The Devon Flag

Cream first, Lynton and Lynmouth (of course) Ambrosia rice pudding, beautiful countryside and the Devon flag – all symbols of this wonderful county. Curious to know about the flag’s background, we thought it was an archaic and historic design. Well, on reflection, if you are lucky enough to be a millennial, it is. 2003 is the birth year of the Devon flag.

The subject of a Devonian flag was raised by the county's contingent of scouts to the 20th World Scout Jamboree in an interview on BBC Radio Devon in 2002. The scouts were unaware of a Devon flag and wondered if any of the listeners knew of a flag for the county. BBC Radio Devon took up the mantle and the search for a flag for Devon began with the public asked to send in designs. Here are the whittled down candidates:

And the first round of voting...

14%, 21%, 4.8%

21.3%, 1.5%,4.1%

2.3%, 0.3%, 11.9%

4.6%, 11.9%, 1.5%

After a couple of rounds of voting (not too sure about the bottom right flag as being symbolic of Devon however, except for the fact that St Petroc may have been born in Wales), the winning flag designed by student Ryan Sealey was chosen. Not without controversy, the creation of the flag drew criticism from Cornish nationalists, who accused it of being an attempt to "hijack" their culture. The decision to dedicate the flag to St Petroc was also not without controversy as the saint is equally popular in neighbouring Cornwall. But it was decided that as Devon's 27 church dedications to Saint Petroc far outweighs the 6 dedications in Cornwall, also the Devon villages named after him such as Petrockstowe and Newton St Petroc, that the county had a strong claim to the saint and Cornwall had already selected Saint Piran as their patron saint many years previously.

Anyway, off to buy our bumper sticker.

The winning flag design by Ryan Sealey

St Vincent's Mrs Ley and the St Mary the Virgin Chancel (1903)

Searching through the censuses for your home can be very satisfying and it has been really interesting searching through the names on the records for St Vincent and then looking at the stories behind the names. One such story is about Ann Elizabeth Ley. In 1891, Mrs Ley moved to Lynton from London to set up home. Looking at the census for that year, she was widowed and “living on her own means” and was “head” of St Vincent Villa (as it was named then) with her daughter, two nieces and two servants. Ten years later in 1901, Mrs Ley had her daughter, two sons, one niece and two servants with her. Proof that it was quite normal even then for adult children to live with their parents. Plus ca change!

The reason for this blog is the very important contribution Mrs Ley made to the Lynton Parish Church, St Mary the Virgin. After her death in 1903 when according to the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, she “recently contracted a chill, which brought on a relapse [from a serious illness earlier in the year] from which she expired after a short illness, at her residence, St Vincent’s Villa”, the family of Mrs Ley left a vast sum to the church to “defray the entire cost of rebuilding the chancel of the parish church as a memorial". The newspaper goes on to mention that she was “greatly beloved by all with whom she came in contact, rich or poor, and from the earliest moment of her residence at Lynton – now some twelve years since – took a great interest in all local charities, to which she was a generous donor”. The London Daily News in 1904 explained that “the alterations will include an extension of the present nave so as to accommodate the large and constantly increasing summer congregation…, the building of a new organ chamber and vestry and rebuilding and restoring the present organ”. The total estimated cost of all this was estimated to be about £2,500, of which “£1,500 – the cost of an entirely new chancel – will be defrayed by the Ley family”.

So, if you do pop in to visit the church, take a look at the marvellous chancel on the left-hand side, along with the plaque and you will see the contribution one of the former inhabitants of St Vincent’s made to Lynton. And if you want to visit Ann Elizabeth Ley's grave, she is buried in Lynton Old Cemetery near Valley of Rocks.

The Crown Lynton

Line drawing of the Crown

As our local, we are very fond of the Crown. It is just 50 metres away from St Vincent Guest House and all downhill coming back. We knew it was very old and looking at the history of it, found first written reference to it in 1789, when John Swete wrote in his journal:

“There is a little public house at Linton called the Crown, where, though the accommodations are but indifferent, the people are civil and attentive.”

1841 tithe map

This was well before Lynton became a tourist destination, but was known more for its wool production, livestock and fishing. Starting its life as a coaching house in the 1760s, the Crown is one of the oldest buildings in Lynton (and now grade II listed) and it quickly found itself because of its position as the epicentre of the area, being the only point of travelling contact with the outside world. It featured in the first national mapping project in 1841 and on this tithe map, is marked as number 38 and has an area of 30 perches (apparently, as a unit of area, a square perch - the perch being standardized to equal 16 1⁄2 feet, or 5 1⁄2 yards, so the Crown was 30 of them!)

