World War 1 puzzles

Bob Vickery from the Dawlish World War 1 project asks if anyone can help with information about a house called 'Faleide' at Southbrook.
and when did Edward Woollacott, a retired fur merchant, retire to Starcross?
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Does anyone know when Edward Wollacott  retired to Starcross? Here is a photo of him out driving with his wife (?) and another of him sitting in his garden on a strange garden seat that may have been made from tusks or whale bones.

Mr Wollacott was a retired fur merchant and may have had access to exotic animal remains.

Does anyone know of his house, 'Faleide' at Southbrook ? Is it an existing building since renamed?

His gardener, shown standing behind the garden seat, was William Stephens who had two sons, William Edwin and Leonard Reggie Stephens, who appear in a school photo of Starcross School ca 1903.

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Edward Wollocott (seated) in grounds of Faleide

Mr & Mrs Edward Wolllacott

Starcross School ca 1903

 The South West Heritage Trust hold a catalogue of the sale at Faleide, Southbrook, Starcross. "Furniture and effects, including carpets, escritoire, musical instruments, paintings, china, books etc. Sale by direction of the executors of Mrs E Langford, deceased. Auction by W Brock & Co on the premises on May 27th, 28th and 29th 1924. "

SOUTH WEST HERITAGE TRUST: Devon Archive Catalogue 

 

 Here's a link to more information in the Dawlish Gazette

Starcross Remembers

The centenary of the signing of The Armistice at the end of the First World War was celebrated in Starcross.
The Remembrance Day Service took place in St Paul's Church at 10:00am.The congregation processed to Starcross War Memorial on The Strand, where they were joined by many more from the village for a Remembrance Service, and wreath-laying which started at 10:45am.
Many thanks to Hugh Scudder, from Kenton, for the photographs
Click this link to see them all
A few images from Sundays Remembrance Service at St Paul’s and Parade to the Memorial

Restoration of St Paul's Church Bells

The 2 bells were taken down today. They'll probably be restored in good time for Christmas, but not quite in time for the Armistice Day centenary.
The smaller bell was cast in 1766, so it's older than St Paul's Church. Churchwarden Alison Miles will do some research about this.

The smaller bell is older than the Church

Rust on the big bell

Add caption

The clapper on the smaller bell

Small bell cast in 1766

Large bell cast by T Mears of London

Large bell cast by T Mears of London

Mosaic is ready for display

Monica Lang's mosaic: Dobbin at the Forge is almost ready to put on the wall at the Westbank charity shop in Starcross.
The materials have mainly been donated or recycled: the tiles, the glass and plastic nuggets, the board it's mounted on, the tile adhesive and the large horseshoe. The bike reflectors were kindly donated from the Exeter Ride-on cycling charity. Cofton Motors supplied plastic from vehicle rear-lights.

Dobbin's forge glows in the dark

The photo shows how Dobbin's forge glows in the dark
The mosaic will be installed in November.

Royal Artillery in Starcross

Hello

I’m wondering of you or anyone in Starcross would be able to help me with a research matters I’ve hit a brick wall with, please?

My wife’s great x4 grandfather was married in Kenton 31 Oct 1816 and his temporary residence is given as Starcross. He was in a gunner and driver in The Royal Artillery but I can find no reference to any artillery regiment presence in the area? Could they have been connected to Powderham?

Many thanks

Colin Jenner

Events planned

A program of events planned includes a visit to St Clement's Church at Powderham, and some talks on different aspects of Starcross history

Edward Wollacott

Robery Vickery; researcher at the Dawlish World War 1 project,  would like information please, about Edward Wollacott who lived at Faleide, Southbrook, Starcross in 1911. Here's a photograph of him. He employed the widowed Emily Stephens as housekeeper. Emily was the mother of Leonard Reggie Stephens
Where was Faleide? 

Many thanks to Robert for this photograph of Edward Wollacott

Edward Wollacott, Faleide, Southbrook

in a Dawlish Gazette article,
Edward Wollacott is listed as a retired fur merchant

Leonard Reggie Stephens

Robert Vickery researched these details for the Dawlish World War 1 project.
Many thanks to Robert Vickery for this school photograph

Leonard Reggie Stephens went to Starcross Primary School. He's a World War 1 hero who's remembered on the Cofton War Memorial 

Leonard and his brother William Edwin Stephens (1893-1982 ) are in this photograph of Starcross Primary School, 1901 when William was 7 and Leonard was 4.

