An Introduction to the Devon in the 1920s Research Collection
In March 2021 Devon History Society, Devon Family History Society, South West Heritage Trust and The Box launched the Devon in the 1920s research project, which aimed to encourage and support research into what Devon was like 100 years ago. Over the next three years more than 60 people became involved in researching and writing on a wide range of aspects of Devon’s 1920s’ history, some creating essay and others writing briefer reports. The first 67 essays resulting from this initiative are now being published by Devon History Society. Some work still continues and will be added to the collection when it is completed.
Some essays were published in journals during the course of the project and we are grateful to those journals’ editors for permitting their republication here.
The essays in the collection are listed under themed headings, and you can read an individual essay by clicking on the PDF icon in the listings below.
Devon History Society welcomes comments and additional information about the research topics. Please get in touch if you have any information to share.
| Essay | Author | Published | |
| Overview | |||
| Building a New Understanding of our Past – Devon in the 1920s | Julia Neville | The Devon Historian, 2025 |  |
| Childhood and Education | |||
| Devon Village Schools and Reform in the 1920s | Helen Turnbull | The History of Education Researcher, 2022 | |
| Exmouth Secondary School |
Jackie Bryon | |
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| How Effective were the School Medical Services in Devon? |
Tim Lomas | The Devon Historian, 2025 | |
| ‘New England is knocking on the door’: developing University education in Devon, 1917-1922 | Julia Neville | The Devon Historian, 2022 | |
| Poltimore College, an experiment in girls’ education | Julia Neville | |
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| Seale-Hayne College and Agricultural Education in Devon in the 1920s | Ray Bartlett | |
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| Working Life of Children and Young Persons in the 1920s | Helen Turnbull | |
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| Coastal and Maritime Activity | |||
| Devonport Dockyard in the 1920s | Jonathan Wood | |
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| Marine Biological Association, Plymouth | Carol Giles | |
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| Ship-building in North Devon in the 1920s | John Bradbeer | |
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| Ships and Shipping in North Devon in the 1920s | John Bradbeer | |
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| Struggle for Survival and End of an Era: the Dartmouth Coal Lumpers | Jonathan Turner | |
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| Tamar Barge Fleet in the 1920s: Decline or Survival | Clive Charlton | |
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| Craft and Industry | |||
| Emergence of Art Pottery in Bovey Tracey in the 1920s | Viv Styles | |
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| Sylvia Fox-Strangways, First Head of Visual Arts at Dartington Hall, Head of Visual Arts at Dartington Hall | Frances and Malcolm Billinge | The Devon Historian, 2024 | |
| Torquay Potteries in the 1920s | John Bowden | |
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| Estates, Farms and Rural Life | |||
| The Annings at Torre Abbey | Caroline Skelton | |
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| Continuity or Change – Gentry Life in the 1920s | Helen Turnbull | |
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| Castle Drogo in the 1920s | Val Harrison and Castle Drogo volunteers | |
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| Downes Estate | Helen Turnbull | |
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| Farming in Devon in the 1920s, | Ted Hitchings, Penny Lawrence, Julia Neville, Roger Wilkins and Graham Wooding | |
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| Farming in Devon in the 1920s Appendix |  |
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| Fates of the larger Devon estates in the 1920s | Julia Neville | |
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| Hole of Parke in the 1920s | Frances Billinge | |
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| Landed Gentry, Land Sales and Social Change | Helen Turnbull | |
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| Returning Servicemen and the growth of smallholdings | Clare Greener | |
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| Tiverton Market | Wendy Buckingham Arnold | |
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| Housing and Suburbanization | |||
| Council Housing for Rural Workers in Chudleigh | Helen Turnbull | |
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| East Devon (Honiton RDC) Pointy Houses | Philippe Planel | Published in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 2024 | |
| Ernesettle Camp – Homes NOT fit for Heroes | Anne Corry | |
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| House-building in Newton St Cyres in the 1920s | Jean Wilkins | |
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| Housing in Buckfastleigh in the 1920s | Anne Goulborn | |
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| Meeting the need for hew housing in Exeter in the 1920s | Julia Neville | |
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| Mount Gould Astor Housing Estate (Plymouth) | Anne Corry | |
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| Mount Gould Council Housing (Plymouth) | Anne Corry | |
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| Origins of the Burnthouse Lane Estate in Exeter | Maddy Jevon | |
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| Plympton Rural District Council Housing | Anne Corry | |
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| Plymstock Housing in the 1920s, End of a Village | Anne Corry | |
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| Poltimore’s First Council Houses | Julia Neville | |
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| Restoring Devon Cottages: The 1926 (Rural Housing) Act | Philippe Planel | The Devon Historian, 2025 | |
| St Budeaux Council Houses for the men of Rosyth and Pembroke | Anne Corry | |
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| Tavistock Council Houses | Anne Corry | |
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| Tiverton Rural District Council Housing in the 1920s | Judith Moss | |
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| Leisure Activities | |||
| Christmas in the 1920s | Rosalind Leveridge | |
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| Devon County Libraries during the 1920s | Jackie Bryon | |
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| Did Chudleigh ‘Roar’ in the 1920s? | Helen Turnbull | |
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| Eating Out in Devon in the 1920s | Paul Cleave, Anne Corry and Julia Neville | |
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| Entertainment in Devon in the 1920s | Rosalind Leveridge | |
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| Gardens at Castle Drogo | Clive Smith | |
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| Lawn Tennis in Devon during the 1920s | Kevin Jefferys | |
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| Tourism in 1920s Torquay: Salus et Facilitas | Rosalind Leveridge | |
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| The Torquay Historical Pageant of 1924 | David Hinchliffe | The Devon Historian, 2021 | |
| Social and Community Change | |||
| At Home in Devon in the 1920s | Paul Cleave | |
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| Buckfast Abbey in the 1920s | Steve Roach | |
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| The Church of England: the north Devon experience in the 1920s | Andrew Jones | |
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| Clovelly and Hartland in the 1920s | Steve Hobbs | |
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| Devon’s First Women Magistrates | Penny Bayer | |
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| East Devon Women’s Institutes | Penny Bayer | |
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| Education and Social Change in Chudleigh | Helen Turnbull | |
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| Health and Sickness in Chagford in the 1920s | Jean Rhodes | |
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| Plymouth Labour Party in the 1920s | Jonathan Wood | |
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| Poltimore Village after the sale of the Estate | Julia Neville | |
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| The Occult in 1920s Torquay | Kevin Dixon | |
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| Women’s Political Activism in 1920s’ Exeter | Julia Neville | |
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| Tourism | |||
| By Wagonette and Charabanc: Tourism on Dartmoor in the 1920s | Peter Mason | |
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| Ilfracombe and the elements of tourism during the 1920s | Michael Blower | |
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| Plymouth Tourism Weeks | Anne Corry | |
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| Plymouth, a Holiday Destination for American Tourists | Anne Corry | |
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| Plymouth, Centre of a Hundred Tours | Anne Corry | |
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| The Bovisand Beach Entrepreneur | Anne Corry | |
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| Plymouth – more than the ‘Centre of 100 Tours’ | Gemma Canham | |
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| Transport | |||
| Ever Increasing Circles? Mobility and Transport in Devon in the 1920s | Project contributors and Julia Neville | |
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| Trials and Tribulations of the North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway | Tim Lomas | |
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| End |
