Solar Panel Installation at Tiverton Museum
Discover more about our exciting project to install solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof of the museum. This will create over three quarters of our annual electricity. Why is there scaffolding up at Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life? We are undertaking an...
Who needs a nurse?
In June 1925, the Devon Nursing Association was celebrating its 21st anniversary. The Gazette reports that when it was founded it was ‘in advance of public opinion’. Although welcomed by many, there were a large number of Devonians who felt that their ancestors had...
What’s in a Name… Beck’s Square
The entrance to the Museum, once the home of the National School, today stands in Beck’s Square. However, the Square is not found on old maps of the town, neither is it referred to in the early histories of Tiverton. There is some evidence from a legal document held...
Taking Flight
This advert appeared in the Gazette in March 1925 with a ‘representative’ of the paper recording his experience. The 3 seater Avro 110hp was piloted by an experienced and decorated veteran of the first World War. The rivers Exe and Lowman were visible ‘for many miles’...
The Walrond Papers
The ‘elaborate arrangements’ for the visit of the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, to Bradfield, near Uffculme, on July 1st 1925, were outlined in the Gazette. Bradfield, at that time, is described as ‘the residence of the Hon. Mrs Adams. It was anticipated that this...
Devon County Show 100 Years Ago
Traditionally held in the third week of May, the Devon County Show was held at Home Park, Plymouth in 1925. The Tiverton Gazette reported ‘local successes’ in the many classes. Of particular note, a Tiverton farmer who won the ‘Devon Longwool’ category. There were...
Steal Not This Book
In late April 1925 a strange collection of verses appeared in the Gazette. Interestingly the authors were only ‘school boys’, perhaps the verses that school girls wrote in the front of their books weren’t as lurid! ‘Steal not this book for fear of shame For here you...
Holiday Haunts
The possibility of a family holiday in the South-West became a reality for some in the 1920s. Tourism had been flourishing in the region for a long time for those with the money and leisure time to enjoy a break away from home. As early as 1911, the Trades Union...
Tiverton Museum receives vital £15,000 grant from Garfield Weston Foundation
Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life is delighted to have been awarded £15,000 in core funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation to help cover essential running costs. This grant is very significant for the museum as rising costs continue to put pressure on the...
‘From the Puritan Girl’
In early May 1925, this large advert appeared, as a one-off, in the Gazette. Christopher Thomas & Bros Ltd were founded in Wales but by the 1840s had merged with a Bristol company. Their factory in Broad Plain, Bristol was impressive. Soap making in the city was...
‘Do Your Worst!’
The Tiverton Gazette of early April 1925 carries a report from a court case headed ‘Stationary Car without Lights’. It goes on to describe the conversation between the police constable who found the car at Stoodleigh parked outside the owner’s house, and the owner...
Twitching the Curtains
We can’t tell if the lace in the curtains sold in Carey’s shop was made in Tiverton. Certainly, the invention of the Bobbinet machine by John Heathcoat in the early 1800s must have contributed to the expansion of the lace curtain industry. It was only when wide,...