Painting by Mick Cawston

As well as being a hostelry, it became part of the recovery centre of the Lynmouth flood in 1952 and is also the place where the finest mural works of renowned, much-loved and much-missed artist Mick Cawston are on display. Rumour has it that he paid his bar bills by painting!

Rachel, Lee and their team run an excellent ship, and we have no hesitation in recommending them for their ales or their meals.
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Lorna Doone is 150! See the play, read the book, do the walk...

One of Exmoor’s most famous literary characters is Lorna Doone, who celebrates her 150th birthday this year and the whole of Exmoor will be celebrating with her – and nowhere more so than here in Lynton with the Pleasure Dome Theatre company revisiting their fantastic 2017 production which we at St Vincent Guest House enjoyed very much.

Written in 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore apparently experienced great difficulty in finding a publisher, and the novel was first published anonymously in 1869 in a limited three-volume edition of just 500 copies, of which only 300 sold. The following year it was republished in an inexpensive one-volume edition and became a huge critical and financial success. It has never been out of print.

Badgworthy

2017 poster

The story is set in the 17th century in the Badgworthy Water region of Exmoor in Devon and Somerset, England. John (in West Country dialect, pronounced "Jan") Ridd is the son of a respectable farmer who was murdered in cold blood by one of the notorious Doone clan, a once noble family, now outlaws, in the isolated Doone Valley. Battling his desire for revenge, John also grows into a respectable farmer and takes good care of his mother and two sisters. He falls hopelessly in love with Lorna, a girl he meets by accident, who turns out to be not only (apparently) the granddaughter of Sir Ensor Doone (lord of the Doones), but destined to marry (against her will) the impetuous, menacing, and now jealous heir of the Doone Valley, Carver Doone.

What could possibly go wrong…

All you could ever want to know about Lorna Doone… 

You can see the excellent Pleasure Dome Theatre Company perform it in our beautiful Valley of Rocks from 20–31 August 2019. Details here.

AND, you can read the tome here for free!

AND do the walk!

Stay with us, we will provide rugs for drafty weather :)

The Groaning Cheese and Other Devon Folklore.

Delving into the past is so much easier now with the joys of the interweb. Gone (mostly) are the days of peering through card indexes or microfiche films and scouring newspapers, although that can also, of course, be fulfilling and productive. Here at St Vincent's we were looking through the impressive Devonshire Association website and came across the rather excellent Transactions which began in 1860. There are some articles online and others are available by looking at scanned pages. One which grabbed our attention is entitled ‘North Devon Customs and Superstitions’ written by JR Chanter and published in 1867. Here goes with some of our favourite ones with a brief introduction from the author which is as follows:

"DEVON in general, and North Devon in particular, has been very retentive of ancient customs, habits, and superstitions. Its folk-lore is especially interesting from its local form of fairy, the Devonshire pixy. But the most noticeable fact connected with North Devon is, not so much the variety or specially local character of its superstitions and vulgar customs, as of their being still generally interwoven with the daily life of the population. In most parts of the country it is necessary, in order to gather up local customs or legends, to seek out ancient crones or noted legend-tellers; but no one can live in this district, and mix much with the country folks, without finding a general belief in witchcraft still existing, and old customs and superstitions in full sway. A great many of these are, or were, common to all England, but having gradually died out in the more busy parts of the country, have continued here, most probably from the isolated nature of the district, and the stagnant character of the agricultural population."

Warts 

Warts and swellings are removed by various charms, such as skeins of thread knotted with the number Of the warts to be removed, and struck across the warts as many times, and then buried; or striking with a witch elm wand, or a piece of stolen bacon; in each of which cases as the buried article decays so do the warts gradually decrease; or by depositing a given number of pebbles or peas in a bag, and losing it, but in this case the unfortunate finder gets the warts himself. But the most favourite remedy for warts, and indeed all swellings, is to have “words” said over them.


Toothache 

The tooth ache is cured, and, what is more, perfect exemption from it for the future is supposed to be attained, by biting out a tooth from a corpse or skull; and very recently, a skeleton having been discovered at Croyde, the jaws were quickly denuded of all their teeth by the number of persons who hastened to the spot to bite them out. Every old woman has her remedy for boils, some of them of a very ludicrous nature. I was favoured with a new and rather ghastly recipe this week only, which I copy in full.

