Jan Stewer reprinted

From the Western Morning News (Dec 21, 2010): Dialect writer captured joy of being home at Christmas, news of the reprint of the 1922 Jan Stewer At Home and Abroad by Albert John Coles.

... Home forms part of a newly-published collection of his stories. Written on his return from active service in Egypt in the winter of 1919, Home sums up the feelings of so many expatriates returning for Christmas then and now.

It is one of fourteen stories in Jan Stewer At Home And Abroad, a 100-page pocket-sized gem that is sure to delight his many fans. Out of print since it was first published in 1922, it also provides a representative introduction to those new to his work.

Although secondhand and reprinted copies of his better-known titles are relatively easy to pick up, Jan Stewer At Home And Abroad had been largely forgotten until Mark Young was given a rare copy as a gift.

Mark, who runs Broad Street Publishing in Newton Abbot with his wife Chrissie, was astonished by the find and decided it needed to be republished.

The feature continues with a good brief summary of the life and career of 'Jan Stewer', the country schoolteacher and Devon dialect writer described by John Betjeman as "one of the great understanding humorists".

Jan Stewer At Home and Abroad, Jan Stewer, Broad Street Publishing (1 Oct 2010) ISBN-10: 0955701961 / ISBN-13: 978-0955701962.

- RG Read more ...

A Christmas poem from Devonia

From the Internet Archive comes a Christmas greeting from a century ago:

It's O ! To be in Devon in the Merry Christmas Time

Now the days are dark and dreary,
And the year is growing weary,
And the leaves have left the branches
Of the sycamore and lime ;
I am thinking of thy bounty,
My dear old native county,
It's O ! to be in Devon at the merry Christmas-time.

Who that has seen thy daughters,
And the flashing of thy waters,
And hears thy name, the music
Of some olden English rhyme ;
And pines not for thy alleys,
And river-lighted valleys?
It's O ! to be in Devon at the merry Christmas-time.

There each cosy hearth is glowing,
And the honey-wine is flowing ;
Whilst the frost-work on the lattice
Is melting like the rime ;
And the lads the moors are pacing,
The hare and rabbit tracing ;
It's O ! to be in Devon at the merry Christmas-time.

And village waits are singing,
And village bells are ringing ;
From hill to hill they answer
With the old familiar chime ;
And the holly's reddest coral
Is smiling by the laurel ;
It's O ! to be in Devon at the merry Christmas-time.

O ! sweet haunt of the pheasant,
My home-land fair and pleasant,
Though the music of the nightingale
Be foreign to thy clime ;
More charming is thy greeting
Of the guests at festal meeting,
God bless thee, dear old Devon, with a merry Christmas-time.

Edward Capeln 1, the Postman Poet of North Devon.

I just found this appropriately seasonal poem on page 226, Volume 7, No.6, December 1907 of Devonia, the official organ of the United Devon Association.

The United Devon Association was founded in 1898 by William Joseph Richards as the result of meetings between Devon mayors and town clerks at the New London Hotel, Exeter, and had its headquarters at 17 Bedford Circus, Exeter, with local offices in principal towns. Its objects were:

To promote all measures tending to increase the prosperity of the County of Devon and add to its popularity as a residential and tourist centre.
To bring under the notice of families visiting England the attractions of the County
To appoint Correspondents at home and abroad.
To organize subscribing districts in Devon.
To promote increased facilities for travel in the County..
To advance in any other way the interests of residents in the County.

The Association also, through the Western Counties Fern and Wild Flowers Preservation Committee, takes steps by prosecution of offenders to prevent the illegal removal by itinerant hawkers and others of roots of ferns, plants, and wild flowers from the lanes, hedges, and fields of Devon, and the wantonly throwing about of bottles, waste paper, or other debris, which not only tends to disfigure the beauty spots of Devon but also cause damage and danger to man and beast.

...

Devonia, the official illustrated magazine of the United Devon Association, is published monthly, and enjoys a most influential and far-reaching circulation in the British Isles, India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and all over the empire, as well as in the United States, the Continent of Europe, and elsewhere. It has a guaranteed circulation of 60,000 per annum.

It is brought under the personal notice of tourists and travellers on all the great railways in England, Canada, and the United States, and is placed on board all the principal lines of steamers to and from the United Kingdom.

It is to be found in all hotels, boarding houses, clubs, and other places of resort in the principal towns of the United Kingdom, the Colonies, and the Continent.

The United Devon Association wasn't a long-lived organisation. I haven't been able to find out why, and precisely when, it was wound down; but it wasn't later than 1915, when Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries mentioned in the obituary of William Henry Kearly Wright that Devonia had "long since expired" and that

It contained valuable topographical information, and did much to popularize the county as a holiday resort; its suspension was, in our opinion, a great mistake, and we hope some day to see it revived.

