Wembury Local History Society

11/10/2026

At our next meeting on Thursday 15th October, Wembury resident Ivar Hellberg will be giving a personal account of his role in the Falklands War. Ivar was Commanding Officer of the Royal Marines Commando Logistic Regiment during the conflict and has returned to the Falklands many times to commemorate his comrades.
As usual our meetings are held at Wembury War Memorial Village Hall, start at 7:30pm, and visitors are most welcome (entrance £3). In lieu of a speaker's fee Ivar has requested we have a retiring collection in aid of St Luke's Hospice.
Please note this is a change of subject from our advertised programme - Rosemary Grigg's talk will now take place in February.

05/10/2026

Experience the inspiration that drives us! 🌞 Our latest video, Wembury My Home, showcases the essence of this remarkable place in an affectionate way, and we invite you to explore it with us. Watch now by following this link:

An affectionate look at life in Wembury today based on a song of th...

01/10/2026

Our History Matters article from the October issue of the Wembury Review: Ida Sebag-Montefiore

If you have ever walked along the coastal footpath from Wembury to the River Yealm have you ever stopped to consider that the only reason we have this wonderful footpath is due to the generosity of one person - Ida Sebag-Montefiore?

In 1925 the Thorn estate was bought by The Hon Mrs Ida Sebag-Montefiore. She had been widowed as a result of the First World War, and had two sons, Arthur 13, and James 12. Arthur was attending Wellington School, but James was of delicate health and was educated at home. It was for the sake of James‘s health that Thorn was chosen to be their new home, as it was thought that the climate would benefit him more than the smoky atmosphere of London.

Ida extensively modified Thorn. The previous owner William Arkwright had erected a cupola dome on the roof which she removed, she altered two of the upper floors and undertook further work to the gardens. She also established a Jersey herd and had a model dairy built in the bottom of the valley adjacent to the walled kitchen garden. An enthusiastic horticulturalist, Ida won an award at the 1934 Chelsea Flower Show.

Hers was a well-connected family in diplomatic and court circles and some interesting people would have stayed at Thorn for the shooting parties, including possibly Rudyard Kipling. Her father was Lord Bearsted, one time Lord Mayor of London and the founder of the Shell Oil Company. It is said that a scallop shell from the Yealm inspired the emblem of the company.

Sadly, in April 1935 her eldest son Arthur was killed in a flying accident and it may have been this that prompted her to sell her Wembury estate. However, as a very early member of the National Trust and a great lover of walking and the outdoors she feared that the impending sale of her estate would be a developer‘s charter and she couldn't bear the idea that it might disappear under housing. Consequently, she offered 50 acres of cliff land on the Yealm estuary to the National Trust on condition that they obtained rights to prevent development of the adjacent 58 acres thus preserving the whole area in perpetuity.
It took Wembury Preservation Society from 1935 to Christmas 1938 to raise
the £3,000 that would pay off a loan taken out to save fields surrounding the cliff-top parish church from house building. This was despite intensive fundraising in nearby Plymouth, national exposure in the form of an illustrated double-page article in The Times, and a generous offer of support by Lady Astor. One consequence of this was that hopes of also purchasing a coastal strip evaporated.
The appeal‘s slow progress could have jeopardised the gift of Wembury Cliffs to the Trust, because of the condition that the donation would only be made if the appeal could pay for covenants prohibiting development of fields overlooking the cliffs. Fortunately, Mrs Sebag-Montefiore, a country lover and prominent benefactor, was also pragmatic. Abandoning her proposal, she presented both the cliffs and the covenants to the Trust in 1938.

With house building imminent, by 1938 Ida's vision became reality and had secured the protection of the entire western bank and coastline of the River Yealm from Wembury Church to Wembury Wood, opposite Steer Point.

