SVA Diary

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Barbara Farquharson was one of the founder members of the Branscombe Project which, starting in the early nineteen nineties, set out to record people’s memories and explore local history and the wider landscape. John Torrance joined the Project in 2006. Between them, they have written many books. The Burnt House is one of their very major achievements. Barbara completed it this year, John had died in 2021.

A grand 1770s house in Weston was destroyed by fire in 1829, almost certainly by arson. It had been built by John Stuckey, an entrepreneur but rapacious and very unpopular. It is an extraordinary story of this wealthy landowner and poor villagers. The 1801 Branscombe food riot was one of the rare occasions where an East devon village community took to the streets.