Manning's Pit Timeline of Significant Events
| 1605
- 1608 This is almost certainly not relevant to Manning's Pit, but is important for Barnstaple's cultural history, and would have been of interest to Benjamin Manning, who quoted Shakespeare at every opportunity : Shakespeare probably visited Barnstaple as his company toured the South West while endeavouring to avoid the Plague. |
1768
| Amelia
Griffiths is born in Pilton. Amelia who became
known as the "Queen of Seaweed" collected and
preserved almost 250 species of seaweed during her
lifeteime. She is now recognised as having been
one of the most important early woman scientists,
in many ways similar to the more famous Mary
Anning. You can read more about her at this link She probably left Pilton when she married the Rev, Griffiths and they moved to Cornwall, but it is highly likely that as a child and young woman she would have walked in the fields that are known as Manning's Pit. |
1775
|
J M W Turner
born 23rd April, Covent Garden, parents moved there from South Molton, North Devon, shortly before. Turner is considered one of England's greatest artists. What is Turner's relevance to Manning's Pit? His Uncle lived very close to North Field, which was the name of the Manning's Pit field at that time. It is likely that Turner visited him. Turner himself almost certainly knew FR Lee (see below), and we have uncovered evidence that suggests that he - at least once - collaborated with Lee, as did the other important Victorian artists, Landseer and Cooper. More to be added on this topic. Here is a clip of a modern map taken from Google Maps, with the locations of Manning's Pit, Littabourne, where Turner's uncle was to live, Pilton Street, where Banjamin Manning had his home and shop, and Bellaire, where FR Lee, the Hibbert family and Saki's family lived. It is only a two minute walk from Saki's house to Manning's Pit today, and it would not have taken very much more time to get there across the fields from Littabourne.  Turner the
artist was the son of William Turner and Mary
Turner (née Marshall). His grandfather, John
worked at South Molton as a saddler and his
father, William, was a barber and wig-maker in
the town. The family are said to have lived for
at time in a cottage in North Street (then known
as Steppa Lane.) William Turner had four
brothers and two sisters.
Joseph Turner's early life was spent at 21 Maiden Lane (Covent Garden) and his father encouraged him in his desire to be an artist, selling his son's drawings at his barber's shop. More information
here:
http://www.southmolton.talktalk.net/turner.htm |
1789
|
Rev Sweete in
his tour of North Devon observed a pillar
in the right of the Road (the Longstone) at the
junction of Bellaire and Under Minnow
Road. There will be more information
added about the Longstone under Sarah
Hibbert's details later, but this
stone was to become a feature of the garden F R
Lee created in 1859 after he moved to Broadgate
House. The modern day photograph shows the
Longstone as it is now, outside the walls of
Broadgate House. This spot was said to have
significance as a central point for many ancient
routes, and it has been surrounded by Save
Manning's Pit posters signs and banners in the
last two years.
More information to come also about the ancient routes. |
1792
Ceramic sculpture in Victoria and Albert Museum
| The
Death of Munrow Poor Lieutenant Hector Munroe met a tragic and embarrassing death on the 2nd December 1792, that could have come straight out of one of Saki's stories... He was attacked by a tiger while answering a call of nature in some bushes. In a world without television or much amusement, ceramic sculptures depicting his gruesome death were all the rage for quite some time. Whether or not he was related to the family of Hector Hugh Munro (Saki) the story of his death must surely have had an influence on the imagination of the boy Hector as he grew up in Broadgate Villa. Saki story about a tiger More about Saki's stories and Munroe's death 1794Thomas Lee Jnr born at Barbican House, near Trinity Street, his father a successful architect.Link to Wiki entry for Thomas Lee |
1798
Frederick Richard Lee born, June
|
1816
(possible date)
Frederick Richard Lee has commission in 56th Regiment
and serves in the Netherlands
1817
| FR Lee
leaves Army because of ill health and from
this time devoted his life to landscape painting |
1818
| Frederick
Richard Lee becomes a student at the Royal
Academy. J M W Turner was a Member and a Tutor of the Royal Academy, and the two of them are likely to have known one another, especially as they both had family in North Devon. |
1821/2
A Lace Factory is opened at Raleigh Pilton (a branch of Heathcote's Tiverton)Benjamin Manning moves to Pilton around this time.