26/09/2026

We're very excited to share our latest video - a guided walk from the top of Knighton Hill to the old school in West Wembury expertly narrated by Robert Rowland along the way.
You can watch it by following this link:
https://youtu.be/sSKvtWLEcUQ?si=-zt19RzcH5zrfEqk

13/09/2026

We return from our summer break next Thursday 17th September, when we welcome Martin Hazell who will be giving a talk entitled "A Tour through South West England in the Age of Sail". Martin returned to the city of his birth some 30 years ago following a career in teaching, lecturing and project management. He has written three books, many articles and given illustrated presentations on maritime social history. He was also until recently Chair of the South West Maritime History Society.
As always, visitors are most welcome to attend (entrance £3). We meet at Wembury War Memorial Village Hall starting at 7:30pm.

02/09/2026

Our History Matters article from the September Wembury Review:
Assault on a Magistrate

At Yealmpton Petty Sessions in January 1856, a man of some respectability of station named John Pascoe from Stonehouse, was summoned to answer a charge for having on the 1st of January committed an assault on Vincent Pollexfen Calmady Esq, a justice of the peace, residing at Langdon-hall, Wembury. He along with a man named Marshall was also accused of having threatened to shoot Mr Calmady.

In evidence, Vincent Calmady said that he was called upon by the clergyman of the parish, Rev Richard Lane, to go to an orchard in Down Thomas where some cock-fighting was expected to take place (cock-fighting had been illegal since 1835). He went there during the afternoon and among other persons that he saw was the defendant who refused to give him his name, and when he took him by the collar Pascoe resisted and tried to get away. Having been warned by the vicar not to strike Mr Calmady because he was a magistrate, Pascoe then gave his name and disclosed that he had a game fowl in his bag. Nothing more occurred with the defendant and Mr Calmady went away, having broken up a party of between thirty and forty persons who had assembled in the orchard.

About nine o clock the same evening Mr Calmady left Langdon accompanied by his gamekeeper, Henry Peckham, and two other persons, George Baker and James Parsons. A little before midnight they waited by the side of the road when they heard footsteps approaching from Langdon. Three men stopped and one of them came forward and was able to see by the light of Mr Calmady‘s cigar that it was him. Pascoe rushed at him and tried to seize his stick while another man joined the fray, whereupon his keeper stepped round and knocked the second man down. Mr Calmady got his stick back from the defendant, took him by the collar, and forced him into the road and put him in charge of his two watchers for assaulting him.

They took him a short distance on the road to Langdon when the violent language he made use of brought others to the spot. A man called Marshall became very abusive and Pascoe was taking off his coat to fight, and threatening what he would do. Marshall wanted Mr Calmady to provide a light to see the injuries to his skull and when he refused, he said “You mustachioed ****, if I had a gun I‘d shoot you dead”. Mr Calmady then released Pascoe fearing another fight and he and his men went towards Langdon. Pascoe and one of the others followed about 200 yards down the road abusing him in strong language. They eventually turned back and no more was seen of them.

The bench were of an opinion that an assault had been committed and fined Pascoe in the highest penalty of £5 or imprisonment for two months. The case against Marshall was adjourned until the following Monday when his defence claimed that the accused were returning from Wilson‘s B**r House where they had been enjoying themselves on New Years Day when they were attracted by Mr Calmady‘s cigar and went over to see who was there. On doing so Marshall was knocked down and Pascoe received a blow on the head. After this Marshall naturally complained of the ill-treatment he had received, stating he would take legal proceedings against the person by whom he had been assaulted. However, the bench thought otherwise and Marshall was fined 50 shillings plus costs, or imprisonment for one month.

The Devon Constabulary was not formed until 1856, the year of this incident. Magistrates were typically drawn from the landed gentry and local elite, and this is a reminder that they were expected to dispense justice not only in a court of law, but also through physical force when necessary.

31/07/2026

This month's History Matters article from the Wembury Review:
Monckswood
This imposing residence looks as if it could have been built at the time of Wembury House but it was actually built in the early 20th Century - over 200 years later. Mrs Walker who lived in Wembury House, had Monckswood built in the 1920s on the site of some old stables and the exercise yard for Wembury House. It was in fact designed by a friend of hers, Mrs Murray, who lived in it with her husband Captain Murray. It has a Spanish air about it especially in the entrance hall and staircase. Mrs Murray was an artist and evidently had a love of all things Spanish, and the round-headed windows of the drawing room were going to be left unglazed, in the Spanish style, just fitted with ornamental metal gratings and heavy curtains and wooden shutters on the inside. After the first winter however, this idea was dropped! There is a miscellany of other windows, which makes one rather think that they were reclaimed from other buildings. The name Monckswood recalls a former owner of Wembury House, George Monck, who supported Cromwell during the Civil War but later gained Charles II‘s favour. Monckswood was also sometimes referred to as the “Dower House” but it was never ever put to that use.