The Internet Archive has two publications by the United Devon Association: the Volume 6-9 compilation of Devonia magazine (a very nice wide-ranging general-interest magazine of all things Devonian in the early 1900s - ID devonial06unituoft) and its 1900 county gazetteer, The Book of Fair Devon (two copies: ID bookfairdevon00assogoog and bookoffairdevon00unit). Both are very readable.

1. sic - The Bideford "postman poet" was Edward Capern, not Capeln.
- RG Read more ...

Belmont Park: memories sought

The Exeter Express & Echo reports that Newtown Community Association is seeking material for its history weekend in July 2011 to mark the 125th Anniversary of Belmont Park, Exeter.

From Memories sought to celebrate park anniversary (14th December, 2010):

The association is planning to hold an exhibition at The Hut in the park showing the history of the park, which has been a brickworks site and a nursery.

Michael Parrott, for the association, said: "As part of the exhibition, we are also going to show other aspects of Newtown's history, including soldiers with Newtown connections who were killed in the First World War, who include Thomas Moore (of Thomas Moores in Fore Street) and the Second World War bombing of Newtown as well as lots more local history."

The event takes place on Saturday, July 30, and Sunday, July 31. If you can contribute documents or memories, contact Newtown Community Association (secretary@newtown community.org.uk / publicity@newtowncommunity.org.uk / 01392 202240).


View Larger Map

As the Exeter City Council Page and Exeter Memories pages explain, Belmont Park - formally Belmont Pleasure Grounds - was opened in 1886 as a play area for the children of St Sidwells. It occupied five acres of land, Belmont Nurseries, bought for £3000 from Alderman William Huxtable (ref. Trewman's Exeter Flying Post, Wednesday, March 19, 1884, page 6).  In the Google Maps view above, Belmont Park is the open space to the top left; that to the lower right is Exeter's Clifton Hill golf driving range, which is on the site of the Corporation Brickworks that was adjacent to Belmont Nurseries.

Belmont Park is also the location of England's oldest sensory garden for the blind, Belmont Scent Garden, dating from 1939.

- RG Read more ...

The Fatal Oak

Rosemary Perry just sent us an interesting enquiry (reproduced here by her kind permission) concerning the novel Warleigh:

I am exploring the history of a book, "Warleigh", by Anna Elizabeth Bray, published I believe in 1845 in Tavistock. Mrs. Bray (whose husband was the Vicar of Tavistock) dedicated this book to her friend Mrs. Southey. The book is also titled The Fatal Oak. I was born in Tamerton Foliot in 1938, and now reside in the United States. I have photographs of the same oak tree, which I believe had to be eventually taken down. After my mother's death in 1994 I was able to bring only a few items of value and interest back here with me, and one of these items was the book Warleigh. A hand-written inscription inside mentions that it was one of only six original printings. Can anyone verify this information?

Handily, I already had part of the story on this, as I posted a brief biographical piece about Mrs Bray a year ago - see Anna Eliza Bray. To answer the immediate bibliographic question: the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature mentions two editions: a 3-volume edition (standard format for early-Victorian novels) published by Longman in 1834 as Warleigh; or, The fatal oak. A legend of Devon; and a single-volume edition also by Longman in 1845. But a look in Google Books also finds a Chapman & Hall revised edition in 1884 (as Warleigh: a historical romance). None of them were any kind of limited edition; it's possible the "six original printings" refer to publisher's proof copies.

Beyond this, however, Warleigh ties in with Devon history as it retells and expands on an anecdote in John Prince's 1697 The Worthies of Devon. This tells of a squire called Copplestone (spelling varies between accounts) who, following a family dispute, stabbed his godson to death under an oak tree outside Tamerton Foliot church (the "Copplestone Oak"). There's more solid detail on this at Copleston.net, which has a scan and translation (pp 1/2) of a 1562 royal pardon granted to a Christopher Copleston concerning his murder of Christopher Monns. In The Novels and Romances of Anna Eliza Bray (1845), Mrs Bray explains the process of adaptation:

The romance next published, in 1834, was "Warleigh, or the Fatal Oak; a Legend of Devon." The first name was adopted from the noble and ancient mansion in which the scene of the story is principally laid. The second title refers to an aged oak, to which both history and tradition have annexed a tale.

