JUNE 2021

Apologies to all our readers for starting this Report with the current situation vis-’a-vis the dreaded “C” word, inasmuch as it relates to Marldon, and our Village Hall. The many organisations, Groups, clubs and individuals who use the Hall and it’s facilities are waiting and hoping that the Government’s long promised date of JUNE 21st will indeed be the date when “all limits on social contact and gatherings will be scrapped”. Only then can all users and potential users of the Village Hall finalise their plans, to help us all to get back to normal.

The Village Hall Council is responsible for all aspects of the Village Hall and all regular users of the Hall are entitled to a representative on the Hall Council. To it’s credit the Hall Council has arranged its AGM for the very next day – Tuesday 22nd June, at 7.30 pm in the Main Hall. If you are part of a group which uses the Hall on a regular basis, please come along.

Changing the subject (thank goodness), you may have read in my Report in last month’s Magazine under the Heading “What’s in a name?“ that I was able to investigate the previously unheard of Viscountess de Barbe, thanks to an accidental sighting of her name in the February 1920 Parish Magazine. It seems that the Viscountess lived at Moor Tor at least since 1920 with her Brother Claude Charles de Barbe . Her “non-title” name was Lillian Florence de Barbe, and she may have left Moor Tor when her Brother married in 1928. Her Brother and his wife were recorded as living at Moor Tor on the Electoral Register of 1931.
At the end of my piece titled “what’s in a name ?” in last month’s Magazine, about the De Barbe family and their residence at Moor Tor in the 1920’s, I wrote that in light of what we had already discovered, “our search for more information could continue”. No sooner had the Magazine gone to Press than a little more information came to light with regard to the death of Lillian Florence de Barbe We were correct in assuming that she and Claude de Barbe were Brother and Sister – see (2.1928) and (7.1940) on the detailed list in the May issue. At the time we had no further details. We have now learned from her Will that at that time she was known as Comtesse De Barbe Lillian Florence Chevalier, described as “a single woman”, who died on 3rd May 1940, age 72 at Posbury House, Crediton. She was buried at Sidmouth.

TONY CHIDLOW – CHAIRMAN  

REMEMBERING FRANK PALK .. 14th JANUARY 1926 – 18TH MAY 2021

I am sure that many of our readers will be aware, through the Marldon grapevine, of the passing of one of it’s oldest and most liked residents, Frank Palk. I am equally sure that most of them will know him simply as “Frank”. He was always ready to chat to a friendly face.
It is hard to believe that it is only a few months since the History Group, of which Frank was a founding Member, had a full page “Happy Birthday” feature and photographs of Frank in his prime, with his family, and his beloved cows.

This tribute can still be seen HERE

Frank had many interests and hobbies including the Church, the Parish Council, the History Group, and the Gardening Club, plus others and he took a keen interest in them all. No doubt they will all be giving their own personal tributes , from which we may all learn a little more about this most liked man.
The last time I saw Frank was just after Christmas, when he was parking his car outside “Marldon’s favourite meeting place” ie the Top Shops. (Still driving at 94!!) “I’ve got something for the (History) Group” he said, groping about on the back seat, and surfacing with a handful of photocopies of a page from that weeks Farmer’s Gazette, with a familiar photo and a half page article about Frank and his farm. “One for the Archive” he said, and off he went. I hadn’t the heart to tell him he had given us the same photo some years ago.

TONY CHIDLOW – CHAIRMAN