ore

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•
largest parish in all England. Corpses had to be carried from all over
the Moor to Lydford church for burial.
Several places in the county have traditions of the plague, both the
medieval Black Death and the epidemic of 1666. There were also
several outbreaks in 1571 , 1591, and 1604-5. Professor W . G. Hoskins
suggests that the Black Death may have affected Devon more
severely than the rest of England, to judge from the mortality figures .
Certainly the deanery of Kenn was 'the worst-hit deanery in the
whole of England. It lost 86 parsons from its 17 churches in two
ycus'.
Templeton, near Witheridge, has no village centre but consists of
well-spaced farms; even so it was not immune from the Black Death.
An old man, John Palfriman, of Witheridge, testified to the Bishop
of Exeter in 1440 that

during the great pestilence the servants of the rector of

Withcridgc were compelled to go to Templeton with a cart to
collect the bodies of the dead for burial. There was no-one else to
bring them in. The old man goes on to say that one corpse fell
off it on the w:ay, and the next day a man was sent to look for it
and brought it into Witheridge, for which he was paid one penny.

The story was told to John Palfriman by his father, who had been
in the service of the rector of Witheridge at that tim.e.
Mrs Bray records a tradition, current in 1833, that certain
prehistoric stone circles on Dartmoor, at Mctrrivale Bridge, above
Tavistock, were used as a plague market during one epidemic, which
she thinks occurred in the seventeenth century. When the plague
wu raging in Tavistock (which lost 522 of its citizens in 1625 ),
people from the surrounding villages used to leave their goods in
these circles; the Tavistock people then collected them and left
payment. In this way the villagers hoped to avoid contamination. For
many years afterwards these stone circles were known as 'The Potato
Market'. According to one tradition, the money was left in bowls of
water.
Tavistock was one of the four stannary courts of Devon, the other
three being Chagford, Ashburton and Plympton. Under the Stannary
i~sti_tutions the tin-miners of Devon and Cornwall were exempt from
villeinage and most other feudal laws and were regulated by their
own courts - a concession based on their great imponance to the
Crown, as producers of a semi-precious metal used in coinage. The
existence of these independent courts was a frequent source of
friction with the civil authoritks, for centuries. One understandable
cause for exasperation was that a tin-miner could 'pitch bounds', or
start digging a tin mine, on a man's land without notifying him of
his intention. Special enactments had to be passed to prevent the
miners starting work in or around 'churches, mills, houses and
gardens', and there was no prohibition against mining the highways.
From very early times tin-mining had been carried on by small
independent miners, but from the sixteenth century onwards it
tended to fall into the hands of corporations and companies.
The twin scourge of the towns of Devon, as of London, until very
recent times, was fire. Once a fire started the wooden, thatched
houses, packed closely together, gave it every chance to spread, and
many towns and villages were burnt out time and again. Tiverton
has recollections of two particularly disastrous fires, one in 1731
destroying about 300 houses and an earlier one, in 1598, consuming
the whole town - 600 houses in all. In the 1598 conflag-r ation some
fifty persons arc said to have perished. The fire swept through the
entire town in less than two hours. Another, though less disastrous,
fire occurred there in 1612. By 1731 some of the more important
merchants' houses were built of stone, 'and covered with Slatt', and
these escaped destruction. The fire on this occasion was able to take
a firm hold on its prey because

the Fire-Engines being usually kept in the Church, at a con-

sidcablc Dist2nce of the Place where the Fire beg.an, it was some
time before they could be brought thither and put in order to do
any service, and through the Hurry and Confusion which the
People were in upon ·this Occasion, one of the largest of them was
brought without the Arms necessary for working it... .

By the time the arms had been fetched, the fire was so well
established that the fire-engine had to be quickly abandoned and was
burnt with the rest of the town . Some 2,000 people were m:lde
homeless.
Calamitous fires swept Honiton in 1672, 1699, 1747 and 1765 . On
the last occasion, the heat was so intense that the church bells
melted. At South Molton 70 houses were destroyed in a great fire in
1641, and another conflagration occurred during a violent storm in
the night of 26 November 1703 - a storm remembered long after-
wards all over the West Country. Crediton lost 460 houses in a fire
in 1743, and Ottery St Mary 111 in 1866.
It was in the hurricane of 1703 that the first Eddystone
Lighthouse was swept away, with its occupants. The second
lighthouse, finished in 1709, stood for nearly ~O years, but was then
destroyed by fire. Of the three keepers on that occasion, one went
mad from his experience and another swore that, as he stood looking
up at the bbze, some of the molten lead had run down his throat.
Although it seemed impossible that he was not killed instantly if this
had happened, when he died 12 days later nearly half-a-pound of lead
was found in his stomach.
The phenomenal tempest that struck W idecombe on Sunday, 21
October 1638, has already been mentioned (see page 20) . Mrs
Bray supplies a graphic description of the terror of the villagers, most
of whom were in church for evensong, conducted by Rev. George
Lyde. The sky became so dark that the congregation could hardly see
each other, and the parson, breaking off his discourse, got his
choristers to sing the psalm that refers to 'Him who maketh the
clouds His chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind, who
hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm'.

At length the whole face of the heavens became covered by

dense and black clouds, and all was darl4 as midnight. In a
moment this was fearfully dispersed, and the church appeared to
be suddenly illumined by ftames of forked fire. . . . A ball of fire
also burst through one of the windows and passed down the nave
of the church, spreading consternation in its passage. Many of the
congregation thought it was the final judgment of the world;
some fell on their faces, and lay extended like dead men upon the
ground; others beat their breasts, or cried aloud with terror; many
wept and prayed.

She lists the casualties. The parson's wife was scorched

but her child, seated by her in the same pew, received no injury.
A woman who attempted to rush out was so miserably burnt that
 she expired that night. Many other persons, likewise, in a few days
after, died from the same cause. One unhap py man had his skull
so horribly fractured that the brains were found cast upon the
pavement in an entire state... . Several seats were turne d upside
down, yet those who were on them received no injury.

