#100daysofbfotc Day 74: George

George and Ada

George was Albert’s cousin, the son of his uncle Christopher and like Albert, George grew up in Bucks Mills. Like many inhabitants of Bucks Mills, George combined several occupations. His fished, he was a shoemaker and he also worked in the nearby quarry. In 1902, he married Polly’s younger sister, Ada, and they lived in what is now known as George’s cottage in Bucks Mills. There only child, George Henry, was severely disabled and died at the age of thirteen. Sadly, in 1936, at the age of 64, George went to the woods behind the village and took his own life. The inquest revealed nothing in his demeanour that suggested he was likely to commit suicide, although had had complained of rheumatic pains and had been seeing the doctor for the past ten weeks.

‘Ada reddened.

‘Well,’ she said hesitantly, ‘who knows? Maybe I’ll be wed to a man from Bucks too one day.’

‘Oh,’ replied Polly, curious now. ‘Who might that be then?’

‘’Tis too soon to say,’ said Ada, ‘but there’s one who’s shown an interest.’ ’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.

#100daysofbfotc Day 73: Clovelly Methodist Chapel

Oct20 by thehistoryinterpreter

DSCF0844 Religious observance was commonplace in Clovelly at the time of Barefoot on the Cobbles and the church-chapel divide was alive and well. Even though there are two descriptions of services in the parish church in the novel, many of the characters were Methodists rather than Anglicans. With no Methodist burial ground in Clovelly, Anglicans and Methodists alike were buried in the parish church. We do visit the chapel in chapter seven, just after Leonard has first encountered Annie.

Charles Haimes is credited with bringing Methodism to Clovelly in the very early years of the nineteenth century. His first convert was allegedly Mrs Whitefield. In common with other local landowners, there was initial resistance from the incumbent of Clovelly Court; with tenants being threatened with eviction if they attended Methodist services. This attitude softened Clovelly Methodist Chapel, which nestles behind the New Inn, is owned by Clovelly Estate.* In 1893 the north wall of the chapel collapsed, possibly due to the ingress of water. In the early twentieth century the chapel would be full each Sunday and the post-service gossip would have formed an important part of the weekly routine.

* The History of Methodism in North Devon by John Hayman Gould.

Barefot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.

‘It was Sunday before Leonard saw the girl again. Leonard’s attendance at chapel was borne out of habit rather than conviction. His parents went, many of his neighbours went, except, of course, the Anglicans who plodded up the hill to All Saints or crammed into the tiny, village chapelry that was St Peter’s. It was what you did.’

#100daysofbfotc Day 72: Philip Waters

Oct19 by thehistoryinterpreter

A story about a fishing community needs to include a boat builder and in Barefoot on the Cobbles it is Philip Waters from Appledore. In the novel, Polly’s father works in the Waters’ family yard and it is to Philip that Albert turns when he wants a new boat. It is said that the Waters put double ribs in the bottom of their clinker boats for additional strength.

Philip Bale Waters was born in 1863 in Appledore, into the boat building family of Edwin Waters and his wife Mary Elizabeth née Bale. Edwin was a Clovelly man, which is why the Clovelly fishermen trusted his boats. When he was a child, Philip’s family lived with his maternal grandparents at 12 Alpha Place. He did his apprenticeship in Appledore and married Harriet Williams in 1884; they had 11 children. They spent most of their married life living at 123 Irsha Street in Appledore. Philip died in 1959 at the age of 95.

‘A few more catches like this and there would be enough coins in the pot on the mantleshelf for Alb to buy a better boat. He hankered for a ledge boat, such as they used at Bucks Mills, preferring it to the heavier picarooner favoured by the Clovelly men. Polly looked up at her husband.

‘There’s nigh on three pounds ten in the pot now,’ she said. ‘You could send word to Philip Waters, over to Appledore. By the time the boat’s ready, us’ll have enough.’ ’

#100daysofbfotc Day 71: Robert Meyers

Oct18 by thehistoryinterpreter

Upton Road, Torquay

We meet Robert Meyers towards the end of Barefoot on the Cobbles, when the action moves to Torquay and illness stalks his household. Robert is one of the characters whose speech hints at the Devonshire dialect. In truth, it would probably have been broader but that would have rendered it incomprehensible to non-Devonian readers. Robert John Meyers, or Mayers, is Kate Cornelius’ father. Despite his Germanic sounding name, he was born in Morchard Bishop, Devon in 1846. He was registered with the surname Mare and was the son of John and Charlotte Mare née Drew.

