With Christmas and the long spate of wet weather recently there has not been the opportunity for more grave clearance in the past month or so. The next working party is planned for Saturday 6th February at 10am when we are hoping to clear the area of graves of the Croydon family.
However, the project did receive some useful publicity in a double-page spread in the Herald Express in early January. Click on the headline to see the full story:
“Stories of forgotten South Devon residents told after their hidden graves are revealed”
The article raised awareness and brought a few responses.
Norman White, from Hampshire, contacted us about his grandfather, Thomas Bloomfield who was a chief coastguard officer and is buried in the cemetery.
I have tracked down the area of the cemetery but as you can see from the attached photograph, more work is needed to identify the exact plot. The photo gives an idea of how overgrown the cemetery has become – this is only grass but I suspect the hedge has also encroached and hidden all the headstones.
Another letter came from Don Cockman who told us about a terracotta bowl he has with a still-life painting of fruit. The painting is signed “T Bidwill, Teignmouth, 1894”. Again we have identified the area of the cemetery where he is buried but can not locate the exact grave because of the undergrowth. We are awaiting a map showing precise plot locations.
Finally Barbara Donnelly offered to help with the research we are trying to do.
Barbara is keen on Genealogy and has already unearthed family information about Thomas Bidwill. He is listed in the census information as a ‘Painter’ so I wonder if we can discover any more of his works?
Teignmouth Old Cemetery 
Yes great publicity in recent Herald Express article re our group’s work + good that more info is coming to light from relatives etc about people buried within Teignmouth’s old cemetery.
Those investigating Family History often return to where their kin have been born, lived and died to seek out graves perhaps we could have a copy of the Herald Express article with the Teignmouth Tales from the Grave website details + your contact details displayed in Teign Heritage Centre ?
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Good idea!
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