Levick polar exhibition for Budleigh

From the Exeter Express & Echo, February 23, 2010: Exhibition planned to honour Polar explorer.

Captain George Murray Levick, who lived near Budleigh Salterton, until his death in 1956, is to be remembered with a special exhibition next year.

The exhibition at Budleigh Salterton's Fairlynch Museum coincides with the centenary of Captain Scott's ill-fated Antarctic expedition of which Levick was a member.

Levick's daring tales of surviving in a snow cave for seven months have already caught the imagination of historians and students of what is dubbed the 'Heroic age of Antarctic exploration'.

This is a harrowing but fascinating story, told in the book Hell with a Capital H, based on Levick's diaries. As reviewed in the Telegraph - Limping up the glacier - it tells of the Scott expedition's Northern Party, six men who survived for six months on the bleak Inexpressible Island, confined by the weather to a snow hole in appalling conditions, psychologically as well as physically (privacy and social order was achieved through an imaginary barrier).

Levick went on to a distinguished career as a researcher, consultant, and expedition organiser who founded the British Schools Exploration Society (its history page  features a photo of the six-man Northern Party).  Levick was born in Nottingham; the Budleigh connection is that he lived near Budleigh in later life, and died there in June 1956, aged 79.

- RG

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Plymouth - recent architectural history

Plymouth...a pearl on the seashore (Nick Coleman, The Independent on Sunday, 21 February 2010) took an interesting and, unusually, sympathetic look at the modernist redevelopment of Plymouth's centre after its destruction in the Blitz. Jeremy Gould, Professor of Architecture, nominates his Top Five Fifties Buildings of Plymouth:

1. The Pannier Market: "This gets the top spot because of its continued use, public accessibility, and soaring blue concrete vaults. Built by Walls & Pearn, a crack team of local architects working with celebrated structural engineer, Albin Chronowicz". See the Plymouth City Market site for background.
2. The National Provincial Bank (now Royal Bank of Scotland). "Second place for its audacity and originality, its extraordinary portico, its blue mosaic (which reflects a shimmering light at night), and its careful use of rich materials".
3. The Guildhall. "Its reconstruction shows that conservation wasn't a dirty word in the 1950s. It's the best Fifties interior outside London and beautifully made". (See postcard of pre-War interior).
4. Dingles. "Thomas Tait was one of the great British architects of the 20th century, and his work is still not well enough known. This department store was his last major work – he died in 1954. Despite additions to the roofscape, it is a beautiful essay in the use of stone (Portland and Ham Hill) and a fine piece of civic design".
5. The Civic Centre. "This is a building that deserves and repays study. It's brave, bold, with genuine civic presence. Internally, it is nothing short of exotic, with fine timber panelling, marble and glass in that new style which marks the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the far more international style of the 1960s". See Plymouth Civic Centre at Graham Hobbins' Post-War Plymouth website, and the English Heritage page explaining why the building was listed.
   

See also the Independent's slideshow.

PS A note of explanation from the site maintainer: I'm well aware Professor Gould's assessment is controversial. Nevertheless, it's an academic's seriously expressed view on a number of Grade II listed buildings in Devon, reported in a mainstream newspaper, and as such is well within the brief for coverage in the DHS weblog.
- RG Read more ...

Newsletter: Issue 5, February 2010

The fifth issue of Devon History News, the newsletter of the Devon History Society, is now in print or available here: Devon History News 5, February 2010 (PDF format).

Contents:

• 1. Cover (images of Budleigh Salterton - above - and Castle Drogo).
• 2. Editorial: Council changes and brief results of membership survey.
• 3-4. Chairman's report.
• 4. New treasurer introduces himself.
• 5. Update on membership survey. Brief obituary for Adrian Reed.
• 6-7. Report from Programme Secretary on planned events/visits for 2010.
• 7. England's Last Castle: a brief introduction to Castle Drogo.
• 8. Make a difference as a volunteer: Paula Clarke, Visitor Services Officer for Castle Drogo, outlines volunteer opportunities for this National Trust property.
• 8. Devon Book of the Year: "The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital 1741-2006 by Andrew Knox and Christopher Gardner-Thorpe was highly commended by the Devon History Society's awards for the 2008 books".
• 9. DHS Anniversary Book: progress report on submissions for this 40th anniversary publication. Submissions are still welcome, the deadline not being until 31st May 2010.
• 9. New publication: Exeter and the Trams: 1882-1931. brief details of Julia Neville's new book, published by the Exeter Civic Society. (See also the Express & Echo feature).
• 10. A Request for Research Assistance. Professor Jennifer Harris of Mount Allison University, Canada, asks if any members have material relating to the artist Field Talfourd's Devon visits. See newsletter or Field Talfourd in Devon for details.
• 10. Post of Society Secretary. Margaret Lewis will be stepping down in October, and we're seeking a replacement.
• 11-12. Starting a Village Web Museum: David Everett, of the Chardstock Historical Records Group, writes about the experience of research and site creation for the Chardstock Historical Record Web Museum at www.chardstockwebmuseum.org.
• 12-14. Two centuries not out at the Devon & Exeter Institution: feature by Roger Brien.
• 14-15. Widecombe History Group: Anthony Beard writes about some of the Group's recent history; see www.widecombe-in-the-moor.com.
• 15. Upcoming Event: notice for the forthcoming local history day held by Westcountry Studies Library, in conjunction with the Exeter Local History Society and RAMM.
• 16. Out of County Event: notice for the British Association for Local History's Local History Day, to be held at 10.30-4.30 on Saturday 5th June 2010 at the Imperial War Museum.
• 16. Official Society Contacts.

