CREDITON Area History and Museum Society (CAHMS) had a large and enthusiastic audience for Friday, March 17’s talk on "Tudor Taxes and Georgian Fires" at the Boniface Centre.

Todd Gray began by speaking about "Devon Parish Taxpayers Vol.3", the latest publication of the Devon and Cornwall Record Society.

This series explores a long-neglected source of detailed information about Devon parishes for the period 1500-1650; and Volume 3 includes a major section on Crediton. 

Todd explained that what at first sight appears to be just a long list of names and payments actually reveals intriguing details of how parishes were organised.

The parish of Crediton, for example, continued to refer to its tithings as “prebends” long after the prebendaries were done away with during the Reformation.

These records also reveal the survival of archaic words and local dialect terms which are of great interest to local historians.

Todd commented that Crediton had an unusually rich collection of such records; publishing them in this book makes them available to a wider audience who could use them to explore different facets of our history.

Tony Gale went on to talk about his piece on Crediton in the book’s introductory essay.

This looks at the shifting relationship between the manor and the parish over a turbulent period of history, and attempts to explain the way in which the records are presented.

Sixteenth century returns for Crediton refer to “prebends” with names such as Henstill, Stowford and Woodland.

By the 17th century, Henstill had been swept up into a larger unit referred to as Sandford.  Stowford had been renamed as Knowle; while the name of Woodland remained unaltered.

Cross-referencing parish records with those of the Manor of Crediton can reveal additional insights – we can see the rise of one of Crediton’s most famous sons, Sir William Peryam, from the relatively modest Mr Peryam of 1574 to Sir William, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in 1598 – when we can see an image of his house on a manorial map.

Tony’s talk also looked at town maps from 1598 and 1743 – and drew comparisons to show how our knowledge of the area changes over that span of 150 years.

The forthcoming CAHMS exhibition "Crediton and the Great Fire of 1743" has a wealth of material to draw on – including an unusually detailed map, a mass of local records, newspaper reports, pamphlets, and some early fire insurance policies.

The Great Fire itself was well-recorded, with some dramatic incidents. Research for the exhibition has unearthed far more about Crediton in and around the 1740s, which will enable CAHMS to tell the story of the town and its people before, during and after the Great Fire of 1743.

Alongside the exhibition, CAHMS is publishing a book "Crediton and the Great Fire of 1743", which will be available in April.

The publication of "Devon Parish Taxpayers Vol.3" and "Crediton and the Great Fire of 1743" add substantially to our knowledge and understanding of Crediton’s long and fascinating history; and the museum exhibition, with many visual images and interactive facilities, will present many of these stories to a wider audience.

"Devon Parish Taxpayers Vol.3" is available from: stevensbooks.co.uk  or: boydellandbrewer.com .

The Crediton 1743 Exhibition opens on Wednesday, April 19 at Crediton Museum (see the website: creditonhistory.org.uk for further details).

The book "Crediton and the Great Fire of 1743" will be available in April – copies can be ordered in advance from: [email protected] .

(unsigned).