WIDECOMBE HISTORY GROUP Registered Charity No 114684

The Piggeries – Memorial Garden

NEWSLETTER VOLUME 32 – July 2015

CONTENTS Committee 2014/15 Page 2 Chairman’s Message 2 The Quilt Project 3 The History of Schools 1833-1870 3 The Widecombe Wesbsite 4 World War 1 Commemoration 5 History Group Conference 6 Bertram Jones 7 Dartmoor Air Crashes 9 Stover Country Park Walk 10 Programme 12

www.widecombe-in-the-moor.com e-mail: [email protected] Hon Sec: Anthony Beard, Bittleford Parks, Widecombe-in-the-Moor, , Devon TQ13 7TQ, Tel: 01364 621246 1

Committee 2015/16

Chairman Terry French* Vice Chairman appointment to be made Secretary Anthony Beard* Treasurer Roger Claxton* Committee John Walling * Committee Sue Boustead* Programme Organiser Marcia Babington Committee Peter Carrett Committee Margaret Phipps* Committee David Ashman* *Trustees of the Charity

Chairman’s Report

Firstly I must thank all of last year’s officers tor all the work they have put in. And everybody who has helped.

As you all know Anthony has not been well. We wish him a speedy recovery and back with us very soon. Get well.

Widecombe History Group has had its own exhibition at the World War I exhibition at the High Moorland Visitor Centre, . Many thanks to Peter Rennells, John Kimber and David Ashman for all the work they have put in. It is well worth a visit.

The memorial garden by “The Pig Houses” has had to be sprayed for a second time to due to the cover of ground elder. Grass and flower seeds hopefully next year.

Guided walks around the village and church are in progress and a great success. Three more in the pipeline. Many thanks to the leaders.

Hopefully 2015 and onwards will continue to be as successful as the last 18 years have been,

Terry French

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THE HISTORY OF DEVON SCHOOLS BETWEEN 1833 AND 1870

Taking as its baseline the results of a national education inquiry for Devon, begun in 1833 and published in 1835, the Devon History Society has launched a Devon-wide research project to find out as much as possible about the kind of schooling available to children between 1833 and 1870.

The 1835 returns for Widecombe listed four daily schools, three supported by subscription. Their parents paid for the 16 boys and 4 girls who attended the fourth school. It may be, of course, that between 1833 and 1870 the number of schools in Widecombe went up – or down.

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Ann Claxton and I have been encouraged by Anthony to take part in this project and to find out as much as we can about schooling in Widecombe in that early Victorian period. The aim of the DHS project leader, Dr Julia Neville, is to provide an interim “event” by mid-2016 and for there to be a write-up in 2017 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the publication of “Devon Village Schools in the 19th Century” by Roger R Sellman.

Although 1870 is such a long time ago, and 1833 almost 200 years ago, Ann and I would love as many of you as possible to lend us a hand. You may perhaps have stories to share with us, or bits and pieces about mid-Victorian schools in Widecombe – the sort of schools they were, who went to them, what the children were taught - that have come down to you in, say, family archives or scrapbooks.

If you can help, do get in touch with Ann or me either personally or by telephone or e-mail, at the addresses below - Ann – Tel: 01364 621232; e- mail – [email protected], Marcia –Tel: 01364 661263; e-mail – [email protected]

Marcia Babington

www.widecombe-in-the-moor.com

How many of you have visited this site?

With an average of over 100 hits per day, it is the first site that comes up when you Google ‘Widecombe’. It is a first point of call for visitors when trying to find out things about Widecombe. For the tourist is gives information on places to stay, eat and places of interest to visit; for the community, it gives information on the History Group, the Parish Council, the Church and the Widecombe Archive. It helps to promote local businesses, the village farmers market, the village craft market

4 and Widecombe Fair and this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a mass of other information including projects that the History Group are doing such as the one on World War 1 and the digitising of Widecombe Archive.

This site is run on a voluntary basis and all the profit from advertising over the years (amounting to several thousands) has helped to fund projects for the History Group. www.widecombearchive.org.uk

This is the site that hosts the Widecombe Digital Archive. This is where you can search for names and places that are recorded in the archives and view those documents where the names and places are to be found.

Over the past four years we have digitised and catalogued all of the Parish Chest, the headstones in the churchyard, the church baptism book, the tithe apportionments and much more. We are continuing to add to our digital archive, - rate books, wills, indentures, photos, maps, to name but a few, are being added to our digital archive each week

Please visit this site and take some time to explore.

Our thanks to all those willing volunteers that have helped to make this possible. If you would like to help, or would like to know more please contact Ann Claxton at [email protected]

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World War 1 Commemoration of the Fallen of 1915.

Following a very successful two week exhibition of research material in Princetown as part of the Dartmoor Life in the First World War the team are now focused on preparing the first draft of the Widecombe “Roll of Honour”

Work has now been completed on the web pages for those people from Widecombe parish who gave their lives in World War One and died in 1915. The pages will be built up over the next few years and commemorate all those who fell during the year of the centenary. The three men who fell in 1915, William T D Bolitho, George Nosworthy, and John D H Radcliffe each have a dedicated web page giving details of their lives in Widecombe, their service in the forces, the memorials commemorating their lives throughout Europe. Coupled with this information are extensive links to contemporary war diaries detailing life in the conflict areas, quotes from officers involved with the individual men, and other relevant background information. Also featured are poems from World War One read by members of the History Group , on these web pages the poems are read by Joanna Radford, Anthony Beard and Roger Claxton.

