Thanks are due to our member Cliff Ford who kindly produced these meeting reports.
September 2015. Winkleigh Airfield. Dennis Bater.
This was an interesting talk which gave a real insight into the use of Winkleigh Airfield during the war and the work involved converting a large field into a fully functioning airfield.
Many logistical problems had to be overcome and roads to be widened to accept heavy machines such as bulldozers, etc.. One big headache was the layer of clay which created massive drainage problems which had to be solved. Over 1000 Irish navvies were employed at Winkleigh and the total cost of development was £298,000.
On January 1st 1941 the first solitary RAF pilot landed a Bolton Paul Defiant night fighter and so began Winleigh’s history as a wartime airfield. Many sorties were flown from Winkleigh. Besides heavy bombers there were Beaufighters and later Mosquitos. One Lysander squadron which was very hush-hush flew SOE agents to missions behind enemy lines. The Air Ministry never admitted that the squadron existed.
There is lots of information online at jackiefreemanphotography.com - worth a look!
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October 2015. The history of Hatherleigh Moor. Geoffrey Cleverdon.
This was an interesting talk regarding Hatherleigh Moor whose history goes back 1000 years.
In September 1644 a battle took place on the moor when the Roundheads were defeated by the Royalists who later made their last stand at Great Torrington.
In 1943 Roman files were found on the moor and more were found when the moor was ploughed up to support the war effort.
The “potboilers” are interesting; they reside within the borough bounds of Hatherleigh and are properly registered as such under the Commons Registration Act 1965. Inhabitants of properties built since 1965 do not qualify for potboiler rights.
Hatherleigh Moor is an area of land to the east of the town extending over 400 acres and is common to the potboilers. In 1941 it was requisitioned by the War Agricultural Committee and cultivated for food production. Wheat, barley, oats, rye and potatoes were grown. In 1951 it was handed back to the potboilers and the income from catlle and sheep grazing is distributed to the potboliers at Christmas.
November 2015. A brief history of North Devon Red cattle. Andy Lane.
This was an interesting talk by Andy who has been Breed Secretary for 12 years and dedicated 52 years of his life to his love of the Devon Red, an ancient South West of England breed.
The early improvers of the Devon Red were Francis Quartly and his elder brothers, Rev William and Henry the eldest, who took over the Williams herd and lease in 1816. During the Napoleonic Wars most of the farmers of Devon took advantage of the high prices and were selling off the best blood lines. Francis Quartly had the foresight to refuse to sell his best specimens and founded the Champion Herd. Instrumental in the founding of the new breed was John Tanner Davy and his brother William of Rose Ash. In 1884 the Devon Cattle Breeders Society was founded and took over the herd book.
The Red Devon are excellent foragers and convert it to first class meat which is marbled (meaning it cooks in its own fat) and has good flavour. They are also very docile and can be used as draught oxen, their fat can be used for tallow, and their thick hide for leather.
The breed has fallen out of favour recently because of the continental breeds which mature more rapidly, although their meat has always been of a lower eating quality than that of the Red Devon. The breed is now firmly established in America, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.
January 2016. The Parson Jack Russell story. Jonathan Edmunds.
This was an interesting and informative talk with a bevy of information about John “Jack” Russell who was a big man of over 6ft in height, a talented boxer and a bit of a rabble rouser, who loved to hunt. He was born in Dartmouth in 1795, the eldest son of John Russell by his wife Nora. He was educated at his father’s small school and then Plympton Grammer, as well as Blundells School, Tiverton from 1809-14 where he kept a pack of hounds, and then on to Exeter College, Oxford.
The story goes that Russell acquired his first fox terrier “Trump” from a milkman while studying at Oxford in about 1815. Trump was then crossed with a Devon hunt terrier to create the Parson terrier which was a bit longer in the leg.
Russell was appointed vicar at St James Church, Swimbridge in North Devon in 1832 and served for 40 years. He was also rector of Black Torrington. It’s said his sermons were short by Victorian standards because his horse was usually saddled up in the churchyard ready to go!
