Throwleigh Archive

The Throwleigh Archive was conceived in 1999 and since then it has raised awareness of the history and heritage of the village of Throwleigh, on the edge of Dartmoor. The project has assembled an archive, representing both the heritage and contemporary life of the parish through the collection of hundreds of photographs, artefacts, documents and sound recordings. Local people of all ages have taken part in gathering the information, which has been catalogued, recorded and stored electronically to make a permanent record that can be easily updated and accessed.

A Heritage Lottery Fund grant enabled the group to hold public displays at Throwleigh Village Hall showing the material available, the first in 2002 and a second in April 2006. The Archive has also produced a book, Throwleigh: Pictures and Memories from a Dartmoor Parish, a collection of some of the best pictures with accompanying text, mostly quotations from oral and written sources. It sold so well that a reprint was needed, launched at another exhibition in the Village Hall in 2013, and it is available from the Archive.

In 2016 Throwleigh was offered funding through the Parishscapes project, part of the Heritage Lottery Fund supported Moor Than Meets The Eye scheme led by Dartmoor National Park Authority, to support the work of the Archive and to develop two documentary arts productions. The first, The Miss Varwells Throwleigh, was performed in the Village Hall in March 2017. It was based on a book written in 1938 by Emmie Varwell, Throwleigh, the Story of a Dartmoor Village; the Archive had that book reprinted and made a DVD of the production, both available from the Archive. The second production, Colonel Heath's Hut, picked up the story of the village in the immediate post-war years and took place in March 2018.

Throwleigh is a moorland parish where people have lived and worked for thousands of years. The earliest visible remains are the Bronze Age hut circles just above the village at Shilstone Tor. Today the population is around 350, centred on the church, the memorial cross, the old forge pond and an outreach post office in the church. The Village Hall and the Northmore Arms are a little distance from the church at Wonson.

To ask about the Archive, its books or the DVD, email throwleigharchive@hotmail.com or telephone 01647 231051.