It is intended that a World War One poem will be featured on the web page in respect of every Widecombe man commemorated and that the verses selected will be read by a member of the History Group Following all the hard work that has gone into preparing these pages I hope you will find time to go to the Widecombe History Group web site and “click” on the “fallen” to read and listen to the stories of the men who died One Hundred years ago this year.

David Ashman..

Dartmoor History Group Conference Princetown May 2015.

At the Annual conference of the Dartmoor History Groups at Princetown on 20th May 2015, the headline presentation was by Widecombe History Group member John Lowe speaking about “The Boys”. Many of you will have heard John speak about this subject before, as I have three times. However he has been able to continue to collect 6 new snippets of information, and has successfully professionalised his presentation to new levels. His presentation at Princetown was the highlight of the day, and goes to illustrate to all of us involved in research that continued perseverance and determination can produce outstanding results which should be heard by the largest possible audience. It is to be hoped “The Boys” and John Lowe continue to receive the recognition they deserves. David Ashman.

Bertram Jones Bertram Jones was born on October 1st 1886 at Fakenham in Norfolk into the “landed gentry”. As was usual at this time after private education he was enrolled in the Armed services aged 15 years. He served at Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth until 1902. From 1902 – 1907 he underwent extensive training on a considerable number of ships and training establishments. From 1908 onwards he continued to receive training but now in Submarine warfare. However at the end of a five year training period studying the tactics and practice of submarine warfare he was posted to a surface ship.

This almost immediately led to a request to resign from the Navy, he was persuaded to transfer to the “emergency list” but allowed to emigrate to Canada in 1913.

When War broke out in 1914 he immediately volunteered for the Canadian Navy and was accepted into that service.

At this time the Premier of the state of British Colombia was making strong representations to the Canadian government over the potential dangers of attack to Canada’s western shores and the lack of suitable naval defence. The federal Government replied that as the British Royal Navy ruled the waves they were confident of the defences available.

The Premier happened to meet, quite by chance, and American Shipbuilder who was in British Colombia at a trade exhibition. In conversation the

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American explained his company had just completed the construction of 2 submarines for the Chilean Navy, but now the Chileans were refusing to take delivery of the boats as they claimed they were “substandard” Following intensive and secret talks, a deal was done whereby the British Colombian Government would buy the boats “ “for cash” Because there had been no budget provision for the purchase, buying the boats took all the monies in the provincial government reserves.

The submarines were moved from the shipyard in Seattle in dead of night and sailed towards the Canadian Coast. The whole sale agreement was illegal under American Neutrality law which forbade sale of any type of armaments to combatant nations.

As a result of the refusal of the Chileans to buy the submarines (because they were alleged to be substandard), Cmdr Jones, the most experienced submariner in the Canadian Navy, was given 4 hours, in open sea conditions, to inspect and report on the condition of both vessels.

The deal was completed, the Federal Government reimbursed British Columbia the full purchase price and Cmdr Jones captained the second of the 2 submarines for the next three years. To start the service a considerable number of British ex-servicemen crewed the submarines , but Cmdr Jones used his time to train Canadians in submarine tactics etc.

The threat to the Canadian West Coast had reduced sufficiently by 1917 for the decision to be made to redeploy the 2 submarines to the Mediterranean where there was a shortage of this type of craft

The subs sailed through the Panama canal and up the eastern seaboard of the US and Canada. When they reached Halifax in Nova Scotia both boats had developed such serious mechanical problems it was decided they would never make the Atlantic crossing so they remained in Canada to be sold for scrap in 1920.

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After the war Lt Cmdr Bertram Jones was promoted to Commander (in recognition of War Service). He came to Widecombe and took up residence at “Windwhistle”, Anthony Beard tells of the fact that his father bought land from Cmdr Jones during his residence at Windwhistle. The Widecombe Branch of the Royal British Legion also benefitted from the energies of Cmdr Jones who was treasurer of the branch during its early days.

In 1925 Commander Jones left Devon to return to his native Norfolk and lived in the village of Blakeney until he died in 1958. David Ashman

A story in the recently published book Dartmoor Aircrashes, Aircraft lost in World War Two. by Robert Jones relates how a Wellington Mk 1C bomber returning from a bombing mission in France on 28th December 1941 flew over Widecombe with no one aboard the Aircraft!!! The plane was badly damaged by anti- aircraft fire and one of its two engines was disabled. The pilot managed to bring the plane safely across the English Channel, but once over the South Devon coast decided that that airplane could not be saved, and ordered the crew of five including himself to abandon the aircraft. Fortunately all five landed safely without injury. When the pilot left the plane it was heading north east towards , but because of technical factors the plane swung west and passed over Widecombe. Luckily it had sufficient height to clear Hamel Down and continued on until it crashed on Amicombe Hill near Princetown. Had the plane crashed on Hamel Down it would have been the fifth crash in Widecombe parish in World War Two. . David Ashman

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2015 PROGRAMME

July 1 Violet Pinwill’s Dartmoor Churches: Dr Helen Wilson

July 22 Tour of Buckland and Churches with Dr 2 pm Helen Wilson; cream teas at Beechwood, Postbridge

August 5 Churchill – His Finest Hour: Brian Portch

Peter Hirst Memorial Walk with Mike Wright and August 29 Richard Wells.

September 2 Burrator Reservoir and its Social Impact: Paul Rendell

October 7 Church Houses in Devon :Sue Andrew

October 23 The Union Inn, Moretonhampstead: Presentation by 7 pm Sian Colridge, followed by evening meal at 8 pm

November 4 Metal detector finds on and around Dartmoor - John Smith

December 2 RNLI Arctic Cycle Challenge 1999: John Lowe

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