Margaret Lewis, curator of Honiton Museum

Honiton Pottery was started at the site in High Street by James Webber in 1881.

When Harriet Churchill (20) and Edward Tolley (20) were married in St Paul’s Honiton on 29th April 1855 their future looked promising and full of hope.

Summerland's first principals in around 1880 were Jessie Ann Eastman and her younger sister Elizabeth Martha who both lived on the premises.

Terry died aged seventy five after suffering a heart attack shortly after attending a meeting at Honiton Hospital.

The name Gissage (a tributary of the River Otter) is said to be derived because the river rose in Gittshedge on the boundary between the parishes of Gittisham and Honiton.

The Victorians had a huge passion for collecting plants to fill their homes and gardens. They would pay between ten shillings and hundreds of guineas for seedlings depending on the rarity, just so they could have something new to show off to their friends and neighbours.

Before World War One, the Devon Militia used to set up canvas bell tents and camp in fields on Heathfield Farm during their six weeks annual musketry training. They used the Round Ball range for shooting practice.

Honiton Museum curator Margaret Lewis writes about John Jonevich, a man from Greece who was charged with torturing a bear in Honiton High Street in 1879.

Rumours were rife. Some said that John was accidentally shot by a poacher or killed by a stranger but suspicion fell upon William Dean Dowell, his sister Eliza Williams and their neighbour Amos French.

Honiton Workhouse received around 120 homeless a week and introduced a system at the cost of £600.