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Hartland Point Lighthouse

From the North Devon Journal (with similar news in other papers), Hartland lighthouse faces closure:

A HISTORIC lighthouse which has been guiding vessels along the North Devon coast since the 1800s is facing closure.

General Lighthouse Authority, Trinity House, is looking to discontinue the Hartland Point Lighthouse Station.

Hartland councillor, Adam Symons, has pledged to resist the closure of what he believes is one of North Devon's most famous landmarks and is urging people to voice their concerns.

Hartland Point Lighthouse faces the Atlantic Ocean and guides vessels of all types approaching the Bristol Channel.

The move is proposed in the 2010 Aids to Navigation Review on grounds that Global Positioning Systems are making landfall and passing lights less important as aids to navigation. The lighthouse was built in 1874 under the direction of Sir James Douglass, who designed a number of lighthouses including the fourth, and still extant, Eddystone Lighthouse. (A 1900 biography, Life of Sir James Nicholas Douglass, is available in full from the Internet Archive).

There are a number of a good photos of Hartland Point lighthouse, including this one, at Geograph; for more background see its Trinity House page; the Review and consultation details are also online here.
- RG

Addendum: we just had an interesting enquiry via the Comments asking if anyone knows about the construction of this lighthouse and/or possible lines of enquiry.

"I think one of my relatives - Levi (or Levy) Yerward from Pembroke Dock was awarded the contract to build the lighthouse in 1871 but don't have much other information. I believe Levi's wife Jane died at Hartland in 1872."

A look at online records finds a few related references. The project first appears in The Architect of April 1871 ...

Devon.—April 24.—For the Erection of a Lighthouse, Keepers' Dwellings, &c, at Hartland Point, Devon. The Corporation do not pledge themselves to accept the lowest or any Tender. Mr. Robin Allen, Secretary, Trinity House, London, E.C.

... and Trewman's Flying Post for August 2, 1871 reports:

An undertaking, which was projected more than a century ago, is at last on the eve of being carried into effect. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1755 it is mentioned that a proposal was then lately made to erect a lighthouse on Hartland Point by a gentleman remarkable for public spirit, who offered, if this proposal was complied with, to erect a mathematical school in Bideford, and endow it with £50 per annum. The lighthouse and the school failed to come into existence at the time. It is now announced, however, that Mr. Levy Yerward, late Government contractor at Pembroke Dock, has been selected by the Trinity Board to erect a lighthouse, dwelling houses and other buildings at Hartland Point.

The report was reprinted in The Antiquary in the same year. However, at first glance it looks by no means certain this arrangement went ahead, as "Yerward, Levi, Pembroke Pock, Pembroke, Builder and Contractor" appears in the list of liquidations for July 28, 1873 in The Weekly Notes, Volume 8 (legal news journal of the Incorporated Council of Law reporting). There's a report of Levi Yerward's death in 1874:

Pembroke Dock. Sudden death. On Tuesday afternoon, Mr Levy Yerward, builder, one of the oldest and most respected inhabitants of the town, died very suddenly at his residence, Diamond Street. The cause of death was a ruptured blood-vessel. Mr Yerward had been ill for some time.- Western Mail, Friday, February 20, 1874

The records of Trinity House are probably the best possibility for specifics on the building of any lighthouse, though many of the records were destroyed by World War II bombing in 1940. The Trinity House website has a leaflet on available archives (PDF), which are mostly in Guildhall Library, London.
- RG Read more ...

The Devil's Footprints

A few days ago saw the anniversary of a curious episode in Devon history, the "Devil's Footprints" of February 8th 1855. After heavy snowfall overnight, there was widepread reportage of strange footprints over a large area on either side of the River Exe, the story even reaching The Times.

EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE - Considerable sensation has been caused in the towns of, Topsham, Lympstone, Exmouth, Teignmouth and Dawlish in the south of Devon, in the consequence of the discovery of a large number of foot-tracks of a most strange and mysterious description. The superstitious go as far as to believe they are the marks of Satan himself, and that great excitement has been produced among all classes may be judged from the fact that the subject has been descanted from the pulpit. It appears on Thursday night last there was a heavy fall of snow in the neighbourhood of Exeter and the south of Devon. On the following morning the inhabitants of the above towns were surprised at discovering the foot marks of some strange and mysterious animal, endowed with the power of ubiquity, as the footprints were seen in all kinds of unaccountable places - on the tops of houses and narrow walls, in gardens and courtyards, enclosed by high walls and pailings as well as in open fields. There was hardly a garden in Lympstone where these footprints where not observable. The track appeared more like that of a biped than a quadruped, and the steps generally eight inches in advance of each other. The impression of the foot closely resembled that of a donkey’s shoe, and measured from an inch and a half to (in some instances) two and a half across. Here and there it appeared as if cloven, but in generality of the steps the shoe was continuous, and, from the snow in the centre remaining entire, merely showing the outer crest of the foot, it must have been concave. The creature seems to have approached several houses, and then to have retreated, but no one has been able to discover the standing or resting point of this mysterious visitor. On Sunday last the Rev Mr Musgrave alluded to the subject in his sermon, and suggested the possibility of the foot prints being those of a kangaroo, but this could have scarcely been the case, as they were found on both sides of the estuary of the Exe. At present it remains a mystery, and many superstitious people in the above towns are afraid to go outside their doors at night.
- The Times, February 16, 1855

It was documented in Chapter 28 of Charles Hoy Fort's The Book of the Damned, and has become a classic unexplained phenomenon.

Probably the best source on the whole topic is the author and historian Mike Dash. His paper "The Devil's Hoofmarks", first published in Fortean Studies 1 (1994) and Fortean Studies 3 (1996), reinvestigates the available accounts with a historian's rigour and "explodes several popular myths concerning the Hoofmarks: the prints were not uniform in size, were not laid in the course of a single night, and did not run in a straight line across the county of Devon". One of the most crucial features of the story he shows is how it was widely copied, recopied and embroidered, creating details that are omnipresent in popular retellings, but absent from the handful of primary eyewitness accounts.

Dash's paper follows interesting leads about the identity of observers who wrote to the Illustrated London News on the subject. One, who signed himself "South Devon", is revealed to be the 19-year-old "young D'Urban" of Newport House, Countess Wear: William Stewart Mitchell D’Urban, who was later to become the first curator of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. Dash ultimately comes to no conclusion, but it's an excellent analysis of an 1850s media-driven scare. Here's the PDF: The Devil's Hoofmarks.
- RG Read more ...

Lewdown Past

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Hilary Whitelock kindly sent us details of the Lewdown Local History Group:

The Lewdown Local History Group (West Devon) meets every fourth Wednesday at 7.30pm in winter (except December) at Broadley Chapel, near Lewdown with monthly trips and visits locally over the summer. It focuses on the history of the five parishes surrounding Lewdown and features a number of meetings based on members’ research and knowledge. For further information please telephone the Secretary (01566 783396).

We've added the group to our Local Groups Listing. The Lewdown Past 2010 Programme is:

27 January: 'The Tavistock Canal –Past, Present and Future’ - Talk by Robert Waterhouse
24 February: Lewdown Antiques Roadshow - Hosted by Philip Pyle
24 March: ‘Climbing Your Family Tree’ - Talk by Janet Henwood
28 April: Visit: ‘Hartswell- a House History ‘
26 May: Visit: Coombe Trenchard House
23 June: Walk: St Clether Church and Holy Well
28 July: Visit: Higher Uppacott, a Dartmoor Longhouse. Limited to 20: please inform a committee member.
25 August: Walk: Sourton Quarry: Industry Past and Wildlife Now
22 September: ‘Along Local Lines-An Engine Driver Reminisces’ - Talk by Gerald Smallacombe
27 October: ‘Through War to Peace 1914-1918’ - Talk by Mary Rolfe
24 November: AGM - followed by members’ interests

Meetings are usually held on Wednesday. Details of walks and visits (usually 6.30pm) are circulated. All other events are at Broadley Chapel at 7.30pm. For further information please telephone the Secretary (01566 783396).

Lewdown (see map above) is in West Devon to the north-west of Dartmoor. Joanna Billing's The Hidden Places of Devon mentions that its main street was once on the main route from Exeter to Cornwall via Launceston; it's now bypassed by the A30. Points of interest of the area include that the scholar, author and song-collector the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould lived at the nearby Lewtrenchard Manor (now a hotel). Lewdown is on the Two Castles Trail between Okehampton and Launceston. See also Lew Trenchard at GENUKI, and Geograph.
- RG Read more ...