 

Starcross Primary School 1901

Private Leonard Reggie Stevens

Leonard Reggie Stephens

Leonard Reggie Stephens at Tyne Cot

John Jeffry Nicholls

Robert Vickery has just completed his research on the farmer's son, John Jeffry Nicholls, from Eastdon Farm, who was killed on 12th October, 1918.

Here's the link to his research on the Dawlish WW1 website 

It explains how our local farmer's boy came to be an ambulance driver on The Somme; in a Canadian regiment.

Here's the Dawlish WW1 project's photograph of the Cofton War Memorial which lists
 John J Nicholls of the Canadian Army Medical Corps

http://dawlishww1.org.uk/cofton-war-memorial/

Retirement and First Prize

Kattanga in his retirement home

Oz Octopus in Holcombe Community Orchard

Kattanga is proud of his First Prize Trophy

Kattanga the War Horse and Oz Octopus have retired to the Holcombe Community Orchard. Many thanks to Neil Howell. The sculptures were voted the best in this year's Teignmouth Recycled Art in the Landscape sculpture trail. The prize money of £100 will be shared with Starcross Pre-school and Starcross Primary School

The beautiful, mechanical trophy, made by Julia Vella is recycled from materials which include a bobbin, a map and a fishing weight

Voted the Best: TRAIL 2018

More about Holcombe Community Orchard
On Sunday, October 24th, it's the Beating of the Bounds around Holcombe, which will be followed by Apple Day in Holcombe Community Orchard. This is a public event, so please go along and reacquaint with Kattanga and Oz.

Exmouth History Day, Saturday, 13th October

Exmouth Historical and Archaeological Society on Facebook
Exmouth Historical and Archaeological Society listed in the Devon History Society

 

It's the Golden Jubilee year of Exmouth Historical & Archaeological Society

Celebrations will be on Saturday, 13th October 2018, at Glenorchy church and hall, Exeter Road, Exmouth EX8 1PP 

from 10.00am to 4.30pm

Exmouth: Glenorchy United Reformed Church

·        Four talks

·         A Victorian head gardener - Dr. Francis Burroughes

·        Exmouth 50 years ago -  Ian Cann

·        The first seaside resort in Devon, and what happened next - Mike Tracey

·        Exmouth... in the Middle Ages and the Tudor period - John Allan 

There will be an exhibition of Exmouth history and art, and a second-hand booksale

·       
Launch

The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Exmouth; the first of  a series of occasional papers by April Marjoram

      
          Cost £10.00 per person, to include coffee and tea but bookings after 31st August will be £12.

·      Bookings:

 Mike Tracey 01395 260442

mdclaredale@tiscali.co.uk

Programme

10.00               Arrival & registration (coffee/tea available from church coffee shop, cost 50p)

10.30               “A Victorian head gardener” - talk by Dr. Francis Burroughes: informative,                                     entertaining and gently humorous.

11.30               Coffee/tea (included)

12.00               “Exmouth 50 years ago” – illustrated talk by Ian Cann, drawing on the lifetime                                   collections of himself and Paul Radgick, both born and bred Exmothians.

1.00                 Lunch – not included, but if you bring your own it may be eaten in the church hall, or                        there are many cafes and takeaways within a short walking distance. Tea and coffee                     (included) will be available in the hall.

2.00                 “The first seaside resort in Devon, and what happened next” – illustrated talk by                                Mike Tracey, former chairman of EH&AS.

3.00                 Tea/coffee (included)

3.30                 “Exmouth and its neighbours in the Middle Ages and the Tudor period” - illustrated                   talk by John Allan, doyen of Devon historians.

Bells are saved. More plans for St Paul's

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the fund for the bells of St Paul's Church. The £10,000 target has been achieved. Plans for the next phase for St Paul's were revealed at the Starcross Flower and Produce Show today. These have been devised after extensive consulation with the Starcross residents. St Paul's would like the wonderful building to be used to its full extent to be a hub for village activities, in conjunction with the other village organisations.
To enable the huge space to be accessible for wheelchairs, walking frames and pushchairs, less pews could be made shorter, and movable using castors. The space in front of the altar could be leveled and choir stalls could be removed to create a space which could even accommodate a visiting orchestra