Beams came crashing down. Stones were shaken from the tower .
A pinnacle collapsed and, falling, killed a woma n. A man saw his dog
picked up by the whirlwind, throw n out of the door and killed. And
through it all the minister remained in his pulpi t and, as the storm
passed, concluded the service with prayer. The total casualty figures
were four killed and sixty-two badly burnt or injure d by falling
masonry. No wonder that the memory of the visita tion lived on for
centunes.
A whirlwind of remarkable intens ity visited Tavis tock on the
morning of 22 Augu st 1768. Havin g laid flat an orcha rd at Bere
Ferris, it progressed up the valley till oposite Tavis tock and then
veered towards the Moor . Thro ugh Rowd on Woo d, which lay
directly in its path, it carved a swathe about forty yards wide. 'It tore
up vast oaks and flourishing ashes by the roots, loppe d the largest
limbs of some, twisted and shivered the bodies of others , carried their
tops to a considerable distance, and, in short, made such a devasta-
tion as a battery of canno n could scarce have effected'. Eye-witnesses
who lived in a house overlooking the wood and valley said that they
were fetched out -of-doors by a noise like 'half-a-dozen coaches rolljn g
over the pavement'. They ran out and 'saw a large cloud , like a
woolpack, come tumbl ing up the vale (with a most frightful noise)
and shaking ,all the hedges and trees over which it p1ssed, as if it
would have shivered them to atoms '.
Severe blizzards swept Devo n in 1861, 1881 and 1891, and, in the
present century, in 1947 and 1962/ 63. In the 1947 storm 120 Devo n
villagers were completely cut off by drifts for three days and some for
much longer. Trains were stuck in snow-drifts, ponds and canals were
frozen sufficiently to allow skating, and Postbridge, Ponsw orthy and
Blacb ton ran out of bread and had to be supplied by a mail-van
which eventually managed to get throu gh by a circui tous route .
As a marit ime count y, Devo n natur ally has many storie s of
smugglers and wreckers, of whom an example has already been
noted in 'Cruel Coppinger' (sec page 87) . The old disho nest trade
flourished almost into moder n times, for Baring -Gould , writin g in
1899, refers to an old woman , ~only lately deceas ed', who had
engaged in it as a young woman . She used to walk along the beach
at Cawsand, carrying her baby, and was often teased by the custom s
officers.
'That's a quiet baby you have there', joked one of them on one
occaston.
'Quiet her may be,' retorte d Mrs Grylls, 'but I reckon her's got a
good deal of spirit in her.'
Which was true enough , the 'baby' being a jar of brandy .
Smugglers used to bury them in the sand and dig them up when the
way was deu.
Bob Elliott, a celebrated smugg ler of Brixha m, was so successful
that on one occasior. he had every cave and other hiding -place he
used so stocked with liquor that there was no room for anothe r
bancl. It was then that a further load of brandy kegs arrived . There
wu no alternative but to hide them for a day or so in Bob's cottag e,
where he happened to be lying incapacitated with gout. He accept ed
the kegs with great reluctance, as he knew that the custom s officers
had been watchi ng him for some time.
Sure enough , the excise-men came round and denun ded to search
the house. The family met them, weepin g, with the news that Bob
had died during the night, so the excise-men decently left them to
their grief. During the day a very large coffin was delivered to the
cottage, for Bob had been a massive man. That night three custom s
officers met a party of men carrying the coffin along the road to
Tomes. Behind it walked the ghost of the dead man!
The customs men fled .
Their superior was less gullibl e. After hearin g this report, he went
round to Bob's cottage the same evenin g and, standi ng outsid e the
window, he could heu Bob himsel f describ ing what had happen ed.
The smugglers received the shock of their lives when he walked in,
but, in fact, the officer was powerless to act agains t them for he had
not aught them in the act, and it was only his word agains t theirs.
It is not only coastal areas which have smugg ling associations.
Smugglers and preventive officers operate d inland as well. Halsbe are
Farm, near Blackb orough , in east Devon , has a smugg ling story
remini scent of the Wiltsh ire Moonr akers. As in Wiltsh ire the
smugglers, surprised by the excise-men, hastily dumpe d their brandy '
kegs in the nearest pond . But, on this occas ion, it was the excis e-me n
who raked the pond and retrieved the brand y.
Alth ough they had not caug ht the smug glers , they stron gly
suspected John Prost, the farfl\er of Halsb care, of being invol ved. A
summ ons was issued again st him and requi red him to go to Lond on
for his trial. Frost right ly objec ted that he woul d be ruine d, for
whet her he won or lost the case, the farm could not cont inue
satisfactorily durin g his absence. So his youn g daug hter took his
place. Mou nted on a farm horse, she is said to have ridde n to Lond on
and back on two occasions, and to have cleared her fathe r's name .
She is regarded as a local heroi ne.
Smug gler's Leap, a cliff' on the coast betw een Lynm outh and
Martinhoc, takes its na.m e from a despe rate enco unter betw een a
smuggler and an excise-man. Tryin g to avoid the officer, who was
ovcrt2king him, the smug gler urged his horse to swerv e and plun ged
over the precipice. In a. wild effort to save hims elf, he clutc hed at his
pursuer, and they fell toget her on the rocks below .
Shaldon, by the Teig n estuary, has a 'Wre ckers ' Win dow ' - a
circular wind ow high in the lime-washed wall of a hous e. A light
shining there masqueraded as a light hous e. More than one ship out
at SC2 was wrecked on the Ness Rock s. The wind ow was also used
for signalling to smugglers.
Not far away, abou t three miles from Teig nmou th, is Sithw ell
Chapel, the haun t of an evil pries t in the sixte enth centu ry . A
highw ayma n, rathe r than a smug gler or wrec ker, he murd ered
travellers, whom he waylaid on the neigh bour ing heath , hidin g his
spoils unde r the altar in the chapel. The bodie s he threw down the
well.
An appropriate punis hmen t for this villain woul d have been the
Iron Cage, whic h used to stand at Iron Cage Gate on Bh1ck Dow n,
above Mary Tavy . Conv icted robb ers were locke d in the cage ,
exposed to all weathers, and left to die.
Most smug gling and wrec king storie s belon g to the seven teen th,
eight eenth and early ninet eenth centu ries, and espec ially to the
period of the Napo leoni c Wars , but the coasts of Devo n were subje ct
to alarms and attac ks at almo st every perio d of histo ry.
Duri ng the reign of Henr y 1v a raidi ng party of baro ns and
knights, who shou ld have know n bette r, attac ked and burn t
Plymouth and then made their way to Dart mou th. inten di nQ' ro u ivr
 it the same treatment. They met with such robust oppos1uon,
however, from the woman as well as the men, that they were
thoroughly routed, many were slain, and a number were taken
captive. It being the practice in those days for high-ranking prisoners
of war to be held to ransom, the citizens of Dartmouth saw no
reason why they should not make a profit, even though they did not
belong to nobility. So, 'a boisterous troop of plain western men',
they hauled their prisoners before King Henry and suggested he take
some action. The king, 'who took great pleasure to talk with these
lusty Dcvonshiremcn, himself caused their purses to be stuffed with
golden coin'. The Dartmouth men went home in continuing high
spirits, leaving their captives with the king, who proposed to collect
a ransom for them for himself.
Less fortunate were the inhabitants of Lundy Island in the reign
of William 111. A ship, claiming to be off course, dropped anchor off
the island and sent a boat ashore to pick up some milk for the
captain, who was sick. They said the ship was a Dutchman. When
they had obtained provisions for several days, the sailors reported that
their captain had died and asked if they could bring the corpse ashore
for burial in consecrated ground. The islanders agreed, and the coffin
was brought ashore and laid in the chapel. Within a few minutes,
the sailor, accompained by the captain, rushed out and rounded up
the islanders. The coffin had held arms, not a corpse, and the sailors
were French; England was then at war with France. While the
islanders were held prisoner, the enemy ransacked the island and then
sailed away, leaving the people of Lundy desdtu te.
Frenchmen came to north Devon more peaceably a little earlier in
the seventeenth century, when England and France were not at war,
but France was energetically ridding herself of her Protestants.
Numbers of Huguenots came as refugees to Barnstaple, where they
were cordially received and many of them settled. Samuel Pepys
married one, a girl of 15. Baring-Gould notes the metamorphoses of
some Huguenot names into forms that Devon men could under-
stand. L,Oiseau is translated in to Bird; Roches becomes Roach;
Blanchepied becomes Blampy; Fontaine is Fountain. The neatest of
all, in my opinion, is Boursaquotte, which _became the purely Devon
'Buzzacott'.
Another influx of Frenchmen occured during the Napoleonic
Wars, this time as prisoners of war. At first they were housed in
prisons at Plymouth and on old ships anchored
in the Hamoaze, but
these soon became so overcrowded tha t a new
prison ( the one tha t
is still in use!) wu bui lt for the m at Princetow
n, on Da rtm oor . Later
they were joined by numbers of Americans, wh
en America entered
the war on the French side. Pronounced class
and race distinction
evidently existed am ong the prisoners, the French
and Americans
despising one oth er, the wh ite Am eric ans
col d-s hou lde rin g the
bbcks, the wealthy French living in com}'2rativ
c luxury and goi ng
on parole dow n to the towns, wh ile their poo
rer fellow citizens
fought each oth er for the meagre supplies of foo
d and were clad only
in blankets. The mortality rate am ong the 12,
000 or so prisoners
housed at Princetown between 1809 and 1814 was
r2ther more than
ten per cent.
 9 Devonshire Life and Tradition
BoTH DARTMOOR AND EXMOOR were ancient 'forests' or areas
devoted to the chase. As in other English counties, the local residents
retained a ffl2SS of rights and customs, which in general they clung
to tcruciously ... though not tenaciously tnough. The rights of
chase on Dartmoor came into the hands of the Princes of Wales in
the rime of Edward 111. They applied, however, only to 'venison and
vcrt', 'vcrt' being the right to cut living trees. All other rights were
rctained by the inhabitants of the village adjoining the moor, which
arc known as 'Venville parishes.'
Although much of t.he moor has now been enclosed and large
mets of it arc used for quarrying, there are still extensive areas over
which cattle, sheep and ponies roam freely. Baring-Gould records
that in his time farmers from other parishes, who were not entitled
to free grazing, often used to turn their livestock on to the moor and
take a chance:

In order to detect these and exact a fine from them certain

 drivings are ordered, loally called 'drifts'. The day when a drift is
to take place is kept a profound secret till it is proclaimed early in
the morning. Then a messenger on a fleet horse is sent round very
early to announce it. On certain tors arc holed stones, and
through these horns were formerly passed and blown on such
occasions. There are drifts for ponies, and drifts for bullocks. A
drift is an animated and striking scene. Horsemen and dogs arc
out, the farmers identifying their cattle, the drivers and dogs
sending the frightened beasts plunging, galloping in one direction
towards the place of gathering. When all the beasts have been
gathered together, an officer of the Duchy mounts a stone and
reads a formal document which is supposed to authorise the
moormen to make their claim for fees. Then the Ven ville tenants
carry off their cattle without objection. All the others are
pounded, or dse their owners pay fines before being allowed to
reclaim them.

Baring-Gould says that from time to time the moormen tried to

extend their territory by organising 'drifts' over moorland outside the
traditional limits. Usually they were resisted, often by force, and
battles occurred in which clubs and whips were used.
During the centuries following the acquisition of the forest rights
on Danmoor by the Bbck Prince, a tradition arose whereby the
adjacent farms steadily encroached on the moor. Whenever a tenant
died, bis heir had the right to enclose ten more acres of land. In
periods when controls were relaxed, many farmers and estate-owners
took larger slices of the moor, without waiting for a death. These
new fidds were known as tncw-takcs'.
In addition to large-scale filching of land, Dartmoor was the scene
of much 'squatting'. It was popularly believed that, if a man could
erect a cottage between sunrise and sunset and have a fire burning on
the hearth, he had a legal right to live there. One such hut, thought
to be the last squatter's home on Dartmoor, is Jolly Lane Cot at
Hexworthy. It is said that Tom Satterly, an ostler at Two Bridges
Inn, built the place (with the help of friends, of course), for his
18-year-old bride, Sally. They chose Old Midsummer Day for the
enterprise, because all the local farmers, some of whom might have
interfered, were away at Holne Ram Fair. SalJy was still living there,
as a widow, in 1900, according to some versions of the story ; other
accounts say that the old woman was the daughter of the house-
builder.
This cottage is of stone, with walls in places five feet thick, but,
in parts of Devon where stone is not readily available, Devon cob is
widely used. Cob is puddled day, mixed with straw and trodden into
a kind of putty, for building walls; a frame of boards was sometimes
erected, but the consistency of properly worked cob is such -that it
will hold together without the frame, if the wall is wide enough.
Devon cob, like the chalk cob of counties farther east, is durable and
warm. It will last for generations, provided it 'has a hat on'. Once
the roof is removed, allowing water to percolate and then freeze, the
cob soon disintegrates. This is why cob garden walls are always
provided with a capping of their own, generally of thatch. Writing
in 1669, Count Magalotti noted that the town of Axminster was 'a
collection of two hundred houses, many of which are made of mud
and thatched with str2w'. The same comment would probably have
applied to most Devon towns of that day.
When Cecil Torr cut through the cob wall of an old house at
Wrcybnd in 1919 he found embedded in it, in such a position that
it could only have got there when the cob was wet, a silver coin that
could be dated between 1216 and 1249.
Mrs Br2y of Tavistock, writing in 1833, gives a description of a
typical Devon cottage of her time. Some of the son, fortunately, still
survive:

