1201st Portreeve's Dinner - answers to the quiz questions
Answers to Quiz Questions
A number of quiz questions relating to Ashburton were provided for discussion whilst waiting for the speeches - the following bits of history will help with the answers...
The town crest shows St Andrew's Church and the St Andrew's Cross. The present day church of St Andrew bears little resemblance to that depicted on the crest which was in fact a smaller Norman church which stood on the site around the 12th century. Recent excavations show a relatively complex structure suggesting that it was an important parish church at the time.
The Old Exeter Inn was originally known as The Church House Inn
The Old Exeter Inn is one of Britain’s oldest pubs and the oldest in Ashburton. It thought to have been in the early 12th century to house workers building the church opposite, and was originally known as the Church House Inn.
Alongside the church and the cross, the town crest depicts a teasel, the sun and the moon representing the wool, copper and tin industries. Ashburton's past prosperity came from the tin mining of Dartmoor and the woollen industry with the river Ashburn providing power for the many mills that once lined its banks. Teasels were used for carding the wool.
Ashburton is one of only four stannary towns in Devon and tin was mined in the area as far back as Roman times. The importance of tin mining is reflected in the Tinner’s Law and the Stannary Parliament which was held at Crockern Tor.
The current home of the Courts Leet and Baron is St Lawrence Chapel which for much of it's history served as a grammar school. On one of the benches are carved the initials of one famous pupil, William John Wills, who attended the school between 1845 and 1850. In 1860, Wills joined Robert Burke in an ill-fated expedition to cross Australia from Melbourne in the south, to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 2,000 miles. The expedition failed and Wills died around the 28th June 1861.
For more information: www.discoverashburton.info
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