An online journal for the North Devon Athenaeum
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 …
The 1920’s were known as the “Roaring Twenties” with the “Bright Young Things” of the wealthy classes life had never been better with their hedonistic wild behaviour shocking society. A legacy from the First World War was that women were much more independent. For young women, known as “Flappers,” gone were the tight corseted, floor …
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 …
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 …
While the celebrations marking the end of the War in Europe swept across the country, there were many who were still waiting to hear news from the men fighting in the east. “Although the European War was over, it didn’t really affect me. All the jollifications. My husband was still fighting, I was still upset. …
Continue reading "Discover VJ Day and the War in the Far East…On Our Shelves!"
The largest collection we hold by far is the archive of the local newspaper the North Devon Journal. We hold some 133 volumes of the original newspapers which cover over 120 years of news and events in the North Devon area. The Journal was first published in July 1824 and we hold the first full …
Our Assistant Librarian, Sandi, takes a look at the effects of Dr Beeching's closure of the Railways in North Devon... This year sees the fiftieth anniversary of the closure of the Devon and Somerset Railway, the rural line that connected Barnstaple and Ilfracombe to Bristol and the rail network to the rest of the country. …
Continue reading "Discover the Effects of Beeching’s Axe…On Our Shelves!"
Whilst scanning items for our North Devon War Items project on our Facebook page, I came across several stories about the men who served in the war which made me want to find out more about them. One of these men was Mervyn Ninnis of the Devonshire Regiment. Born on the 9th January 1889, in …
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Dujailah. While it remains one of the less well known battles of the First World War, but for North Devon it was one of the worst. Some 49 officers and men were killed from the 1/6th Devonshire Regiment in one day and hundreds more died as a …
Continue reading "Discover the Battle of Dujailah & the 1/6th Devons…On Our Shelves"
The start of a new year gives us a chance to reflect on some of the things we have discovered over the last year and look forward to some of the things we may find during 2016. In 2015 we showcased some of the items we have in our general library collection through our new series of Discover...On …
Tales From the Archives 