"Warleigh" (now the property of the Reverend Walter Radclyffe) is situated not very far from the village of Tamerton Foliott, a few miles distant from Plymouth, in Devon. Near Tamerton church stands the very aged tree, alluded to above, which, to this day, is called the "Copplestone Oak." The few, but fearful circumstances connected with it, said to have occurred in the reign of Elizabeth, I have chosen as the foundation whereon to raise a superstructure of romance. An account of these circumstances 1 found briefly stated in that most valuable work, "Prince's Worthies of Devon." The biographer gives the name of the elder person (John Copplestone), who was so deeply implicated in the tragedy, to which the oak is said to have been a witness; but he does not state the name of the young man who was the godson of Copplestone, and so great a sufferer in that scene. I ventured, therefore, to call him Amias Radclyffe, in compliment to the family who are the present proprietors of Warleigh; but I think it right here to say that I have no authority whatever for doing so, except my own fancy.

Respecting the godfather (Copplestone), who in the days of Elizabeth was the proprietor of Warleigh, and of another mansion, called 'Copplestone,' Prince describes him as one of "extravagancies in his conversation," and of a 'malicious and revengeful mind." He then proceeds to relate the circumstances of the murder, to which those passions hurried on the wretched man who committed it. Not that he relates them (to use his own words) because he takes delight in "repeating the infirmities of men, but because he would make them as landmarks to posterity, that all may beware how they give themselves up to the transports of a bloody malice and revenge; which, in the end, will hurry them into the bottomless gulph of woe and misery."

Having set up this landmark by telling the tale, our biographer adds, that after Copplestone had committed the murder, he fled; that his friends made interest at court to sue out his pardon; and, at length, to procure it, cost him no less than thirteen manors of land in the county of Cornwall.

...

Although the circumstances on which I founded my tale are stated by Prince to have occurred in the reign of Elizabeth, I took the liberty to change the period to that of Charles the First. As those circumstances were entirely of a domestic nature, it was of no moment in whose reign they were made subservient to the purposes of romance. I had already, in "Fitz of Fitz-Ford," written a work relating to the days of the maiden queen; and, moreover, the time of Charles the First, I felt would afford me the opportunity of introducing characters, scenes, and events connected with a period of deep public and domestic interest in the West, as there was scarcely a family of any note throughout these counties, but their ancestors had severely suffered, in one way or the other, during the civil wars.

Warleigh; or, The fatal oak. A legend of Devon is available for reading online at the Internet Archive (volume 1 / volume 2 / volume 3). As to the "fatal oak" itself, the original appears to be no longer with us ...

On the Green by the church stood, until it was blown down not many years since, the Copplestone oak, scene of a murder by one of the Copplestones, made by Mrs. Bray the subject of one of her Devonshire novels.
- Tourist's Guide to South Devon, RN Worth, 1878 (Internet Archive touristsguideto02unkngoog)

... and Tamerton Foliot, on the north side of Plymouth, has undergone considerable suburban development. Warleigh House, however, still exists, under private ownership (see The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History; the Copleston.net gallery, which has a number of good images; and the Bing Maps interactive bird's eye view). (Some readers may remember the odd chapter in its history a couple of years ago, when the then owner first advertised internationally for a lady of the manor, then attempted to sell all his assets on eBay).

- RG Read more ...

Tour guides wanted

David Moody of the Leeds-based tour organisation See Your Past just e-mailed us:

Could you or a member of your society become a Tour Guide for overseas visitors who want to see where and how their ancestors lived?

If you have watched Who Do You Think You Are you will be familiar with the concept of family history enthusiasts from overseas who wish to come to the United Kingdom and visit the places and sights which their ancestors would have known.

See Your Past organise all their visit arrangements from hotel accommodation, car hire and journey planning down to restaurant and entertainment bookings together with tours of places of interest from their research into their family history.

We are now planning a major marketing campaign to the 3,500 family/history societies in the USA and need to enlarge our nationwide network of Tour Guides.

No research is required. Our Guides simply plan a one or two day tour from information provided to them and then accompany our clients around their local area providing background knowledge and local colour. They find the work enjoyable and enthralling - and the money comes in handy too!

Enthusiasm , local knowledge and the ability to communicate are the essential requirements.

So if you or a member of your society would like to earn money by sharing your local knowledge please visit our website See Your Past, tell us a little about yourself and we will soon be in touch.