1828
Hugh Robert Hibbert born, in Birtles, Cheshire. 19th December:he is later to marry F R Lee's daughter, and become Mayor of Barnstaple.
1830
Lee paints “The Lane towards Pitt Farm, Raleigh, in Pilton” in July.This painting could have been done while he
was visiting his family in Barnstaple.
1832
Benjamin Manning marries Elizabeth Gribble (from Parish of BishopsTawton) 23 October
1833
27 Oct Pilton Parish Church: John Gribble Manning baptised,Benjamin Manning's first child.
1834
|
Thomas Lee Jnr
drowned in accident at Mortehoe. He had been a
successful architect like his father, and there
is a plaque commemorating him at St Anne's
Chapel. Among his works were the Wellington
Monument and Arlington Court, and also the
Barnstaple Guildhall - where Benjamin Manning
was later on to attend Town Council
Meetings - and the Town Council in 2017 voted
unanimously against any development on
Manning's Pit.
 Thomas Lee Jr may also have been the architect responsible for Broadgate Villa, the house where Saki lived as a boy. This house is directly opposite Broadgate house, which became F R Lee's home in 1858. One other item of interest - it is possible that Thomas Lee lost his life in a surfing accident. Surfboard riding probably became popular after Captain Cook and his crew witnessed it off the island Kauai in Hawaii in 1778. |
1835
Pilton Parish Church 4 October William Manning baptised
- Benjamin Manning's second child
1837
|
Pilton Parish
Church Frederick Richard Manning baptised,
Benjamin Manning's third child.
FR Lee was elected a full member of
Royal Academy in 1838, enjoying great
success as a landscape painter, associating with
Sir Edwin Landseer and Thomas Cooper. He is
known to have collaborated with them in the 1840s
and 50s, Frederick painting the landscapes while
Landseer or Cooper added the animals. He settled
at Penshurst in Kent with his wife Harriet and
daughter Sarah Catherine.JMW Turner's uncle moves to Littabourne from central Barnstaple. Littabourne is only a quarter of a mile from Manning's Pit, and the about the same distance from Broadgate House where F R Lee was to live later. While Turner died before Lee bought Broadgate house, it is possible that Lee knew about Turner's uncle, or even had some contact with him in Littabourne while on family visits to Barnstaple.. 18381840Pilton Parish Church Harriet Manning baptised, Benjamin's fourth and last child. Sarah Catherine Augusta Lee born in (London?) F R Lee's daughter. Sarah Hibbertlink to page about Sarah Hibbert and her husband Colonel Hugh Hibbert.Their granddaughter married Henry Williamson's wife 1845Broadgate Villa for sale. This house was later to become the childhood home of H H Munro (Saki)1847Hugh Hibbert first enters army as an Ensign in
the 39th Foot. enters Regiment Royal Fusiliers, went with them
as a captain to the Crimea. He reached the rank
of Brevet Major in 1855 without purchase due to
exhibiting bravery and leadership on the
battlefield.
