2024 AGM: 26 March 2024
The History Society’s 2024 AGM will take place on Tuesday 26 March 2024, 7 pm for 7.30 pm start at Salcombe Rugby Club, Twomeads, Camperdown Road, TQ8 8AX. Everyone welcome, members free admission, non-members £4.00. Bar open.

Following AGM business, Phil Lilley will present a film show and talk about The Primrose Line which ran for 12 miles from Brent to Kingsbridge, following the River Avon, from 1893 until its closure in 1963.

2024: Salcombe’s Year of Anniversaries
RNLI, 4 March 1824: 200 years.
D-Day, 6 June 1944: 80 years.
Salcombe Maritime Museum, 27 February 1974: 50 years.

Founding the RNLI
Sir William Hillary campaigned energetically for a service dedicated to saving lives at sea, and 0n 4 March 1824 at its inaugural public meeting at City of London Tavern, Bishopsgate in London, chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck came into being. George IV was the Patron and Lord Liverpool, the Prime Minister, agreed to be President. On 5 October 1854, the Institution’s name was changed to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the RNLI.

Salcombe Lifeboat Station was established in 1869. Its first boat was a ten-oared self-righter named Rescue. See salcombelifeboat.co.uk/history.

 

 

Salcombe and D-Day
Between 3 and 5 June 1944, a U.S. Navy Amphibious Force of 66 ships and six Royal Navy escorts sailed from Salcombe to join Force U of the Western Task Force. Their task was to land the 4th Division, VII Corps U.S. Army on Utah Beach, Normandy and to support the landing and subsequent operations, contributing to the liberation of enemy occupied Europe.

 

Preparing for D-Day: Salcombe and the U.S. Navy 1943-44
Roger Barrett, Chair of Salcombe Maritime Museum, will present a film show and illustrated talk entitled “Preparing for D-Day: Salcombe and the U.S. Navy 1943-44” on Tuesday 11 June 2024, 7 pm for 7.30 pm start at Salcombe Rugby Club, Twomeads, Camperdown Road, TQ8 8AX. Everyone welcome, members £1.00, non-members £5.00. Bar open.

Salcombe Maritime Museum
On 27 February 1974, at a public meeting in Salcombe called by David Murch and Len Fairweather, the Salcombe Museum Society was founded, becoming a charity one year later. The Museum’s initial premises were at Cook’s boat store on Custom House Quay. Since 1992, its home has been at the Old Council Hall on Market Street. In 2023, the Museum received the splendid news that its bid for a grant from the National Heritage Lottery Fund was successful, to make the Museum’s Collection available to all, both online and within the local community. The Museum re-opens on 28 March 2024. See salcombemuseum.org.uk.

 

Crabfest: 5 May 2024
Salcombe’s famous Crabfest will take place on Sunday 5 May 2024. Visit the History Society at our stall on Island Street, shared with Salcombe Maritime Museum. We will showcase interesting historic photos of Salcombe past to leaf through, books about Salcombe’s history to buy and volunteers to chat to. We look forward to seeing you.

 

Salcombe’s Grandest Properties: (1) The Moult
The first known holiday home in Salcombe, The Moult, was built in 1764 on a sheltered vantage point to the south of the town between North and South Sands. Described by Abraham Hawkins in 1819 as a “mere pleasure box” it had been built by his father, John Hawkins of Norton.

 

For much of the 19th century, The Moult was owned by the Earl of Devon. In the 1880s, the eminent historian Prof. James Anthony Froude (1818-94) resided there. In May 1889, a convalescent Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92) sailed into Salcombe Harbour on Lord Brassey’s yacht, Sunbeam, and visited his friend J.A. Froude. As Sunbeam left the harbour on the evening of her departure, the sound of the church bells ringing for evensong and the hollow moaning of the waves are said to have inspired the Poet Laureate to write his famous poem “Crossing the Bar” *.

 

In 1890, Froude wrote from The Moult, “It is near midnight. I have just come in from the terrace. The moon is full over the sea, which is glittering as if it was molten gold.”

 

“During the 20th century the house saw great changes. As the home of Lady Clementine Waring it virtually became the ‘manor house’ of Salcombe, the scene of country house life and charity fetes; and during World War Two hosted parties and dances for military and friends from the many detachments stationed in and around Salcombe. After Lady Clementine’s death in 1964, The Moult was sold and divided vertically into several separate sections, but in the 1980s an extensive operation returned it again to its gracious country house form.” (Anne Born, “The History of Kingsbridge and Salcombe”, Orchard Publications, 2002, p162)

* Crossing the Bar
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.

(2) Woodcot
In 1797, James Yates, a London merchant, built Woodville, later renamed Woodcot. There is a good description of the cottage and its early history in Anne Born’s book “The History of Kingsbridge and Salcombe”. Between 1862 and 1890, Woodcot was the home of Major-General William Ilbert Birdwood, R.E. and, between 1890 and 1894, J.A. Froude, who died at Woodcot and is buried in Shadycombe Cemetery. In 1896, Woodcot was sold for £6,500 to Major J. Bennett, who played a leading role in the life of the town.

 

 

Major Bennett died in 1903 and in 1906 Woodcot was purchased by Andrew Mcllwraith, who, in the years preceding his death in 1932, established himself as the town’s leading benefactor. A self-made Scot from Ayrshire, one of 13 children, who had made a fortune by running a fleet of emigrant ships, which returned with frozen meat from the Australian meat trade. On his death, the ownership of Woodcot passed to his daughter Mabel, whose husband, Thomas Noel Gwyn Jennings, was also a shipowner. Thomas and Mabel’s daughter Elizabeth Jennings (1903-2006) “always a tall and striking figure, became a famous Salcombe resident and ultimately inherited Woodcot”. In 1976, when Elizabeth was 73, Woodcot was offered to Help the Aged under their Gifted Houses scheme.

 

 

Welcome aboard
If you want to volunteer help archive Salcombe’s history, record Salcombe’s past via photographs, documents and oral memories, represent the Society at events such as Crabfest and South Hams Steam Rally, or join our Committee, do get in touch: info@salcombehistorysociety.co.uk.

Image of Sir William Hillary copyright Richard Rimmer, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 license. Image of Salcombe Harbour 1944 courtesy of Salcombe History Society. Image of The Wreck Room, Salcombe Maritime Museum courtesy of Salcombe Maritime Museum. Image of Crabfest logo courtesy of Salcombe Crabfest. “Salcombe’s Grandest Properties” courtesy of Roger Barrett. Image of “Sunbeam” copyright National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Images of J.A. Froude and Alfred, Lord Tennyson copyright National Portrait Gallery, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons.