WOODBURY PARISH COUNCIL cont’d/…

There will be a community information event on 22 August at 10.00 in Exton village hall. Children are welcome and refreshments will be provided. The project focuses on rapidly responding catchments in a predominantly rural area, whilst also making linkages between rural spaces and urban risks. This is a multi-partners project, building on many pre-existing initiatives across the partnership.

The project overall seeks to identify a range of replicable low-cost resilience actions that can be delivered and funded by local authorities and/or local communities of different sizes/settings where traditional flood defences are shown not to be appropriate or cost beneficial. The project seeks to identify what level of protection can be afforded to a community using nature-based interventions, tailored flood warning systems and property flood resilience measures.

Further information about the overall National Programme is available at: Flood and coastal resilience innovation programme – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Biodiversity

Cllr G Jung gave a comprehensive report (which can be found in full on the Parish Council website, in the minutes of the Full Council meeting on 12 July) covering the following issues:

 Nature Emergency: the decline in biodiversity is now recognised at national and local policy levels. All housing development projects will need to demonstrate a net gain of 10% biodiversity, meaning that more brownfield sites will be used. Our local plan is to increase this to 20%.

 Climate Emergency: we have seen the dramatic effects of this locally in the recent severe flooding in Newton Poppleford, and also in the work being undertaken to mitigate severe flooding in Lympstone and Exton.

 Greener options for cyclists and pedestrians: a petition has been started for safer cycle/pedestrian routes between Woodbury and Woodbury Salterton.

Simon Jupp MP

Cllr B Ingham advised that Simon Jupp MP will only be in office for Exmouth for the next few months as he will then represent Honiton / Sidmouth, so perhaps the Exton Flooding issues should be raised with him.

August Recess

During August there will be no Parish Council meetings and the Parish Office will not be open every day.

If there is any urgent business, in the first instance please contact the Parish Council Office or the Chairman Cllr Cheryl McGauley on 07786 706546. Our next Full Council Meeting will be on Monday 18 September at 19.30, in the Church Rooms, Woodbury.

Roundandabout

Welcome

We extend a warm welcome to the family who have moved into Graves End house in Woodbury Salterton. Jess, Alex and their young boys Louis and Rory together with Hagrid the dog are looking forward to village life and exploring the area.

100th BIRTHDAY CONGRATULATIONS

Jo, Philippa and Jimmy, and all Ruth Parsons’ family and friends, wish Ruth a wonderful and very special 100th birthday on 25 August.

Letters To The Editor

From Gill Gorman

You may have heard that Devon County Council has voted to scrap the mobile library service, due to the increasing cost of servicing its elderly vans. As yet we don't know the date on which the service will cease, but I think a notice about this will be necessary in the next magazine, because you usually give the dates for visits.

It's a great service and will be sadly missed by its regular users, who will now have to travel to Exmouth or Exeter libraries for books. Ed: see Editorial on page 3.

From Eve Hester

Greetings residents of Woodbury. My name is Eve Hester and I am currently studying Sustainability and Global Development at Bath Spa University. During the next 12 months I will be on my placement year. I have been accepted to study and survey the fascinating flora and fauna on a research camp in Sainte Luce, a nature reserve in southeast Madagascar that is home to one of the nation's last truly pristine coastal rainforests. Over the coming months I hope to make some money to support this charity called SEED (sustainable environmental education and development), a small non-profit organisation that runs the reserve, which depends on volunteers to assist and carry out significant conservation projects. I am available during August and September to assist in any way within reason, such as gardening, cleaning, dog-walking, baby-sitting and bringing you joy. Please feel free to get in touch: 07856 262796 / evehester2003@ gmail.com.

FULFORD v BRENT - THE LONG-STANDING BATTLE

The disagreements between the high church vicar and the evangelical doctor are well known, and a vivid and amusing part of Victorian history in the parish of Woodbury. The two men were very different, the Reverend John Loveband Fulford being a gentle, artistic and musical man with a quiet determination, whilst his rival, Dr Robert Brent, a Baptist from Wiltshire, was full of energy and self-importance, and had a finger in every pie in the area. Both men arrived in the parish in 1845, Brent as the resident doctor and Fulford as the curate to the elderly and sick minister. Fulford found that the church in Woodbury had become very evangelical, which was not how he intended that St Swithun’s should be. In one of his articles for the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society he wrote that he wanted to restore the church to how it had been in the years after the Reformation. Robert Brent never attended the services in St Swithun’s, though he managed to get himself appointed as one of the church wardens with the help of his supporters. At the same time he did all in his power to belittle Fulford and made full use of the local newspapers to poke fun at the vicar.

