Deb'n Tales

Stories about Starcross history are everywhere. They need writing down or recording, and then we'd be delighted to be allowed to publish them on here. Stories are great fun. They are often backed up with documents and/or photographs. Sometimes, they aren't completely factual; but they can often set the record straight.

A personal narrative brings history to life. So that you can appreciate what can be achieved, please listen to the 4 anecdotes about quarries in Devon  HERE. 

Thankyou for this picture to
http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.co.uk
/2010/10/st-catherines-almshouses-catherine.html

At least one old house in Starcross was built using stone quarried in Heavitree, Exeter. The stone is Red Sandstone, from the Heavitree breccia. Stonework which uses Heavitree breccia is quite distinctive, because the red is infilled with darker stone, which gives a typical, toned pattern. This pattern can be seen in

what remains of St Catherine's almshouses, in Exeter.  There was a Red Sandstone quarry nearer to Starcross than Heavitree; at Exminster.


Here's a case where personal narrative has set the record straight. Was The Swan of the Exe 

destroyed by fire sometime between the 2 World Wars? That's what we understood, but, NO. She definitely was not. Several local residents have been quick to explain that she was kept in the grounds of Regent House right up until the 1960s, where she was used as a summerhouse. Photographs exist...

And here's an evocative story - you can just picture the scene:
When the Cookson family, who owned  The Cygnet, 

Thankyou for this photo to
 Les Gibbings, via
http://www.syntagmamedia.com

(the tender to The Swan of the Exe) wanted to launch her, men would push her through Starcross with her head and neck lying inside the boat, because the railway arches over the slipways weren't high enough to allow her through into the river.
You can see the story is true, because in this photo, there's a line clearly visible just above the rope on the bow. This line must be the point where the head and neck were detached.













Another family of note in the history of Starcross was the Drew family. Descendants of the Drew family live in nearby Exeter. They are not related to the Drewes of Drewsteignton . John Drew lived at Kenbrook on The Strand in 1930, according to Kelly's Directory

When you go to that link, there's a picture of  "the old "Stair" crossing to Exmouth which gave its name to Starcross".

Thankyou http://www.devonheritage.org/Places/Kenton/
images/StarcrossOldStairCrossing.jpg for this photo

Which brings us to another story. In line with what is written on the link to Kelly's Directory (above), some local residents dispute that there ever was a stone cross at the ferry landing. 'Stairs Cross' simply meant the stairs where the crossing was. So, they say, it's no good us -  Starcross History - asking folk to keep a lookout for what's left of a (probably-wrecked-under-the-orders-of-Henry V111), 12th century stone cross, which might still lurk in the estuary silt; because there never was one. Well, that 'story' is in opposition to Captain George Peacock's account in Volume 15 (pub. 1888 by W Brendon and Son, 26, George St Plymouth) ) of The Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art. This clearly states that a stone cross was set up, by the Bishop of Sherborne, near the stone stairs, and that is how Stairs Cross was named.To check this, we might have to consult the archives of Sherborne Priory

Do you dispute anything written on this weblog? Or do you have any new stories to share about old Starcross? We would love to hear from you.

Meeting TONIGHT. Speakers on TrailArt and Brunel

Please make loadsafeathers

Our project to recreate The Swan of the Exe

Image from http://www.archive.org/stream/devoncornwallnot111amer#page/166/mode/2up

  for the 2015  Teignmouth Trail Recycled Art in the Landscape needs more feathers

Here's 2 of them

How to make a feather

1. Take a plastic milkbottle and cut out long leafshapes as big as possible. Probably get 2 out of 1 milkbottle
2. cut 2cm slits all along the edges

The feathers will be attached to a wire netting swan. If we get loadsafeathers, the whole of the old rowing boat could be covered with them as well. We have until July to complete our sculpture.

