Memories at a Tea Party

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A very successful afternoon tea party was held at the Victoria Tea Rooms in Pilton Street on Thursday 20th December 2012 for the residents and trustees of the Pilton United Charities Almhouses.  Armed with loads of photographs and some of the more interesting documents from The Pilton Story archive, the Story team explained to an audience of over 20 squeezed into the cosy Tea Room what had been collected in the first 9 months of its existence.

Pilton Primary School Pupils 1948

After showing the oldest item in the archive – a photograph of the Desborough family at Broadgate Villa – and the newest – a photograph of the Movember 2012 group in The Reform Inn – discussion moved to those items which had been most visited. The top place is a photograph of the Rev James and Mrs Connie West from the 1970s with nearly 350 hits.  Second is the snowy view from Pilton House at Christmas 96 years ago in 1916, and third is a photograph of Pilton Primary School pupils (above) in 1948, well within the memories of most of the guests.

The tea party has prompted enormous interest in The Pilton Story which we hope will lead to further submissions of family and Pilton photographs and other material in the New Year.

Young ND Musicians’ Concert

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Poster for 2012 Winter Concert

The original 1982 Pilton Festival included two concerts in Pilton Church.  Since then there have been many concerts in the Church.  In 2008, as part of the efforts to raise money for the critical Repair of the South Porch, Carol Haddrill organised a concert with music played by Young Musicians interspersed with readings by people from the Pilton community.  The story of this concert is included in the archive as the Summer Concert 2008.  The Summer Concerts were repeated in 2009, 2010 and 2011 at the end of the Pilton Festival weekend.  The music came from some of the most talented young musicians of North Devon who welcomed the opportunity to play in front of a real audience.  The readings always followed a particular theme – like ‘Summer’, ‘Man on Earth’ and  ‘Man and the Animal World’.  In 2012 it was decided to organise a Concert in December, again in Pilton Church, with the theme of Winter.