I have had a number of family history and other queries in this new year, and also received an interesting booklet entitled "The Jenns of North Devon, 1566-2000". The Jenns were Huguenots who were being persecuted in France over a long period. The booklet, which was privately printed, deals with the Jenns who became widespread here in North West Devon.
In Bradworthy there is a farm called Jenns Alfardisworthy where members of the family were living in the 18th Century. Nearby is Jenns Cross and a photograph of the signpost at the four-cross way in it's rural setting appears on the cover of the booklet. The author mentions that the mother of the celebrated publisher, John Lane, born at Cory Mill, West Putford, was Mary Grace Jenn, daughter of John Jenn the Miller. A branch of the family also descended from Yeo's, William Jenn having married Grace Yeo of Higher Alfardisworthy, Bradworthy in 1740. Unfortunately there are no Jenns in the parish now, but happily we still have Yeo's.
I was privileged to visit Atworthy Chapel House recently and what a bright, comfortable home the present owners have made of it. In the conversion of the Chapel into a house by a previous owner the large plaque in memory of the Chings and Barfetts seems to have disappeared. The smaller plaque to the James family still exists and high up on the front wall of the Chapel House the names remain of those who contributed to the cost of restoration in 1891. I attended Sunday School here when I was a child living at Atworthy Cross. The first small Chapel at Atworthy was built in 1836 and one in the village a year later.
Many wayside Chapels arose in the middle of the 19th Century and were absorbed into the Methodist Union eventually and were closed later. In what is now the Bude Circuit there were at one time twenty nine Chapels. Now there are eleven. There is a huge drop in the size of congregations. Taking Atworthy Chapel as an example. An Ecclesiastical Census in 1851 recorded three Sunday services there, congregations numbering 36 in the morning, 70 in the afternoon and 20 in the evening. The dwindling of attendances in many Methodist Churches, as in other religious denominations, has continued down to the present day.
In the latest Guinness Book of Records I read that the world's most travelled man is John Clouse who lives in Evansville, Indiana, USA. He has been in all sovereign countries and all but two non-sovereign and other territories. It reminded me that in a foreword to one of the books of the writer Joan Rendell, whose home is near Launceston, it states that she has been in every country in Europe but Iceland. Talking to her one day I said I had been in every country in Europe except Albania. How did she get in there? She said it was open to foreign visitors and then closed again. The country then was very primitive. A native looked through the hole in a toilet roll and asked what the article was for having never seen one before. This was decades past and I am sure Albania is more enlightened now. I'm afraid that for me however, it will remain the European country I have never set foot on.
To bring my military links up to date I shall mention Paul Ham who is now serving in the Devon and Dorset Regiment, although this, with a photo, has already appeared in the "weeklies". He has completed a six months basic training course at Catterick, Yorkshire. Eldest son of Stephen and Auria Ham, his father was a regular soldier in the same Regiment and served on three tours in Northern Ireland, as well as in British Honduras (now Belize) and elsewhere.