Author: Bette Baldwin

Biggar Crawfordjohn Graham Scottish Exmoor Links Uncategorized

The Graham Family: Scottish Migrants to Exmoor

The Graham Family:  Scottish Migrants to Exmoor

The Friends of Hoar Oak are always pleased to learn more about any of the Scottish shepherd families who came to Exmoor. Recently we were contacted by Donald Graham, a descendant of Thomas and Marion Graham who came to Exmoor from Biggar in Scotland around 1875.  Donald was born and brought up in and around Lynton and Brendon and has strong family links to the Rockford Inn, a favourite with many of The Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage.   He now lives and works in Minehead.

The story Donald has to tell, the photographs he has to share and the memories he has provided about Thomas and Marion are a treasure trove of information. It is a story full of interest and adventure as well as fortitude combined with sprinklings of sadness and hardship.  It takes us across the length of Britain, from Scotland to North Devon, involves several sheep farms on Exmoor including Badgworthy and Larkbarrow and ends in South Devon.  The photo below is of Donald Graham on a recent walk out to his ancestors’ farm at Larkbarrow, where only a few walls and features of the old building now remain.  He is holding a photo of Thomas and Marion Graham who left Scotland to come and live in this spot in the 1870s.

According to the family bible (still in Donald’s possession) – Thomas Graham was born on the 8th of July 1851 in Biggar, Lanarkshire.  His mother was Janet Graham, but his father’s name is unknown.  Thomas was christened Thomas Steel Graham and was brought up on his grandparents (John and Janet Steel Graham) sheep farm in Biggar, Lanarkshire with two other siblings.  When, in 1856 his mother Janet died, Thomas continued to be raised by his grandparents whom, it is recorded, he remained very close to.  His grandfather, John Graham was a shepherd and a drover and it is no doubt from him that Thomas learnt his shepherding skills.    Sadly, Grandfather John came to a sticky end: a story which involves a flock of sheep, the House of Muir Sheep Market, whisky drinking and the Haystoune Arms in West Linton and which was reported in the Peebleshire Advertiser and County Newspaper dated 9th April 1864.

It recounts how John was found dead after leaving the pub in his usual good health and saying he was going to Dolphinton.   He had three score sheep with him. The newspaper says “Dr Andrew Bonthorn on arriving found Graham lying on his right side, with his plaid under his head. He pronounced life to be extinct and gave it as his opinion that death had been caused by cold and exposure, after indulging in intoxicating drink, or that the exposure had accelerated some pre-existing disease.”  Heart disease is inherent in the male line of the Grahams and it seems poor John succumbed.

After John’s death his wife, Janet Steel Graham, was left not only to fend for herself but also to continue raising her dead daughter’s children.  She must have indeed been a woman of steel and the fact the Steel name has come down through the family line is testimony to the high regard she was held in, including by her grandson Thomas who carried her memory to Exmoor.

On the 3rd June 1872, at the age of 22, Thomas Graham married Marion Wilson in Biggar. Although, at the moment, we do not know where they lived and worked initially, we do know that their first son, another Thomas Steel Graham, was born in 1874 at Broadlees, Symington just three miles from Biggar. In 1875 a second son, George Wilson Graham was born in Peebles.  It may be that by this time the family had moved away from Biggar or that Marion’s family came from Peebles and she had returned home to have her baby.

The picture of the family below, taken when young George was still a toddler, shows the family in a photographer’s studio-type pose.  There is a romantic backdrop and in the front, and obviously to the children’s delight, there is a little chicken perched on a fence in front of them.  It is a lovely family photo and seems to have been taken in Scotland – perhaps just before they left for Exmoor.

Thomas’ wife Marion has been remembered as a woman who was fiercely proud of her family and of her Scottish roots and family memories tell us that Marion brought this strong pride of home and family with her when she moved to Exmoor.  The family travelled with a few prized personal possessions, their sheepdogs and a flock of Cheviot sheep, leaving by boat from Scotland to travel to Lynmouth in North Devon.  We have yet to find out which port they left from, but we know from elsewhere that it was not in the least unusual for shepherds, their wives and children and the sheep to all travel south on the same ship – ships which were not very large and often overcrowded.  The journey down the west coast of Scotland and England and then up the Bristol Channel to North Devon must have been an uncomfortable and taxing one. On arrival in Lynmouth, passengers and sheep would all be offloaded and the sheep driven up onto Exmoor by the shepherd and his sheep dogs.  A horse and cart would have met the ship and transferred the women and children to their new home.

A photo of one of Marion’s precious possessions transported down to Exmoor still exists.  It is of her “Scotch Dresser” and it is fascinating to imagine the family and their dresser bouncing along in a pony and trap along the lanes from Lynmouth up onto the moor.  Also among their baggage was her most prized possession – an album in which Marion had compiled of photos of Biggar and the family in Scotland.  We learn that she was always willing to show off her album and talk about it to visitors.  It would be wonderful to find out if that album maybe still exists – if you know of it do please get in touch – but for the moment it is possible to share a photo of Marion’s  “Scotch Dresser”.

