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Colebrooke Water

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I grew up listening to greybeards of the area opining that the name Colebrooke originally meant “Land of the Cool Brooks”, which Colebrooke parish has many. With that in mind, it may come as a surprise for people to learn that the village of Colebrooke suffered badly from lack of water until the 1950s. My memories of this stem from the war years and just after, as a schoolboy watching people carrying water in buckets from the Vicarage Well, a source of water which was then in the vicarage garden but now in the grounds of The Oyster… The carrying apparatus consisted of a square frame into which a yoke had been fitted with a bucket holding just over 2 gallons (c 10 litres) on either side. Read more...

Colebrooke Revel

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COLEBROOKE REVEL About 200 years ago the people of Colebrooke would be getting ready for their annual festivities. However, The Colebrooke Revel seems to have been taking place long before this and originally began with a church service on the morning of the Sunday nearest the 7th of July followed by a day of sporting activities. In 1896 a paper read to the Devonshire Association regarding the revels of Devon over the previous 100 years mentioned Colebrooke and said it had become noteworthy for its “Revel Buns” Read more...

The Great Fire of Colebrooke

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The Great Fire of Colebrooke At the western side of the churchyard, by the road leading up to the village hall, three rows of graves cover the area once occupied by a row of thatch cottages. On the afternoon of 24th August 1893, these cottages, including the grocer’s shop, were destroyed in one of the most massive conflagrations in Colebrooke. The alarm was raised by the schoolmaster Mr John Sharland who from his house beside the school (Chenery House), smoke rose at the back of one of the cottages occupied by retired farmer Mr John Cooper. Read more...

Colebrooke Bellringers Bell Ringing Marathon

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On 9th March 1991 at 5.00 pm six bellringers and two peal callers gathered at St. Andrews Church Colebrooke to ring a peal of call changes on Colebrooke’s enormous and tricky 18cwt peal of bells that consisted of 1507 call changes where different pairs of bells exchange places in a sequence of six. The occasion was to raise money for the refurbishment of Colebrooke’s bells. Much needed refreshments were laid on by volunteers at the village hall afterwards. Read more...