the walls, generally of stone, are grey and, if not whitewashed

(which they too often are) abound with lichen, stonecrop and
moss. Many of these dweJJings are ancient, principally of the
Tudor age, with the square-headed mullioned and labelled win-
dows. The roof is always of thatch, and no cottage bu•t has its ivy,
its jcssamine or its rose mantling its sides and creeping on its top.
A bird-cage at the door is often the delight of the children; and
the little garden, besides its complement of hollyhocks, etc., has a
bed or two of flowers before the house of the most . brilliant
colours. A bee-hive, and the elder, that most useful of all domestic
trees, arc seen near the entrance.... '

Walter Raymond lived in one such cottage on Exmoor for a time,

from 190~, and although it was just over the border in Somerset it
must have been typical of an Exmo or cotta ge of that date. He says
it had oak bom s, a half-door, chimney scats and a bread-oven. He
paid a shilling a week rent.
Elizabeth Bidder, of Shecpstor, has ·left some memories of life in
a Dartmoor parish in the reign of Willi am 1v. She was the eldes t
daughter of a peasant family from what is know n as the 'bette rmor e'
class, and so she was sent to school . .. at Walk hamp ton, four miles
away. She walked the eight miles each day.

After school hours, and often before them , the child ren were sent
on the moor to gather the wool left by the sheep on the furze
bushes and brambles. Whe n g2thc red, the wool was clean ed,
carded and spun in to yam for those of their neigh bours who had
no spinning wheel. In addition to woollen garm cn ts, all the straw
bonnets and hats for the household were made at home , the raw
material being had for the gathe ring, after the harvest was over.

The family produced a surplus of hats, whic h they sold. They also
made their own straw mats and beehives and their tallow candles.
Tea was made from local herbs, packet tea from the shops being
reserved for special occasions. Metheglin, an intox icatin g liquo r, was
made from honey flavoured with herbs. Othe r Devo n moor land
families used to collect long brambles whic h, peeled, were used for
hoops in crinolines.
S. H . Burton recalls life in Moretonhampstead, an old wool town :

There was spinning and weaving in the cottages; a mill at the

botto m of Lime Street and - later - anoth er on the Bovey Tracey
road . . . . The shops had little half-doors, with fleeces hung abov e
them.... Drink ing, wrestling and wool gave More ton plenty to
do. There was tanning, taUow chandling and rope-making, too.
And on the upper floor of c:very inn was one long 'dorm itory ',
where the guests and drunk s slept hugg er-m ugge r.

'New-take' land, appropriated by farmers and estate-owners living

near Dartmoor (see page 119) was usually enclosed with 'new- take
walls', a form of drystone walling. Many of the older walls were
simply heaps of stones that happened to be found lying nearby,
unshaped and unselected . Such walls tend to be unstable, stone s of
too small a size having been used; other s are netw orks of stone s with
holes which one can sec through. Some time in the second half of
the nineteenth century a moorman, John Bishop of Swincombe,
developed a more durable type of wall, 'ordained to stand', as he put
it. He employed much larger blocks of granite, often brought from
distances by sledge and levered into place by m.c ans of a crowbar.
"Tis surprisin' what you can do with a laiver or two,' he used to say.
Almost the whole of Dartmoor was reckoned to be in the parish
of Lydford, an arrangement which created problems, especially in bad
weather. Mrs Bray tells the story of a gentleman caught in the snow
on Dartmoor, who was profoundly thankful to see smoke rising
from the chimney of an isolated farm. The two occupants of the
house were a farmer and his old mother. They agreed to provide him
with food and shelter for the night and a stable for his horse. Indeed,
the son gave up his own bed to the traveller and went to sleep on
the settle in the chimney corner - where, the traveller reflected when
he 'woke in the middle of the night, it must certainly be warmer than
in his bedroom.
As he lay there, shivering, he kept thinking about a large chest in
a comer of the room, the old wornan had given an evasive answer
when he had asked .what was in it. After a time, curiosity compelled
him to get out of bed and lift the lid. To his horror, he found
himself looking down at a corpse.
He crept back to bed and spent the rest of the night wakeful and
apprehensive. He felt sure he had stumbled across a den of murderers,
who made a practice of doing away with trawellers who chanced to
stay there for a night. Every minute he expected to hear a stealthy
footstep outside his door, and he prepared to fight for his life.
However, nothing happened, and he eventually went down to a
good hot breakfast, feeling rather ashamed of his suspicions. Having
eaten, he summoned up enough courage to admit that he had peeped
into the chest, and asked about the corpse.
'Bless your heut, your honour, 'tis nothing at all,' said the farmer.
"Tis only fayther!'
He explained that his father had died a fortnight ago but that, as
all the roads and tracks were blocked by snow, there was no
alternative to keeping the body in the house until they were able to
get down to Tavistock to bury it. 'So mother put un in the old box
and salted un in. Mother's a fine hand at salting un in.'
The traveller was quite put off his breakfast, which happened to
be home-cured bacon. That, too, must have been 'salted in' by the
old lady, and he couldn 't help wonde ring whethe r he might have got
a slice of 'faythc r' by mistake! He could never afterw ards bring
himself to eat bacon. S. H. Burcon identifies the place where this
occurred as Warren House Inn, near Postbridge.
Several interesting funeral custom s survived until wdl into the
nineteenth century on and around Dartm oor. Mrs Bray writing of
Tavistock in 1833, records that, until a short rime before, the sexton
used to carry his spade 'not should ered but, to use the militar y
phrase, reversed, before the clergyman at every funeral.' At Manat on
it was the practice to carry a coffin three times round an old granite
cros.s in the churchyard before burial. The procession had to make
the circle sunwise. A rector of Manat on, Rev. C. Carwit hen, having
preached in vain agains t this allegedly pagan practice, even tu ally
smashed the cross and buried the fragments.
The custom of tolling the church bell at the passing of a
parishioner has not long been discon tinued . Hearin g it, men workin g
in the fields would bare their heads and speculate about who had
died. The tolling of the bell was though t to help the soul on its way
to heaven . When in the early ninete enth centur y the Duke of
Bedford offered the parishioners of Tavistock the choice of a church
organ or bells, they chose the bells. At a later date, a lady living in
Tavistock gave the town anothe r bell, for the specific purpos e of
tolling it when a poor person died. This bell was alway known as the
'poor bell'.
Baring-Gould comme nts on 'the extraordinary fascination' which
funerals had for Devonshire people. He notes: 'That which concer ns
the moribund person at the last is not how to prepare the soul for
the great change but how to contriv e to have "a proper grand
buryin".'
He says, too, that weddings attracte d little interest and that often
the parents of the bride and bridgro om did not attend .
The bell-ringers' rules for St Petroc k's church , South Brent, are
still extant and are said to be observed by the present-day bell-ringers:

If any ringer shall curse, swear or profane the name of the ord
Almighty, or promo te gaming , or debauch in the Society room,
at any meeting of the ringers, he shall pay twopen ce for any such
offence or be excluded.
 If any person, at time of me eti ng ,
abuse eit he r the Lorcl Ch ief
or any oth er ringer, he shall pay twop
ence; an d if any rin ge r str ike
another he shall pay 6d for the firs
t offence, on e sh ill ing for the
second, an d be excluded for the thi
rd.
lb at when any ringer is chosen
Lo rd Ch ief or Cr ier , every
ringer shall behave in a sober an d
de ce nt ma nn er, pe na lty for
breaking this rule 6d.
If any ringer talks in the Society in
a ridiculous ma nn er, pe na lty
6d.
Mrs H. P. W hit co mb e, wr iti ng in
1874, notes:
At Hathcrlcigh it was usual in day
s go ne by for the ch urc h bell
to announce by distinct strokes the
day of the mo nth aft er the
church do ck had str uc k five an d nin
e, mo rn ing an d ev en ing ... .
Th e curfew still tolls at eig ht o'cloc
k, closing wi th the tol lin g of
the day of the mo nth . Some write
rs ass en tha t a peal is always
run g on the ch urc h bells aft er a
fun era l, the Jame as aft er a
wedding; bu t this is incorrect. Th is
is do ne on ly oc c~ ion all y, an d
the n the bells arc muffled.

If all. this is correct, the ch urc h bell-r

ingers mu st have had vir tua lly
a full-time job, for they would have
needed to be available at certain
hours every day .
At Ot tcr y St Mary, du rin g the sam
e period, the curfew be ll was
still run g at eight p.m. every day, ex
cept Sundays an d the ex ten de d
Oiristmas period, between Michael
mas an d ~d y Day. On Sundays,
thr ou gh ou t the yC2.r, it was tolled for
a qu art er of an ho ur at 8 a.m.
A function associated wi th many De
vo n churches, as also ch urc he s
in oth er counties, was the Ch urc h
Ale. It was in effect a for eru nn er
of the modern village fctc, its pu rpo
se be ing to raise fun ds for the
church. At least, tha t was the int en
tio n in mo st De vo ns hir e villages,
tho ug h in oth er parts of En gla nd
the re are instances of its be ing
regarded as a festivity for wh ich the
parson paid the bill.
Th e custom in De vo n seems to ha
ve be en for everyone in the
parish to be assessed for a share of
the expenses. For thi s he was
entitled to att en d the ale an d dri nk
as mu ch as he liked . Tr ad iti on all y
the Ol urc h Ale was held in the ch urc
h ho us e, wh ere also the ale wa s
brewed for the occasion . It is int ere
sti ng tha t in De vo n the dri.n k
normally consumed was ale, no t cid
er.
 Kingsbridgc, or rather, the neighbouring village of Dodbrooke,
had its own special brew of ale, known as •white Ale'. It was said
to conwn a secret ingredient, •grout', introduced long ago by a
German surgeon attached to a regiment stationed nearby. Tradi-
tionally it was drunk with a lacing of Jamaica rum, which made it
cxmordinuily potent.
Church Ales died out with the rise of Puritanism. A church
session presided over by the Bishop of Exeter in 1~95, when Puri-
tanism was in the ascendant, prohibited all •church or parish ales,
rcvds, May games, plays and such other unlawful assemblies of the
people of sundry parishes unto one parish on Sabbath day and other
times'. It took more than a bishop's decree, however, to stop many
of the cheerful old customs, as we shall sec.
It was import2nt to make sure that the ale was of proper strength
and not adulterated. This was the function of the ale-taster. S. H.
Bunon describes the procedure. 'He would enter the premises
without warning, command a mug of ale and pour some of it on the
wooden bench. Then he sat in. the puddle, motionless, for about half
an hour. If the ale had been adulterated with sugar his leather
bn:cchcs would stick to the bench.'
Ashburton still appoints an ale-caster, with other officials, at its
annual Court Leet and Court Baron in November. These two courts
were traditionally called to deal with loal rights and duties and to
enquire into felonies. All freeholders arc called upon to attend, on
penalty of a fine. Twenty arc appointed to form a grand jury, to look
into all matters concerning tenancies, transfers of properties, public
nuisances and other matters of public interest to the town. They also
appoint the portrccve, the bailiff, two ale-tasters and the bread-
weighers for the coming year. The ale-tasters make their rounds in
July, and any innkeeper whose ale passes the test is entitled to hang
a sprig of evergreen over his door.
Other officws formerly appointed by the Ashbunon Court-Baron
included two pig-drivers, a scavenger, two viewers of watercourses
and two viewers of the marlcet. Tavistock used to have an official
dog-whipper, for a sixteenth century entry in the churchwardens'
accounts contains an item 'for whyppyng dogs owt of the churche'.
Lydford, a borough notorious for its Stannary courts, used to have
the privilege of choosing its own coroner, who, says Mrs Whit-
combe, was invariably the most aged man in the place. I ts annual fair
was hdd on a Sunday in autu mn and used to be cent red arou
nd and
in the church. Puri tan influence notw iths tand ing, Mrs Wh
itco mbe
was able to repo rt that , even in her time (187 4), fairs
in som e
vilbges were still held on the Sabb ath.
Lydford's repu tatio n for legal seve rity prom pted som e
verses,
composed in 1644, whic h achieved wide publ icity , thro
ugh bein g
uncomfortably near the mark. The first verse is:

I oft have heard of Lydford law,

How in the mor n they hang and draw ,
And sit in judg men t after;
At first I won dere d at it muc h,
But soon I foun d the mat ter such
As it deserves no laug hter .

Ano ther misd eme anou r subj ect to severe pena lties in med
ieva l
times in the diocese of Exeter was graz ing cow s in the chur
chya rd.
A thirteenth-century Exeter syno d directs the proh ibiti on agai
nst tthe
recto rs of chur ches or pari sh prie sts, to who m the cust
ody of
buri al-g roun ds chiefly belo ngs' . She ep were excl ude d
from this
ruling.
Uplyme also had memories of a Cou rt Leet whi ch was held
unti l
abou t 1913, and met in the local inn, the Talb ot Arm s. Its
func tion s
were to receive the rent of tena nts on the esta te and to elec
t cert ain
officials, inclu ding a constable and a hayw ard, the latte
r bein g in
charge of the village pou nd. The proc ecdi ngl always ende
d with a
dinner.
The chief official in Hon iton unti l 1846 was the port recv
e, who
was then superseded by a mayor. The annu al fair, now held on
the
first Tue sday afte r 19 July , used to be a Wh it-M ond
ay eve nt.
Hon iton has an official tow n crier, who anno unce s the open
ing of
the fair with the proc lama tion :

Oyez! Oyez! Oyc z !

The Glov e is up and the Fair has begu n.
No man shall be arrested unti l the Glo ve is take n dow n
.
God Save the Que en!

Each phrase is repeated by the assembled scho ol-c hild ren,

who
 scram ble for ho tcd pen nie s, thr ow n from a ho tel wi nd ow .
the n
ried on a staff by the tow n
Th e glove refers to a gilded glove, car
Middle Ages it was a recog-
crier at the op en ing ceremony. In the
no w en ter the tow n an d
nised sign tha t tad crs from ou tsi de co uld
ut res tric tio n. Ex ete r had a hu ge glo ve tha t was carried
trade wi tho
.sio n and pb ced on the roo f of the Gu ild hal l at the op en ing
in proces
d its glove.
of its l..am1112S Fair. Br ent Fair, too, ha
ing was hauled thr ou gh the
At Paignton Fair a gia nt plu m pu dd
crowd. Th e tra dit ion is no w
streets an d later dis trib ute d to the
the ins titu tio n of the ne w
reserved for special occasions, such as
borough of Torbay in 1968.
the ma rgi n of Da rtm oo r, has a Ra m Feast. At on e tim e
Holne, on
wa s cha sed wil dly ov er the mo ors an d the n slaughtered.
the l'2l1l
the eve nt bec am e mo re dec oro us. In 18 96 a wr ite r in the
Later
ma cti om of tht Dt1 1on shi re Ass oci ati on says tha t it ha d be en
Tra
years, bu t tha t there ha d been
discontinued for mo re tha n a hu nd red
g from some of the old est
reviwls in more recent times. En qu irin
'a lam b was dec ora ted wi th
residents in Ho lne , he learned tha t
ros es bei ng spe cia lly use d, an d led to the "P lat Park,,. He re
Rowers,
roasting .'
it W2S killed, dressed and prepared for
ns which were sold, an d an
After roasting it was arv ed int o po rtio
rts followed . Th ere was som e
afternoon and evening of games and spo
the revel, bu t majority op ini on
controversy ab ou t the correct da te for
favoured 6 Jul y.
ram lam b had been run
According to another version, after the
the mo or, it wa s fas ten ed to a gra nit e po st for sla ug hte r,
down on
ste d wh ole , un ski nn ed . At mi dd ay it was sliced up for
and roa
pos al to the cro wd , an d yo un g me n wo uld str ug gle for a slice to
dis
ne , the tra dit ion al place of
present to the ir girls. Th e gra nit e sto
in the mi dd le of a field.
sacrifice, stood, six or seven feet hig h,
, wh ich was held at W hit -
K.ingsteignton also had a ram-roasting
tom wa s rev ive d, for the firs t tim e wi thi n me mo ry of
sun. Th e cus
Tuesday :
anyone then living, in 1885. On W hit
its way to a large field ; in
at 2.3 0 p.m . a procession sta rte d on
an d rib bo ns, was carried by
front, the lamb, adorned wi th flowers
the Bovey Brass Ba nd an d
the two sacrificing priests; then came
May, accompanied by ma ids
next the four-year-old Qu een of the
g, donkey racing, ath let ic
of ho no ur and pages. Maypole dancin
 sports and <bncing were thoroughly enjoyed and, mea
nwhile the
ram bm b had been roasted, cut up and sold.

