found and indentified. But there are two that seem rather elusive, a single shield which fits to the name Chatterton, does anyone know of this name in relation to the village church? The other is has the arms of the Baldock on the right, one Elizabeth Baldock married William Gore, but the arms on the left of the carving seem to be of O’Connell, so some confusion there!!


There is to be a weekend of events to mark the re-dedication of the church over the week end 4^th,5^th and 6^th March 2011. The History Group have been asked to take part in the community parade on the 5^th. The theme is the 1800’s. We discussed various roles we could depict, the railway, farming, perhaps a pony and trap. Chris. Saunders suggested that Ottery Community Theatre would be able to help with costumes, contact Nora Palmer. The local Morris Dancers, perhaps they would be able to take part, I understand Colin Payne, one of our members is the man to ask.
Ideas for next year, a talk by John Michael Kennaway, a visit to Exeter and the Devon and Exeter Institute.


Mike Spry popped in to tell about the old Chapel sign board, it was repaired about 1980 ish from iroko wood and there is an older sign under the current “onion” one.
Alan gave us one of his fascinating talks, this time on “Sidmouth Road”, this road is shown on the OS Map as running from Langford to Weaver. The road was improved to take passengers from the trains at Hele to Sidmouth before the line to Sidmouth was built.


We had a chat about setting up a website for the Group, the Rootsweb organisation currently offer free space:  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/  We will need a web master / mistress!!


Bill Knollman told us a bit about his life as an undertaker and of living near one of the London Airports leading to a discussion on aircraft!!
Mince Pies and Christmas Greetings were passed around to mark the season.