In Oct 1845 the following letter appeared in the columns of The Times newspaper: Sir, May I venture to request your kind attention to a subject of which many persons feel as deeply as I do the importance, and which through your kindness alone, by inserting this in your valuable columns, will be made known to the parties for whom it is intended, viz, the Priest Vicars of Exeter Cathedral? These gentlemen are the lay impropriators of the parish of Woodbury, the population of which is above 2,200: its tithes amount annually to £1,100; it is a perpetual curacy, and not under the control of any bishop; they abstract from this unfortunate parish the above amount, with the exception of £110 a year, which the clergyman here receives.

He has been for 36 years the curate, and is now really unable, from infirmities both of body and mind, to perform those sacred duties which devolve on him with justice to his parishioners; the result is, the parish is most dreadfully neglected entirely from want of an active and religious minister; and although only seven miles from the city of Exeter (a city renowned for its strict observance of religious duties, and attention to the wants of the poor), scenes of the most disgusting depravity and immorality are daily being enacted here from the bad example children have shown them by their parents – they of course follow in their wake, and even children of the most tender age are frequently heard in the streets uttering oaths of the most shocking character; and it is a well-known fact that in the whole county of Devon there is not a parish where so little respect is paid either to religion, education, or morality as Woodbury. The letter continues to offer the Wesleyan Methodists as an excellent body of Christians who sent one of their ministers to Woodbury to devote time to the sick and poor. The writer of this letter signed himself ‘A member of the Church of England’, but there was much speculation in the parish as to who the author was. The purpose of the letter was to warn the Vicars Choral not to appoint Fulford as the full-time vicar on the death of Edsall, who was much more evangelical than his curate. Though accusing many people of writing the letter, Brent was eventually obliged to admit that he was the author. He had shown in much of the later correspondence in local newspapers that he was determined to mould the religious beliefs in Woodbury parish in his own views. There were several local newspapers, Woolmers being the mouthpiece of the Bishop of Exeter, and the other, The Western Times, the supporter of the Evangelical movement, who were happy to print all the opposing views. Both newspapers were filled with letters from both clergy and laity in East Devon with comments and advice to the opposing parties. At one period Brent sent to The Western Times all the correspondence he had held with Fulford and the Reverend Joseph Corfe of the Vicars Choral, who were the Rectors of St Swithun’s. In one letter, in which Brent is complaining that Fulford was a disgrace to Woodbury with his high church views, he suggests that he should lend Corfe a book called Difficulties of a Young Clergyman. To which Corfe replied in a long letter, ending ‘with thanks for the offer of the little work called Difficulties of a Young Clergyman which I decline, but suggest that he should study Duties of a Parishioner.’ Corfe was always very polite to Brent, but would make the odd barbed remark to put him in his place. Fulford, too, could also poke fun at Brent from time to time – in 1847, after some officious correspondence from the doctor, he ends his own letter thus: You have been and it appears are ready to express your opinion, when I think it worth having I will not fail to seek it.

Brent wrote not only to the newspapers, but also to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Exeter. He stirred up a hornet’s nest in the Exeter region and letters, often signed with pseudonyms, were published week after week in all the papers, some supporting and others decrying Fulford. Brent, himself, would inform the newspapers, especially The Western Times about ‘the doings of Parson Fulford’, signing his reports as ‘a concerned parishioner’ or similar names. In one long diatribe he warns people that the country ‘will again be deluged with all the horrors of Popery’. He also twice sent petitions to parliament about what he considered were ‘wrongdoings’ of the vicar. Having been raised in a community of Baptists and only arriving in Woodbury at the same time as Fulford (a born and bred Devonian) many of his statements are formed from sheer prejudice. His comments about what went on in the services were not from his own knowledge, as he admitted to never attending any service in St Swithun’s. This battle of words culminated in Brent deciding that, as he could not get Fulford removed, then he would build a church in Woodbury for the Evangelical Protestants. Brent was a wealthy man, and many of his supporters were local farmers, and so he went about raising funds and support to build a church. The following letter was sent to the Exeter newspapers on 15 Jul 1847:

Appeal to all Genuine Protestants – especially those of the Established Church on behalf of a New Church at Woodbury, 7 miles from Exeter. The inhabitants of Woodbury deeply regret that any necessity should have arisen for such an appeal. But on the decease of the late incumbent, Mr Edsall, the Priest Vicars of Exeter, who are Patrons of the Living persisted in defiance of the respectful remonstrances of the parishioners, to intrude upon them their present Tractarian Incumbent, Mr Fulford, the most objectionable appointment that could be made both to high and low, rich and poor, in Woodbury. Since the Reverend Gentleman’s entrance upon the living, the church, previously filled has been deserted, and the inhabitants of a large parish in which union prevailed (and there were not half a dozen dissenters) have been virtually ejected from the venerable fabric, in which they and their forefathers have long worshipped. They have found shelter in a small building in which the Services of the Church are duly performed by the Rev W Wippell, but which is much too small, (accommodating only 150 to 200 persons), for the large congregation, very many of whom are unable to obtain standing room. Two inhabitants therefore have decided on building a commodious Sanctuary, to be used as a FREE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND,

till such time as it may please God to send a faithful Protestant Minister to the Parish Church. The New Church will be vested in Trustees sincerely attached to the Church of England, who will be empowered whenever so desirable a return can be conscientiously effected either to convert the Free Church into Chapel of Ease or Schoolrooms to be used in connection with the Established Church, or in any other way as circumstances may decide, with the approbation of the Incumbent and the parishioners. The inhabitants are not able to raise the entire cost of this undertaking without the aid of their Protestant Brethren, whose donations they earnestly and respectfully invite to be forwarded to the account of the Treasurer of the Woodbury New Church at the Devon and Cornwall Banking Company , Exeter. He also wrote letters to various influential people, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Exeter asking for assistance. The Archbishop referred Brent to the Bishop of Exeter who replied to Brent that ‘after reading [the appeal] I cannot permit myself to give it any consideration whatever’.

Nevertheless Brent and his colleagues went ahead and Christ Church was finally built and opened on 18 Jun 1851. The attacks on Fulford continued from time to time, though less frequently as Brent had used his energy to found the 1st Devon RA Volunteers, involve himself in politics, become a board member of the new Exeter and Exmouth Railway Company, and found a scheme to bring piped water from Woodbury Common to Woodbury, Lympstone and Topsham. This scheme and the battles with Fulford came to an end with his death in 1872, at the age of 52, from an epileptic fit. His funeral was held in the church in Woodbury Salterton, which was founded by the Evangelical Marian Pidsley, and he is buried in the churchyard there. John Loveband Fulford died in 1898, a much loved and respected clergyman. It was largely due to him that repairs to a derelict St Swithun’s were carried out, giving Woodbury such a beautiful church today. One of his sons, Robert Medley Fulford, was a well-known architect who drew up the plans for the restoration of St Swithun’s. Copies of these plans can be seen in the Woodbury History Society archives.

Gill Selley

Rspb Aylesbeare Common

Our news this month comes from the team at Aylesbeare Common RSPB. Fiona, our Warden, is on Lundy taking part in a storm petrel breeding bird survey with Toby, our site manager.

I am the newest face amongst staff. I’m Sally and I cover the Devon Reserves as Administrator. I was drawn to the RSPB as I have a long-standing interest in the natural world and species conservation strategies. We live in a time where there are extreme challenges in preserving the balance of how humanity and nature can co-exist successfully.

Fiona’s reflections in our contribution to the July issue of Woodbury News, sharing her heartfelt concern and assessment of damage caused by the flash flood, made me mindful of background science and breadth of considerations that go into land management strategies here in the area. The Pebblebed Heaths undoubtedly provided a very valuable cushion that softened the levels of damage caused by the unprecedented deluge back in early May. And now here we are in July. Having just got through a long period without rain and with record temperatures around the country throughout June, we are sure that the farmers and gardeners amongst you were very glad to see the recent change in weather.

