Mr Peter Barnes' email and photos.

We have had a wonderful email from Mr. Peter Barnes who was evacuated to Feniton in the war, he stayed with Mr & Mrs Hapgood at Thorne. I copy it here along with the photos, they are lovely, thank you Peter.

Dear Christine 

Although I am not a member of the Feniton History Group I have been reading the meeting reports with much interest  

In your 44th meeting on Thurs 14th Nov 2013 in Feniton Church comment was made of  "The Acland film Showing" and included there was mention of a Mr Habgood (spelt as I understand with b and not p) being the Head Gardner of the Acland Estate. 

My mother and I went down from West London to stay with Mr Robert Habgood and his wife Catherine who were living at Thorn Cottage on the 4^th September 1939 the day after war was declared being our evacuation. 

I was enrolled to attend the Primary Church School located just round the corner due to start the Autumn term within the next few days. There were only two classes being the main one for the young and the other for the very young. As I remember the main classroom was divided into separate rows of desks each row representing different ages and receiving different lessons no doubt causing many problems for the teacher whose name I now cannot remember. 

I also joined the Church Choir and I remember the Choir practice used to be up at the Vicarage on Friday nights which at the time was a very dark walk with the high hedges and the glow worms hardly helped.

  

I have attached a photo of Mr and Mrs Habgood at the rear of their garden taken early spring 1940 which may possibly be of interest and two others taken when passing through the Village in 1960. The gate behind Mr Habgood led down to the quite large Kitchen Garden belonging to Feniton Court. 

I do trust your History Group remains a great organisation for all the local historic information and a total success for many years to come. 

Yours sincerely, 

                     

Peter L.Barnes

Feniton History Group held the 97th meeting in the Nog Inn

Very pleased to report that the replacement Boundary Stone is here, and it will be placed in due course. I am looking into setting up a QR code to explain the stone.

Following on from last month regarding the Art & Craft event in May. Brenda has been checking newspapers for mentions of local crafts entered in the flowers shows etc. but sadly nothing came to hand.  We had craftsman in the village, stonemasons, blacksmiths, carpenters, Mrs. Hart a woodcarver and may be lace makers. The task goes on.

David has been looking at documents in the Devon Heritage Centre and has found mention of a sexton who put a body in a reserved plot. It was a member of the same family, so the rightful plot owner raised no objection.

Other information was that the Rev Hart memorial in church caused an issue which had to be resolved by the Chancellor. It concerned part of the monument text being in Latin

and was included within the English text. The crest on the monument indicated the this particular Hart family had origins were in Ireland.

There was a proposal to line the whole of the North wall with oak panelling, as it was only the box pew in the Northwest corner was lined.

The 2 inch lettering on the lych gate cost 12/- per dozen letters.

A drawing of the churchyard showed a drain crossing the churchyard. A letter from Redferns to the Rev hart said that no such drain exists.

A man has been out looking round the church for graffiti, he is hoping to write a book on the subject.

Geoff is still busy at Southwest Heritage, he recommends talks on Victorian trains by a Mr. Trump given at the RAMM in Exeter.

There are rumours about a Smugglers’ Path from Feniton to the coast, perhaps Branscombe. Google has not thrown up much, apart from the essay:

https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/webdocs/lb_2010_17.pdf

Also lace was often smuggled I understand.

Bob has found an Italian Medal, always enjoy hear about the medals.

Jenny has asked for help with her family history, Geoff is working on the military side and I am looking for Smithfield Farm, near West Hill, in Tipton St. John, Metcombe area, can I ask if this is known to anyone.

I will fix up an afternoon at the farm next month, we can look at family history and sort out our display boards for the Craft Weekend. Thank you all for a fascination evening.

Next meeting in the Nog Inn on Thursday 4^th April 2019.

Feniton History Group held their 96th Meeting in the Nog Inn

The Friends of St Andrew’s Church have asked the Group to take part in the Arts & Craft days in the Church on the weekend of 18^th / 19^th May. It was agreed to accept the invitation, ideas began flowing to mount displays on the carvings in the church, blacksmiths and to look at old adverts for local craftsmen and women.

Geoff has been volunteering and the Devon Record Office for Seven years. He is working on thirty eight boxes from a deceased estate in Crediton, but looking forward to going back to the Railway files.

Sam is working on a dig at Bow, this is a Henge, classed as an ancient monument, Nothing visible  on the surface. It consists of a stone bank and ditch, it may have been  a wooden post  or stone circle.  In Scotland a “ modern circle” classed as ancient has been found https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-46946652

George has been walking along part of the Otter at Fenny Bridges. It is known that the River has moved and been reshaped by nature and man.  Nigel Scarf lived in Rosary Cottage and noticed a mound in the garden, could this be where bodies from the Battle of Fenny Bridges were buried?  David tells us there is to be a metal detecting session in the area soon. 

Brenda recalls going to the Ottery tar barrels just after she met Keith, they became caught up in the crowds and fell into a house window. Brenda tells us she has been working on her family tree, one man was a  blacksmith , he was called up during the war and sent to be in the Royal Naval Air Force based at Shoreham, sadly while away his wife died and he came home to care for their children

Peter is writing his family history.  He would like to do a tandem parachute jump or row the Atlantic, but his Doctor said no very firmly. So he decided to do a marathon of poetry in 26 days, with the proceeds going to the church, King Street Day Care  and the Exeter Leukaemia Fund. He writes from the heart and  feels the emotions.

