Wembury Local History Society

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Wembury Local History Society

Wembury Local History Society is a large and active history society, founded 50 years ago in 1976. We cover Wembury Parish, Devon.

Wembury Local History Society is a large and active history society, founded over 40 years ago. From September to May we organise a series of monthly evening talks, followed by visits in the local area in June and July. Each year we present an appealingly diverse programme, covering a wide range of topics drawn from places and subjects of historical interest in Devon, Plymouth and Cornwall, as wel

l as in Wembury itself. New members and visitors are all welcome at our evening meetings. You can join online at the web address above. Wembury history: too good to miss!

19/06/2026

CAN YOU HELP?
Wembury Local History Society is planning an exhibition next year and we need advertising material or brochures from the housing developments that took place in the 1960s and 1970s both in Wembury and Heybrook Bay. We would also welcome photographs taken during or immediately after construction.

Do you live in Mewstone Avenue, Hawthorn Drive, Veasy Park, Heybrook Bay, or any of the 1960/70 developments, and do you still have any of this material? We would love to hear from you.

01/06/2026

Our History Matters article from the June edition of the Wembury Review: Roper‘s Bungalow

At the foot of Church Road and Pump Hill just before the road leading to the beach was an area that became known as Roper‘s Field. Langdon Mill once stood on the site, but was demolished by the Calmady family sometime between 1820 and 1860, the stone being used to build the causeway across the valley so that the grand carriage drive could be completed from Langdon Court to Wembury Church.

At the centre of the site was an attractive red-brick bungalow. The front was in three bays, with a castellated parapet giving the impression of a balcony. The front door was on the north side facing towards the woods; this was given the gothic treatment being housed in a portico behind three pointed arches.
The bungalow belonged to Captain Arthur Messeena Trevor-Roper who claimed kinship with the famous historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. Capt Trevor-Roper had led an eventful life before settling in Wembury, having been injured in the Boer War and also served in Mesopotamia during the First World War. In 1921 he was convicted of bigamy and was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment, having married in Bombay when he already had a wife and three children in England. However, he and his wife were reconciled and she took him back. In Kelly‘s Trade Directory for the County of Devonshire 1939, the bungalow is listed as “Wembury Bay Guest House, Proprietress, Mrs Roper.” The field behind the bungalow contained a number of brightly painted wooden huts or chalets around the perimeter. Capt Roper always insisted on high standards and they were all very smartly painted with well-tended gardens. Many were used by people from Plymouth who came for weekends and holidays, and quite a few by families who lived in them permanently. The whole settlement became known as ‘Roper‘s Field.
Capt Roper died in May 1966 and it was at about this time that the bungalow (and field) started to go into decline. In the mid-1970s it was bought by a property developer, but he could not get planning permission. In the midst of wrangling with the planning authorities, he died, his wife had no interest in the project and so it went further into decline until in the mid-1990s the whole lot was in a state of dereliction. The bungalow by this time had been boarded up to deter squatters and vandals.
In the late 1990s the bungalow finally succumbed to the vandals and was burnt down, shortly after which the National Trust took the whole site over and returned it to green field; an ignominious end to a once-fine property.

17/05/2026

Join us for our next meeting on Thursday 21st May when Philip Photiou will be talking about Modbury's Civil War. In this lecture Philip will talk about the first Battle of Modbury in December 1642, and the second battle in February 1643. He will explain how events leading to the two battles led to the defeat of the Royalist army, and the impact this had on the Civil War in Plymouth and the South-West. Philip is a local historian and has written three books, ‘Plymouth’s Forgotten War’, a history of Plymouth during the Civil War 1642 to 1646, and ‘The Wrath of Kings’ and ‘The Lamb of God’, which are two of a three-part series set during the Wars of the Roses. For the purposes of his research, Philip has walked all over Devon and Cornwall and he has redefined the forts and battle sites in and around Plymouth. He also works with Steve Johnson, author of the Cyberheritage social media channels, doing historical podcasts around Plymouth and other areas. Also with Steve he leads a monthly tour of Drake’s Island and a small number of historical walking tours around Plymouth Hoe and the Barbican.
We meet at Wembury War Memorial Village Hall starting at 7:30pm. As usual visitors are most welcome - entrance just £3.

01/05/2026

John Galsworthy and Wembury
John Galsworthy (1867 – 1933) was an English novelist and playwright, best known for his trilogy of novels collectively called The Forsyte Saga. Galsworthy was not born in Wembury, neither did he die there, but he had strong ties with the village throughout his life. He drew inspiration from the area and visited Wembury often to see the place where his ancestors had been farmers throughout the centuries. Eight generations of Galsworthys lived and farmed at Ford Farm in Wembury and Plymstock from about 1500 onwards. One of them William Galsworthy was a stonemason in the village in the 1800‘s and is buried in St Werburgh‘s churchyard.