Standard disclaimer: the Devon History Society has no prior knowledge of See Your Past, and its inclusion as a news item does not indicate DHS endorsement.  Use appropriate caution before entering into business agreements.
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Devonshire wrestling

Devon wrestling was a distinctive, and now extinct, regional style characterised by a strong emphasis on kicking or tripping the opponent. It had a long historical background. Nathaniel Crouch, in his 1710 Admirable curiosities, rarities, & wonders in England, Scotland, and Ireland, noted that "Cornish and Devonshire men are active in wrestling, and such boisterous exercises, stout, and able of body" (page 23); and in 1793, Sporting Magazine told of two unusual champions: the short and bow-legged J Coppe ("The Little Cock") and the blind W Wreyford ("Blind Will") (pages 166-167). Another late 18th century account was written by Frances Burney, who on a visit to Teignmouth in 1773 called it "a barbarous diversion", noting the detail reported by many others: that vicious kicking was a central tactic (see The rise of the Devon seaside resorts 1750-1900, John F. Travis, page 20).

By the time Devon wrestling was widely documented, however, in the 19th century, it was already on the decline, but a number of vivid accounts remain. Sabine Baring-Gould's Devonshire Wrestlers, a chapter in his 1908 Devonshire Characters and Strange Events is a classic that explains the basics of the sport. The wresters wore linen jackets, breeches and specially hardened shoes, and typically action involved getting a grip (a "hitch") on your opponent's jacket and attempting to make him lose his footing by close-quarters kicking, hacking and tripping. Although sometimes leg padding was worn, more likely it wasn't, and wrestlers - who had to fight several elimination rounds - often finished bouts with grievous injuries to the shins.

Older sources include the London Magazine article for October 1826, in which "Gymnast" gives an extended description of Devon and Cornish wrestling (page 160-) and account of the famous match between Devon's Abraham Cann and the Cornish miner Warren. The Annual Register for October 1826 (pages 157-8) tells of another classic match at Devonport, where Cann fought the Cornishman Polkinghorne.

Devon wrestling features in at least two novels: RD Blackmore's 1864 novel Clara Vaughan (see the Internet Archive, ID claravaughanbyr01vauggoog), and Baring-Gould's 1887 Red Spider.

- RG Read more ...

Devonport Column and Foulston's Devonport

The Western Morning News item £600,000 plans for Devonport Column (WMN, 4th Dec 2010) is one of a several recent reports of the Real Ideas Organisation's application for funding to restore the Devonport Column. This Grade 1 listed monument was built to mark the founding of Devonport - previously the district of Plymouth Dock - as a separate town from Plymouth. It was part of architect John Foulston's civic redevelopment of Devonport centred on Ker Street.

The new public buildings and private dwelling houses which have been lately elected in Devonport are characterized by taste and elegance. The Town-Hall in Ker-Street possesses a noble and classical exterior. The front is a Doric Portico with four massive fluted columns, producing, when viewed at a distance, a very fine effect. A. flight of stone steps leads to the Hall, a spacious room measuring 75 feet by 40, and 31 feet in heigh t. It is well fitted up with convenient moveable benches. Beneath the Hall are the town prisons and watch-house.

Close to the Town-Hall is the Devonport Column, erected by public subscription to commemorate the alteration in the name of the town. It is a noble fluted pillar of the Grecian Doric order, and its height above the level of the street is 124 feet. A spiral stair-case within the shaft conducts to the summit, from which the spectator enjoys a grand and extensive prospect. The hills, vales, fields, woods, and waters, front Hengeston Down in the north to the ocean in the south—from the wilds of Dartmoor in the east to the billowy eminences of Cornwall in the west— lie before the gaze in a beautiful varied panorama; while the eye looks down on Devonport and its immediate vicinity as on a map. The Column is built of Cornish granite, and, when completed, is intended to bear on its top a colossal statue of his present majesty George IV. Near the column is Mount Zion Chapel, a Calvinist meeting-house, built in the fantastic Hindoo style. The front, ornamented with pinnacles and fancifully embellished, possesses a very pleasing appearance. Adjoining the chapel is the building of the Devonport Public Library and News-Room, which being in imitation of the Egyptian architecture, forms a good contrast to the neighbouring edifices. The Classical and Mathematical Public School is situated at the head of Granby-Street, and conducted on the Madras system.

- pp 5-7, The Plymouth and Devonport Guide, Henry E Carrington, 1828

The above comes from Carrington's The Plymouth and Devonport Guide: an extremely good account of the area in 1828, when Foulston's civic centre was a sparkling new development in a site called Windmill Hill. Ned Kaufman's Place, race, and story: essays on the past and future of historic preservation has a contemporary drawing - page 175 - from Foulston's 1838 The Public Buildings Erected in the West of England. A more realistic one - the previous exaggerates the size of the buildings - is in the 1832 Devonshire & Cornwall Illustrated:



(Note that the statue of George IV never occupied the column due to lack of funding). As this 1838 catalogue describes, Foulston's style was eclectic, if not eccentric at times ...