1849Sale of Pilton Estate, including the field known as Northfield (or North Fields) part of which became known later as Manning's Pit. As the map makes clear, it was bounded by Northfield Lane, which has not changed its name.  Benjamin Manning writes to the North Devon Journal during his dispute with "Tenant Farmer" over pigs. Here is a part of the letter: "Indeed, I admit the impropriety of keeping pigs in places not adapted for that purpose; but the place in which I store mine is situated at the extremity of a garden 120 feet from the nearest dwelling house. This place is sheltered by a wall 10 feet in height; so that nothing, in the way of mischief, can reasonably be supposed to result from pigs being kept under such circumstances. But one word more – will Mr “Tenant Farmer” be so bold, and so manly, and so honest, as to give his proper name and address in answer to this, that our townspeople may have the opportunity of knowing to whom they must send their wash. I hope he will learn from this that pigs are not the only unclean animals; and that meanness and spleen, grounded on the most fallacious, ungenerous, and unjust principles, as they of necessity be, can never fail to merit the censure and disapprobation of very lover of truth." The Full LetterMr Tennant Farmer's letter Western Times - November 10 1849 Benjamin Manning stands in Municipal Elections for North Ward as "champion of pig-sties"  Cutting from the British Newspaper Archives
|
1850Harriet Eves Lee dies in Kent, and is buried there, where she and Frederick Richard Lee have been living. Manning and Sons butchers shop in High Street, note the sign also says Auctioneers. This shop looks very much the same today. It is now (2016, since then sold again) a shop by the name of "Saltrock"  20 June North Devon Journal, notice of Public Meeting, Pilton Parish Council. concerning sewers of parish, Benjamin Manning one of overseers of Parish. Hugh Robert Hibbert commissioned Lieutenant in the 7th Royal Fusiliers. 1851Census
Benjamin Manning, butcher, grocer, auctioneer, living near 30 Pilton Street with wife Elizabeth and four children, plus wife's father and mother, John and Elizabeth Gribble. John is a Greenwich Pensioner. Also Manning nephew, John. J M W Turner dies in December More details from South Molton website: Turner never married and in his Will he made provision for land for the building of almshouses for "decayed English artists (Landscape Painters only) and single men". In a codicil made in 1848, he left all his pictures to the nation, providing that an Art Gallery, to be known as "Turner's Gallery", was built and maintained at the nation's expense. If it was not built within ten years from the date of Turner's death then his heirs-at-law could claim the entire collection. When Turner died in December 1851, his next-of-kin contested Probate on the grounds that he had been of unsound mind. 1852North Devon JournalBenjamin Manning (auctioneer) sells a house owned by a Mr William Turner (Mason) in Silver St. Probably coincidence but see below, 1856. 1854Hugh Robert Hibbert serves with 7th Royal Fusiliers, in the war in Crimea, they embark April 1854From the Macclesfield Express (the story is based on research by Macclesfield historian Dorothy Bentley-Smith) "Shipped to the Crimea with his regiment Lt. Hibbert was first engaged in the battle of the River Alma, where the French, British and Turkish armies defeated the Russians on 20th September 1854. The Fusiliers had led the storming columns, and young Hibbert suffered a slight but painful wound to his ankle from one of the last shots fired on the battlefield, which lodged in the heel of his boot. Learning erroneously that Sevastopol was well defended on the northern side, the command was given to attack from the south, which meant skirting around the town. At first, with the peasant farmers gone, there was much fruit and food to be had from the cottages and orchards. However, conditions rapidly changed. Though lame Hibbert refused to leave his men and walked the ‘very severe march’ south to the Crimean port of Balaklava, even refusing a request to complete the journey aboard a British naval vessel." Read the brief extract in
the