Thomas Graham had most probably been employed by Frederic Knight to deliver a flock of Scottish sheep to Exmoor and to live and work as the shepherd at Larkbarrow.  The farmstead was a substantial one but it was in a bleak and isolated part of Exmoor – by following this link the reader will be taken to a leaflet describing a walk to Larkbarrow as well as a little of the history of the farmstead.

Although it had begun to fall into slight disrepair by the mid-1800s Larkbarrow was, when the Grahams lived there, a substantial farmstead with extensive outbuildings. It was also, as can be seen in the photo below, in two parts allowing accommodation for extra farm labourers or in some cases another family.  More can be found out about Larkbarrow in Roger Burton’s book The Heritage of Exmoor and the reader is recommended to take a look at that book if more information about Larkbarrow, or indeed any aspect of Exmoor heritage, is wanted.  This lovely old farmhouse is now long gone as it was used by the Army for Tank Gunnery practice and the buildings were, quite literally, blown up.

For the Graham family, Larkbarrow was where their new life on Exmoor started and where their third child, a son called John Graham, was born on the 26th July 1878.  The little boy died just 15 months later of diarrhoea exhaustion – an unpleasant condition but one which was not that unusual a cause of death at that time. On the 3rd October 1880 another daughter, Marion, was born followed by a further child, who was named Janet Steel Graham and born on the 17th June 1882.   Another son, William Graham was born on the 13th November 1883 in Ashkirk, Roxburgh and it seems likely that Marion returned home to have this final baby whilst Thomas stayed behind to work.  It also seems very likely that Marion took some, or perhaps all, of the other children with her as some of them were, in later life, still able to remember being taken to Scotland when their mother had another baby.

By 1887, the Graham family moved from Larkbarrow to another remote and even wilder spot on Exmoor, Badgworthy Farm.   Living at Badgworthy was a rather different kettle of fish for the Graham family. It was a lonely and isolated building.  A simple two-up, two-down cottage with a lean-to (probably for a pig) which had been built in the 1860s by John Bale and John Lethaby.  It is alleged that they used stones from the old ruined cottages known as the Doone Huts – the remains of a ruined medieval village and linked to the great Exmoor tale by RD Blakemore of Lorna Doone.   Badgworthy – sometimes called the Shepherds Cot – was recorded as having a “feel” to it which many occupants did not like.  Another Scottish family, the William Johnstone family, lived and worked there in the 1870s and stayed just a few years before returning to Scotland.

The building was whipped by the wind, it would have been a terrible place in the snow and apparently echoed (to those who could hear such things) with the noises of the men – some might call them the ‘blaggards’ – who had once lived there, supposedly in robber gangs.  Badgworthy is noted as having the highest turnover of occupants during the period when Knight housed his shepherds/farmers there. Although we shall never know exactly why this should be the case it is, nonetheless, remembered as a place that people generally did not seem to have enjoyed living in.

The photos below show it in its setting and help tell the story of Badgworthy. The first photo shows the cottage with smoke pouring horizontally out of the chimney and with the few stone walled enclosures to the back and side of the cottage, where the family would have tried to grow some crops or to protect sheep and perhaps a pony and cow or two.

The second photo was used in a Judges postcard and demonstrates the bleakness of Badgworthy setting. It also shows how oats were grown in the field across the valley and the crop can be seen here, gathered into stooks, waiting to be collected and stored for winter.  The entire plant – straw and oat head – would be fed to the animals.

The next photo is a wonderful, personal memento of the Graham’s time at Badgworthy.  It is of the Graham children and visiting friends out on the moor to the front of the cottage.  How lovely it would be to learn which are the Graham children and who the friends are.

The Graham family’s move from Larkbarrow to Badgworthy was recorded in Head Shepherd Robert Tait Little’s diary for 1888.  Head Shepherd Little was employed by the Knight family and came from Scotland to take up this important post.  He kept detailed and extensive records about the sheep, sheep breeding, quantities of wool and meat sold to market etc. Although the diaries are intended to be primarily stock records they also give tantalising glimpses of which shepherd was at which herding at any particular time between 1870 and 1907.  The image below gives two pages from one of the Little’s diaries covering the years 1885 to 1890 which record exactly that information. These pages are from 1888.

Down at the bottom of the right-hand page it is recorded:

May 20th, George Anderson left Badgeworthy

May 26th, Thomas Graham to Badgeworthy  Shepherd.

This diary entry gives us a precise window when the Grahams left Larkbarrow and moved to their posting at Badgworthy.   It also casts light on one of the intriguing aspects of the Scottish shepherds on Exmoor story, the degree to which the Scottish shepherd families were related to each other or had strong interconnections back in Scotland.    Donald Graham tells us that Thomas Graham who came to Exmoor from Scotland had an Aunt Elizabeth who was married to William Anderson back in Biggar.  And here in Robert Tait Little’s diary we see a shepherd Anderson handing over to Thomas Graham at Badgworthy in 1888.  It may well be the case that “word of mouth”about shepherding jobs on Exmoor meant two branches of the family – the Grahams and the Andersons – both ended up down in North Devon.   Perhaps the Thomas Graham and George Anderson recorded on these diary pages were cousins?

