Along the coast from Wembury

The difference a couple of weeks' make. Here's a post I've been working on of a walk we did just before the weather broke and we had Storms Ciara and Dennis. Remember a time when the skies were blue and rain didn't come sheeting down?

The weather was set fair and where better to walk than along the coast? This time we ventured over the border into Devon for a stroll from Wembury Bay back to Heybrook Bay. Not that far from Plymouth but a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of the city. As it turned out, a walk with some fascinating history as well as the views.

The route was easy to follow: along the coast for a mile, then inland with a sort of 'up and over' hump back to the coastal footpath at Heybrook Bay and hence back along the coast to our starting point. We'll give ourselves barely 5 miles for this one.

The beach at Wembury with the Great MewStone in the distance. Way back people lived there and it was even used as a place for the banishment of felons, a sort of Devonshire Devil's Island. Then it was bought by the War Office because it was in the line of fire from the gunnery school, HMS Cambridge, formerly based at Wembury Point. I think 'in the line of fire' was a euphemism for them using it for target practice. The MOD restricted public access to the island, a move that, despite a constant rain of ordnance, greatly benefitted the wildlife living there. Following HMS Cambridge's decommission, the National Trust ran a successful fundraising campaign that resulted in the acquisition of both Wembury Point and the Great Mewstone. The old gunnery school was demolished, with a lot of work put into reclaiming and encouraging a natural coastal landscape, and preserving the island to protect the birds and wildlife that have flourished there. The Mewstone is not open to the public and is a very important site for a variety of seabirds like shags and cormorants.

 

Looking eastwards from Wembury along the coast to Start Point.

Halfway on the walk, just before we turned off for the 'hump', looking back towards Wembury, with the tower of St Werburgh clearly visible. Not a particularly choppy sea but with enough waves to make it interesting.

Where we've been and where we are going, but not necessarily in that order.

The 'top' part of our route took us along a 1/2 mile of muddy track. Lots of ivy and mud but very few leaves on the trees.

It was a very clear day and the Eddystone Lighthouse was easy to spot on the horizon. It was probably 6 miles out from where we were. The inset shows it as it is closer up, with the modern lighthouse to the left and the stump of Smeeton's version to the right. The top parts of Smeeton's structure are what you can see on the Hoe in Plymouth.

I've already mentioned the old gunnery school, HMS Cambridge, that once graced, and dominated this area. Its outer boundary was marked by a series of boundary stones, each marked with a rope and anchor and a unique number. We came across several of them on our way around. This is the one with the clearest markings.

One of the (many) peculiarities of the Royal Navy is that all bases, including those on shore, are deemed to be ships and are called HMS something or other. Such is the case of HMS Cambridge, land-based for many, many decades. But the name originated with a real floating HMS Cambridge when a gunnery training school was first mooted for Devonport, around 1855. The photograph shows THE HMS Cambridge to the right, with the hulk of HMS Caledonia to the left linked to it as a tender. Eventually, the training school was land based at Devonport, before eventually moving out to Wembury Point just after the end of WW2.

There is a family connection with HMS Cambridge in that Mrs P's x2 great grandfather, George Henry Laws, was based on the original ship in the 1860s, as the above extract of his service record shows. At one time the hulk of HMS Foudroyant acted as a tender for HMS Cambridge and it was on Foudroyant that Mrs P's x3 great grandfather, Thomas Western, once sailed, not at the same time as his son-in-law, George Henry. Sadly, George Henry and his wife, Charlotte Western, both died young and in the same year, 1877, leaving four orphaned young children. But that's a story for another day.

It is said that are few, if any, parish churches in Devon sited in a more beautiful and picturesque location than St Werburgh’s. Standing as it does above Wembury beach and opposite the Mewstone, it is easy to see why the church has become a favourite to couples planning a wedding. In fact, a member of the church told me that it was only the regular weddings that kept the place open, as the regular congregation is very small. Its exposed position explains the rather unsightly concrete rendering on the seaward walls.The main part of the present church was built by the Normans in 1088, replacing an earlier Saxon wooden oratory. In the 1880s there were substantial restorations made which, to my untutored eye, seem to have been done with some sensitivity. Certainly there was nothing there that screamed 'Victorian Gothic' at me. But what do I know? Not a lot about the interior of churches, perhaps, but I do know that the church tower has long been used as a navigational aid for ships heading into Plymouth/Devonport.

