Cookworthy Museum.

Six weeks to go….

https://kingsbridgemuseum.org.uk/

We had an hour to spare this morning after getting to Mother in Law’s at 8.15 to be there for the “water leak man” to come and dig a hole and fix the leak.

We have been keen to visit this lovely little museum for some time after seeing a picture in the Kingsbridge Gazette that had a very young Mr CFJ, his mother, aunties and cousins on a day trip out in the 1960s. He found lots of great old pictures of his family, so we will go back and order them when we have more time.


Meanwhile, I had a quick look around and was struck by the fantastic story of the suitcase in the picture.

This is the story:
Amy Treeby's Suitcase and Quilt
In 2019, a visitor walked into the museum carrying a small brown suitcase which had been stored away for many years in an attic in South Devon. When we opened the case, it revealed the childhood possessions of Amy Treeby.
Amy Treeby and her family were amongst those who were evacuated from Slapton during the Winter of 1943 to make way for the occupation of the American troops and the practice of the D-Day landings in 1944.
All residents were told they had six weeks to leave, six weeks to pack up everything they possessed, not knowing where they might be rehoused or even if they might ever return to their homes.
What followed over the next six weeks was an immense act of bravery.
In the depths of winter, local residents stoically packed their belongings and dutifully left behind their homes. Winter 1943 was especially cold, one of the coldest in Europe for decades, making the sacrifices made by communities in South Devon that winter all the more heroic.
Amy's suitcase is displayed here with it all its contents for the first time ever. It reveals all that was precious to an 11-year old school girl and what she took on her journey when she left her home in Slapton for the last time during those bleak winter weeks. A suitcase packed with games, puzzles, her identity card, photos, knitting patterns, a farming newspaper dated December 1943 - the month they were evacuated but more than that, it is a suitcase full of childhood memories, preserved memories which represent not just Amy's journey but the memories of all those local families displaced for the war effort here in the South Hams.
Like many people Amy never returned to her home in Slapton. However, Amy and her family were amongst the lucky ones and they were rehoused in Devon. Amy went on to live a long and happy life in a village called Ipplepen, just outside of Torquay.
We knew as soon as we saw Amy's suitcase that a story had to be told.
The story of the evacuated people of Slapton, Blackawton, Stokenham, Strete, East Allington, Sherford and other surrounding villages including one hundred and eighty farms.
This exhibition hopefully goes some way to illustrate the bravery and the sacrifices made by these communities at a time when the South Hams had its Darkest Hour.