Alan Endacott - Archaeologist

In 1966 a seven year old Alan Endacott found this remnant of the English Civil War not far from his family farm of Clannaborough in Throwleigh. We will never know if it was a Roundhead or Cavalier cannon that the ball was fired from, but that moment of holding a tactile piece of history in his hands was enough to inspire Alan to learn as much as he could about the history of Dartmoor and to start collecting anything and everything people would give him. Alan’s love of historic artefacts soon filled up an unused cottage on the farm, transforming it into  his own private museum. Further collection items came from farm sales and he absorbed tales of the past like a sponge, from every local he met.

Ten years later the spark lit by that cannonball led Alan to join the Okehampton and District Museum Association, led by John Young. They purchased the run down buildings that now make up the Museum Courtyard and set about raising money to do the conversion. In 1981 Alan offered his collection to the Museum to get it started and forty years later his collection is still on show.

Alan went on to help run and renovate the Museum and also gained an MA in Museum Studies,  worked at Finch Foundry, became an area manager for English Heritage, trained as a stained glass artist, wrote a book about the history of Okehampton and continued with his interest in archaeological  fieldwork. Alan himself said:

‘Whoever fired – or dropped- that cannonball all those centuries ago had no idea what amazing journeys it would send one young boy on.’

 Text from an article by Kristy Turner of the Museum of Dartmoor Life 

In 2007 Alan discovered the Sittaford Stone Circle and more recently he's found another stone circle on Taw Marsh known as the Metheral Circle.

Read articles about Alan's work:

Smithsonian Magazine

Live Science

Brighter Side News

The Okehampton Times

Antropology.net

Please consider donating to Alan's Crowdfunder for his self financed PhD