Lympstone Entertainments: A Towering Talk

A TOWERING TALK

If you stand on the shingle at Lympstone,

Looking West to the opposite shore,

By bright morning light you’ll be struck by the sight

Of three towers – no, look again – four!

But when Harland Walshaw stands on the shingle he sees no fewer than SIX towers, and he is giving an illustrated talk about them in the Village Hall on Friday 18th May at 7.30pm.

He will talk not only about the towers, but about the people and events involved with them. Do you know of the Battle of Lympstone, and how many died? Or why the daughter of Edward I lies in Powderham church? Who was the murderous Earl of Devon, and what was his fate? Have you ever seen a statue by E. B. Stephens (you almost certainly have), or a watercolour by the Reverend Swete, who visited Lympstone in the 1790s? Who was it changed his name from Tripe in order to inherit a fortune? Why did the Reverend Palk hero-worship someone with the bizarre Christian

name of Stringer, and how did he celebrate him? What does Brunel’s tower at Starcross have in common with the leaning tower of Pisa? And why does Mary Jane Peters deserve a tower to

commemorate her?

If you pay your £3 entry fee, you will not only find the answers to these mind-blowing questions, you will also help to keep Lympstone Church’s 600-year-old tower standing for a few centuries longer