Our knowledge about the family ties between so many of the Scottish shepherd families on Exmoor continues to grow and it would be wonderful to find any descendants of George Anderson as they may hold some clues to this particular little mystery about whether the Andersons and Grahams on Exmoor were indeed related.

Perhaps it was with some relief that the Graham family moved away from Badgworthy.  For the moment, the date of this move is unknown, but it is very likely to have coincided with the period towards the end of the 19th century when the land and cottages on Exmoor had been sold by the Knight family to the Fortescue Estate and were being run by Lord Ebrington, a Fortescue son.  His aim was not to continue employing shepherds but to let the farms and land for shooting etc. and to earn income from them in that way.   The Exmoor Scottish sheep farming experiment was coming to a close and many of the shepherds hired from Scotland lost their jobs, their homes and their livelihoods. For some the loss of livelihood and home was a bitter blow, see for example the story of William Davidson.  For others, with well-established links to the area and their children already married into local families, the desire to return to Scotland must have been lessened and they would, as in the case of the Grahams, look for work elsewhere.

Ultimately, the Graham’s home at Badgworthy suffered the same fate as several other hill farm cottages on Exmoor (including their other home at Larkbarrow) as it was used by the Army for tank gunnery practice and demolished.  The photos below were taken in July 2015 and show the sad remains.

Thomas and Marion Graham moved from Badgeworthy Cottage to Kipscombe Farm in Countisbury to work, it seems most likely, for Sir William Halliday of the Glenthorne Estate.  The 1901 census, however, finds Thomas and Marion at Twitchen Farm in Challacombe so their time at Kipscombe must have been fairly short and confined to 1889/1900.  Family memories suggest they moved to Challacombe because of its thriving Methodist chapel and community.

Thomas Graham had a reputation as a gifted and fiery speaker in the local Methodist Chapel at Brendon.  He had been raised with a strong Christian faith in the Church of Scotland and he is remembered for reading to his children from the old family bible brought from Scotland.  He became a lay preacher and would preach at Brendon and other local Methodist churches on Exmoor.  Methodism was the nearest non-conformist religious style to the Church of Scotland and many, if not all, of the Scottish shepherd families would have attended a Methodist chapel in and around Exmoor.  Thomas Graham is remembered for having a strong Scots accent and his descendants wonder how well this fiery and charismatic Scottish Preacher would have been understood by the natives of the Brendon Valley.

Their daughter Marion Graham was attending the Methodist Chapel at Challacombe even when the family were still living at Kipscombe.  It would have been a long trek to get to chapel meetings and perhaps a blow to her father who was still preaching at the Methodist Chapel in Brendon – but perhaps there is a better explanation that is still to be learnt.   Nonetheless, the attractions of Challacombe eventually tempted the entire family to move there and to take up residence at Twitchen Farm.  The village had a shop, post office, baker and blacksmith as well as a pub (which would not, of course, have been frequented by this staunchly Methodist family) and this would have been the first time since moving to Exmoor that the Graham family would have experienced such conveniences and comforts.

Nonetheless, and as is the way with all families, children grow up, marry and move away.  Janet married Charles Dennis in Barnstaple and went to live where he ran his blacksmith business in Zeal Monachorum, near Crediton.  Daughter Marion married Alfred Madge who was a farmer in Sandford, near Crediton and she too moved south.  Son George Wilson Graham married Hannah Mary Geen and they took over the tenancy of Wilsham Farm, in Countisbury and seemed to have prospered as Wilsham stayed in the Graham family until 1989.

Eventually Thomas and Marion decided to leave Challacombe and moved closer to daughters Janet and Marion.  They took up residence at Rookbeare Farm in Stockleigh English near Crediton where they lived until they passed away, Thomas in 1920 aged 69 and Marion in 1927 aged 81.  The photo below shows Thomas & Marion at Rookbeare Farm.

And this photo below is of their final resting place in Stockleigh English churchyard.

Thomas Graham’s death was reported in the local newspaper (Western Times, Image © Trinity Mirror. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. Image reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).

Donald Graham, who has been the informant of this wonderful story, remembers his grandfather telling him about Thomas and Marion Graham.  He remembered that Thomas Graham was a very tall man with a great bushy beard and strong Scots accent. His Granny Marion, by comparison, was a small woman who was dwarfed by her husband.  Marion had a strong character and was proud of her Scottish background and is also remembered for always greeting her grandchildren with a bag of sweets.

Thomas and Marion Graham’s story is fascinating. They were part of the Scottish migration of shepherds from Scotland to Exmoor and their life took them to Larkbarrow and Badgworthy high up on Exmoor hills; to Kipscombe at Countisbury and to Twitchen Farm at Challacombe and finally to South Devon, where they ended their days still living and working on farms near their children in Crediton.

Their story has survived to be retold today.  A testimony to Marion Graham nee Wilson of Biggar in Lanarkshire, Scotland who came with her husband Thomas Graham to Exmoor in North Devon, determined, so we are told, to remember their Scottish roots and to pass on her pride and passion for those roots to her family.   It seems safe to say she more than succeeded, because without her fierce pride and determination we wouldn’t have their story to share now.

