ONE THOUSAND YEARS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21221, 30 December 1930, Page 8

ONE THOUSAND YEARS.

MILLENARY OF BARNSTAPLE. KING ATHELSTAN’S CHARTER. Barnstaple, in Devonshire, claims to be the oldest borough in Britain, by reason of a charter, with the right to hold market and fair, granted by King Athelstan in 030, 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 liy Sir Richard Grenville, whoso head* quarters 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 celebrations. At a service in Rock Park, massed choirs led the singing of hymns, including “King of Kings Eternal,” written by the late vicar of Barnstaple, the 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 be 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 the ageless River Taw, and will bear the simple inscription: MILLENARY STONE 930—1930.

Ihe children of Barnstaple later produced a pageant representing the past 10 centuries of the town’s life.