A legend attached to the ceremony attr ibut ed its ong

1n to an
oca sion when Kingsteignton was short of water and aske
d its priests
to intercede with the gods. In answer to their prayer,
a torr ent of
water came rush ing down from Ryd on estate. A ram
bm b was
sacrificed in gratitude. Traditionally, it was said, the stre
am had to be
diverted a few days before the revel and the bed cleaned
, so that the
lamb could be roasted there.
On page 73 is a description of how Sir Francis Dra ke
bro ugh t
W2ter to drought-stricken Plymouth, by finding a suitable
spring on
Dartmoor and conjuring it to follow him dow n to
the port. To
commemorate this benefaction Plymouth now has a Fys
hynge Fcaste,
held in Jun e or July, when the Mayor and the Tow n Cou
ncil go up
to Burrator Reservoir and en joy a lunc h of grilled lake
trou t. They
meet on the bwn by the head weir, and the procedure
is as follows:
The Pany being assembled, a Gob let filled with pur e Wa
ter taken
from the We ir by the Corporation Surveyor is handed
by him to
the Oui rma n of the Wa ter Com mitt ee, who presents the
same to
the Mayor and requests him to drin k thereof,
'To the pious Memory of Sir Francis Dn ke',
and, passing the Cup from one to the othe r, each drin
ks and
repeats the same words. Ano ther Gob let, bein g filled with
Win e,
is then presented by the Chamberlain to the 1Mayor, who
drinks
to the toast,
'May the descendants of him who bro ugh t us Wa ter nev
er wan t
Wine'.
Two interesting details concerning the bac kgr oun
d to the
ceremony are wor th not ing . On e is that , alth oug h
Sir Fra ncis
initiated the provision of the wat er supply, the Cor
por atio n of
Plymouth footed the bill. And at one tim e it was nece
ssary for the
citizens to make a regular inspection of the reservoir
and canal, to
make sure that the tin-miners on the moo r were not
diverting the
supply for their own uses.
lna t other Devon seaport, Bideford, also used to have
a water
festival, centred around a Beat the Clock Race. Com peti
tors tried to
cro~ the bridge while the doc k was striking eight. Thi s
race has now
been superseded by a Round the Town race, held on the eve of
Bidcford Regatta. Bideford also has its Manor Court, similar to a
Court Lcct or Baron Leet, but of comparatively recent origin. It was
instituted as late as the 1880s, when the manor became vested in the
nuyor and corpon tion, and it serves the purpose of allowi ng the
townsfolk' to ventila te their grievances and to sugges t ide2s for
improving the town.
An essential and popular item in any Devon revel in the old days
was wrestling, or, in Devon parlance, •wrasling' or 'wnxli ng'. It was
especially popula r near the Comis h border , since 2 gre2t rivalry
existed between the two counties. The rules of Cornish and Devon
wrestling were different; Comis h consists- mainly of shoulder-play
whereas Devon wrestlers relied chiefly on their legs and feet. Cornis h
wrestlers often wore no shoes, Devon wrestlers had their shoes baked
hard, to make them stronger. They were permit ted no iron toc-ap s
or nails. Devon wrestling, unless arcful ly refereed or played in a
tolerant and gentlem anly manne r, could easily deterio rate into a
kicking-nutch . They were very tough characters, those wrestlers. One
told Mrs Whitco mbe in the 1870s, when she asked him if he had
ever had any accidents:
•Nothi ng to spok of - only three ribs broken and a should er
dislocated.'
Baring -Gould , who devote d a whole chapte r to Devon shire
wrestlers in his DtWn G,aracttrs & Strange E11t11ts, supplies many an
interesting detail on techniques and personalities. The Devon shire
wrestling shoes, he says, were soaked in bullock's blood and then
baked, which made them as hard as iron. The umpires, three in
number, were known as •sticklers'. The ring in which the matches
were held was covered with tan.
In spite of the different techniques and rules, Cornish and Devon
wrestlers were often match ed agains t each other. Probab ly the
greatest of all the Devonshire men was Abr2ham Cann, born in 1794.
In Octobe r 1826 he fought a tremen dous duel with James
Polkinghome, the Cornish champion at Tamar Green, Devon port, in
the presence of 17,000 spectators. They finished ten rounds , each
receiving tremendous punishment. Then Polkin ghome marched off
in disgust, following a disputed fall. Cann was adjudged the winner ,
but the result was r2ther unsatisfactory . The prize money was £200,
but very much more changed hands in bets.
 When a more huma ne age objected to the brutal Devo n style of
wrestling, with its emphasis on s~in-kicking, the public lost intere st,
but Comish wrestling still survives.
It would hardly be prope r to concl ude this chapt er witho ut
mentioning cider-making, a rural indust ry which has long held an
impor tant part in the life of Devo nshire men. There is an old
tradition that cider was first made in the reign of Elizabeth I, but Dr
W. G. Hoskins has shown that it was part of the regular routin e on
Devon manors at least as early as the thirte enth centu ry.
The cider-making process followed the patter n comm on to all the
western counties of England. The apples were groun d by a great
stone wheel revolving in a huge circular stone troug h. The result ing
pulp W2S placed betwe en layers of dean straw and pressed in a
cider-press. The juice ran out into a flat tub called a 'Kiev e', or 'trin',
where it was left for three or four days to stan ferme ntatio n. Durin g
this period all the debris and dirt found its way to the surface and
was skimmed off. The liquid was then poure d into casks to finish its
fermentation.
Devon had several local variations. Wate r was never added to cider
proper, but it was sometimes poure d over the 'cheese' after the first
~ing , holes being made to allow the cheese to absor b it. Pressed
a second time, this cheese yielded a thin, sharp Hquor, often served
up by the quart and gallon to farm labourers, and much appre ciated
as being thirst-quenching, bu.t only mildly intoxi cating . It was not
honou red by the name of cider, but was referr ed to simpl y as
'beverage'. f,
Baring-Gould gives the recipe for makin g sweet cider:

A bucketful of the new cider is put in the cask, then brims tone
is lighted in an old iron pot, and a match of paper or canvas is
dipped in the melted brims tone and thrust into the cask throu gh
the bung-hole which is dosed. The fumes of the sulph ur fill the
vessel, and when the• barrel is afterw ards filled with cider all
fcrmen tation is arrest ed . Sweet cider, if new, is often rat her
unpleasant from the taste of the sulph urous acid .

An alternative metho d is to keep pouri ng the cider from one

hogshead to another, whenever it shows signs of ferme nting.
The Devon palate did not, or perhaps docs not, much appre ciate
sweet cider. It prefers its drink 'rough '. It certain ly has a much
higher alcohol conten t than sweet cider.

Then fill up the jug, boys, and let it go round,

Of drinks not the equal in Englan d is found,
So pass round the jug, boys, and pull at it free,
There's nothin g like cider, rough cider, for me.