Thank you to Donald Graham for getting in touch and sharing another wonderful story about the Scottish shepherd families on Exmoor.  He is keen to find more relatives or anyone else who may know more of his Graham family either in and around Devon or in and around Biggar in Scotland.  If you would like to learn more from Donald Graham or have something to share please do get in touch

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Biggar Crawfordjohn Exmoor Graham Scottish Exmoor Links

Shepherd Graham of Badgeworthy

Guest Blog from Donald Graham
Donald Graham,  pictured left, is a great great grandson of Thomas and Marion Graham nee Wilson who were one of the Scottish migrant shepherd families to come to Exmoor in the 19th century.  You can read more about the Scottish Shepherds on this link. Thomas and Marion took on the Badgeworthy Herding for John Knight.  Many of their descendants including Donald are still in and around Exmoor, Devon.   Below, Donald gives us an introduction into his interest in researching his Scottish grandparents and an account of his visit to Scotland to research their early lives and his search to find contemporary Graham relatives.

 In July 2017 I fulfilled my long time ambition to visit Scotland, the homeland of my forebear Scottish descendants who came from Biggar and Crawfordjohn in the border area of Upper Clydesdale Lanarkshire.

 I have always taken a keen interest in my Graham family history and during my teenage years remember asking my paternal grandfather who lived with us on the family farm “who were your grandparents who came from Scotland”?

 “I never knew my grandparents much” my grandfather would say. He told me they came from Biggar and grandfather Graham was tall with a big bushy beard and spoke with a gruff, broad Scotch accent. My grandfather couldn’t understand what grandfather Graham was saying half the time, and he and his siblings used to be quite scared of him. Grandmother Graham he remembered in contrast was short in height, quieter natured and wore a Scotch plaid around her shoulders.

 “Oh, I dare say they were kindly enough, but not a big part of our lives” he told me. Later they moved from Exmoor to Stockleigh English, Mid Devon to live near two of their daughters and never much was saw of them after then. And that was the extent of his memory of his Scottish grandparents and all I ever knew of them for many years following. 

My Father had not been born when both his Scottish great grandparents died in the mid 1920’s and he had learnt no more than I had from his Father.

 It wasn’t until 2000 that my desire to find out more about my Scottish ancestry was rekindled. By then I knew my Scotts great great grandparents were buried in Stockleigh English churchyard. I made a visit and found their weather beaten gravestone, the monumental inscription partially covered with lichen and difficult to read. There were flowers on the grave that looked as though they had been recently picked and arranged. Indicating to me the memory of the inhabitants was dear to someone, possibly a family relative. I contacted the Vicar and asked if I could put a research enquiry into the following months church magazine which soon generated a response.

 It was from another same generation grandson as my grandfather. The difference was, he had known his Scottish grandparents well and had a wealth of fascinating information to tell me. His name was Graham Madge the son of Marion Madge nee Graham, a daughter of Thomas and Marion Graham.

 Graham was a retired teacher who had worked in primary schools for many years and had received an MBE for his services to his local community. He had been brought up at Down Farm Nr Stockleigh English with his parents and grandparents. It was a privilege to have known Graham before he passed away in 2002. He was able to tell me the detailed life stories of my great, great grandparents Thomas and Marion Graham. Two second hand memories of his grandfather Graham which he remembered his father telling him about and amused me I will share with you here.

 Thomas Graham had a bit of a habit of stressing important things he was saying with great emphasis and sometimes reinforced special points by prodding his addressee in the chest with two fingers. He did this once when talking to the elderly rector of Stockleigh English. Unfortunately he caught the old boy off balance and he fell over!

 On another occasion he went into a haberdasher’s shop and asked for a ‘pern’ (pronounced  peern with a strong Scots accent). he could not make the shopkeeper understand what he actually wanted. A difficult conversation between the shopkeeper and grandfather Graham pursued with grandfather Graham persisting in trying to make himself understood for several minutes resulting in an inpatient queue of customers waiting to be served. What he actually wanted was a reel of cotton.

 Having been enriched with this wealth of information, hearing their stories and making pilgrimages to the often desolate and remote places they had lived out their lives on Exmoor and later in mid Devon, I knew I had to go to Scotland where their lives began.

 I planned my visit to Scotland well beforehand. I made notes of the places I needed to visit and checked census returns for addresses where my Graham ancestors lived. I also prepared ‘enquiry cards’ to hand out and pin on notice boards asking for information on Graham families and lines they married into living in Biggar and surrounding parishes during the 19th and 20th centuries. My objective was to find leads of enquiry to contemporary relatives in Scotland.

 My first stop was Crawfordjohn on a very wet and foggy Monday morning. I easily found the lovely little chapel which is now the Crawfordjohn Heritage Centre. It so happened the church door was unlocked so I wandered in and met a really lovely local lady who introduced herself as Dee. She explained the church wasn’t open but was happy to let me in to chat and have a look around and dry off! I explained who I was, my interest in coming to Crawfordjohn and the gravestones I was hoping to locate. Dee was fantastic she came out with me to help me locate the gravestones and shown me the name of James Graham on the War memorial.

