AN interesting talk on the first Atlantic telegraph cables was given to members of Thorverton and District History Society by John Dike in April.

The laying of cables was brought about by the need to improve communications with America. In 1845 a cable was laid to France but with large emigration to America much material was needed and the UK was the workshop of the world.

The American military saw the advantage of good communications and provided some ships. The Money was raised for the project and work started but it was not without problems. The cable floated so had to be weighted down.

There were problems with tension and pressure on the cable, especially when going over the continental shelf which is two miles deep.

There were problems in manufacturing the cables - two companies were involved and they constructed it differently so 12 foot (four metres) long splices were needed. Storms in the Atlantic made life difficult and the weight of the cable made the ships unstable and breakages happened.

Iron used in the construction of the cable affected the ships compass. The route chosen for the cable was from Southern Ireland to Newfoundland and then on to Nova Scotia.

Despite the difficulties, the ingenuity and perseverance of the engineers led to success and initial messages were in Morse Code. The introduction of the telephone led to a greater demand for more cables.

YOUR HOUSE THROUGH TIME

On May 1 the society hosted an event at Thorverton Memorial Hall. “Your House Through Time” is an ongoing project looking at some of the properties in the village, their history and who lived in the property.

Research work has been done by a small team who became aware that residents had an interest in the history of their homes. Residents of the properties we had identified as interesting were invited as well as an open invitation for any other interested person and more than 100 people attended the hall to see the event.

We had representatives from the Historic Environment Team at Devon County Council, Devon Family History Society and the Devon Heritage Centre.

There were photographs provided by the history society and Alex Fice of old Thorverton on display along with early Ordnance Survey maps.

Books on Thorverton written by Ian Stoyle, Michael Crauford Lewis, Frank Retter and A Austin Eagger were available for people to look at.

Graham Wills did the opening welcome and introduced the project using the newly installed audio visual equipment. He talked about our desire to be able to run small workshops and encourage people to research, record and celebrate the history of their property.

We wish to offer a series of informal sessions to show residents where to look for information and how to record the relevant history of the property and the people who have lived and worked there.

It is intended to publish a guide to the history of the village focusing on the buildings of historic or architectural interest.

This was followed by a short talk from Mike Baldwin on the importance of old buildings and he used the work he did on Court Barton some years ago as an example.

He explained the design of the building and some of the changes to it over the years and talked about some of the residents from a time when Court Barton was a farm with its lands to the east and north.

Following this the visitors were able to wander about and look at the old maps and photographs. They were able to talk to members of the history society and our visiting representatives.

The research team will be meeting again shortly to discuss the way forward. From the interest shown we fully expect to end up with more information than we can publish but rest assured that all information recorded will be catalogued and stored for future use.

Please look out for our posters or social media for further information.

Robert Turner