We drove into the mist on Dartmoor, a colleague and I, and entered a grey damp world of grey, damp sheep, grazing alongside the road. It was a welcome wetness, and the misty rain hung around for most of the day. That was no matter as we were inside the fifteenth century Church House at Widecombe. That building itself would have a tale or two to tell, but not for this day.
This day we were at the invitation of the Widecombe History Group, who were holding an open visitor session in this historic building. The welcome had the added attraction of tea and scones, coffee and pasties.
Inside the ancient hall were various displays. A large table full of old photographs, of village life, school life, country life. A fascinating display of how from a collection of documents they had been given, plus further research, the history group had pieced together a fascinating timeline of a local boy who went to sea, in Victorian times, finally coming to his demise in the Great War. And, of course, a display in connection to Widecombe Fair, uncle Tom Cobbley and all.
Our task had been to share something of the story of Elizabeth Braund, her faith and what led her to Dartmoor, and so on. We headed it ‘Elizabeth Braund, a Christian pioneer’. Our introduction was that she had come to Widecombe in 1975 with a van load of young people and never left, and since then thousands of young people have visited the farm at East Shallowford and experienced the life on the moor, and that she is buried in the church graveyard, not far from her colleague Rosemary.
For us as we talked with people it was a rich oral history experience. The couple who lived next door to Elizabeth in the first year at Bag Park Manor. The lady who recalls Elizabeth turning up to her farm with a van full of children to choose a couple of pigs, and to her surprise when asked where she should put the pigs, was told ‘put them in the back with the children, we’ve only a couple of miles to go’. The farmer, of several generations, who kept asking about Elizabeth and Rosemary’s faith and motivation for all those years of working with young people.
Our own history display of course had many pictures as well. The ones that stand out for me are the ones with a sense of wonder, breaking across the faces of the young people. There is Joe in the lambing shed, and holding between his hands a newly-born lamb, and his eyes are almost popping out of his face with surprise. There are the two girls leaning over the railings of a steel hurdle fence, and looking, possibly at a calf. One is pointing to something. Their heads are close to each other, as if sharing a secret or something special. The eyes are studied and opening wider, and the one pointing is saying something. I would like to have heard it. At the least it is ‘look at that’ but I can bet it is something deeper and fuller of surprise.
There have been 50 years of surprises, because this autumn marks Elizabeth and Rosemary coming to Widecombe with that first minibus of young people, and 2026 will mark 50 years at East Shallowford. We will be celebrating.
Watch this space and visit us at Widecombe Fair in the main field and also the pop-up café in Church House.