Henry Laurens was of Huguenot stock whose ancestors moved to the America in the late 1600’s, arriving in New York, then settling in Charlestown South Carolina. Laurens served in the Mil...
Museum News & Blog
Recent blog posts
I often hear the complaint that Newton Abbot shopping centre 'is all charity and coffee shops'. Obviously, charity shops are a relatively recent phenomenon, but wondered what was available in the “day...
The above monochrome (copied from The Sphere 17th May 1913) is of a Watercolour that was displayed in Gallery 1 of the 145th Exhibition of The Royal Academy in May 1913.
The Art press described Eggin...
The first Association Football Game to be Floodlit was on the 14th October 1878 at Bramall Lane, when a crowd of 20,000 fans attended. Bramall Lane is now the home of Sheffield United, but at the time...
I’ve been guilty of it myself, calling these buildings the Mackerel Almshouses, but I’ve just found out the correct name is MacKrell Almshouses, I thought obviously named after a chap from Scotland, b...
When I say the Duke of Edinburgh, I don’t mean the present incumbent, although he had an accident recently, I am referring to Prince Alfred the second son of Queen Victoria. At the age of 12 he joined...
This low-resolution photograph taken from a Newspaper article in 1908, shows Mr Roberts aged 91, former Wolborough Parish Clerk, with a model of St Leonards Tower and Chapel. Mr Roberts said that he h...
W. Fuller & Sons – Courtenay Nurseries –Queen Street – 1927
W. Fuller & Sons – Courtenay Nurseries – Queen Street - c1900
(The Street Numbering changed sometime between 1870 and ...
The People's Museum.
The new museum will be brimming full of objects that share the stories of the town over decades. Each object on display is special and holds its own tale. We want...
In the Victorian era infant mortality was very high; of the 800,000 births recorded in England in 1880, about 120,000 died before their first Birthday. Of these deaths about 60,000 were due to inadequ...
The Great Stink was the elegant name given to terrible smell that pervaded central London, during July and August 1858. It had been a particularly hot summer, which exacerbated the smell of unt...
Info for this article taken from East and South Devon Advertiser 3rd October 1896
In August 1896 a certain Mr W Roberts on his retirement as an Assistant Overseer[1], was invited to relate his memori...
Di Nicholls[2] wished that the Miners Lamp presented to her in 1985 by the Miners of the Treharris Deep Navigation Mine, should be donated to the Newton Abbot & GWR Museum.
This is the story beh...
It was January 1949; war time rationing was still in force, with some foods more strictly rationed than during the war. Bread was rationed during the years 1946 -48, potatoes briefly in 1947, tea unti...
Honeymooning in Devon in 1947 Paul Maher and his wife Pamela found much to remind them of their native Newfoundland. Here is Paul Maher’s own account of his discovery of The Newfoundland Hotel [1].
‘...
David Bowen, a local Postcard Collector and Museum Talk contributor, acquired this postcard which purported to be in Courtenay Street, Newton Abbot. And yet, extensive research of...
The early 20th Century was period before the internet and TV, jobs were hard to find, many lived in inadequate housing, sometimes without running water or electricity and money was short.
Pleasures ...
This engraving of Courtenay Street has been dated at c1855. Three commercial premises can be identified, Michelmore’s, W. Drew, and Beazley’s Globe Hotel.
Michelmore’s was owned and...
This photo was taken about 1931 of John Stirling’s, the Dispensing Chemist at 4 Courtenay Street. The Lady in the doorway is probably Mary Stiling who was the Manager...
An exciting opportunity to apply for a paid role in the museum!
Role: Museum Assistant
Organisation: Newton Abbot Museum
Salary: ...