Boils 

“To cure a friend of Boils. – Go into a churchyard on a dark night, and to the grave of a person who has been interred the day previous; walk six times round the grave, and crawl across it three times. If the sufferer from boils is a man, this ceremony must be performed by a woman, and the contrary. The charm will not work unless the night is quite dark.” There is an appended note. “This remedy was tried by a young woman in Georgeham churchyard”, but with what result was not told; the inference was that it succeeded. I should add, that this recipe was given in full faith and belief of its efficacy.

Accidents to Cattle

Accidents, or any obscure ailments to cattle, are commonly attributed to their being witched, or “overlooked”, as the term is, and can only be cured by a white witch; and it is well known that more than one person in North Devon gains his livelihood by acting professionally as a white witch, that is, the country people call him the white witch, though he professes to be a cattle doctor.



The Groaning Cheese 

A great many old English customs also still linger, and are frequently practised here. The groaning cheese is cut on the birth of an infant...(FYI, the Groaning Cheese is a tradition that involves hollowing out a hole in a big wheel of cheese and then passing the baby through the remaining cheese-ring on the day of his or her christening. It’s meant to symbolize the birth of the baby “groaning” being sounds made during childbirth—and blesses the child with good luck and fortune. The cheese itself doesn’t go to waste. It is passed around to family and friends to eat to the newborn’s health.)

Other Random Superstitions

And finally. "A shoe is thrown after a bride for luck; and, in cases of death, the common superstition of opening every lock and bolt in the house is very generally observed, as is also another very curious local one. When the funeral procession leaves the house, all the doors are carefully set open, and not closed until after the procession returns, the superstition running, 'Shut one corpse out – three corpses in'. These last customs are continued simply because at these periods the arrangements are generally left in the hands of nurses and other persons about the sick house, who are a class for the most part strongly imbued with superstitious feelings."

There you go. Fascinating!

The High Brown Fritillary at Heddon Valley

When we first came to St Vincent Guest House in Lynton in 2016, we had no idea how interesting all of our guests would be. We can honestly say that we have probably learned more over the last three years about people, hobbies and life in general than over our entire life times!

One such guest is Peter Law who writes a beautiful blog
called Ramblings and Scribblings, described as a wildlife and travel diary of an Oxford naturalist. Peter arrived with a very impressive camera (a Nikon D3100 SLR camera with either a Nikkor 55-300mm telephoto lens or Tamron 90mm macro lens no less) and on the viewfinder he was sporting an image of an equally impressive looking butterfly. It turned out that Peter was looking for the High Brown Fritillary, an incredibly rare butterfly that can be found at Heddon Valley, just six miles from St Vincent’s.

The High Brown Fritillary (HBF) is known for being Great Britain's most threatened butterfly and is listed as a vulnerable species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Chatting to Peter, the HBF can only be recognised by looking underneath (the ventral view, not the upper dorsal) and obviously, this is no mean feat to achieve! Like other fritillaries (of which there are many types) it is dependent on warm climates with violet rich flora, with populations remaining in only four areas in Great Britain. The Morecambe Bay Limestone hills, the Glamorgan Brackenlands, Dartmoor and here in Exmoor. You can read more about his hunt on his blog page here. I am not going to spoil the story and tell you if he found it or not, but it is definitely worth a read.

Lynton to Watersmeet. The must-do walk of North Devon

Watersmeet sign

East Lyn

When guests to St Vincent’s visit and ask for a walk that is not too long, but is still beautiful with some slight inclines (honest!), stunning scenery and amazing flora and fauna, we always recommend the walk to Watersmeet.

A few days ago, we did the walk again and took some photos of the route. We hope you enjoy them.


Directions

Where the new Woodside Bridge will go

From St Vincent’s you can either walk down to Lynmouth or go on the Lynton and Lynmouth cliff railway (not exactly cheating, but rather experiencing the beauty of this Victorian water-powered genius), walk through the town and join the path to Watersmeet at the Lynmouth public car park just below Lyn Gorge. Walk out of the car park at the top left corner towards the white metal bridge that crosses the river just ahead of you, keeping the East Lyn River on your left. Cross the bridge and turn immediately right.

 Follow the signs and you will see all sorts of wildlife. You may see dippers, the odd heron, perhaps an otter and at certain times of the year, salmon. You end up at the National Trust Tea Rooms at Watersmeet for a cream tea. Job done.

For more details, you can follow this route, or rather half of it as this one continues on to Countisbury if your knees are feeling particularly strong. (All photos by Liam Cousins.)