An online journal for the North Devon Athenaeum
The town of Great Torrington or the Guildhall in Barnstaple are probably not the first places you would associate with Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was born in Plympton on the 16th July and baptised a few days later on the 30th July 1723 and went on to make his mark in the world of art. …
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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) …
Continue reading "Our Top Ten Posts of All Time – Ten years of Tales From the Archives"
Described as the Grand Old Man of Barum on his death in 1976, Bruce William Oliver was born 140 years ago on 28th May 1883. He is probably most well known as a local architect along with his father William Clement Oliver who was responsible for designing many of the nineteenth century buildings in Barnstaple. …
Continue reading "Introducing Bruce William Oliver…10 things you may or may not know about him."
While we were rather quiet on the blog front last year, we had plenty to keep us busy during year as we take a look back at 2022 in pictures. January The beginning of the year saw some book post and a rather happy librarian, it was also the start of some serious behind the …
As the Queen celebrates her Platinum Jubilee, our Assistant Librarian looks back at her visit to Barnstaple in 1956. People always remember when they met the Queen or Prince Philip. When I was at Secondary School, we were taken to the Essex Schools Athletic Sports Championship. During the day three of us needed to go …
This weekend sees the return of the Bath and West of England Society’s show at Shepton Mallet in Somerset. The Society was originally called the Bath Society and was established in 1777 ‘for the encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in the Counties of Somerset, Wilts, Gloucester and Dorset’. By 1779 Devon and Cornwall …
To celebrate the life of Charles Kingsley a few years ago we traced the local links between him and PG Wodehouse via Rudyard Kipling and H H Munro (aka Saki). However, these are not the only Literary Links in North Devon. On this day in 1851 George Newnes was born in Matlock, Derbyshire, the youngest …
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We've been taking a look at some of the interesting posts we have written over the years about local women and women's organisations, here are 7 our favourite posts to celebrate International Women's Day
Discover the Thomas Becket Connection...On Our Shelves! One of the oldest seals of Barnstaple commemorates one of the most infamous murders in English History…the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket on this day in 1170. The seal belongs to Barnstaple’s Bridge Trust and depicts the Chapel built at the town end of the now grade I …
On the 2nd of November 1960, a jury of three women and nine men delivered a not guilty verdict in one of the most sensational court cases of the 20th Century, R v. Penguin Books Ltd. At first glance there is very little to suspect a North Devon connection to the infamous case, however, as …
Tales From the Archives 