Being Devon

James and James both have strong roots in Devon. This January they journeyed to Plymouth to visit family, and alongside this private, contemporary connection, also took time to re-engage in a spirit of filial piety with more civic and heritage aspects of the place.

James Wenn’s maternal grandfather was the architect John Sweet, who was educated at West Buckland School. John’s family is most closely associated with Monmouthshire (Uncle Lionel being one of the Usk’s most famous fly-fishermen), but John returned across the Severn Seas to the ancestral county for schooling… and ancestral it truly is. ‘Sweet’ is a landowner in the time of St. Edward in the Domesday Book (excerpt pictured), owning amongst others an estate within the Plympton Hundred. The land today is private and inaccessible (blame the Normans!), but James W visited several churches of the Plympton Hundred (including Plympton St. Mary and Plympton St. Maurice) to pay appropriate respects.

James Syrett, who has Cornish ancestry (and a love of proper pasties) still has immediate blood family in Devon, and indeed grew up in Plymouth, having been schooled at Devonport. James’ grandfather Norman Pengelly was an important Plymouth pillar, and among different traditional pubs of which he was the landlord (including The Pear Tree on Devonport Road), The West Hoe, near the Royal Citadel, still operates today. The bar staff at the West Hoe were lovely, and definitely less cantankerous than Norman was said to be. The pub was and is a popular haunt for armed forces personnel, who mark their camaraderie with a display of martial heraldry and relics in a corner of the bar.

James S also checked in on a mark he himself has left in the Devon landscape for the future. They say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, so James did. He planted the pictured English oaks in Plymstock more than two decades ago. They are still standing and are now at full height. Better still, the local residents have since been inspired to plant a new bank of trees in the park in recent years. Beautiful things happen when you pass the baton.