LUSTLEIGH A DARTMOOR VILLAGE IN FOCUS

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF THE LUSTLEIGH SOCIETY

The Lustleigh Heritage weekend saw the launch of a new book titled ‘Lustleigh – a Dartmoor Village in focus’ about the beautiful Dartmoor village and marked the 40th anniversary of the Lustleigh Society.

The book was launched by Martin Barre, a former village resident and guitarist with the world-famous seventies rock band Jethro Tull, who said that he loved the coming back to the village after being on tour.

The village hall held the largest exhibition of historical material about the village and parish including paintings, historic photographs and documents. Kelly Mine had an open day to coincide with the heritage weekend with a shuttle bus running between the village and Kelly Mine.

The Lustleigh Society was formed in 1978 as a society for lectures on local history. In the years that followed a lot of material was donated. The archives provide an important insight into the development of the village.

The archives contain parish records of births, deaths and marriages, maps including the 1837 Tithe Map, a parish magazine from 1889, press cuttings, paintings, books, 3,500 photographs and postcards and photographic albums including an album of photographs by Cecil Torr who revised the Mayday celebrations in 1905.

Cecil Torr lived at Wreyland and wrote a book called ‘Small talk at Wreyland’ which sent up a number of characters who lived in the village.