Captain and Mrs Murray lived there until there was a conflict between them and Mrs Walker. The Murrays then moved on to Yelverton where Mrs Murray had designed yet another house for them to live in. In 1948, Mrs Walker sold Wembury House to Mr and Mrs Studholme; he was the Conservative MP for the Tavistock Constituency of which Wembury was a part. Monckswood was included in that sale and the Studholmes leased the house to the Royal Air Force and it became ‘RAF Monckswood, the official residence of the local Air Vice Marshall, and remained as such up until the late 1970s.

Reverting to a private residence it was bought by solicitor Jonathan Trafford and his wife Barbara, and then by Roland and Beth Levinsky. Professor Levinsky, an internationally renowned immunologist who performed the UK's first successful children‘s bone-marrow transplant at London‘s Great Ormond Street Hospital in 1979, was Vice Chancellor of Plymouth University until his tragic death on 1 January 2007. Whilst out walking in stormy weather with his wife, high winds blew down overhead power cables in a field near his house in Wembury, and a live cable touched him, causing his electrocution. The new Arts building at Plymouth University, opened in September 2007, was named The Roland Levinsky Building in his honour.

19/07/2026

TALES OF THE MEWSTONE
Now available by mail order direct from the author Ivar Hellberg with all profits going to local charities. Price just £10 plus £2.60 postage and packing. To order contact the author by emailing:

[email protected]

08/07/2026

This month's History Matters article from the Wembury Review:
Wembury War Memorial Village Hall
70 years ago, on 28th July 1956, the official opening of Wembury Village Hall took place. This was the culmination of many years of fundraising that had begun in 1938, interrupted of course by the Second World War. Some of the money was raised during the war from concerts, dances and cinema shows held at the old Village Hall (now occupied by the Olive Tree Pentecostal Church) and after the war further funds were raised by the War Memorial Committee from events such as bazaars, whist drives, dances, and jumble sales. There was, at one time, in the square, a ‘thermometer showing how much money had been raised against the total amount needed, with a list of names of individuals and organisations who had given.
In 1955, Government grants towards the cost of building village halls became available and it was decided that building should commence. A hall costing £4,200 was planned and a grant application made for £1.400 which was successful. Meanwhile the invested capital suffered serious depreciation, so that by the time the hall was completed there was a deficit of £150 (not an inconsiderable sum in those days).

The actual opening ceremony was not without controversy. In order to raise funds, residents had been encouraged to buy a brick for 5 shillings (25p) in return for which they were entitled to put forward the name of a child to enter a competition, and to the winner would fall the honour of opening the hall. The winner had been announced as Julian Gilbert, the eight-year-old son of Mr AJ Gilbert of West Wembury Farm, but when the souvenir programme was published, the front page stated that the official opening was to be performed by Sir Henry Studholme, local MP and resident of Wembury House.

In a letter to the Western Evening Herald Mr Gilbert said there was considerable indignation in the village about the matter, and that some members of the committee were refusing to sell the programme. The matter was resolved by the hall being jointly opened; Julian unlocked the door and Sir Henry Studholme declared the hall open. For his part in the proceedings Julian was presented with a miniature silver replica of the key by Sir Henry. Further controversy was caused by the attendance at the opening ceremony of a German choir from Bremen. Bearing in mind this was only 11 years after the war ended, and the hall was a memorial to those killed, it was still too raw for some to accept this gesture of reconciliation.
In an economic climate that was still difficult, only the central section of the present hall could be afforded; the furniture from the old hall had to be reused, there was no heating system, and large roof vents allowed in far too much wind. We are fortunate that in the subsequent 70 years the hall has been vastly improved, including the addition of the Knighton Room, making it a facility of which the village can be truly proud.

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.