“We manage and maintain a heritage facility in Bishopsteignton in order to advance the education and for the benefit of the community.”
This is our main goal as a charity but we have many others goals including community outreach, collections management, research and more! Thanks to the generosity of our greatest benefactor, Molly Combe, we have provided the Heritage Hub since spring 2019, for anyone to come and interact with Bishopsteignton’s heritage. The Hub is a space where those wishing to share their stories, memories, family or house histories can be welcomed by interested staff and volunteers. The Hub’s second function is to record those memories and histories and we do this using a range of methods. From recording interviews to digitising deeds, anyone with a Bishopsteignton story to tell can be confident that the Hub can see it recorded, preserved and shared with as many people for as long as possible. The Hub is also a place of work for the Hub team who oversee engagement, preservation and access, you can read more about them in Our story.
Our foremost activity as an organisation is outreach, engaging the local community in their heritage and encouraging Bishopsteignton people further afield to join in! Through partnerships and collaborations or simple one-on-one conversations, we try to connect people of all ages and backgrounds with their heritage and help make Bishopsteignton a better place to live, work and visit.
Secondly, we manage an archive collection, most of which originated from the Bishopsteignton Museum, you can read more about this in Our story. Highlights of the collection like First World War records and memorabilia and a 1930s Bishopsteignton Scouts uniform hat and shirt are stored amongst around 4000 individual records: scrapbooks, newspaper cuttings and many photographs! We also look after Molly Coombe’s archive of family photos, letters, postcards and other treasured items she left in her bequest.
Our foremost activity as an organisation is outreach, engaging the local community in their heritage and encouraging Bishopsteignton people further afield to join in! Through partnerships and collaborations or simple one-on-one conversations, we try to connect people of all ages and backgrounds with their heritage and help make Bishopsteignton a better place to live, work and visit.
Secondly, we manage an archive collection, most of which originated from the Bishopsteignton Museum, you can read more about this in Our story. Highlights of the collection like First World War records and memorabilia and a 1930s Bishopsteignton Scouts uniform hat and shirt are stored amongst around 4000 individual records: scrapbooks, newspaper cuttings and many photographs! We also look after Molly Coombe’s archive of family photos, letters, postcards and other treasured items she left in her bequest.
Third, we delve deep into the story of the village by researching Bishopsteignton’s history. Research is conducted by staff and volunteers using primary sources from our own archive and others as well as reading up in histories and memoirs. Research can focus on anything from the Bishopsteignton Players amateur dramatics group to Second World War’s evacuees and is compiled into fascinating articles published on our website.
Finally, we enjoy any opportunity to bring people together for special events such as talks, reunions, exhibitions and even dances! We invite Bishopsteignton people to annual Molly Coombe Memorial events such as the Molly Coombe Lectures. Past talk subjects have covered The Mary Rose, Bishop John de Grandisson and Tales from a Devon Tour Guide with increasingly enticing themes to be covered in future lectures.