 From Crawfordjohn I made my way to Biggar where I stayed for two days. I had a lot to do, so bags unpacked at the very comfortable and highly recommended Kirkstyle Hotel I was off the Biggar Kirk churchyard and cemetery to look for family Gravestones. I found twenty Graham monumental inscriptions. Some names and families I recognised, others were new and welcomed discoveries. In the cemetery there are five Graham relatives buried since 2000 so my Graham relatives may still be living in the local area or returning to Biggar to be buried.

I visited the very interesting and Upper Clydesdale Museum where the Museum Curator was able to show me documents for Graham family members who had served in the Great and Second World Wars. She also produced six 19 century studio portrait photographs of various unknown Graham family from a folder marked ‘from a Graham family album’. I was delighted to have been able to have copies of these.

 The remainder of my two days were spent locating the streets, roads and some of the houses where my Graham families had lived at the times of the 19th century and 1911 censuses. All this was done in between a few refreshment visits to the local Crown and Elphinstone pubs in Biggar High Street. In both very welcoming hostelries I met some friendly and helpful locals who offered to take some of my enquiry cards and ask around about Graham’s in the area.

 It was a great visit and I  feel I shall be returning in the future. I’m forever optimistic and hopeful some more family research leads will follow.  Never wanting to miss an opportunity to appeal for family relatives I pin my last enquiry card here!

 Searching for Graham descendants in Biggar and the Border areas of Upper Clydesdale, Lanarkshire Scotland

Are you descended from a Graham family who lived in Biggar or the border areas of Upper Clydesdale Lanarkshire, Scotland in the 19th and 20th centuries?

If you are I would very much like to hear from you.

Other surnames who married into the Graham family and I would like to hear from are:  Anderson, Burton, Black, Campbell, Dickson, Dunn, Good, Geddes, Johnston(e), Maxwell, McLellan, McKinley, Nimmo, Proudfoot, Steele, Shields, Smith, Stobbo, Shiene, Wilson, Watson, Walker.

Contact: Donald Steele Wilson Graham

 Email: donald.graham58@outlook.com

Tel: 01643 702170

Address: St. Louis Cottage, 38, Bampton Street, Minehead,Somerset TA24 5TT

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Exmoor Fauna Flora Uncategorized

The Flora and Fauna of Exmoor

Exmoor’s scenery: open windswept moorland; sheltered wooded combes; the highest sea cliffs in England; bog, fast-rushing rivers and man-made lakes.  With such varied habitats it’s not surprising that its flora and other wildlife are so diverse.  Living in one of the remotest parts of the moor and out in all weathers, the shepherds of Hoar Oak Cottage would have been intimately aware of the plants and creatures that they came across daily.

Country folk of the past utilised anything that could be readily harvested; not just those that could be eaten but also those that might make a hard life a little more comfortable.  These days worts (bilberries) and blackberries may still be gathered in the autumn for pies and jam but it’s doubtful whether anyone collects cotton grass seed-heads for stuffing pillows anymore. However, the great beech trees that still surround Hoar Oak Cottage continue to give shelter (and once firewood) and the trout in the river that provided the occasional tasty meal still dart for shelter whenever danger threatens.

The Hoar Oak Valley had been home to man for thousands of years from Neolithic and Bronze Age settlers through to the late 1950s.  Since then, Exmoor’s National Park status has protected the moor as well as many of the birds, mammals, wild flowers and insects they would have been familiar with.  Today, the wildlife provides a continuous and living link between ourselves, the shepherds and the earliest peoples.  In this occasional series of posts on the flora and fauna we hope to gather information from various sources; books and our research have already yielded many clues.  However, we would like these pages to also become a record of your Exmoor sightings and discoveries – new or old – especially if they should be from the Hoar Oak Valley.  If you have a photograph or story that we might share we’d love to hear from you – to reach us, click on the link at the foot of the page.

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Flower Festival History Lynton & Lynmouth Uncategorized

Flower Festival in Lynmouth

History and Heritage in Flowers
at St Johns Church Lynmouth

The Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage were delighted to join in the St John The Baptist Flower Festival in Lynmouth.  This beautiful little church – a Grade II listed building – was completed in 1870 and has, this year, undergone extensive repairs to the roof and improvements to the interior.  You can read more about St John The Baptist – its architecture and history – on this link.

This year the theme of the Flower Festival was the history of Lynmouth and the official opening was on the anniversary of the Lynmouth Flood 65 years ago.  There were floral interpretations of many aspects of Lynmouth’s history and each was accompanied by a brief history.  Here is a taster of just a few:

The Herring Fishing Industry was commemorated in a blue, silver and white display with the following short history:  
First mentioned as early as the 1500s, the herring industry of Lynmouth reached its peak in the late eighteenth century when, quite suddenly, the herring stock declined.  The export of herring to Europe ceased, as did the practice of using the fish for manuring the land.  However, Lynmouth herring was still  a valuable source of protein for the Hoar Oak shepherd families.  Even within living memory, herrings were sold for sixpence (2 1/2p) each from the barrows wheeled along the streets.
Smugglers were remembered in a delightful cave-inspired display and the history recalled that:
There are many tales of smuggling along this coast but the only record is of an incident in 1832 when a suspicious boat was sighted off Lynmouth and was watched by three “Preventative Men”.  That night a boat came ashore laden with 30 kegs of brandy and was met by a number of farmers with their horses.  A scuffle ensured but the smugglers managed to escape leaving their contraband on the shore.
The Paddle Steamers arriving in Lynmouth in 1830, the Boxing Day Meet of the Exmoor Foxhounds and the stirrup cup provided by the Bath Hotel and the Rising Sun Hotel, the amazing hydro-electric power station opening in 1890 as well as the Lynmouth Flood in 1952 were amongst other events recorded in flowers.
The Overland Launch of 1899 was commemorated with a display shaped to reflect the steep hill between Lynmouth and Porlock that the old style, heavy wooden Lifeboat was hauled up and over.  The accompanying short history tells a bit more of the story:

A severe gale blowing on the 12th January, 1899 prevented the lifeboat Louisa from launching at Lynmouth to help a ship in distress. The twenty-man crew, deciding to launch from Porlock Weir, were helped by 100s of villagers and 18 horses to haul the ten-ton boat 1400ft up Countisbury Hill.  In places, the narrow road had to be widened to allow it to pass.  continuing across the moor to descend Porlock Hill alone, the crew finally reached the stricken ship the following morning and every one was saved.
 

The St Johns Flower Festival was a great success with many visitors – locals and holidaymakers – who enjoyed the displays as well as delicious cream teas and cakes.  Well over £1000 was raised in donations. A great achievement.

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Exmoor Johnstone Uncategorized

Looking for Sarah

Sarah’s Story
In 1881, Sarah Thomason married James Maxwell Johnstone in a tiny church in the beautiful Welsh village of Betws Garmon.  The couple moved to Keswick in the Lake District and had two children before moving to Muirkirk in the Scottish Borders and having another child.  In 1886, Sarah and James and the three children moved to Hoar Oak Cottage  where they lived for nearly 20 years had ten more children.  In 1904, when the last child was just ten months old, James died and Sarah was left on Exmoor with her thirteen children – a long way from parents and family in Wales and Scotland. Sarah died in 1945 after a long widowhood spent living and working in Lynton before going to live with her daughter Agnes Sedgbeer in Gunn and finally with her daughter Jane Johnstone in Porlock.  You can read Sarah and James story and find out more about their 13 children  on this link.
Looking for Sarah
The search for Sarah and her story and the hope to find a photograph of this amazing and courageous woman was, in many ways, what started two of her descendants – Bette Baldwin and Will Bowden – on the search into Hoar Oak Cottage and the setting up of The Friends.  Now after many years it is time to return to that simple, original aim – of looking for Sarah.

Might there be a photograph out there somewhere?  Might there be a photograph of Sarah and James out there somewhere?  When James died in 1904 photography wasn’t all that common – certainly not for poor people.  But when Sarah died in 1945 it would have been much more common.  The hope is there may be a photo of her somewhere and we can track it down.  We know so much about her life but we do not know what she looked like. How nice that would be.

If you think you may be able to help or need more information please get in touch by contacting Bette Baldwin on:

Email:   bette.baldwin@btinternet.com
Tel:        07967182903

 

 

 

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Agricultural History Exmoor Heritage History Uncategorized

John Shortland, Chair of the Friends, Discovers Hoar Oak

Forty-nine years ago, as a teenager fresh from school, I stumbled across an Exmoor farm and asked if I could camp for a couple of days.  As the days turned into weeks and then months, I moved into the farmhouse earning my keep labouring.  I thought I had found Paradise and would never leave.  The sudden appearance of my father – “time to get a proper job” –  changed that and, despite my protests, a career in the world of fashion was forged.  However, like so many of us that have been caught in its magic web, Exmoor never released me fully.  At every opportunity, I would rush back to the farm to gradually learn a way of life totally foreign to my Home Counties upbringing.  Many of the tasks I was carrying out had remained virtually unchanged for decades, quite probably centuries.  Over the years that followed I was privileged not just to be welcomed into the farming calendar but also into the social one, sharing times of joy and sometimes sorrow.

Exmoor, with its National Park status, gives the appearance of a place unchanged but this is not a strictly accurate picture.  The landscape is protected but much of the social structure has inevitably altered as the older generations pass away.  As a result, the Exmoor dialect is much less frequently heard and many of the local traditions and tales are in danger of being lost.  It is here where individuals and organisations like the Friends do such valuable work through research and by recording the memories of those that remain.  For example, it is thanks to the Friends that I now know that when, forty plus years ago I walked back to Brendon Barton from the Rockford Inn, and singing lustily (but not tunefully) the Exmoor Hunting Song, that I was following in the footsteps of Abe and Gert Antell, the last of the Hoar Oak residents, as they also sang their way home from the pub.  Writing of those times in a blog led to a request from the Friends for me to read my account of that first visit to Exmoor – captured in a video clip below.  Now I have the great honour of becoming Chair of the Friends. 

