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| Bickleigh Bridge - Neil Kennedy [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
"She, too [Isabella Courtney of Powderham], it was, who met a man on Bickleigh Hill, near Tiverton, carrying a basket containing seven of his baby children, to whom he intended to give "a swim in the river Exe at Bickleigh Bridge." On being asked by her what he was carrying, he replied, "Puppies not worth rearing." Presently he confessed that his wife had given him seven sons at a birth, and fearing the lack of food and raiment, he had determined to drown them. The countess adopted them, and provided for their upbringing out of the proceeds of her estates at Tiverton and Chumleigh."
Hewett 1900
Map - Powderham
Map - Bickleigh Bridge
Map - Tiverton
Map - Chumleigh
[Hooray! Chumleigh! A story that involves mid Devon! Amazingly little about this area - all I need to do now is find a story to fill the vast hole of silence around Holsworthy...]
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