Bampton in Devon

The two public telephone boxes in Bampton (Newton Square and Briton Street) both have preservation orders on them. They are the 'Jubilee' model of 1936 - it is very rare for two boxes to be preserved in the same area.

There are traces of old orchards around Bampton, relics of the cider industry. Bampton cider was renowned in the area, and sold exclusively at the White Horse Tap. An original Bampton barrel is now incorporated into the new water bowser trailer.

The town 'lock-up' for wrong-doers is still visible, although some was converted to public toilets next to the river bridge - now closed. One end however is an 18th century vaulted cell.

Some old OS maps (1888, 1904) show a 'spa' in Brook Street which refers to the well in front of 'Well House'. This is fed from a mineral spring. It was the Dr Thomas Guinness, the local medical officer of health from 1886, who had the idea of selling the water bottled - he was great-great-grandson of the founder of the Guinness brewery in Dublin. We're told the water resembled liquid rust! - so the locals wouldn't touch it, and the idea of a spa was dropped.

The Public Library was opened in 1872 as the result of a bequest by Rev. Edward Langton who had been born in Bampton, but moved to Cape Colony (now South Africa). He willed his collection of 630 mainly theological books.

In 1850, the town had eleven inns, and two beer-houses (it was thirsty work in the quarries!). There was a miller, four bakers, two blacksmiths, eight boot and shoe makers, four butchers, two cabinet-makers, two coopers, five grocers and drapers, three saddlers, five tailors, three wheel-wrights, two tanners, and four painters and glaziers.

Until 1871, drinking water was only available from wells. In that year, a pipe was laid from a spring near the South Molton Road to a tap for townsfolk to use - it is in the corner of Newton Square. Other taps were later provided elsewhere. Later still water was pumped from the spring up to the reservoir at the top of High Street.

Until the end of the 19th century, gelignite for blasting was kept in a house in Newton Square. It was transferred to the quarries strapped to the cross-bar of a bicycle! In winter it was too cold to use, so the men would put it round their stove to warm it: they did this once too often...

The first 3-wheeled carts produced in Devon were made in Bampton during the 18th century and called the Bampton Barrows. They were horse-drawn and used in both quarries and fields.

Wells Cathedral. A modern wood carving of the Risen Christ under the astronomical clock has a Bampton connection. It was carved from a Yew tree which grew in St. Peter's churchyard in Tiverton. The rough cruciform shape was fashioned by Alan Collard of Bampton, and the final carving was done by a Blundell's schoolmaster, Escourt J. Clack. The figure is in memory of one Prebendary T. L. Sissmore, and was placed there in 1955. (Alan lived in School Close until his death in 2009).

Suzannah Webber, daughter of a successful sergemaker, John Webber, who lived at Doddiscombe, invested £1,000 in the Minehead Turnpike Trust in August 1830. The investment gave interest of £100.16.0., £95.16.0. of which went to the school (the other £5.0.0. was put aside for a bread charity). This charity still functions, and the school still benefits from it.

The chart on the right shows how the population of Bampton has changed since 1801.

If you read carefully the pages of this History section, you should see reasons why the population was so much larger in the middle of the nineteenth century. You might wonder where they all lived, given the number of houses which have been built in the last half of the twentieth century!

Can anyone shed any light on this curiosity? It is a gravestone, dedicated to a fox, photographed a few years ago on Morebath Hill. We think it says:

POOR OLD RENARD
BURIED HERE FOILED
THE HUNTER MANY A
YEAR A VIXEN CALLED
ACROSS THIS ROAD
AND HE FORGOT THE
GREEN + CODE
R.I.P.