A PACKED audience enjoyed a talk mythbusting stories about our historic buildings at Crediton Library on Wednesday, October 23, given by buildings archaeologist Dr James Wright.

Based on his many years surveying buildings for private owners and organisations such as the National Trust and research for his recent book on the subject, published by The History Press, James spoke not only on the general issues with interpreting historic stories which sound too good to be true but also on some local versions.

Part of the talk covered the rumours that certain buildings contain timbers from wrecked ships, which is rarely the case, and James explained why most of the stories related to ships from the Spanish Armada ending up being built into West Country pubs could not be the case.

Also covered were the stories around secret passages, in which James included local examples from Crediton as well as other Devon stories such as the impossible tunnel allegedly running from Torre Abbey.

The event was organised by Crediton based charity The Folklore Library and Archive, who were delighted to receive a copy of James' book for their reference library as a donation.

Mark Norman