Jenny and the battle banner will be in the church for Craft event in May. She told us about a book, entitled   The Field Guide to the English Clergy, it is very funny, Jenny read an extract about Bishop Cecil of Exeter, he was known to be somewhat eccentric. On one occasion a guest having tea with him at his home was surprised when he fed pieces of crumpets to two rats that came out of holes in the floor, and threw powdered copper sulphate on the fire to turn the flames green, remarking that he liked the colour. Once, goes another story, while robing in the vestry before a service, he held a handkerchief between his teeth, but forgot to return it to his pocket and proceeded to the altar with it still hanging from his mouth. He had been heard to complain that the Bible was "an awkward book", and while travelling around his diocese he would often ring up his wife to ask where he was, stealing bicycles to get home, they painted his bike red, but he kept taking postman’s bikes instead. 

Alan has been looking at railway history in South Somerset. Many of the towns would have been better served if the railway routes were better planned. 

 The town of Crewkerne is served by the station at Miserton, some distance away. The Salisbury to Yeovil railway had no investment but came to be a profitable to Sherborne. The Castle at Sherborne was a problem until the owner died, then his son let the railway through.

Taunton to Yeovil then to Exeter suffered from business conflict, this was the cause of the bad routes Okehampton had two stations owned by different companies.

Yeovil also has badly planned stations with Yeovil Junction and Penn Mill being somewhat outside the main town. Then of course many branch lines were lost to the cuts imposed by Beeching.

Thank you all for a fascinating evening.

We meet in The Nog Inn on Thursday 7^th March at 8 pm

Feniton History Group held their 95th Meeting in the Nog Inn

Thank you to Brenda for writing up the meeting notes.
A very Happy Christmas and New Year to all our friends and members.

Feniton History Group held their 94th meeting in The Nog Inn

We put the arrangements on place for the WW1 coffee morning in the church on Sat. 10^th at 10:30 am. We meet to set up about 9:30 am. Cakes etc would be most welcome, thank you. The funds raised will be on behalf of the Poppy Appeal.

 You are welcome to come over to the farm on Thursday 8^th at 2:30pm to put our display on the boards.

Bob told us about an Australia medal for the injured, when collecting medals, you must be aware of the fakes put out for sell. The discussion moved to the fake art and antique markets, some medals are sold with the wrong ribbons.

Hugh continues with his work on the History of Plymouth Argyle, the memorabilia is getting

memorable pricy, this was followed by some football rivalry!! He is working on the social history around the football league in the 1880s, the northern teams paid their players, these were often factory teams, but not in the south, football was much more dominate in the North. The Thames Ironworks supported the “Hammers”, West Ham. The local church also was involved in some teams.

During the war there were women’s teams from the shell factories, but in December 1921 the FA cited strong opinions about football's unsuitability for females. It called on clubs belonging to the associations "to refuse the use of their grounds for such matches". The ban changed the course of the women's game forever.

Jackie has loaned her families’ war medals to the school.  The school is making a brilliant effort in commemorating the WW1 100 years.

Sam has War memories from his family, there is a sweet heart photo of a dead soldier, name unknown, the lady remained single, lived in India  and worked as a post mistress.

Val mentioned Frank’s fathers war medals and asked how to preserve a war time telegram

Geoff advised that she persevere the telegram in acid proof paper.

Geoff told us about archiving in the Record Office by tell us what’s not allowed in the record office, pens, metal staples, metal treasury tags and Sellotape. Paper is never folded but rolled and stored in linen bags.

He is recording a collection of Theatre programs with staples left which will be left in. The Theatre fire’s listing of an auction catalogue of contents. The Savoy Cinema  was in London Inn square  where Waterstones now stands in Exeter. . In some cases the Sellotape can be removed and replaced with preservation tape.  The Touring Players theatre programs were often just single sheets due to paper shortages of 1951.

Beware old wax seals can explode!!! Jenny has some large velum parchments which could be framed to preserve them, the wax seals could be placed in a container.

Geoff met Jo Davey, she is nee Broadhurst and is related to Geoff. Nice coincidence. 

Alan found some notes on the Clapperentale Mill in the current Tale Valley Trust Newsletter, there are some ideas of getting it back to working order. It was worked from a leat taking water from the River Tale. The article notes is was a powerful mill, used for farm tasks, animal feed etc and a sawmill.

Brenda mentioned that the railways enable the followers offootball  to travel futher to matches. In 1895 Bolton Wanders on a Monday drew  huge 8,000 crowd.

In 1908 played Exeter v Plymouth for the first time.

Jenny Elizabeth Thoroughgood, a keen costume historian, has given her some costumes to stage some living history Tudor times talks for a display at the 2019 Fun Day, along with some Bunting. Jenny and George went to a talk hosted by Todd Gray with Professor Mark Stoyle about the history of the underground passages and life in Exeter in Medieval times.

David mentioned that his son Charles cleared a house. The solicitor arrived with a Tesco’s bag, and in the bag was hand grenade, this was shut it in safe, and the authorities were called, many Blue lights, along with the bomb squad, TV camera crews all turned up to Southernhay. The bomb expert checked the bag and declared the grenade to be safe as it had be used!!

Thank you all for a meeting full of interest and poignant memories of the war. 

We next meet in the Nog Inn on Thursday 6^th December at 8 pm.

RBL Coffee Morning

On behalf of Feniton History Group

I would like thank everyone

for supporting our coffee morning 10th Nov.

We raised £164.20 for the RBL Poppy Appleal

Coffee Morning

Feniton History Group

invite

you to join them for a

Coffee Morning to commemorate

the Remembrance Weekend

in St Andrew’s Church

on Saturday 10^th November 2018

10:30 am to 12:30

There will be a display of our

War History relating to

the village.

All funds raised go to

 The Poppy Appeal