An online journal for the North Devon Athenaeum
To celebrate ten years of our blog we thought we would share the top ten posts from the last ten years! 10) The Ballad of Barnstaple's Gaols We're kicking off the countdown with this post written during the first lockdown in 2020, giving a very brief history of some of the prisons of Barnstaple. 9) …
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Today marks the 80th Anniversary of the opening of RAF Chivenor and while the RAF may have moved on, the base is still being used by the military today. We thought we would take a look back at some of the posts we have published over the last 7 years. The RAF Chivenor Collection We …
As part of International Archives Week we are taking a look at some of the posts we’ve written about the document and archive collections in our care and the work we do. Today we’re taking a look at some of the posts we’ve written about our collections. 1. The North Devon Journal Archive One of …
As today marks the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day we take a look at some of the resources we hold within our collections. Throughout the course of the war, the Athenaeum did its bit. The railings were taken to be melted down and used in industry, there was a fire watch station on …
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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 …
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 …
As part of our 125th Anniversary celebrations we launched a blog to bring some of the stories found in our collections to life. Five years on we take a look at five of the most popular stories... 5. Beyond the Library... At number five we have an introductory post to our Beyond the Library series …
It's always nice to get out of the office and take a little of what we do along to an event and last Friday and Saturday saw us do just that. We joined forces with the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon again this year and took a display to the Armed Forces Day exhibition. …
One of the most popular collections in our care is the RAF Chivenor Collection. The military base next to the river Taw has been a part of North Devon life for over 70 years and many locals have fond memories of the base. Our collection covers the history of Chivenor as an aerodrome and airport …
Preparing for this year's Armed Forces exhibition I came across this story about the Air Sea Rescue Helicopter from RAF Chivenor whose crew had a lucky escape... Waving boys saw sudden blue flash Four schoolboys waved to a passing helicopter above Bideford Bridge on Tuesday night, and in the same second there was a vivid …
Tales From the Archives 