Devon
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Where England’s oldest canal begins
The Exeter canal was begun in 1564 - 200 years before the main era of canal building in England. Here it was last Saturday at the point where it begins with the river Exe to the right and the...
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On this day: a remarkable (and rich) Devon man
On this day, 432 years ago on 26 September 1580, Drake and the Pelican arrived in Plymouth, Devon, ending an astonishing three-year voyage around the world and carrying treasure beyond imagination. Once home Drake's first move was to send a...
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Dartmoor today
Cawsand Beacon and High Willhays on Dartmoor this morning taken from Serston Farm north east of Bow. On a clear day, from the summit of Cawsand Beacon, you can see Teignmouth on the south Devon coast and Bude on...
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Menacing buzzards in Devon
Three buzzards are circling high and menacingly above Down St Mary, mid-Devon, making their characteristically plaintiff and sinister squeals. Take care if you are a rabbit.
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John Wesley and the Bishop of Exeter
John Wesley (1703-91) John Wesley always claimed that he didn’t enjoy controversy. However due to the opposition which Methodism, which he founded, generated he was often drawn into controversy. When he began to write his second letter to Bishop...
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Sitting at the feet of the Abbot of Buckfast
Sunday 9 October 2011 Yesterday, at a Biblefresh Festival at the Mint Methodist Church in Exeter, I joined a group led by Father Abbot David of Buckfast Abbey. The Abbot talked engagingly and inspirationally about Benedictine Spirituality and Lectio divina...
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How are things down Maggie Burleigh way?
The Tamar Belle nosed out of its moorings at the Barbican, Plymouth, with my wife and me aboard, bound for Cotehele Quay. Our skipper told us about Drake's Island, Plymouth Breakwater, German frigates and atomic submarines berthed in the Hamoaze...
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From the hedgerows of Devon to the Foreign Office
The earliest known photograph of Ernest Bevin shows him as a little boy of three wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and sailor suit at a Sunday-school treat in 1884. He was born in Winsford, Somerset, on 7 March 1881. His...
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Benedictine and Presbyterian: a shared delight
Friday 16 September 2011 I am just leaving for a meeting of Christian writers at Buckfast Abbey. Since time immemorial, deer have been drawn to graze in the sheltered meadows which line the banks of the river Dart in this...
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Canvas Conversations
Corners Publications, 1995 The first fifty years of Devon Christian Youth Camps. This is no boring history. Here are living conversations that recall the personalities, the highlights, the struggles, the changes and unchanging purpose and value of the camps...
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