This Work will comprise Buildings erected in the Greek, Egyptian, Hindoo, Old English, Ornamental, and Rustic Cottage Styles, &c.

... and the Devonport centre featured a Greek Doric column and town hall, a "Hindoo" chapel, and an Egyptian library (the Civil and Military Library, now the Oddfellows Hall), along with an approach of neo-classical terraced housing with Roman Corinthian columns.

The Mount Zion Chapel and the neo-classical housing have been demolished, but much of Foulston's civic centre still exists. See the Encyclopedia of Plymouth History, for a history and views from the Column in the late 1950s. The tower, originally open to the public, was closed in 1992 on safety grounds and is on the At Risk register.  However, the writer and consultant Denna Jones argues that the site was merely closed for expediency, and has compiled a Flickr photoset (see Devonport Column Site Visit - Summer 2008) documenting a visit by the Chief Engineer of Tower Bridge, with an aim to proving the site structurally sound.

The British Listed Buildings entry - see Devonport Tower - includes interactive maps and a Bing Maps Birds Eye view of the district. Other key buildings are Devonport Guildhall, successfully renovated with a Community Assets Grant (see the RIO page) and the Oddfellows Hall (see the English Heritage At Risk entry, which has an image of the elevation showing the full glory of Foulston's Egyptian style for the building).

Following a post-WWII decline, Devonport is now again under development : for background, see this June 2009 Devonport Heritage Trail Artist/Design Brief and the July 2006 Devonport Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan).  John Foulston's Ker Street centre looks to be as crucial to it as it was the original branding of Devonport.

- RG

See the May 2013 update: Devonport Column reopens to public. Read more ...

Mystery "Dartymoor" poem

Thomas Hine asks if anyone can identify the author of this poem. He writes:

I was given the following poem by a woman who was given it in the early 1950's in Chagford. She said she never knew the author. I wonder if you might be able to find who they are?

I have a slight suspicion it might be a war poem - what do you think?

Lament From A Devonian Overseas

Dartymoor, Dartymoor
Wha’d I ever leave ee vor?
Turf, and vuzz, an purple ‘eather
‘Ebin above and ‘Ebin beneath
Water, bracken, Granite stone
Winter cloud, an’ spring bee-drone
Yappin’ fox an’ silent deer
Cow an’ calf, an’ foal an’ mare
Floodin’ Colour (an’ rain) an’ light
Freezing fog, an’ snow be night
Twistin’ knotting roads like veins
Rusty tracks for Tom Pierce trains
Bwoys playin’ truant round some pule
Gaw! Ab’m I bin a bloody vule?
Maze* as a brish, I be vor sure
I’ve lef’ old luvly Dartymoor
An’ pitched on this yer plaace I’ stead
Gran’fer were right, m’ dear “mump’ed”
Mus’be the only name vor me.
Come this far awver sand an’sea
Lord take us upalong once more
An’ leave us there, be Dartymoor
Us hav’ seen the scrap’eaps of the earth
An poor ole toads as they give birth
Us wanna never stray no more
Lord! Take us ‘ome to Dartymoor.

If you can throw any light on this, leave a comment, and we'll forward it.
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Poltimore House: Big Give Christmas Challenge 2010

Jonathan Wright of the Poltimore House Trust contacted us with news of the current Big Give funding drive to restore the roof of Poltimore House , the 16th century Grade II* listed manor house just outside Exeter.

I write as Deputy Chairman of the Poltimore House Trust. Poltimore House is a neglected gem in the Devon countryside which is now being revived as a creative and educational hub for the local and regional community.

Since BBC2's Restoration programme in 2003, volunteers have been working to protect and maintain the house and grounds, and trustees have been working to raise the funds to begin the restoration process. Plans for the sustainable future of the house have been developed in consultation with local businesses, local people, and with help from The University of Exeter amongst others.

I write to ask you for help in raising awareness of our project, in particular on the Big Give website next week, and to offer in return the opportunity to broaden audiences and awareness of your own site. We are beginning to build a large base of visitors and Friends who are heritage followers, and who would be open to hearing about other sites and projects.

As you may be aware, the Big Give offers charities the chance to multiply donations from their supporters through the Challenge fund provided. Poltimore House has received £5,000 in pledges which we are hoping to grow to £20,000 through on-line donations from 6th to 10th December.

We would really appreciate your help in spreading the word about Poltimore (unless you are also involved in the Big Give of course!) so that we can continue to grow. And if you are ever in a similar situation please feel free to let us know about your campaign so that we can see if our supporters might help you as well.

If you can help, please distribute the enclosed leaflet about The Big Give, and direct people to our site www.poltimore.org/biggive . You can email info@poltimore.org with questions.

- RG
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