An online journal for the North Devon Athenaeum
Reading the first few pages of book Lumberjills – Britain’s Forgotten Army by Joanna Foat I experienced a feeling of déjà vu. Some of her first statements were: - “In the 1940’s people did not believe women could work in forestry” …. or be strong enough to fell trees. “They were laughed at, they were …
Continue reading "Lumberjills – Women’s Timber Corps in World War II 1942-1946"
Every year we close for a fortnight for what has been traditionally called stocktaking. A chance for us to go through our collections to make sure everything is where it should be! It also gives us a chance to carry out larger projects we wouldn’t normally be able to do while we are open to …
2019 was another interesting year, exploring our collections and discovering new things. January Our Assistant Librarian, Sandi, wrote about the research she had been doing on the Plaster Ceilings of Barnstaple in the first post of the year. March Was a big month for us as we worked together with British Military History to put …
On the 22nd July 1919 a Special Meeting of the Board of Directors was called and the directors were gathered in their Board Room in the Athenaeum over-looking the Square. “The Librarian read a statement complaining of the assistant librarian’s behaviour towards himself. On the retirement of the Librarian the Directors sent for the Assistant. …
On the Anniversary of Peterloo, one of our volunteers, David Phipps writes about an interesting Devon connection to the events in Manchester... After the launch of Mike Leigh’s new film about the Massacre of Peterloo (named to echo the battle of Waterloo), I wondered just how many people were aware of just what happened in …
Discover Charles Kingsley and more…On Our Shelves! Over the years we have discovered several varied and fascinating connections in the North Devon area. A series of these starts with the man who was born 200 years ago today. On the shelves dedicated to local authors you will discover Mr Kingsley sitting right next to a …
The Invasion Has Begun the North Devon Journal announced in its pages which were published two days after what has been called The Longest Day. While the article gave the official report of the action across the channel it gave nothing away of North Devon’s contribution to its success, examples of which can be found …
