Post by Dave on Jun 16, 2022 17:26:19 GMT
St Marys Church Wolborough 16th June 2022
Many of you will know I had to send my drone to the DJI service centre in Holland last October. It was meant to be there the next day but ended up being lost for nearly a month. Thankfully it was found in the end and the drone I had thought had been lost forever finally was back at home. But apart from a test flight I have not used it and even thought about selling it.
But I decided not to and went to a location in Newton Abbot today to get some shots of a church ( or rather its location) that holds many childhood memories. I have struggled to recall the details of those memories, who I was with and just what we were doing there, they are just locked deep inside my brain and I can’t find the key to open them.
Today’s visit ended up with more questions than answers and has thrown a spanner in the family history search I did maybe fifteen years ago, I will come back to that shortly.
The church was build in the early 1500’s and has a very interesting history. William Yeo, a Presbyterian clergyman who was installed as Rector of Wolborough in 1648 by Oliver Cromwell. Yeo was reportedly very assiduous in his duties and would walk around the town after Sunday service with a constable, to ensure that the sabbath was kept holy. After 14 years, however he was deprived of his living for refusing to acknowledge the post-Restoration Act of Uniformity, of 1662.
In the years that followed, Yeo and his supporters met in Puritan's Pit by night to worship. At this time such preaching outside the Church of England was illegal and conducted clandestinely: an order of sessions that was made in 1683 offering a reward of 40 shillings to anyone who apprehended a dissenting minister. The Act of Toleration 1689 brought this episode to a close, and Yeo's house was certified to be used as a place of worship.
I have done a report on Devils Pit before which can be found here
davesworld.proboards.com/thread/724/devils-history-memories-16th-october
There was a bit of haze around the church when I put the drone up, but I got the shots I wanted and decided to wander around the church and graveyard. I was saddened to see the state of the graveyard. It is so over grown with the gravestones half covered by grass and weeds. While a good number of the graves were dated from the 1700’s and 1800’s and might no longer have anyone to attend them, I still feel it should be kept neat and tidy.
About 15 years ago I and my late wife spent a good number of hours trying to locate the grave of Mary Burgoyne, we were not able to find it. When I did a family tree search I found out ( or so I thought) that Mary was the mother of my granny Best who passed away about 30 years ago?
Today by pure accident I found her grave, only it has to be the wrong one. This Mary Burgoyne passed away in 1854 aged just 46 years old. I phoned my sister for help and she told me our granny was born in Ashburton and doing a quick check I have found a Mary Burgoyne in Ashburton in the 1891 census which is more likely the correct one. I will have to pay to do some further research when I have a bit more time.
An enjoyable afternoon and I need to plan more days like this one and take the drone with me.
A number of years ago I did a tour of Forde House and in my report talked about a tunnel that was claimed linked the House to Bradley Manor. a few months ago I found a very interesting newspaper clipping of an event that happened vey close to the church.
The cutting is from a 1936 newspaper and reads, On the old road from Newton Abbot to Totnes a steamroller weighing 15 tons tilted over near Wolborough Parish Church Newton Abbot. After it had been removed a cavity 14ft deep and measuring 6ft by 4ft at the top was found.
The ground had been shored up by huge pieces of timber and the bottom of the cavity was covered with large boulders. Two tunnels lead off one in the direction of Forde House and the other towards Bradley Manor and it suggested that a secret tunnel between these two ancient residencies may have been unearthed, which was nearly two miles apart.
Experts are to investigate the matter. It is recorded that William Of Orange who made his declaration at Newton Abbot after landing in Brixham in 1688, stayed at Forde House and used a secret tunnel to Bradley Manor, but until now no confirmation of the secret passage has been forthcoming.
It would be great if a follow up article to this story could be found, what were the findings, was this the tunnel folk have talked about for years in Newton ?
The Forde House Tour can be found here
davesworld.proboards.com/thread/499/forde-house-tour-28th-june
