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

Starcross Church and Churchyard

Captain George Peacock 

Here's a link to a brilliant video about Starcross and its Churchyard by Boots McTee.

St Paul's Church and Churchyard

Peacock is peacock-shaped

Many thanks to Liz and Roger from Trail Recycled Art in the Landcape who helped get our peacock into a peacock shape today. Doesn't he look gorgeous?

It would be great if he looked magnificent from behind too so we need more eyes!

The eyes can be made from any recycled stuff. You need to have 3 concentric circles - use CDs,  foil, the tops of  plastic containers,  milk-bottle tops and  buttons. Thread thin wire through your pile of 3 circles and leave a couple of inches of wire so that there is enough wire to thread through the blue scaffolding netting and tie it off.  Then your eye is ready to be fixed to the tail!

Please drop your eyes round to Myrtle Cottage and they'll get put on to the tail
Cheers

Peacock on TRAIL

Our collection of peacocks' tails from our Peacocks' Tails History Trail is installed on Trail Recycled Art in the Landscape in Teignmouth. Mrs Peacock the Starcross Scarecrow has been modified to enable this 'sculpture of Captain Peacock and son' to withstand the seafront weather. All the tails have been fastened securely, and the central representation of the peacock no longer has any large bits of material which might get blown to bits. There's no wind resistance from the scaffolding netting, and the 2 ceramic pots have been pegged in place with  metal rods. Cable ties and wire have been used throughout to fasten everything down... but there could be some wind damage. When you go to have a look at all the sculptures on this year's exciting TRAIL, if you see any peacock bits blowing about, please can you pick them up, and maybe re-attach?
Cheers

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. )

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.

The Peacock Club at Starcross Primary School

The children in artist Melisssa Muldoon's Peacock Club produced another terrific amount of wonderful work today at Starcross Primary School

Because the tails are for outdoor display, the materials the children picked to make the eyes in the tails include bottletops, buttons, plastic sheets, CDs, pipe insulation and tinfoil. The pipe insulation had to be sawed up to make the circles.

The amazing tails are made from all sorts of rubbish too!

plastic milkbottle feathers on a broken leaf-rake

green plastic feathers attached to an old TV aerial

Wooden slats on a tyre base. blue scaffolding netting .

green corrugated plastic tail

The Peacocks' Tails Trail will start and finish at St Paul's Church on Saturday, April 23rd - St George's Day. There will be a stamp and an inkpad near each tail. The first 50 fully stamped-up cards will win a real peacock's feather.
The peacocks' next outing will be in Starcross Sportsfield, on Scarecrow Day - Saturday, June 18th. They will spend the summer on the Teignmouth Trail Recycled Art in the Landscape.

Can anyone please make another tail, (or three) ? Make them out of anything you like, and let us know before April 1st if you want your tail(s) to be included on the St George's Day trail around Starcross. We have a trophy for the best tail. 

We're using peacock's tails to signpost our history trail, in memory of our Victorian adventurer and inventor, Captain George Peacock. Search this website to discover all about him. There's an easy way to do this. Instead of typing Captain George Peacock into the SEARCH box, simply look in the LABELS  underneath this post, and click on Captain George Peacock.
Our club badge depicts his iconic yacht, The Swan of the Exe.