In 1836 at Swimbridge he married Penelope Incledon-Bury, third daughter and co-heiress of Vice Admiral Richard Incledon-Bury, lord of the manor of Colleton, Chumleigh, who resided at Doniton, Swimbridge. Russell is said to have had expensive sporting habits on and off the hunting field, which drained the substantial resources of his heiress wife and left the estate of Colleton in poor condition.
The local pub at Swimbridge is still called The Jack Russell and its sign is a reproduction of a painting of the terrier Trump commissioned by the then Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) with whom Russell was very friendly, visiting Sandringham quite often.
Russell died on April 28th 1883 and was buried in the churchyard of St James Church, Swimbridge.
February 2016. Wool and other trades on the Rolle Canal. Dr Hugh Reed.
This was a very interesting and detailed talk by Dr Reed whose family has a long history of association with North Devon, including 200 years of business and living in the Torrington area and 19 generations (1500-2000) in North Devon, with 7 generations at Staple Vale from 1799.
Wool was a dominant product in farming prior to 1800 and the Rolle Canal was used to transport wool and various other commodities during this period.
The Rolle Canal extends from its entrance in the River Torridge at Landcross 6 miles southwards to the industrial mills and corn mills at Town Mills, Rosemoor (now Orford Mill) near Great Torrington and beyond to Healand Docks and weir on the River Torridge where survive the the ruins of Lord Rolle’s limekilns upstream of Rosemoor Gardens. Town Mills were built by Lord Rolle and powered by a stream which flowed past his seat at Stevenstone.
Rolle Road is the site of the Rolle Canal which opened in 1827 to transport clay, lime and other commodities between boats on the tidal river at Landcross and lime kilns, clay pits and farms around Great Torrington, running through common land. The canal was closed in 1871 and later filled in to create a toll road across the common.
The town of Great Torrington was built on the wool trade in the first instance and then general livestock farming and processing, glove making, dairy production and glass works. The town is surrounded by common land on all but the eastern side and administered by the “conservators”, being 385 acres in all with 20 miles of public rights of way. The common land was donated in 1194 by the feudal baron of Great Torrington.
The railway branch line from Barnstaple to Bideford was extended to Great Torrington in July 1872 by the London and South Western Railway which built a station and a locomotive depot. The line was later closed to passenger traffic by the Beeching Axe.
March 2016. Braddicks of Bideford. Sharon Snell.
This was a fascinating insight into the long history of the Braddicks family, told in an interesting and amusing way by Sharon Snell.
John Joseph Braddick came from a farming background in South Devon to Bideford in 1864 to work as a clerk on the Southern Railway. He married Sophia Short, a grocer’s daughter, and ran the family general store business in Mill Street. They had twelve children and the talk was made more interesting by various early photos of the family.
The Pier House Restaurant in Westward Ho!, then called the Merley Hotel, was purchased by the Braddick family in 1951 and became part of their holiday business.
April 2016. Lynmouth flood disaster. Sally Wilson.
On the 15th and 16th of August 1952 a storm of tropical intensity broke over South West England leading to tragic consequences for Lynmouth in particular, with 34 people dying over the two days.
Sally gave us an insight as to what this was like for the residents of Lynmouth as she was evacuated there, at the time staying with her grandmother in a house eventually destroyed by the flood. With the incredible noise of water and rocks rushing past the windows the family managed to escape through the rear of the house around 4 p.m. to higher ground. They had no possessions such as a change of clothes and by this time they were pretty wet! Some clothes were later supplied by the generosity of the people of Lynton and they were taken to Minehead to recover, being transported by, of all things, a Black Maria!
The reasons for the flooding are various. One suggestion is it was caused by the RAF seeding clouds as an experiment to produce rain, and another to do with the re-routing of the river. No full investigation was ever completed.
Thanks to Sally we had a very interesting account of what that day was really like.