As Christmas approaches the Gazette is full of adverts for suitable presents for all the family. The town always attracted many visitors with its annual ‘Grand Christmas Shopping Festival’.

But there were also other seasonal attractions coming up in the town, these events all appearing on the front page of the Gazette on December 8th.

Tiverton Choral Society – A Programme of Sacred Music

Christmas Carols – There will be a Carol Concert with sacred solos at the Wesleyan Church, Tiverton

Jumble Sale – The Hut, Canal Hill, Tiverton

Sale this Day (Tuesday) Tiverton Christmas Market. Knowlman & Sons respectfully solicit further entries.

The Museum holds many souvenirs of Christmas’s past, cards, decorations, photos and postcards amongst them. This photo shows the Bible Class of St George’s Church celebrating Christmas in the ‘mid-1920s’ . 

Bible Class celebrating Christmas in the ‘mid-1920s’

The entry in our catalogue says that this was in a room at the back of 3 Fore Street which were the premises of Percy Hayball, baker. Percy’s father, William, is noted as a baker in Hemyock in the 1891 census but by 1901; he had moved back to Tiverton, his birthplace. He was a ‘baker and shop-keeper’ in West Exe North. By 1911, Percy was an ‘assistant in the business’. In 1921, William had retired and moved to Axbridge in Somerset but Percy had taken on the business in West Exe being assisted by his wife, Edith.

Diploma awarded to Percy Hayball

The photo of Lloyd Maunder’s ready for the Christmas trade, is undated but looks as as if it could be in the 1920s.

Written by Museum Volunteer, Sue B