Pennies from Heaven

Pennies from Heaven

In a glass case on the top floor of the Museum of Dartmoor Life is a small wooden collecting box with a sad little picture stuck to it. On the top, around the money slot, it says: ‘Penny Box, please put one penny a week in this box and a small additional offering on...
Okehampton Historical Notes

Okehampton Historical Notes

Digitised by Jan Goffey, a Museum Trustee Original Book typed by Dr Edward Herbert Young (1862-1932). He lived at Darley House, and was one of the town’s two GPs for many years, also the Borough Medical Officer, and a notable local historian. He wrote the Okehampton...
First mention of Okehampton Circa 970 AD

First mention of Okehampton Circa 970 AD

Image of Leofric Missal : Bodleian Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Vol 1 pg 109 History of Okehampton by EHY. 1931 and J Goffey 2021) Translated from the Anglo-Saxon From a List of Manumissions inscribed 0n the 8 Leaf of Leofric’s Missal or...
The Importance of Almshouses

The Importance of Almshouses

Do you know there are fifteen almshouses in Okehampton? Where are they, what are they, and why are they so beneficial? What is an almshouse? – the recognised definition is: An almshouse is a unit of residential accommodation (usually a house or flat) which belongs to...
The Military on Dartmoor

The Military on Dartmoor

The first real involvement of the military on Dartmoor in (relatively) recent times was to guard prisoners of war in Princetown and the surrounding area. In the late eighteenth century, Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, a friend of the Prince Regent and one-time Member of...