Discovering Exmoor literally changed my life: I finally got to follow my dream of working on the land – albeit in horticulture  and in the Cotswolds, another area of outstanding beauty.  Now, as Chair of the Friends, my hope is that in some small way I can give something back to Exmoor and, especially, to the people that love it.  It is those people, whether they live and work on the moor, are visitors, or only know it through the internet, that keep the landscape alive.  And it is through their eyes that the hardy shepherd families of Hoar Oak Cottage, who for generations toiled so hard in their splendid isolation, will live on.

 The tale of John’s discovery of Hoar Oak Cottage in 1968 and of his love of Exmoor can be heard here:

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Johnstone Messines WW1

Thomas Johnstone on The Somme

Thomas Johnstone

100 Years Ago at Messines, Belgium   June 1917
On the night of 9th June 1917, the 5th Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment took over the forward trenches at Torreken Farm just north of the wrecked village of Messines on the night of 9th June 1917.

They faced enemy artillery which was located on the Messines Ridge overlooking the area and as a result had heavy casualties – men killed and wounded – every day.  They remained in these positions for 10 days until relived by an Irish regiment on the 19th June.

This is a link to the a You Tube clip which tells the hideous, courageous, unbelievable but successful story of the battle at the Messines Ridge.  It is told from the perspective of the Irish regiments but gives a clear picture of what life would have been like for Thomas in the June of 1917.

These two links tell Thomas Johnstone’s story:

Thomas Johnstone Goes To War
Letters to Sarah Johnstone

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Agricultural History Heritage History Sheep Farming Stells

Protecting sheep in winter

When the early shepherds travelled to Exmoor from Scotland with their sheep it was not surprising that they continued to use the traditional Scottish ways of caring for their flocks.

During the winter months’ a careful watch on the weather was essential for a sudden snowstorm could result in the loss of large numbers of sheep. If the snow came late in the season, the losses could be even greater for the ewes would be heavily pregnant. Even if they survived, the stresses the weather caused through cold, exhaustion and hunger would often result in the death of unborn lambs. One way to protect the sheep was to build stells – stone enclosures that the sheep could enter whenever bad weather was imminent.

Perhaps what is more surprising is that, although the shepherds are long gone, it is still possible to find traces of their methods both on the ground and through the notes they kept – for example in Head Shepherd Robert Tait Little’s diaries.

In his diary for 1879, he enters details of two visits to Scotland, travelling by railway to Dumfries from South Molton.

Alongside, he also makes detailed notes for the design of circular stells, quoting directly from the writings of Captain William Napier (published 1822) who farmed at Etterick:

“…a circular stell of dry stone dike, ten yards in diameter, with a three feet open door, and six feet high, including cope, as [sic] the least expensive, and the most sure and efficient improvement that can possibly be adopted…” 

Just yards from Hoar Oak Cottage the remains of a such a stell is marked by low earthen banks. Bracken grows in the disturbed soil of the stell floor to form a perfect circle, making its position and size clearly visible.

Why circular? Although stells can be oval or even rectangular (as at Buscombe Beeches to the southeast of Hoar Oak), Captain Napier considers circular to be far superior: “…the action of the blast [wind] upon the circular surface of the wall, causes a rotatory motion in the air, to such a considerable height, that when the diameter of the circle is kept within proper bounds, the snow is thrown off at a tangent in every direction, and the included space left thus uncovered within…” He also states that it is not just he that is of this opinion but also of some others including, rather tantalizingly, a “Mr Little.” There is no way of knowing if he is referring to one of Robert Tait Little’s shepherding ancestors.

It is well established that sheep flocks that live and roam on unfenced mountain and moorland, learn through the generations to remain within a limited, albeit large, area of many hundreds of acres. They know where to forage and also where and when to take shelter. The shepherd, by building stells, takes advantage of this instinct for the sheep naturally enter and remain within the enclosure whenever bad weather is due. There is no need for a gate to retain them. Here, they are safe and can be kept well fed. Perhaps an even greater advantage of stells is that the shepherd is also safe for there is no need to be out on the moor searching for lost or buried sheep in drifting snow.

The photo below is an abstract from the landscape photo used by The Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage to show the cottage in its Exmoor setting.  The Hoar Oak stell can be seen in the left foreground.  The structure was probably built under Head Shepherd Little’s instructions when Shepherd Renwick o(1879 to 1886) or Shepherd Johnstone (1886 to 1904) were the shepherds in charge of the Hoar Oak herding.

 

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Art Heritage History

Guest Blog by Artist Phil Rycroft

In 2016, South Molton artist Phil Rycroft painted this beautiful watercolour of Hoar Oak Cottage.

We asked Phil to tell us a bit about his inspiration for the painting and he writes:

Many years ago, back in the mists of time, in the early seventies, I recall walking on Exmoor, ill prepared, in unsuitable clothing and footwear, with no map and only guessing where I was. It was a typical Exmoor day, horizontal misty rain, cold, wet and after I had become slightly lost I stumbled across this remote farm house. Sheltering under its walls out of the wind, gave me the chance to recuperate and refresh. Taking stock of the situation I got to wondering how on earth anyone could making a living there with no apparent signs of stock or crops.  Perhaps we weren’t so far from a village or larger farm and maybe this was not a farm but a workers cottage.

