Two local historians - Ken Gollop and Graham Davies - have been researching the history of farming in the parish of Uplyme where I live.
The culmination of two or three years of research is an exhibition in the Village Hall that I visited last night and again today when it was less crowded.
It was a fascinating insight into rural life in the last century, and especially interesting for me as I learnt some new things about our house and field.
The house (part of a range of farm buildings converted in the mid-80s) was in existence on a map from 1838, so the shell is at least 170 years old. No foundations at all and still standing - which makes a bit of a mockery of current building regs! We were told it was built using the labour of Napoleonic prisoners - but apart from the dates being possible, no real evidence for that. I saw some pictures of it as a stable, hayloft and piggery in the 30s too.
I've long been interested in field names - and to find out that ours is called Hill Close is fascinating. A close is an area of land that has always been enclosed, rather than communal fields or common grazing, so the name probably predates the enclosures of 1750-1850.
But I felt sad that my own roots are not here: lots of people at the exhibition could recognise their families and friends or places they played as children.
31/05/08 @ 10:50