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38. Matron's Autograph Book This autograph book belonged to Jane Appleton, the fourth and final matron of the Barnstaple Red Cross Hospital in the First World War. The hospital was set up at The Miller Institute on Derby Road, now Yeo Valley Primary School.  It was one of around 3,000 temporary Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) …

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43. Bertie Burrington's Archive These documents record the life of an ordinary, but remarkable North Devon man, who overcame a difficult start to create a happy family life in Barnstaple. Bertie Burrington (1894-1982) was born in Braunton, where his father was a level crossing keeper.  By the time he was six his father had died …

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48. Rev Squire's Christmas Decorations In 1918 the country celebrated its first peacetime Christmas in four years.  For many families Christmases during the war had been times of sorrow and anxiety.  With sons and husbands away at the front it didn’t seem right to celebrate.  Those who could sent their loved ones festive gifts of …

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53. Herbert Algar's Diary These First World War dairies were found in an attic in Plymouth.  They were written by Herbert Cecil Algar, a Trooper in the Royal First Devon Yeomanry. Herbert Algar was a farm labourer from Cornwall.  His diary begins as he joins 6,000 other troops bound for the Mediterranean in September 1915.  …

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58. A Barnstaple Cookery Book Recipe books are so intimate: what other books fall open at the pages most used, with stains and marks where food has splattered, collecting reader corrections and additions in the margins? For several years the ladies of Barnstaple published a recipe book – in 1909 it was The Barnstaple Book …

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65. Clara Peters' Watercolours Shortly before her death in 1939 Clara Elizabeth Peters presented her extensive collection of watercolour paintings of local plants and flowers to the North Devon Athenaeum. Clara, known as Chrissie, was born in London in 1865, the daughter of a piano maker.  Her mother died when she was a child, and …

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88. The Sign of the Three Tuns These three miniature barrels or tuns suspended one above the other are a pub sign that used to hang outside the Three Tuns Inn in Barnstaple High Street. In the 19th century there were over 100 pubs in the town.  The sign was made by William James Norman …

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92. Hilda Smerdon's Dress This lilac silk dress belonged to Hilda Smerdon.  It reflects the romanticism of the Edwardian period, delicate in its design with embroidered floral patterning on a layer of silk tulle and lace over the new slim line skirt of the 1910s.  To add a glitz of glamour there are imitation diamonds …

North Devon in 100 Objects 1

1: A Manual of Devotion The first in our 100 Objects series was written by the late David Butt, one of the founding members of the museum Development Trust. As a young boy I remember many stories where the hero was shot...only to rise again as the bullet hit his sheriff’s badge or the tobacco …