Baring-Gould says that mustar d was commo nly added to cham-

pagne cider, to give it a sting; otherw ise, he adds, cider is 'the purest
and least adulter ated of all drinks' . He does not, howev er, mentio n
the steaks, horse-shoes and other doubtf ul ingred ients freque ntly
added to the fermen ting cider, 'to give it body'.
Many of the appare ntly exagge rated stories about the former
drinking prowess of Devon vill2gers undoub tedly had their origins
in 'beverage' not the 'rough stuW. S. H . Burton quotes an old man
who remembered that on his father's farm the worker s drank two
quarts each before startin g work in the mornin gs. 'On Sunday s a
sixty-gallon barrel of cider was tapped for the fourtee n men who
worked there ... on wet days, the pub always opened at seven in ~he
mornin g.' This was at Drcws teign ton.
Cider is still made on some Devon shire farms, and many more still
possess the necessary equipm ent. It is often massive and can give rise
to spcrulations as to how it was driven. The power was, in fact, often
supplied by a horse, especially for the initial grindin g of the apples.
Someti mes the animal simply walked round the stone trough ,
twning the stone wheel as it went; someti mes it was provid ed with
gcucd equipm ent which nude its task easier.
Pack horses provided the chief means of transpo rt in Devon later
than in most other countie s; only a compa ratively few places were
served by coach roads even as late as the early ninetee nth century . A
writer in 1829 states:

Fifty years ago a pair of wheels was scarcely to be seen on a farm

in the county , and at present the use of pack-horses still prevails,
though on the decline .. . . Hay, corn, fuel, stones, dung, lime, etc.,
and the produc e of the fields, are all convey ed on horse-b ack ;
sledges, or sledge-carts, are also used in harvest time, chiefly drawn
by oxen.
 Oxen, though slower than horses, were used mainly for pull
ing
heavy loads, and strong beasts were bred for the purpose. The y
were
employed particularly in hauling loads uphill, and farmers
livin g at
the foot of formid2ble Devon hills wou ld keep a team of
oxen in
readiness to earn a few shillings. For cen turics catt
le were
quadruple-purpose animals, kept for beef, traction-power, milk
and
cream. The first two qualities were to som e exte nt com plem
enta ry,
and, while beef animals normally yield small quan titie s of milk
, it is
usually rich in cream; hence the reput2tion of Dev onsh ire
cream.
Later, farmers of the rich past ures of Sou th Dev on intr
odu ced
Channel Island and perhaps some French bloo d into thei r
nati ve
cattle, producing eventually the magnificent Sou th Dev on
breed,
which combines high yields of milk and cream with size.
QU2rrying and min ing have long played an imp orta nt role
in
Devon economy. Mining began in prehistoric times, und oub
tedl y as
tin-sttc2ming, or extracting the ore from the beds of streams.
This
method was employed on Inn moo r as late as 1730 , but shaf t-mi
ning
was ahcldy being practised in the fifteenth century. Some
of the
earliest cxta.n t documents, from the twelfth and thirt eent h cent
urie s,
refer to the 'ancient customs and liberties' of the tin-miner
s, and
histori2ns have pointed out that the tinners were so well orga
nised
before the evolution of the feudal system that they were
able to
escape and operate outside its strict rules. A tin-miner was
a free
man, though bou nd by the regulations of his own Stannary
Cou rts,
and he nccdcd to pay little atte ntio n to the local feudal lord
s, bein g
able to trcsptiS where he liked in search of iin. Early in the sixt
eent h
century Richard Strode, MP for Plym pton , was convicted
by the
Stannary Courts and put in Lydford prison, for com mitt ing actio
ns
prejudicial to the 'ancient customs and liberties' of the rinn
ers. He
h2d tried to get Parliament to regulate min ing near the
port s of
Devon, on the CC2SOnable grou nds that the debris resulting from
the
miners' activities was blocking the harbours. In medieval time
s the
tinners had a strong ally in the Crown, to who m the mineral
righ ts
belonged and to whom it was advantageous to supp
ort any
organisation which could curb the too-powerful barons.
Oth er minerals mined in Devon at various times include
lead
silver, gold, copper, iron, arsenic and wolfram. The re was a sma
ll coal'
mine at Bovey Heathfield and another near Bideford . Many
ruin s of
old mine buildings arc still to be seen on the moors of
Nor th
Devon. China clay is still extracted on a large scale on Dartmoor,
and extensive quarrying of stone continues. Other clay is used in a
number of flourishing potteries.
Devon's lace-making industry was traditionally centred at Honiton
and W2S popubrly supposed to have ·been introduced by religious
refugees from the Low Countries at the time of Elizabeth 1, but it
probably existed before that date. Queen Victoria's wedding dress
was of Honiton lace, made at Beer and Branscombe. Before the
provision of general education in 1870, children of lace-making
families went to lace-schools, to learn the trade, when they were five
to seven ycars old. The pupils included boys as well as girls, for men
often worked at the craft in the evening, or at times when other
employment failed.
Dr Hoskins maintains that the lace trade exhibited some of the
worst aspects of industrial exploitation. 'The lace-workers toiled at
this dose work for ten or twelve hours a day and were recognised by
the sallow complexions, rickety frames and general appearance of
languor and debility. Most of the workers were girls and young
women, and after years of this confinement it was not surprising that
they could produce only puny and short-lived children.' Baring-
Gould, on the other hand, thought that the trade was not injurious
to the workers' health and quoted instances of lace-workers living to
beyond the age of seventy and more.
A number of Devon towns and villages had weaving mills, dyeing
works and associated enterprises, there being plenty of small,
swiftly-Bowing streams to provide power. Uplyme, which has such a
mill, also grew cultivated teazels, for cloth-napping, and stray
descendants of the plants still appear in local gardens.
Villagers around Dartmoor used to scrape lichen off the rocks for
use in dyeing. Treated with a tin extract and certain other
ingredients, some of the lichens produced a brilliant scarlet dye,
while others yielded dyes of purple, yellow and reddish-brown.
The whortleberry, an abundant and much-appreciated crop of the
moors, is still gathered and enjoyed. Mrs Bray, writing in 1833,
describes them as 'delicious when made into tarts and eaten with that
luxury of aU luxuries, the clouted or, as we call it, scalded cream of
our ddighrful county'.
'Urting, as it was known in Devon, was a long-established
tradition, and whole families would assemble to go up to the moors