Robert married Caroline Foot in 1868 and settled in Torquay, where they had five children. Initially, Robert worked as a carman, later he became a packer on the railway and then a furniture packer. When his wife died, in 1912, he lived with his married daughter Kate in Upton Road until his own death in 1921.

‘‘Then Mr Meyers’ foot was on the stair. He only ever came to the upper floor to use the bathroom. This time though, he knocked on Daisy’s door but remained discreetly outside.

‘Them’s all falling sick now,’ he called, with a lapse of grammar that would have earned a reprimand from his daughter. ‘I hopes you can shift for yoursen a bit. Francis has just taken hisself off to bed and Mrs Meyers started with it this afternoon. There’s only me left standin’. What’s that they say about creaking gates eh?’ The old man chuckled to himself.’

#100daysofbfotc Day 70: Clovelly New Inn

Oct17 by thehistoryinterpreter

New Inn The New Inn, one of two in Clovelly at the time of Barefoot on the Cobbles, is situated in the middle of the main street. Former mariner, James Berriman, had taken over as the publican of the New Inn by 1861 and was its landlord for more than four decades. James died in 1903 and his wife continued as proprietress of the inn until her death in 1912, at the age of 87. She did employ a manager; in 1911 this was Sarah Harvey. Albert Edward Bushell had taken over the New Inn by 1919 and may well have been the immediate successor to the Berrimans. It is likely therefore that he was the landlord at the time of the 1919 Club Service described in chapter 14.

In 1914, Christine Hamlyn’s programme of renovations reached the New Inn and pictures of the time show the inn sign, depicting a gannet, moving from one side of the road to another. At times, the Inn let rooms on both sides of the street. The First World War delayed the improvements and former cottages, including Polly and Albert’s, were incorporated into the refurbished inn.

The inn provided a venue for various meetings and seems to have been the meeting place for the Rechabites’ friendly society. Although, in the novel, I have set the inquest in the Red Lion, inquests were also held in the New Inn.

‘The Rechabites, mostly Methodists and non-drinkers, bundled into the New Inn, who were as happy to serve teetotallers as drinkers.’

#100daysofbfotc Day 69: Granny Smale

Oct16 by thehistoryinterpreter

We encounter Granny Smale, who ran one of Clovelly’s tea rooms, in chapter seven of Barefoot on the Cobbles. Stories of Granny Smale, or Granny Pengilly as she was also known, have come down to the present day. The incident with the cream, that is recounted in the novel, is just one of them.

Mary Ann Pickard was born in 1848, the daughter of William and Susan Pickard née Heard. Both the Pickards and the Heards were well known Clovelly families. In 1871, Mary Ann married mariner, William Pengilly, in Clovelly and they set up home in North Hill. In the 1891 census, Mary Ann can be found living in a three roomed cottage in the High Street, with six of their eight children. Just a week after the census was taken, her husband met with an untimely death. In order to support her family, Mary Ann ran Pengilly’s Tea Rooms in the High Street. She remarried, to Harry Smale, in the Zion Chapel in Silver Street, Bideford in 1897. Harry died in 1915 and Granny Smale’s granddaughter, Annie, came to help her run the tea shop. Mary Ann Smale died in 1920.

‘Leonard lingered outside Granny Smale’s, inhaling deeply as the aroma of baking brought a halt to his purposeful gait. Short, sturdy and energetic but elderly now, Granny Smale hadn’t been Granny Pengilly for twenty years or more but the sign outside the shop, that swayed and creaked in the salt-laden gusts, still read “Pengilly’s Tea-Rooms”. Harry Smale had succumbed to a sudden attack of influenza just last week and there had been speculation as to how Granny Smale would manage the business alone.’

#100daysofbfotc Day 68: Bucks Mills Methodist Chapel

Oct15 by thehistoryinterpreter

Former Methodist Chapel on the left

In a tract written in the 1850s, the irreligious nature of the inhabitants of Bucks Mills was lamented. The evangelising efforts of the Wesleyan Methodists and the Bible Christians bore fruit and the characters in Barefoot on the Cobbles attend the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in the first chapter. The original, tin roofed, chapel was probably constructed in the 1860s. It was Captain Joe, Albert’s uncle, who is said to have donated the land on which the chapel was built. He also promised that his subscription to the chapel would increase by £2 each year. He lived to be 87, so this may have been rash. In 1907, the chapel was closed and a new chapel was built on the opposite side of the road. Leet Cottage now stands on the site of the old chapel.