Here's allabout  The Swan of the Exe
by Tony Dunlop on Devon Perspectives
This Victorian 10-berth folly  was designed by Captain George Peacock of Regent's House, Starcross, launched from Dixons yard at Exmouth in 1860 and moored by Starcross pier. It caught fire and perished between the World Wars. Her iconic tender, The Cygnet, is the prize exhibit in nearby Topsham Museum

Captain George Peacock 1805 - 1883

Captain George Peacock 1805 - 1883

If you have more information about Captain George Peacock, or you offer help with this research, please add your comment below. Thankyou

George Peacock was born at Regent's House in Starcross, in 1805.

The following is a précis of the short biography on the National Archives website

"

He served on his father's ships in the Mediterranean... and became a ship's master. He joined the Royal Navy in 1828. He was 2nd master of H.M. Steamship Echo. In 1840, he left the Navy and was appointed as the first Commander of the newly constituted Pacific Steam Navigation Company.

Shortly after leaving the PSNC in 1848, he formed a company to manufacture anti-fouling paint which he had invented.

He became Superintendant of Docks at Southampton. In 1858 he retired to Starcross. "

He commissioned Dixons of Exmouth to build a nautical Victorian folly The Swan of the Exe which was launched in 1860. 4 Cygnets were built. Just one cygnet was used as a tender to the Swan of the Exe. The other 3 were sold. 2 went to Paignton, and 1 to Bournemouth. (Dunlop,T internet, accessed Feb 20th 2015) Only the Exe cygnet remains, (unless anyone knows differently) and she was rescued and preserved by, and is the pride of, nearby Topsham Museum

The Swan of the Exe burnt out inbetween the 2 World Wars.

The story of   The Swan of the Exe has been written by Tony Dunlop on his website Devon Perspectives. The images and the content have generously been made available to all under a creative commons license

The Swan of the Exe Image courtesy of Tony Dunlop, http://www.devonperspectives.co.uk/swan_of_the_exe.html

Further biographical notes, details of his explorations and surveys, papers relating to Captain Peacock's inventions and ideas, papers relating to The Swan of the Exe, papers relating to the Exmouth Warren, printed works, photographs and papers relating to the Cookson family are held in the Liverpool Record Office

Biography of George Peacock by Peta Rée

This is available online by subscription to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Most UK public libraries subscribe to this online, which means that all you need is your library card to access this biography. How to access the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Topsham Museum

have kindly sent us a wonderful diagram of  The Swan of the Exe, to help us with our project, Recreating The Swan of the Exe and invited us to see the documents they hold about our Captain Peacock. The museum opens again on April 1st.

James Barratt; a Victorian water boatman of 9, New Road, Starcross

This photograph, by the reknowned photographer George Gibbings (1920 - 2010)

The Cygnet in Exeter Maritime Museum

of The Cygnet before she went to her present location in nearby Topsham Museum, led the research to his obituary in August, 2010 by John Evans on Devon and Cornwall Online
in which is quoted this, from George Gibbings' nephew, Les Gibbings, about The Swan of the Exe and its tender The Cygnet

Les Gibbings
Les has provided DCO with some more local history about the River Exe which bears upon his own family story in the area.

My great great grandfather, James Barratt (a water boatman), and his family, including my great grandmother, Elizabeth, lived at 9 New Street, Starcross in the mid 1800s. The terrace of cottages were located in the street opposite the Courtney Arms Hotel on the front. They were converted into eight units about 20 years ago.
There were a number of people who plied a local ferry trade on the Exe and across to Exmouth and he was one. The Swan was a pleasure vessel that was well known in the area. It had a unique bottom it seems, either glass or at least a hole for fishing from within the boat.
The Cygnet was a small rowing craft with a swan’s neck that I found, to my utter amazement, in the Exeter Maritime Museum in the 1990s (or was it the 1980s?) and which family folklore said was used by us.
My grandfather was called James Barratt Gibbings, as were my late father and my eldest brother, so the links are obvious. He spent most of his formative years up to adulthood in the area.
The Gibbin(g)s family lived in Littleham / Withycombe Raleigh across the river.