Plans for less pews to be shortened and put on wheels

Proposals from Russ Palmer, Church architects

to remove choir stalls &

Porch

Please vote for the Starcross History entry

Voting is now open on the 2018 Teignmouth Recycled Art in the Landscape sculpture trail
Just click on the above link to vote for your favourite sculpture - which has to be the Starcross History entry of course 😊 Kattanga the War Horse watches the galloping pollution of the oceans

Starcross History's entry

Starcross History's entry

Strong winds and rain has wreaked its havoc - but not with Kattanga. Someone's been moving the signs around, and Kattanga got a football right in the gob this afternoon. Monica added a few more coathangers and sewed up the blue scaffolding-net "oceans" which had got ripped. She roped in some children who were walking past as she worked - and they added some more feathers to his fetlocks, and threaded a coathanger or 3.

Skypro Productions video of Kattanga

Many thanks to Skypro Productions for this video of Kattanga the War Horse on the Teignmouth Recycled Art in the Landscape sculpture trail
Thanks also to Teignbridge Resorts for the buoy and the brolly cover which make up Oz Octopus, and to Lara;s dress shop in Teignmouth for the bulk of Kattanga's ;-) coathangers.  Starcross Primary School made the oceans, Oz Octopus's tentacles and Kattanga's splendid tail.  Starcross Preschool  made some oceans too

James Barrett; Barratt, Barnet. INFORMATION PLEASE

Swan and Cygnet - Topsham Museum

 Topsham Museum

The Cygnet - star exhibit at Topsham Museum

Hello – To Whom It May Concern

I was advised by the Churchwarden, Tim Miles to contact the Starcross Local History Group in order to see if anyone there can offer any advice or help me in my quest to locate the last resting places of my Great great grandparents, particularly, James Barratt.

James and Susanna Barratt [name variations can include Barrett, Barnet etc] were married in Starcross in 1837 and proceeded to have a typical large family. They lived for a half century in various cottages in Church Street and New Road. James identified himself as a waterman or boatman in various census returns across the years.

While a number of their children remained in the area due to work or marriage, my Great grandmother, Elizabeth Gibbin[g]s went to London when her Exmouth husband joined the Guards in Exeter in the late 1870s [although you may be interested that I did find her returning to reside at No 7 New Road with a sister and her family in the 1939 ‘war’ census which you celebrate on your web site].

However, as a consequence of my researches at the Exeter Heritage Centre last week,  I discovered that both James and Susanna had sad and tragic ends to their lives. Susanna was the subject of a Devon Coroner inquest in 1895 when it was reported that she fell down the stairs of No. 9 New Road and broke her neck [she had been a lace maker and had lost her sight]. James, who family folklore claimed he sailed the boat that was in the form of a ‘cygnet’, was admitted to the Exminster Asylum and died within a few days in 1904 aged 89 years.

James bequeathed his name to three successive generations of our family and in view of his residence and work in the village for so many years I believe he must have been well known while alive. Despite help and advice from the Devon Archivist, the Starcross Churchwarden and various Parish Burial Records [Starcross, Kenton, Powerham and the Exminster Asylum burial records], contact with Teignbridge Council regarding the Dawlish and Teignmouth Civic Cemeteries, I am still finding James last resting place elusive [I know Susanna is buried somewhere in St. Paul’s in an unmarked grave].

Is there any advice or help that your group may give me to enable me to achieve my goal? Similarly, I did wonder if amongst any photos of ‘Old Starcross’ it might b possible to identify James on the river etc or his family in the village as no such picture is in the family’s possession.

Best Regards,

Les Gibbings

n.b.

I have been a member of the Devon Family History Society since the 1980s. My maternal Aunt & Uncle lived in Venn Bridge Farm until the early part of this century.
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Hi

I've put your request on the Starcross History web

Topsham Museum might have some info. They have all sorts of papers about Starcross.

Then of course there's the wonderful British Newspaper Archive

which is free to access at lots of public libraries and at the Devon Heritage Centre

- another place well worth a visit

regards

Monica Lang

Kattanga is on Teignmouth seafront

Kattanga the War Horse watches the galloping pollution of the 5 gyres from his brilliant position at the Eastcliff end of the Teignmouth Recycled Art in the Landscape sculpture trail. As the Number 2 bus drives towards Teignmouth Pavilions, Kattanga, with Oz Octopus and a purple crab, are to your left.

Kattanga the War Horse watches the galloping pollution of the 5 gyres

If you're in Teignmouth this summer, please vote for Kattanga
Cheers