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About the Throwleigh Archive Project
History of the Throwleigh Archive
Planning the future for the Throwleigh Archive
Some interesting snippets from interviews
Farming memories
Church and Chapel
The book "Throwleigh - pictures and memories from a Dartmoor parish"
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History of the Throwleigh Archive
Location: Devon
The idea of creating an archive of Throwleigh past and present had three sources: Millennium celebrations, a small surplus in the Beating the Bounds accounts; and, crucially, a suitcase.
The suitcase contained the late Amy Harvey’s extensive records of Throwleigh school, and this was the catalyst: there seemed no better way of marking the Millennium than by making a permanent record, not only of the school but of the whole parish.
This Archive would probably not have started without Amy Harvey. The core of the initial collection was a suitcase packed with all sorts of documents and pictures which Amy had collected, and which was lent to us after her death in 1999. Almost all the pictures have full details with them, and she recorded a mass of fascinating detail about the village and its people in her writings. She also wrote a series of articles for the Parish Magazine, originally for children, which I have quoted in many of these notes.
Amy was born on 17th February 1909. Her father was Dick Hill, the fourth generation in a line of Throwleigh blacksmiths. She went to the local school, and at the age of 12, was one of eight children in the whole of Devon to get a boarding place at Crediton High School for Girls.
She trained as a teacher at Salisbury, and after a short time teaching in London, Plymstock and Buckfastleigh, became head teacher at Throwleigh School at the age of 21. There were two teachers in the school, and 48 children.
In 1935, Amy was planning to be married, but the County would not employed female married teachers, so she had give three months notice. She applied for another job in a Church school, but in the end was allowed to re-apply for her old job. So, with her marriage to Alf Harvey in 1936, she became the first married teacher in Devon. Alf was in the Air Force until 1950. Also in 1936, senior pupils started to go to Chagford school.
Teaching concentrated on the three Rs, so that by the age of eleven children could use the atlas, dictionary and Bible. There was country dancing and singing once a week, culminating in the annual May Day celebrations.
Amy ended her long and successful career in 1968.
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