St Werburgh, the saint to whom the church is dedicated, was noted for her beauty and qualities of character that brought her a number of offers of marriage. But she refused them all, saying Jesus was her spouse, and is honoured in the Church as a virgin as well as a saint. She was the daughter of Wulfhere, King of Mercia, and St Ermenilda, which also made her a grand-daughter of St Sexburga and great-niece of St Etheldreda.One legend tells of her struggle against the attempts of Werbod, a nobleman of her father’s court, to gain her hand in marriage. The king liked Werbod and would have allowed him to wed his daughter if she had consented freely. St Werburgh’s mother, as well as her two brothers, Wulfhad and Ruffin, were not quite so keen on the match and the two princes sought out St Chad, the Bishop of Lichfield, in his woodland hermitage to ask his advice. Werbod, knowing their opposition to his designs, showed the pagan king the two princes returning from their visit to St Chad and incited him through slanders to put them to death. Werbod died himself soon afterwards and the king, stung by remorse over the murders of his sons, repented and submitted himself to the guidance of his queen and St Chad.St Werburgh was no longer afraid to tell her father of her vocation to be a nun and he not only granted her request but also conducted her in state to Ely, where she was met at the gate of the abbey by St Etheldreda and her community. When the king died in 675 he was succeeded by his brother, Ethelred, who persuaded his niece to return to the Midlands to supervise the female religious houses of his kingdom. She founded several monasteries in Mercia.St Werburgh died in Kesteven, Lincolnshire, between 700 and 707 and was buried at Hanbury, Staffordshire, but by the 10^th century her relics had been moved to Chester to keep them safe from Viking incursions and they were venerated there throughout the Middle Ages, with her shrine in the cathedral a place of pilgrimage until the Reformation.All of which is very interesting but sheds no light whatsoever on the association of the saint with Wembury church. No one seems to know why. And if you are thinking that Wembury is derived from Werburgh, you'll be wrong. It isn't.

 

The church contains many memorials, a veritable treasure trove for those of us who like them. The most splendid of these commemorates the Hele Family. It stands to the memory of Sir John Hele who died in 1608 and his family. The memorial holds small figures of the Hele children whilst Sir John is semi-reclining, propped up on one elbow. Below him is his wife, recumbent, with a little girl seated on a chair by her feet. Sir John and his wife appear to have been a particularly fecund couple as I counted 13 statues of children. I think the little girl in a chair is symbolic of an early death.

A very nicely carved font but not as old as it might appear, or so I've read. I'd put it down as Victorian but I stand to be corrected on this.

This was a little gem to come upon. A war grave with a story to tell. Who was Jeremiah Siyabi? And what was the South African Labour Corps? And how come Jeremiah was buried in Wembury? Hooray for Mr Google who quickly came up with answers for these questions and who also revealed a rather touching story which is worth telling.

Very little is known about Private Jeremiah Siyabi of the South African Native Labour Contingent SANLC). Records give no mention of his family and merely say that he died in an accident (falling off a cliff and dying of his injuries), aged 45. SANLC was a regiment set up in 1916 at the request, and cost, of the British Government. It was disbanded in 1918. The men of the regiment were employed as labourers and paid just £3 a month. They were kept in conditions worse than those of prisoners of war and were separated from Europeans by high fences, topped with barbed wire. At all costs, they were to be kept away from white women, they were not allowed out of the camps without an escort, were not allowed in shops or bars and were not to be entertained in the homes of Europeans. No medals were awarded to the men of the force, even though the British Government had provided one for all who had served with SANLC. There are very few war graves in Britain of soldiers from the SANLC, just three in Devon. It is amazing and wonderful that Private Jeremiah Siyabi is buried in a white British Churchyard in a beautiful position overlooking the sea, and has been given a memorial stone as good as any given to any soldier who died serving Britain in World War 1.

After the War, none of the black members of the South African Native Labour Corps, received a British War Medal or a ribbon. Their white officers did. This was a African decision. Black members of the South African Labour Corps from the neighbouring British Protectorates of Basutoland (modern Lesotho), Bechuanaland (Botswana) and Swaziland did receive medals.
Members of the Wembury community were touched enough to erect a separate headstone to Jeremiah (seen to the left of that of the CWGC) and unveiled it in a dedication ceremony on 11th November 2018. Well done them. Take a look at the rather moving You-Tube clip of the ceremony below and spare a thought for Jeremiah and the many citizens of the Empire who fought in far-off Europe and are largely forgotten.