Crediton

It was going to be a day for staying at home and consolidating, but I made a quick decision to take the bus to Crediton (we were there on Sunday, but most places were closed at the time).

waiting for the bus, North Tawton

It was a double decker bus, which meant that from the top it was easy to see over hedgerows to the countyside, which was quite a sight for the 25-minute journey.  The geography is consistent but changing: a gently undulating patchwork of farmlands.

rolling hills of Devon

 On a more mundane level, the bus has to navigate some very narrow passages.

do you think a double decker bus can get past this?

The route leads through a handful of small towns, often with only one lane for traffic to go both ways.  Oncoming cars have to wait at a wider point or back up.

a large tanker conveniently clears the way ahead of us in Bow

Crediton is a small town about 11 km from Exeter, the largest city in Devon.  The name comes from the river Creedy, plus Tun = farmstead.

In terms of population, it's not much bigger than Okehampton (the nearest town to the village of North Tawton), but for some reason there are considerably more amenities and shops, which are mostly ranged along High St, the main through road to Exeter.  Several bookshops, several takeaways, pubs, charity shops, and so on.

the sign on the door says Helmores since 1699 

the sign above says Established 1995.  Oops!

I'm not convinced Helmores existed as a real estate agent (per se) in 1699 - there would be some sort of continuity as an entity, but it would have gone through multiple changes of ownership and business type since then.


I found Crediton Museum, located in the old town hall.  Both sides of my grandfather's family comes from this area - Crediton, Newton St Cyres ('sires'), Tedburn St Mary, Silverton.

Hidden in an alcove in the museum, a gentleman was providing family research services.  He showed me some burial records from the church down the road, Holy Cross, and it looked like there were several ancestors buried there - as he was leafing through, I instantly recognised John Harvey and his wife Grace (Snow).

taken from burial records for Holy Cross Church, Crediton

However, the age at death for each of them didn't accord with the birth dates I had elsewhere.  And there are so many names that are similar that there could seriously be more than one couple named John and Grace Harvey.  More research needed.

Yet I did find a record of the marriage of Joseph Cole and Grace Kerslake:

from the church registry at nearby Newton St Cyres

Note that the surname is spelt Coals (various forms are used throughout his life) - and instead of a signature, both husband and wife enter their mark.  Thus goes literacy in those times.  If their grandparents were buried there, they probably would not have had a stone marker - maybe just perishable wood.  And as happens for all churches around here, there are layers of people buried on top of each other - which is why most gravestones don't go back beyond about the 1820s.

Newton St Cyres - the ground level of the graveyard is somewhat
higher than that of the church, for reasons mentioned above