The Mayflower: a voyage that built a nation
You will not have failed to notice that the fair city of Plymouth has already started its countdown to the 2020 Celebration of the Pilgrim…
Articles Written By: John Fisher
This author has written 49 articles
Wife for Sale!
IT WAS ONCE THOUGHT LEGAL by many country folk in rural Devon, that a man could sell his wife at public auction, providing certain procedures…
Charles Dickens’ Devon Christmas Present
CHARLES DICKENS did not invent ‘traditional’, old fashioned Christmases of course, the kind that many of us still enjoy revelling in today (and so beloved…
Devon and the English Civil War
FOR SOME OF US, THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR HAS NEVER ENDED: today’s splendid re-enactment societies like The Sealed Knot for example attract huge crowds throughout…
The girl in the window
NOBODY KNOWS what Devon’s Saint Sidwell looked like but that hasn’t stopped artists, inspired by her tragic story, depicting her image in both a statue…
Colerigde’s Devonshire Childhood
EVERYONE (well, almost everyone) has heard of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner or Kubla Kahn but some of us might struggle to remember who…
The French Prisoners on Dartmoor
THOUSANDS OF CAPTURED FRENCHMEN were imprisoned in Devon during the Napoleonic wars which, off-and-on, ran between 1803 and 1815. Eleven thousand of them died here…
Buddle’s butterfly heaven
SUMMER IS BUTTERFLY HEAVEN IN DEVON which has 39 resident butterfly species. But you will need to be highly mobile or very lucky to see…
Would Devon’s ‘dazzle’ camouflage have saved the Lusitania?
WHERE TO BEGIN? Perhaps with my Great Aunt May? May was a second class passenger on the ill-fated RMS Lusitania when the great passenger liner…
The Devon born Admiral of the Mary Rose
OUR THANKS to Sir Rivers Carew, BT, of the ancient and noble Carew family who writes to say how much he enjoyed Devonshire’s article in…
A Devonshire rapscallion, Bampfylde-Moore Carew
YOU COULDN’T MAKE IT UP: OR COULD YOU? The man with the unlikeliest of first names was born in Bickleigh, Devon in 1693 and died…
The Tar Barrels at Ottery St Mary
The tang of burning wood in the air, sparks flying, the roar of the crowd, it's all there to enjoy at Ottery St Mary's epic…