Macclesfield Express: 1855The Crimean War21 April Hugh Robert Hibbert writes: We have a new invention to annoy our friends ( the Russians at Sebastopol) in their pits. It consists of filling empty soda water bottles full of powder, old twisted nails.... Read more here 8 September Major Hibbert seriously wounded (See story based on Dorothy Bentley-Smith's research in Macclesfield Express) 18569 AprilDeclared public holiday in Macclesfield, hundreds line streets, magnificent sword presented to Major Hibbert as town honours him (See story based on Dorothy Bentley-Smith's research in Macclesfield Express) Benjamin Manning “wields his auctioneer's hammer with his customary zeal” North Devon Journal More details about J M W Turner's will, from South Molton Website: On 19th March 1856 after long drawn out court hearings, the "charity" money was split between his five cousins or their descendants with the result that Turner's plans for his almshouses came to nothing. According to a report in the Exeter Flying Post dated March 20th 1856 the agreement reached was that Turner's pictures were to be handed over to the National Gallery together with a sum of £200,000 to the Royal Academy for the encouragement of landscape painting. A large fortune, consisting of about £100,000 in funds and other property was to go to Mr. Turner's nearest relations; Mr. T. P. Turner and Mrs. Matthews of Exeter, Mrs. Tepper and Mrs. John Widgery of South Molton, and Mr. William Turner of Barnstaple. Mrs. John Widgery (Mary Ann Turner Tucker Widgery) was a first cousin to the artist and the daughter of his father's sister Mary. 1857Frederick R Lee remarried in 1857. His new wife owned the Broadgate Estate.The Royal Academy has a charming sketch of a "sunfish" painted by him in this year, caught by him while on a trip (presumably in his yacht) from Algiers to Gibraltar. https://twitter.com/royalacademy/status/638267488648597504 1858 |
FR Lee returned to North Devon in 1858, when he moved into Broadgate House, Pilton. His second wife, Mary, sadly died only eighteen months after their marriage. Having inherited his father’s fortune and being well-established as a major figure in the English landscape painting world, he traveled widely in this country and abroad This is a photograph from 1858 of Broadgate Villa, which was across the road from Broadgate House.. You can see two trees on the right on a hill, and the slope of Manning's Pit is almost certainly just beyond them. The trees would border the field. This shows clearly how close both houses were to the fields now known as Manning's Pit. Broadgate Villa was to become the home of the Munro family, and the young Saki a few years later.  There is a photograph of the Desborough family on the Pilton Story website, with more information about them. Incidentally, on Thursday November 11, in 1858 Mr Manning was involved as auctioneer in a sale of furniture for a Mrs Davis, at Broadgate Villa. We do not know whether that means the Desborough's were there as well, but it certainly is possible that the F R Lee came to the auction, as it was just across the road from his own house. One other note of interest: Thomas Lee was probably the architect who designed Broadgate Villa. 1859FR Lee makes a new garden and inserts a wall around the Longstone, and from the 1860s spent his time between Broadgate House, his yacht in which he sailed the world, and South Africa, where he owned several farms. He died in South Africa and was buried there in 1879.1861Catherine Sarah Lee marries Col Hugh Hibbert (1828-1895) at Birtles Cheshire – it would be interesting to find out more about how they met.. They were to have five daughters and one son, so although he went to India in 1864, Colonel Hibbert must have returned to England regularly! It appears that they spent much of their married life in Broadgate house, well before Lee died, as (at least most of) their children were baptised in Pilton Church, and Col Hibbert was a magistrate in Barnstaple.Census Benjamin Manning aged 49 and family plus mother in law and three servants now live in Joy Street, he is a spirit merchant and auctioneer. 18 June Henry Desborough of Broadgate Villa dies. Late of Pilton, formerly Secretary of the Atlas Assurance Company Cheapside to the City of London, left effects of under £2000. 24 December John and Benjamin Manning refuse to pay for a Prize Pig they had agreed to buy. 1863
1864JuneEgham rail accident Benjamin Manning in dispute over with SW Rail wants £500 after hitting head in accident in Egham Court case over Prize Pig, the Manning family lose. Benjamin meets juror in market a week later, ends up in court, fined for abusive language. 1865On 20th March Hugh Hibbert writes from India to his father"I am agreeably surprised with India, tho' it is not a place I should like to live in and shall not wish to stay a day longer than was absolutely necessary. " 1867Victoria Catherine Hibbert, daughter of Hugh and Sarah, baptised Pilton Church1868Court Case Benjamin Manning's charwoman details to be added Nov 1868 Letter to Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Benjamin Manning threatens his milkman with a meat cleaver  Cutting from the British Newspaper Archives 1870Benjamin on Town Council (he served three five year terms) Hector Hugh Munro born in Burma Our page about
Hector Hugh Munro
Hector was to become a world famous short story
writer, known under his pen-name "Saki." He
spent most of his childhood living with his
aunts in Broadgate Villa, just across the road
from Broadgate House. |
