Feniton History Group held the 65th meeting


The business part of the meeting confirmed the change of date for Jim Rider.
Here are his notes on the talk:

“The book tells the story of the last flight of a Viscount airliner, G-ARBY, which landed in a farmer's field south of Ottery St Mary in July 1980.  All sixty-two people on board walked away and there were no injuries.  It is a remarkable local story and has never been fully told before. I will be presenting an illustrated talk on the event in Feniton Parish Church at 7.30 pm on Thursday 21st April 2016.  Everyone welcome.“ 

I have spoken to Graeme Smith and he will be joining us for the June meeting (2nd June) in the Nog Inn.

Friends of Feniton Church asks if we can do a display or our choosing for the plant sale on 14/15 May, the Group felt they had nothing new to offer at the moment.

I have seen various Conflict Commemorations and thought we should check if we have and service folk from later conflicts who lived in Feniton.  Geoff suggested we might look at the Boer War and the Crimea.

 We had a good natter about the wonderful photos taken by James Ravilious, son of the painter Eric. This link tells more: http://tinyurl.com/hhrtq8h

Geoff told us about the maps he is working on as part of a conservation volunteer project in the Devon Record Office. He had come across a map showing Vicarage Cottages at Fairmile, these would have been demolished when the A30 was widened. A photo of the cottages is shown on page 95 of “Around Ottery St Mary” by Gerald Gosling and Peter Harris. Published 1994.

George is looking at non-conformist chapels in the area for his current research.

Jenny is pleased to say she has completed her major research on the Western Rebellion She tells us one of the Malherbe family was held to ransom in 1483 a  ransom was  paid   He  was wounded by a musket shot. So perhaps this is the “wound” in the shoulder of the tomb in Feniton Church? She has also finished her work on early immunisation and Benjamin Jesty.

Will tells us he has a colleague, Glen Ford, who is to x-ray the arrow heads from Windmill Hill to  confirm the evidence relating to the period of the Western Rebellion.

Brenda explained how well the  School Project is progressing, and now has some Church of England  notes on Feniton.  The current school was opened in 1967  on its current site so it will be its 50th year in 2017.

In 1863 the first school opened with 30 children, but, it seems like they made the list up from the  church baptism  register instead of using the actual children.  Some were too old to be in school, so a false document if ever there was one!  


We welcomed Roy, a new member, he is a  Metal detectorist  studying the Vikings of Exeter and Crediton.

 George sold us about a  Cist burial  on Dartmoor 3500 years  ago,  it held beads , a wicker pot  and even bear pelt.


I have resigned from the WW1 farming project, sadly due to time pressure, I just can’t get to the sessions in Exeter and incomplete data for the village.

Thank you all for yet another fascinating evening.

Next meeting in the Nog Inn on 7th April 8 pm.







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