An important member of our team is Gary who is the assistant warden. This is a new role for the team and adds much needed extra capacity for managing the workload throughout the year. Gary joined the RSPB Aylesbeare team in February, but you may have met him out on the reserves at any time over the past five years because, before joining the team as a member of staff, he has been involved with the work delivered by the team through contract work particularly related to land and habitat management. Gary lives close to the Heaths since moving to the area five years ago and often reflects on how incredibly lucky he feels to live and work in this beautiful and unique landscape.

Prior to moving to the area, Gary worked in various areas for the National Trust including Cornwall, Devon and the Peak District, which was where he originally began his career in conservation. Getting stuck into practical work across the reserve and working with our dedicated team of volunteers is a favourite part of the job for Gary, who also enjoys being part of a team whose depth of knowledge and experience is invaluable to everyone, but especially our residential volunteers.

Residential volunteers join the team for periods of 6 months to one year to develop their skills and knowledge, with the aim of using the experience to facilitate progression to employment within conservation. One of our current residential volunteers will be leaving shortly, and we are thrilled for Matt, who has secured a position working in the conservation sector. We asked Matt to share the highlights of his time with us.

“

I became a residential volunteer earlier this year and have loved every minute of it (yes, even when it’s pouring with rain!). I’ve been lucky enough to see so many species that I’ve never seen before such as nightjars, hobbies, sundew, and southern damselflies. Many of these species are unique to this kind of heathland habitat which is why it’s so important we preserve it.

Heathland requires human intervention to stop the succession of vegetation taking over and turning it back into woodland. It has been this way for hundreds of years since people first started domesticating grazing animals, and many species of wildlife have evolved to co-exist in this habitat. What this means for us on the ground is a lot of work and it has been a great experience being part of a great team of RSPB staff and volunteers to provide me with training, advice and support so that I can get out there and make a difference for nature.

It’s not just the nature that’s benefited though. Thanks to the experience and training I’ve received as a residential volunteer I’ve managed to secure myself a job as an assistant ranger. I couldn’t have done it without the fantastic team of people who I’ve worked with during the last year and so I’d like to finish my time here by saying thank you to all of them and keep up the amazing work!”

Our newest residential volunteer Michael started early in July and brings with him some wide-ranging experience. He recently did a MSc in Land and Ecological Restoration before joining us here at Aylesbeare Common. We are sure that Michael will get a lot from working in the area and in particular gain a great deal from seeing the local community join and get involved with the Heath Week events. The whole team here are looking forward to meeting lots of the people who make up this community during the events throughout the week.

Sally Fransen

Weather Report For June

The first 19 days of June continued the warm dry conditions of middle and late May. So we endured a second period of little rain here at Ebford during 2023, this time lasting five and a half weeks. Also it was the hottest June for many years over the country. The only significant rain fell in the third week and provided most of the monthly total of 26mm (ie 1 inch). This was much less than any longterm average over the last 23 years.

Norman Cann

Woodbury Newsadvertising Rates

SMALL ADS: (3 lines) private £2.00.

(3 lines) Business

£5.00. (£50.00 p.a.)

DISPLAY ADS: £17.00 ¼ page (£185 p.a.)

To: Karen Squires 233299 karensquires100@gmail.com

The Woodbury News accepts no liability for:- i) Any claims made by the advertiser; ii) Any errors or omissions in the advertisement as submitted by the advertiser; iii) Any legal action as a result of the advertisement.

Smalladvertisements For Sale

WANTED - PLOT OF LAND

Do you have a small plot of unused land? My wife and I are searching the Woodbury/Lympstone area, to erect a 1-2 bedroom timber lodge style dwelling. Any size plot or outbuildings would be considered. Tel: Les or Jane on 07912 290218 / email les.kennedy60@ outlook.com. (3/6)

SEACHANGE COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING FETE

SATURDAY 9 SEPTEMBER, 14.00 - 17.00

East Budleigh Road, Budleigh Salterton EX9 6HF

Exmouth Town Concert Band will be playing. A visit from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue.

Lots of stalls, a raffle, games, BBQ and a licensed bar. This promises to be a great day out for all the family, whilst helping to raise much needed funds for Seachange.