Upcoming events
Our next meeting is on
Tuesday 6 October when best-selling author
Ian Mortimer
will be talking to us about his new book 'Through the Windows of an Ordinary House'
(due to be published on 17 September).
From Ian Mortimer's website:
This experimental book is both a national history and a local one. At the same time it is a social history of the English with a southwestern emphasis. It won't be like your normal history book, least of all like a traditional house history. What was the importance of the murder of Thomas Becket here? Did Magna Carta matter to the people here in 1215? How many other house histories can claim the property was owned in by a thirteenth-century priest who was pardoned for murder, and by the brother of a judge at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots? Here, a seventeenth-century resident, a woolcomber, carved his initials in the woodwork. And you can still see the damage from the winter of 1740, where a medieval truss snapped and the whole roof slipped sideways. As for the garden walls being laid out in the Bronze Age, suffice to say, this house is on a long, magnificent journey through time - and so is England - and so are we.
Picture and text courtesy of ianmortimer.com
Tuesday 6 October when best-selling author
Ian Mortimer
will be talking to us about his new book 'Through the Windows of an Ordinary House'
(due to be published on 17 September).
From Ian Mortimer's website:
This experimental book is both a national history and a local one. At the same time it is a social history of the English with a southwestern emphasis. It won't be like your normal history book, least of all like a traditional house history. What was the importance of the murder of Thomas Becket here? Did Magna Carta matter to the people here in 1215? How many other house histories can claim the property was owned in by a thirteenth-century priest who was pardoned for murder, and by the brother of a judge at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots? Here, a seventeenth-century resident, a woolcomber, carved his initials in the woodwork. And you can still see the damage from the winter of 1740, where a medieval truss snapped and the whole roof slipped sideways. As for the garden walls being laid out in the Bronze Age, suffice to say, this house is on a long, magnificent journey through time - and so is England - and so are we.
Picture and text courtesy of ianmortimer.com
NEWS!
A project to excavate the site of a rare Roman Villa between Sampford Peverell and Halberton has just (January 2026) been officially launched, thanks to National Lottery Heritage funding. The Sampford Peverell Society is one of the partners in the project, along with Exeter University, the Tiverton Archaeology Group, and Devon County Council.
For more information and to volunteer see:
https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/share/2025/12/11/hello-world/
For more information and to volunteer see:
https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/share/2025/12/11/hello-world/
We now have a number of videos on YouTube. You can see them here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb4Hlc-MA8KGXiN-0c5YlaA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb4Hlc-MA8KGXiN-0c5YlaA
Sampford Peverell at war
A film of our work to remember Sampford Peverell during the First World War is now available on You Tube. You can see it here:
https://youtu.be/Gio0Yb0E_1g
Much of the information we have found on those who took part in the war can be found here:
https://spsocresearch.weebly.com/ww1.html
A film of our work to remember Sampford Peverell during the First World War is now available on You Tube. You can see it here:
https://youtu.be/Gio0Yb0E_1g
Much of the information we have found on those who took part in the war can be found here:
https://spsocresearch.weebly.com/ww1.html
Help needed
We are keen to hear from anyone who can help with any of the following:
We are keen to hear from anyone who can help with any of the following:
- Memories of people living in Sampford Peverll in WW2, or of people from the village who took part in the war.
- Anyone willing to help with transcriptions of more parish records (computer with Excel needed)
Follow us via Facebook, see our videos on YouTube, or email us:
For more about Sampford Peverell as it is now see: http://www.sampfordpeverell.org.uk