ONE THOUSAND YEARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20740, 6 December 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

ONE THOUSAND YEARS.

MILLENARY OF BARNSTAPLE.

KING ATHELSTAN'S CHARTER.

Barnstaple in Devonshire, claims to ba the oldest borough in Britain, by reason of a charter, with the right to hold market and fair, granted by King Atbelstan in 930, when the town was a typical Saxon burgh, and the centre for the defence of the subshire of? North Devon.

Down through the centuries Barnstaple has figured prominently in national affairs. The River Taw, on which a picturesque water carnival was held recently, links the.-> town with Elizabethan days, when five ships, sailed over Barnstaple Bar to join Drake's fleet against the Spanish Armada. Visitors to-day are shown with pride the Bell Hotel, the hostelry patronised by Sir Richard Grenville, whose headquarters were in Barnstaple during the war with Spain. John Gay, poet and dramatist, whose " Beggar's' Opera " has made his memory immortal, was born in Barnstaple. His birthplace in Joy Street is the object of much interest. The inhabitants of Barnstaple and the wide agricultural district around have participated in a week's millenary cele- ■ brations. At a service in Rock Park, j massed choirs led the hymns, including " King of Kings Eternal,'*' i written by the late Vicar of Barnstaple, , (he Rev. Richard Turner, and set to music by Dr. Henry J. Edwards, the ■well-known composer and Barnstaple's oldest freeman, , The commemoration of the millenary took the form of a considerable park extension, on which will bo constructed swimming baths, sun-bathing terraces, children's boating lake, and landscape gardens. A millenary stone of granite of " the shire, of sea kings." will overlook (he ageless River Taw, and will bear the simple inscription. MILLENARY STONE. 950—1930. 7 he. children of Barnstaple later produced a pageant representing the pasfc ten centuries of the town's life.