‘Kneeling on a coarse hassock between Mary and Albert, Eadie’s mind wandered as the words of the prayers washed over her. The walls of the chapel echoed back the phrases with an eerie resonance. For Eadie, the sermon was the hardest part. The dust motes swam in the sinking sunlight and she struggled to stay awake as the preacher spoke of sin and salvation.’

#100daysofbfotc Day 67: Rosie

Oct14 by thehistoryinterpreter

Rosie (left) and her sister Lily

Rosie was born in the last year of the peace and shared her birthday, 3 February, with her sister Lily. She was the youngest child in Polly and Albert’s family. The incident, in chapter 9 of Barefoot on the Cobbles, when Rosie fails to come home from school, is based on a real family story.

She married in 1936 and had one daughter but her husband died shortly afterwards, so Rosie returned to Clovelly to live with her parents. She spent the rest of her life in the village.

‘Rosie ran indoors, oblivious of the commotion that she had caused. The good news rushed down the street faster than a flood tide. Villagers came to express their relief, or to check if the rumours of Rosie’s safe return were true.’

#100daysofbfotc Day 66: Mr Caird

Oct13 by thehistoryinterpreter

New Inn In Barefoot on the Cobbles’ divide between ‘us and them’, that is characteristic of early twentieth century society, Mr Caird is unequivocally one of ‘them’. As such, he is distanced from Clovelly’s villagers, acting as a buffer between them and the Lady of the Manor, Mrs Hamlyn.

George Charles Caird was agent to the Clovelly estate. He was born in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland, in 1865, the son of George Scott Caird and his wife Christian née Sharpe. His father was a solicitor and procurator fiscal, so Caird grew up in a comfortably off household in Evan Street, Fetteresso. By 1901, Mr Caird was working as a factor’s clerk in Roxboroughshire and here he met his wife, Hellen Hall Thomson, who was living with her uncle at Huntlaw Farm in Minto. Together they moved to Clovelly where their only child, Hellen Christian Drawhill Caird, was born in 1904. They lived firstly at Slerra, Upper Clovelly and then in the village, at number 21 but Mr Caird’s role probably prevented them from being regarded as villagers. Mr Caird died in 1922; his widow and daughter remained at 21 Clovelly until the second world war, when his wife died and his daughter married.

‘Mr Caird called to present Mrs Hamlyn’s good wishes and to enquire after Daisy. Remembering the last time he had visited, Polly was reluctant to invite him in. Only the thought that other people might overhear what he had to say persuaded her to grudgingly open the door wider and usher the dapper little man inside. He brushed down his immaculate, tweed plus-fours and rested the stout stick that he always carried against the chimney breast. The stick was an affectation, rather than a necessary aid; Mr Caird was fit for his fifty years.’

#100daysofbfotc Day 65: Bideford Pannier Market

Oct12 by thehistoryinterpreter

In 1891, when Polly visits Bideford Pannier Market in the second chapter of Barefoot on the Cobbles, the new market building had only been open for seven years. It replaced an earlier market on the same spot and was designed, in particular for the butchers, in a designated Butchers’ Row and fishmongers. It was also the local corn exchange. The previous market had been owned by the Lords of the Manor but as they were disinclined to improve the building, the Corporation took responsibility. Market days were Tuesdays and Saturdays and attracted many traders and shoppers from the surrounding rural villages.

The building cost the ratepayers £4200 and it opened on 15 April 1884 amidst great celebrations. The area was bedecked with garlands and there was a peal of church bells, a gun salute and a mayoral procession. Other activities including a concert, a dinner for 200 town worthies, with food provided by the nearby (and now closed) New Inn. This must have been a protracted affairs there were many loyal toasts. The North Devon Gazette gives a detailed account of the proceeding and the attendees at the dinner. Later in the week there was a tea party for 2000 children.

Bideford’s market charter dates from 1272 and the Medieval market was in a different location, at the bottom of the High Street, near the river. The panniers, that give the market its name, are the woven baskets that would be slung either side of the backs of the donkeys and pack horses who brought the produce to market.

‘Tuesday brought market day, with its feverish hubbub and bustle. From early morning, eager sellers arrived with their produce, by rail, by cart, or with panniers slung across the back of a horse or a donkey. Farmers’ wives walked to the town from the surrounding villages to sell eggs, cheese or succulent pies. The smell of the butchers’ stalls with their carcasses of meat and hanging game, caught the throats of the more fastidious. Squawking chickens in stacked crates and the shouts of the stallholders, vied with the chatter of gossiping women and the squeals of children clamouring for sweetmeats.’

The History Interpreter – Janet Few

Presenting and Preserving the Past

Monthly Archives: October 2018