A brief history of Twelfth Night
Most of us are aware of the superstition that the Christmas decorations must be taken down on or before Twelfth Night, the final day of the twelve days of Christmas. The twelve days of Christmas are commemorated in a popular song first published c. 1780. The song ends with the line ‘ Three French hens, two turtle doves and a Partridge in a pear tree’. The Church of England starts the twelve days on Christmas Day and celebrates Twelfth Night on 5th January, the eve of Epiphany
The Propylaeum: Tavistock’s Classical Library Building
Tavistock Subscription Library is now housed in Court Gate, adjacent to the museum, but between 1821 and 1831 it had its own splendid classical building in the centre of the town. In 1819, twenty years after its foundation, the library had amassed the resources to have their own building, rather than a hired meeting room above a book shop in the town. A suggestion was made to the Duke of Bedford’s steward in December 1820 that the library might be relocated to a converted roo
Brunel's Great Railway Adventures in Devon
Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s best known memorial to his pioneering railway work in Devon is the magnificent Royal Albert Bridge, which carries the Great Western Railway (GWR) over the River Tamar into Cornwall. Completed in 1859, the year of his death, the 157 year old bridge bears the inscription I.K. Brunel Engineer, which is how he wanted to be remembered. The name ‘Isambard’ means iron bright, an appropriate name for an engineer. There are other memorials to Brunel in Devon
