Show and Tell

SHOW AND TELL. Westbank Charity Shop. Tuesday, 17^th September, 4pm until 6pm

Meet “Dobbin at the Forge”, who is installed in the patio garden. We'll have a laptop displaying our Starcross History website, and some items of interest. Have you any stories to tell? Have you anything to show from our village past?

There will be plenty of the shop's posh coffee and cake on sale, so it will be a great opportunity for a natter. We hope to plan some more events and projects. It's going to be difficult to top last year's win on the Teignmouth TRAIL with Kattanga, our War Horse, but we have a design for some gallopers; reminiscent of the carousel that used to visit the village every year. Who knows anything about the fairs they used to have here?

Did our Captain Peacock (designer of the Swan of the Exe) invent the screw propeller? If that's true, then wouldn't it be great if we could get a screw propeller from somewhere and install it as a memorial to the great man?

And how about this idea to reproduce our Stairs Cross? Was it made from red sandstone? It might have been... like the one at Clyst St George. Red sandstone would be a relatively easy stone to work with. Where can we find a big enough piece of it? Who would like to carve it?

Who would like to help with a mosaic of the Cockwood Lime Kilns & sailing barge? Can you suggest more mosaic ideas?

Everyone's invited to all our meets, but usually we get around 20 max... There's access for wheelchairs via the back entrance. No admission or membership charge. Donations accepted

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.

Old Photographs of Starcross

Many thanks to Gordon White for this collection
Some of his wonderful photograph links are here published, so that they can be scrolled on a laptop for  everyone to talk about in The Westbank  Charity Shop's memory café every Tuesday morning.

sportsfield and St Paul's. 1908

The Strand 1910

Well St 1908

Almshouse pre 1914

Pen and ink Watercolour by Francis Towne

Starcross Cattlemarket pre 1914

 Chimneys and Langdale 1911

The Strand 1910

1900

The Strand 1906

Green Cottage???

Vennings Railway Hotel 1920

Exmouth view 1959

The Strand 1952

The Strand 1953

view includes RWCH 

view from Warboro includes RWCH

Exeleigh 1914

Cockwood 1906

New Road. Courtenay Arms

The Strand

The Strand

8, New Road

The Strand

The Strand

The Strand

The Strand

Starcross Cattle Market

Coronation Terrace

The Strand

The Peacocks' Tails Trail : a trail around some historically interesting places in Starcross.

•   St George's Day Saturday April 23rd

  starting and finishing at St Paul's Church

  TRAIL OPENS AT 1200noon

  St Paul's will open from 1:30pm until 3:00pm

  • TEDDY ToMBoLA

    Teas, Coffees and fantastic cakes

    • • BRING AND BUY

                                  Please bring something to sell if you can. Profits from
                                   the Bring and Buy will  go to St Paul's Church. 
                                  The TEDDY ToMBoLA will be run by the Starcross Westbank Charity shop

Peacocks' tails remind us of the Starcross adventurer and inventor, Captain George Peacock. 

First of all, buy your copy of the Peacocks' Tails Trail for 50p. This is a list of all the clues to where you will find the peacocks' tails, with spaces for you to stamp the special Peacocks' Tails Trail stamps.

We aim to have the tails and the stamps in place by 12:noon on  St George's Day.


Follow the first clue to Captain Peacock's grave, which is in St Paul's churchyard. Hidden nearby you will find Captain Peacock's letterbox stamp, which has been especially made by Melissa Muldoon. Use the stamp pad (or you could bring one of your own) to stamp your copy of the Peacocks' Tails Trail, or you could have your own book you might like to stamp.
Then answer the question about Captain George Peacock
and on to the next clue...

The last clue is St Paul's Church. When you have answered all the questions, and collected as many stamps as you can, VOTE FOR THE BEST TAIL

then you can claim your Peacock Tails' Trail Certificate.

The first few back will also get to choose a little peacocky prize - we have some peacock feathers, and we've been collecting a few other peacocky bits and pieces.

The Peacock Tails' Trail Certificates each feature one of Melissa Muldoon's beautifully drawn peacocks - which you can colour in

Captain George Peacock 1805 - 1883

 The tails are fantastic creations. Melissa Muldoon's Peacock Club at Starcross Primary School made nine tails. Messy Church, Starcross pre-School and local residents are busy making more - from mainly plastic junk.

Here's the trophy which will be awarded for the Best Peacock Tail after the votes have been counted.

Helping to set up the jumble sale in St Paul's

Helping to set up the jumble sale in St Paul's

Thankyou Starcross, for this magnificent display of generosity. Most of the donations came from the village. Many thanks as well, to those from further afield who gave. Thankyou everyone who supportedour jumble sale, by donating items, spending money at the sale, and helping to set out, sell, and clear up.

Thankyou to everyone at St Paul's for everything they did to make today's jumble sale such a great success.
An army of folk laid out the clothes&books on the pews, and toys&bric-a-brac on tables across the front of the church. Then they organised the raffle and served teas&coffees.
There was only one carload of jumble left at the end of the sale. Thankyou to the Westbank Charity Shop for accepting the leftovers.

Starcross History and St Paul's had half  each of the proceeds of the raffle and the sale - which meant £101 each.

There will be another Jumble Sale in around 6 months time... or even sooner? Watch this blog for details.