Celebrating The Restoration of The Peacock Cookson Memorial

The Starcross History Society will meet in St Paul's Church on Saturday, 9th November from 10.30 until 12.30.

ADMISSION FREE

but we will have a collection pot to cover expenses 

Timetable:

10.30-11.15 

Presentation and discussion in St Paul's Church   on the monuments and memorials in the Churchyard and the War Memorial outside the station.

Two short videos:    

Starcross monuments and memorials with a major focus on the Church 

 Captain George Peacock

11.15-11.45

 Refreshments 

11.45-12.20

 Viewing of Monuments and Memorials in St. Paul’s Church andChurchyard

12.20

 Revd. E. Patrick Parkes: Commemoration of the restored Peacock-Cookson memorial in the Churchyard. 

The broken cross on top of this stepped, pink marble monument, reminds us of the life cut short of Christopher Denys Peacock Cookson, 1926-1944. The young Lieutenant  died In action in WWII at Westkapelle,  Walcheren and was buried at sea. He was the great grandson of  Captain George Peacock.

(Captain Peacock, explorer and inventor, retired to Regent's House in Starcross, from where, in 1860, he commissioned his pleasure yacht in the form of a Swan, which was moored near to Starcross Pier in the Exe Estuary )

An engraving of The Swan of the Exe from The Illustrated London News, October 30 1860 https://www.devonperspectives.co.uk/swan_of_the_exe.html

Please note that 

The Starcross Remembrance Sunday service is on the following day 

St. PAUL’S CHURCH, STARCROSS, Remembrance Day Service

Sunday 10th November, 10.00

AGM Wednesday 11th May 7:30pm in St Paul's Church

gaah! forgot to send the details of our next meet to the Starcross Newsletter
and it's the AGM
AGMs are things to avoid...
but this one might not be too bad  because we hope to do the boring stuff really quickly:

• ask for committee members 
• elect the committee
• adopt the constitution
• present the accounts
• review progress
• plan for the future

Then we'll have a Show and Tell of anything about Starcross history.  We have some items which include:

The only known photograph of Captain George Peacock

Pub token from the Jolly Sailor which is no longer a pub in the village

Tuppence halfpenny

but we ask for anyone to please bring more old photographs and items for the group to discuss.

The meet will be on Wednesday May 11th at 7:30pm in St Paul's Church
There's no charge for admission, and no joining fee because we think that local history should be for everyone; not just for an elite few who can afford to pay  a tenner a year. We raise money for the room hire by having a raffle, so please bring a raffle prize, and we charge £1 for tea or coffee with a biscuit. We also sell our enamel club badges for £5

and we have some of the booklets about the atmospheric railway for £3 each

 We hope you'll find time to come along and have your say. Should we take an interest in the state of the Peacock-Cookson memorial in Starcross Churchyard? Will you help with our oral history project? How could we improve this weblog? Would you help with publicity?

Here come the trail stamps

Artist Melissa Muldoon is busy making the Dartmoor-letterbox-type stamps for The Peacocks' Tails' History Trail. Can you guess where the first 4 here will go?

Printing money for the village

The clues&quiz sheets for the Peacocks' Tails' History Trail are now on sale around the village; price 50p.
The groups who have kindly agreed to print and sell the sheets will tell Starcross History how many they sell, so that we can print enough certificates. Everyone who completes the trail will be entitled to a certificate. The money raised will be kept by the organisations who print and sell the sheets. Jayne and Sue, our Starcross landladies, will support the Scarecrows and Starcross Community Society.
The clues&quiz sheets are on sale at:

• Starcross Primary School
• Starcross Pre-school
• St Paul's Church
• The Atmospheric Railway Inn (Starcross Scarecrows)
• The Galleon Inn (Starcross Community Society)
• The Westbank Charity Shop
• Myrtle Cottage (Starcross History)

On Saturday April 23rd, there will be historical facts on cards near the tails, and an exhibition in St Paul's of some papers and photos about the points on the trail - so the trail is for everyone; not simply for children.

Here's the certificates to be awarded on the day. There are 3 different designs to be coloured in. The peacocks were drawn by artist Melissa Muldoon, during her "Peacock Club" at the school. ( The children in the Peacock Club made colourful peacocks' tails from scrap which included CDs, silver foil, milkbottle tops, buttons, old tents, scaffolding netting and an umbrella. )

Captain Peacock's grave

Does anyone know what has broken off the top of the stone obelisk above the lavish pink marble? Are there any plans to restore this memorial to the Peacock - Cookson family?