THE Crediton Area History and Museum Society was formed at a meeting of interested parties on September 19, 1984.

It may not have the snappiest of titles but it does reflect the aims of the group.

At that time there were no other history groups in the area, but today a number of the surrounding villages such as Bow, Newton St Cyres, and Sandford have formed their own Societies.

Also the aim of having a museum in the town was there from the beginning, and as we will see later there was an attempt that came to nothing before the present museum opened in 2010.

One of the leading figures in the initial set up was the Congregational Church Minister, Rev. Chris Gillam, who was the first Chairman.

Other persons on the first committee that may be familiar to you were Mary Blamey, Daphne Munday, George Palin, Rosemary Parker, and the founding editor of the "Courier" Sue Read.

From the start there was a programme of speakers on both local and national history.

As early as May 1985 the Society held its first exhibition.

Mrs Rosemary Parker, the owner of Downes offered three rooms at the house to hold the exhibition which was called “Waterloo to the Great War”.

SAXON TO SUBURBIA

In these early times, regular exhibitions were put on; in 1988 it was held at QE Upper School and the subject was the Civil War; in the summer of 1990 the exhibition was held at Downes and featured a copy of the Bayeux Tapestry loaned to the Society by the Reading Museum and Art Gallery; in 1994 the exhibition was called “Saxon to Suburbia”; and in 1996 there was one about trades, properties and families. Sadly no photographic evidence of these exhibitions seems to have survived.

In 1992 the Society received a donation of a significant number of documents from the vaults of the North Street solicitors, Symes Robinson and Lee.

Arthur King Robinson, along with five other volunteers, started on the massive task of archiving this in rooms at North Street.

A potential crisis arose in the summer of 1996 when the annual rent for the premises in North Street was raised to £1,000 which, at that time, was beyond the means of the Society.

In the same year the members were given a tour of Downes by Mr Henry Parker, who had inherited the property on the death of his mother, Rosemary Parker (nee Buller).

This resulted in Mr Parker offering us the use of rooms that formerly were part of the Estate Office and had stood empty for a number of years, at a peppercorn rent.

A great deal of work had to be done to make the rooms suitable for the archive and it was December 1997 before we moved in.

The first serious attempt to start a museum also came in 1992.

The Church Workers Institute was coming up for sale and was thought to be a suitable building to house a museum.

The initial idea was that the present users of the building would continue to hire the ground floor space and the Society would use the balcony area to build up its collection and for displays, with the plan of eventually growing into the whole of the building.

Funding of the project would be through inviting loans in units of £50 on which interest at six per cent would be paid, if required. Sadly the project came to nothing.

WITHIN LIVING MEMORY

Our next exhibition was held in 1999 to celebrate the millennium and called “Within Living Memory”. Then in 2002 there was an exhibition on the 1950s to commemorate the Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee; both of these exhibitions were held at the Boniface Centre.

The year 2008 saw the beginnings of a major change in the fortunes of the Society.

An exhibition called “Victorian and Edwardian Crediton”, was held in the recently renovated Victoria Room of the Old Town Hall.

This was probably the biggest exhibition ever put on by the Society.

It proved to be a great success and resulted in us being given the use of the ground floor room of the Hall as part of the “2009 Festival” marking the 1,100th anniversary of the first Bishop of Crediton.

CREDITON THROUGH THE AGES

The Society put on an exhibition called “Crediton through the Ages”. Both the Festival and the Exhibition proved to be a great success; the Festival becoming a regular biennial event.

Originally it was planned that our exhibition would last for the four weeks of the Festival, but in the end it carried on for the remainder of that summer.

Boosted by this success the Society decided to hire the area on a permanent basis, and we were now paying rent. For the first few years we were only looking as far as the exhibition we were planning, as finances were rather stretched, but as time went on our situation became more secure.

This was mainly due to support from the Town Council, a number of local businesses and Friends.

FIRES

The first museum exhibition in 2010 was “Fire the Destroyer of History” marking the many fires that have destroyed parts of the town over the centuries, concentration, of course, on the “Great Fire” of 1743. Subsequent exhibitions have been: “Crediton Through the Ages”, “A History of Local Schools”, “History of Sport”, “Crediton Treasures”, the 1980’s”, “That’s Entertainment”, “The Way We Got Around”, “Down on the Farm”, “Childhood Memories” and last year, “Crediton Station: A Brief Encounter”.

A great deal of work had been done to prepare an exhibition: “The 1950s, Crediton and Beyond” for this year, but with the arrival of “lockdown” we were unable to open as planned.

This year has been difficult for us, as it has been for everyone. As time progressed it became clear that we would not be able to open at all this summer; social distancing and keeping everything properly sanitised in such a small museum was impractical.

A programme of talks has been organised for the coming autumn and winter; only time will tell how many, if any, of these events will take place. Watch this space.

While we are unable to open to the public, we are making use of social media to keep in touch. The Society has a website: creditonhistory.org.uk - and a Facebook page: Crediton Museum.

A number of documents have been posted online, including the experiences of a journalist who walked from Plymouth to Exeter posing as a tramp and sleeping in Workhouses on the way. Do please, make use of these. There will be updates from time-to-time to let you know of developments.

Hopefully by next summer the world will be a safer place again and the museum will be open.

We are always looking for new volunteers to help with stewarding at the museum, and there are other ways anyone interested can help. We look forward to seeing all our friends and supporters again when the time is right.

John Heal and Cheryl Lewis