September 2023. Uncle Tom Cobley & All. Todd Gray.
Todd is a leading authority, prolific author and lecturer on Devon history. Just as on his previous visits to the society he gave us a very interesting and entertaining presentation. This time his subject was the history of the Widecombe Fair folk song and the surprising number of variants that have arisen in the UK and the wider world . The song is believed to have originated in Devon and is known for its immortal line, ‘Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all’, and not forgetting Tom Pearce!
Although the song is thought to date from the 1700s it was first brought to wider public notice when it was included in a collection of folk songs from Devon and Cornwall published in c1890. The songs were gathered by a cleric, Sabine Baring-Gould of Lew Trenchard, on the edge of Dartmoor. Some of the songs had racy lyrics and were ‘toned-down’ by the cleric!
It is not known for certain if the characters in the song ever existed or if they are loosely based upon real people. The village of Spreyton, just north of Dartmoor, lays the strongest claim to the residency of the ‘real’ Tom Cobley, although over the years many individuals from the Dartmoor area have claimed to be his descendant, especially with the encouragement of a pint of ale bought for them by tourists!
Todd’s research has revealed that variations on this popularly known version of the song originate from further afield than Devon and Cornwall; for example Hampshire, Wiltshire and Sussex have their own versions. The variations range from different names of the song’s characters to changes in the lyrics, but all are instantly recognisable as being closely based on the original; foreign language versions are even known in other parts of the world! Todd told us of the surprising facts that the song has been adapted as a 1914 WW1 recruitment song, a Shell Auto Oil advert jingle, a rhythmic marching song used by the army and Antarctic explorers pulling sledges, a song taught to Sherpas to aid the climb up Everest, a parody by Rambling Syd Rumpo (Kenneth Williams on BBC Radio’s Round The Horne), and has even inspired a play and a film. Some of the versions were ably sung by Todd’s friend Keith and much appreciated by the audience.
Todd concluded his talk by explaining that references to Uncle Tom Cobley often appear in obscure scientific papers at the end of long lists of author references as Cobley, U.T. or simply U.T.C. as a humorous alternative to ‘et al’. It is not known if the publication editors realise that Cobley, U.T. is not an authentic author!
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October 2023. Folklore in North Devon from 19th Century Newspaper Reports. Peter Christie.
Peter is a local historian and author, and a regular speaker at our society meetings. He presented some of his findings from local newspaper archives that illustrate the customs and reporting of folklore in the 19th and early 20th century. Under the heading of folklore Peter included cultures, customary celebrations, traditions, beliefs and healing.
He began his talk by explaining that in the 19th century the local newspapers often had Wesleyan or Methodist editors who disbelieved or didn’t approve of folklore, but nonetheless permitted the reports of such events and activities to be published in their newspapers. Some examples follow of the type of reports presented by Peter.
May Day celebrations in local towns such as Great Torrington to welcome the summer have been a custom for hundreds of years and continue to this day, with the festivities including crowning the May Queen and maypole dancing.
Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day had the custom of pelting the home of the village or town’s most hated person with shards of pottery. A similar shaming of a person accused of a misdemeanour was to have a ‘stag hunt’. A person clothed in a stag’s pelt and antlers would be chased by villagers or townsfolk banging pots and pans and taking on the role of the hounds. The ‘stag’ would finally be ‘brought to bay’ on the accused’s doorstep. As recently as 1928 a ‘stag hunt’ in Braunton was reported.
On the subject of healing Peter talked of ‘wart charmers’, who even exist to this day in local villages and use a variety of techniques to remove (or charm) the wart, reliably confirmed by some members of the audience! A similar practice was ‘sympathetic healing’ and an example quoted by Peter was to rub a wound on a deceased person to transfer the injury from the afflicted person.
Another example of beliefs from the past was ‘wife-selling’ which, if not legal, was considered to be acceptable among the poorer classes who could not afford a costly divorce. The husband would auction his wife to the highest bidder in a public place such as a market. There have been no recent reports of such an event in High Bickington!
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November 2023. A WW2 Prisoner of War in North Devon. Lisa Chanter.
Lisa presented her research into the adult life of her Italian grandfather. Having joined the Italian army in 1938 aged 18, he was taken prisoner in 1942 by the Allies during WW2 in North Africa. Transferred to Britain in a POW camp near Tiverton, he eventually worked on a local farm as a replacement for the servicemen no longer working on the land. His eye was soon caught by a pretty dairy maid and they were married in 1946. Starting from scratch with a field and a cow, they worked hard to establish themselves as farmers, with Lisa's grandfather supplementing their income with several other occupations on the side. Lisa amused and interested us with anecdotes of her grandfather's enterprising experiences while settling in a foreign country with only a smattering of the English language, and even less of the Devon dialect!
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Lisa is currently presenting her talk to other local societies and so the many other fascinating details from her talk have been omitted to avoid spoiling the talk for her future audiences. To contact Lisa for details of all the talks that she offers, email her at: lisa_chanter@hotmail.com
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January 2024. Pre-history in the Taw and Torridge Area. Michael Griffith-Jones.
Michael took us back to the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age, a time of Hunter Gatherers when we were joined to Europe by the land mass known as Doggerland, now under the North Sea. Over thousands of years mankind moved into the Neolithic Age when small groups of people began farming, became settled and so left more evidence such as flint tools, pottery, burial chambers and hill forts, etc.
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Although there is not a great deal of evidence in this area above ground of these earth and clay man- made features, unlike on Dartmoor where granite was used for the inner burial tomb. Over time rain and human or animal interference would have reduced the height; they then could be ploughed and crops grown over the ground, but many show up as a variation in crop growth from aerial surveys. An unknown number are yet to be discovered by new technology such as LiDAR.
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Locally at Dadland a flint arrowhead has been found in the garden; flints were mined at Sticklepath, Orleigh Court, Petrockstowe, etc and found as pebbles on the coast. Also at Dadland there is evidence of a possible site of an enclosure. Across the Taw at Brightly Barton a square compound is shown clearly with recent scanning; in early maps it was recorded as an “Ancient Camp”. On Burrington Moor there are tumuli still very visible, but others have been lost, either covered by buildings and concrete or maybe ploughed out.
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We gained knowledge of what has been discovered of our prehistoric forbears, but realize there is much more waiting for the latest technology, DNA, etc to put flesh on the bones of our understanding.
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Footnote. During WWII the government department controlling agriculture, the “War Ag”, commandeered vast areas of marginal land, ploughing and cultivating it to produce food to feed the nation, before being returned to the owner of the land after the war`s end; our land at Week Down was one such. Who knows how many ancient sites were lost at that time, but they would not have fed the nation, so choices had to be made. Margaret Bolt.
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February 2024. Penruddock’s Rising 1655. Jonathan Edmunds.
In a last-minute change to the programme Jonathan’s talk was about a little-known English rebellion that ended on our doorstep in South Molton.
The English are not particularly known for a rebellious nature, in contrast to the French and their 1789-1799 revolution against the state. The most widespread and well-known insurrection in England is probably the 1381 Peasant’s Revolt, but not forgetting the important protests of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the early 20th century and more recently various localised protests and riots.
After Cromwell’s victory in the English Civil War and the 1649 execution of Charles I, Cromwell established the Commonwealth of England. Ruled as a republic, this consisted of England and Wales, and later Ireland and Scotland. In 1653 the country was governed as a Protectorate with Cromwell as Lord Protector. This was a period of much parliamentary disagreement and change; throughout this period of parliamentary upheaval the country was governed very much with the support (and threat) of Cromwell’s New Model Army. Arguably, the country was effectively under military rule.
An attempt to place Charles II on the throne by Royalist supporters failed, but Royalist unrest continued alongside against general discontent with the prevailing Puritanism and unpopularity of the methods and acts of a military- backed government.
Matters came to a head when John Penruddock, a Wiltshire landowner and Royalist supporter planned, along with others, a revolt against the government. The uprisings across England were mostly wishful thinking and poorly coordinated. With support from disaffected members of the New Model Army failing to materialise the uprisings resulted in failure. Furthermore, Cromwell had secret agents infiltrated within the conspirators and suppressed local uprisings by placing army reinforcements at the expected points of revolt.
What is known as the Penruddock Uprising began on 11th March 1655 when Penruddock gathered a force of some 200 men. Early on the 12th March they rode into Salisbury, freeing prisoners from the gaol and seizing horses, but they received little support from the citizens of Salisbury. Penruddock proclaimed Charles II as king and with the freed prisoners joining the force they rode to Blandford, Sherborne and Yeovil, hoping to gather further support. By the 14th March they had passed through Cullompton and Tiverton, but exhausted by the distances travelled and with numbers diminishing, rather than the hoped for increase, it was a weakened force that eventually reached South Molton. Here they were overwhelmed by a pursuing New Model Army cavalry troop and Penruddock was captured. In May 1655 he was beheaded at Exeter.
The government’s continuing unpopular rule caused even greater unrest, but in 1658 Cromwell died. In 1660 Charles II returned from exile and the monarchy was restored to rule England, Scotland and
Ireland, bringing the republic to an end.
(Apologies to those who attended expecting to hear the publicised talk on ‘The Rise of Women, 1860-1939’)
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March 2024. Local North Devon Characters. Richard Lethbridge.
Our well-known and recently retired postman, Richard Lethbridge, entertained us with a film show selected from his archive of local people and events dating from the 1980s.
The show commenced with the official opening of the High Bickington surgery in November 1987, which attracted a large number of village residents, many of which Richard was amazingly able to name so many years later! In contrast, we were shown an interview with Judith Leach, the postmistress of Umberleigh Post Office, shortly before its closure in 2014.
Many local characters featured, including from the audience, Roger Keen ringing the St Mary’s bell for a funeral, Trevor and Mary Wilson at a Warkleigh barn dance and Bob Boswell on his tractor. Local events included a very wet Umberleigh tractor run with the vicar valiantly leading hymn singing in the rain. The hymn line “We plow the fields and scatter the good seed upon the land, but it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand” drew much ironic laughter from the audience due to the recent deluges of rain!
Local rural skills included hedge laying and hand scything. Farming featured with plucking geese, made easier with a damp cloth laid on the (dead!) bird and after a few swift passes with an electric iron the feathers were loosened for easy plucking.
During the heavy snowfall of 2010 Richard filmed an enthusiastic snowball fight across Umberleigh bridge between The Rising Sun and postmen gathered at Umberleigh Post Office.
Richard’s filming extended beyond the immediate locality and ranged between South Molton, George Nympton, Barnstaple, the West Somerset Railway and Tarr Steps. The remarkable ability of a Witheridge man authentically impersonating the call of a hunting horn caused much amusement!
Richard is to be congratulated on creating a wonderful and extensive social history of North Devon and its inhabitants.