The Forsyte Saga contains a lot of autobiographical material and this includes some descriptive passages in which it is not difficult to recognise the description of Wembury. “James once went down to see for himself what sort of place this was that they had come from. He found two old farms leading down to a mill by the beach; a little gray church with a buttressed outer wall”.
Again, in A Man of Property we read “Soames was impressed, indeed, by the extreme emptiness of this parish where his roots lay. It seemed terribly hilly, and full of space, with large fields, some woods in the coombe to the left, and a soil that you couldn‘t swear by – not red, and not white and not brown exactly; the sea was blue, however, and the cliffs, so far as he could judge, streaky…. Look! This field close to the sea is marked “Great Forsyte!”
The field “Great Forsyte” exists on the Wembury Parish Tithe Map as “Great Galsworthy”.

In 1967 the BBC broadcast The Forsyte Saga as a 26-part drama which had an extraordinary impact on British social life. It was widely reported that streets emptied and pubs stood silent while the show was on, and some clergymen were even forced to reschedule their evening church services because congregations refused to miss an episode. In 1983 Wembury Church staged a Galsworthy Festival over the course of four days. Local people dressed in period Victorian costumes and there was an exhibition about the Galsworthy family and its connection with Wembury, together with handicrafts, pottery and paintings. The event also featured an evening of prose and verse and a soirée at Langdon Court by Opera South West.

17/04/2026

LAUNCHED!

Last night’s meeting of the Wembury Local History Society saw the launch of Ivar Hellberg’s long-awaited book about the history of the Mewstone. It covers 1,000 years of the island’s history and is beautifully illustrated.

Ivar started writing the book during the Covid lockdown and parts of it were serialised at the time in The Wembury Review.

Tales of The Mewstone costs £10 and all profits will go to local good causes.
It’s available from Ivar himself.
Contact him at: [email protected]

12/04/2026

Join us this Thursday 16th April when we welcome Dr Todd Gray who unveils the texts of more than 100 writers who contributed to Mass Observation, that 1930s project in which Britain chronicled itself. This Archive is one of the last great untapped sources of Devon history and in it the experiences of men and women throughout Devon from 1937 to 1945 will be explored. This will include the impact of food rationing, the arrival of evacuees, the effect of the war on dreams and the prevalence of rumours.

We meet at Wembury War Memorial Village Hall at 7:30pm and as always visitors are most welcome - entrance just £3.

02/04/2026

Wembury Waves Bringing local history to life
wemburywaves.uk started as an online radio station, set up to share music, local features, and bits of village life. From the beginning, many of the songs and features were already drawing on Wembury's past, using stories, memories, and newspaper reports as their starting point. History was part of the project from the outset, even before it was formally organised.

As more of this material was created, especially songs based on real local events and people, it became clear that a live stream on its own was limiting. If you missed something, it was gone. A story or song might be heard once and then disappear.
So, the website wemburywaves.uk was developed to give this growing body of work a permanent home. It allows people to look around and choose what interests them. People can wander through the site, listen to songs, and read the stories behind them. The radio stream is still there, but the website ensures that the villages history and memories are easy to revisit.
The site is built around stories. Some come from old newspapers, parish records, memoirs, and archives. Others come from peoples memories and village life. Together, they show how Wembury has changed, and how much has stayed the same.
One of the main features is the “On This Day in Wembury” series, which links each date to real, checked events from the past. Care is taken not to guess or fill in gaps where evidence is missing. Wherever possible, original sources are used first, and the articles are written directly from them. Images are added afterwards to help bring the story to life. Alongside this, the site also includes local information, such as tide times, bus details, community notices, and news updates. There are also quizzes, Wembury themed games, and even virtual reality flights over the village.
What really sets wemburywaves.uk apart is the use of original songs to tell local stories. Many are based on real people, places, and incidents, including shipwrecks, court cases, wartime memories, and lost buildings. Others focus on everyday village life.
For example, Wembury's Guns, about the former HMS Cambridge gunnery school at Wembury Point, includes the lines:
"Wembury's guns still call the bay
Their echoes rise then fade away
You hear them when the storm draws near, The old range calling clear.”