When it was time to make my way back to Brendon Two Gates – with no map – I was not really sure which direction I should take.  I resolved to myself that if I could find the drive or track away from the cottage and back to civilisation, I would then be able to reach my car. But no path, track, or drive was to be found. This got me thinking, what was this cottage doing out here in the middle of nowhere with no visible connection to the outside world?  I did eventually get out, but the experience had kindled a fascination, with lots of unanswered questions.

Having revisited the site several times since, drawing and painting in this very magical spot, I still wonder what life must been like there.  So different to our own. No noise, no central heating, no electricity, phone, yet this was only 50 or so years ago. A world away on our own doorstep.”

When not drawing, sketching and painting Phil has a busy family, work and sporting life enjoying, amongst other things, mountains rather bigger than the Exmoor hills.

 

The beautiful watercolour of Hoar Oak Cottage created by Phil is available to purchase as a framed or unframed print and as greeting cards.  If you are interested please contact the artist on philrycroft@msn.com or 01769572100.

 

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Australia Heritage History Life@Hoar Oak Cottage Vellacott

Guest Blog: Vellacotts of Tasmania

The Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage welcome guest bloggers and our very first are Rob and Elaine Vellacott from Tasmania, Australia who have shared their story and their links to Hoar Oak Cottage.

Robert Vellacott was born (1940) in Perth West Australia, the youngest of 7 children of Harold and Irene Vellacott. He grew up and was educated in Perth. He completed a plumbing apprenticeship and whilst on a working holiday round Australia Rob met Tasmanian, Elaine Cable, who was working in a local shipping company. They married in 1963, settled in Devonport and had 2 children. Robert became a plumbing instructor at the Devonport technical college for 25 years and is now retired but is the local tourism association secretary and takes an active interest in local government and council affairs. They began researching the Vellacott family in Australia and England and their discoveries led them to Hoar Oak Cottage.

They write:
“In September, 2013 we visited Hoar Oak Cottage which had been the home of my great, great grandfather and mother Charles & Elizabeth (nee Passmore) Vellacott. This was very special day for us because it represented the fruition of years of research into our Vellacott family. We were most probably the first Australians of the Lynton line of Vellacotts to visit Hoar Oak Cottage since my great grandparents lived there almost 200 years ago. The restoration and conservation work was still underway at the time of our visit however one sensed the quiet isolation and freedom the family must have felt whilst living there, especially the children who would have enjoyed roaming the rolling hills and investigating the creek. This photo is of our first sight of Hoar Oak Cottage as we travelled across Cheriton Ridge.”

“On the day it was lovely to meet up with the descendants from other families who had lived at the cottage and especially Jim & Mabel Vellacott who still live locally in Devon.  Jim and I – both GGGrandsons of Charles Vellacott of Hoar Oak Cottage – laid flowers in the hearth of the cottage as a little memorial to all our families.”

“My great grandfather, Josiah Vellacott, was the last son of Charles and Elisabeth Vellacott and in 1866 Josiah, with his wife Mary and their 3 sons migrated to Queensland, Australia seeking a better life in a new country.  However, they found life tough dealing with the heat and remoteness of the sheep farm where Josiah worked as well as the isolation from their extended family back on Exmoor.  Josiah and Mary had two more sons before tragedy struck the family in 1871 when Josiah was found drowned. Mary was left with five young sons, the oldest being 11 years old and the youngest was two years old.  Not able to manage, she sent the eldest boy out to work; put the next two sons in an orphanage and kept the youngest two boys with her until they were able to work. Later she married again and went on to have another 4 children. Despite the hard and tragic life the family faced, the descendants of Josiah and Mary Vellacott made the most of the opportunities given in a new country and are now well established across Australia and many other places world wide.”

Rob’s wife Elaine takes up the story:

“I am a 4th generation Australian and was born in Tasmania. Most of my Australian ancestors have been farmers.  In researching the Vellacott family name I was fortunate to find Lorraine Vellacott who had researched the two lines of the Vellacott families.  Her research was very thorough and we were able to link the Australian line with the two UK lines. It has been an interesting journey, especially when Robert and I were able to visit Hoar Oak Cottage in 2013 and meet descendants of the Vellacotts and many other families who had lived in the cottage. My hope is that Hoar Oak Cottage will continue to be of interest for those travelling to the Exmoor National Park.”

Rob and Elaine have shared the following photos of members of the Australian Vellacott family.

Grandchildren of Josiah & Mary Vellacott’s youngest son John:
  Dorothy, John & Winifred
Second youngest son of Josiah and Mary Vellacott:

William and Harriet’s sons:

 

And finally, a photo of the youngest grandchildren of William and Harriet Vellacott:

Rob and Elaine finished their Guest Blog by saying:

We are very thankful for all the help received and friendships formed during our research into the Vellacott family and our hope is that Hoar Oak Cottage will continue to be of interest for those visiting Exmoor.

Thank you to Rob and Elaine for being our first Hoar Oak Cottage Guest Bloggers and sharing their fascinating story.  You can find out more about the Vellacotts at Hoar Oak Cottage on this link.

If you would like to contribute a Guest Blog please do get in touch.

Posted by Bette Baldwin