A very different song about childhood memories, Up to No Good, recalls:
“We hid in the ash tree on Church Road bend
Waiting for a walker we could pretend
Was a ghost or a witch or a war time friend
Then wed jump out shouting loud as we could
And run like fury back into the wood.”
These are based on real places and experiences that many people still recognise.
The songs are carefully researched and checked. Digital tools, including artificial intelligence, are used to help with the musical side, but the human bit is still the important bit. The lyrics and the story come first, and each track is then refined before it is shared. wemburywaves.uk is not a formal academic project. It is a personal, community-based website, run by someone who lives in the village and takes a real interest in its past and present. The aim is straightforward: to record local history with care, to share it widely, and to make it enjoyable.
As new material comes in and more memories are shared, the site continues to grow. It is becoming a place where Wembury's stories are collected, explored, and shared.

Visit the website at wemburywaves.uk

15/03/2026

TAKE a trip to nostalgia with Wembury Local History Society when photographer Bernard Mills gives an illustrated talk on "Railways: Plymouth to South Hams".
Bernard, who lives at Buckland Monachorum, has worked on the railways all his life and has been photographing the changing railway scene since his boyhood days. He has built up an impressive collection of photographs which together with his vast knowledge of railway history and amusing anecdotes, promises an entertaining evening.
The talk at Wembury Village Hall takes place this Thursday 19th March at 7:30 pm and as always, visitors are most welcome, payable £3 on the door.

01/03/2026

KNIFE ATTACK IN CHURCH - Our History Matters article from the March edition of the Wembury Review:

During Sunday service at Wembury Church on 16th April 1837, a shocking act of violence took place that would be remembered for years. Seventy-two-year-old John Prideaux Hensleigh, a long-standing parishioner, suddenly turned on his neighbour William Bunker and stabbed him in the arm with a knife. The attack, carried out inside the church itself, horrified the small congregation and broke one of the deepest social taboos of the time — violence within a place of worship.

Prior to the restoration of Wembury Church in 1886 it contained box pews which were enclosed, high-sided wooden compartments with doors, offering privacy and comfort for wealthier families, symbolizing social status and allowing families to sit together, distinct from the open benches for the general congregation. The pews in Wembury were allocated to the various farmers based on a strict social hierarchy, with the best positions reserved for the wealthiest, highest-ranking families. There are no photographs of Wembury’s box pews but they would have been similar to those in the photograph taken at Inglesham in Wiltshire.

John Prideaux Hensleigh‘‘s forebearers had farmed Spirewell since about 1650 and he was the fourth generation to have lived there. Following his marriage to the granddaughter of a prominent yeoman farmer he started to expand his farming interests, taking over some of the tenancies of his wife‘‘s family and also Halwell in Brixton. Unfortunately, although he aspired to be like his wife’‘s family, times had changed, and England being at peace with the French meant that farm prices went down. As a result, Hensleigh had fallen on hard times and lost Spirewell farm, and after being a very important man of the parish and Church Warden he was not going to give up his pew without a fight. Spirewell had been bought by a Plymouth solicitor as an investment and the new tenant was William Bunker who thought he should have the pew which the Hensleighs had used for several generations.

Hensleigh was quickly arrested and later charged at the Devon Assizes with “stabbing with intent to do grievous bodily harm.” The Western Times recorded that he was found guilty and sentenced to “death recorded” — a form of mercy that spared him the gallows while formally entering the capital sentence in the record. The official Assizes register lists him by name, age 72, under the grim heading of “Death,” later commuted to imprisonment.

Old and frail, Hensleigh did not long survive his punishment. Records show that he died at Higher Ford on 3 March 1839, after serving 12 months in jail. His outburst remains one of the most startling episodes in Wembury‘s parish history — a moment when rage intruded on sanctity, and a quiet coastal village briefly found itself in the pages of national justice.

15/02/2026

We can't wait to welcome our next speaker, Rebekah Pearson, who will be giving a fascinating talk on 'My Devonshire Darlings - the Women’s Land Army in Devon' on Thursday 19th February at 7:30pm in the Wembury War Memorial Village Hall.
By the end of 1943 over 1700 women were serving in the Women's Land Army and subsequently the Women's Timber Corps in Devon. Living and toiling individually on farms or as part of a gang that lodged in a hostel and worked on the land wherever they were needed, the Land Girls and Lumber Jills were crucial to maintaining food supplies during the Second World War.
Becks Pearson, an ex Royal Naval Officer who lives in Lympstone, is currently creating a Roll of Honour to ensure that their contribution to the war effort is not forgotten and neither are they.
As ever, visitors are most welcome to attend (pay on the door £3) or why not join the Society for just £13 https://wemburyhistory.org.uk/membership

Address

Wembury War Memorial Hall
Wembury
PL90EB

Website

http://wemburyhistory.org.uk/

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