AGM 2025 and talk by Martin Watts (IA Section)

Note the change in venue from the Dolphin Hotel, Bovey Tracey to Thorverton Memorial Hall.

Doors open at 10:30 for coffee.

At 11:00, a talk on Devon Mills in Art and Illustration by Martin Watts.

There is a great wealth of topographical drawings and paintings of Devon that illustrate what the county’s mills looked like in the early industrial period before the advent of photography. Watermills and windmills were abundant in the Devon landscape, some of them depicted by J.M.W. Turner and his pupils.

Martin Watts has studied, recorded and interpreted historic buildings and machinery for over 50 years. After training in design and architecture in Bristol, he became curator of a working watermill museum in South Yorkshire in 1979. In 1982 he moved to Crowdy Mill in South Devon, where he repaired a derelict watermill and set up a stone-ground flour business. Since 1989 he has worked as a freelance millwright and researcher, consulting on over 200 mills throughout Britain. In retirement, he continues to write about buildings and working machinery, especially in Devon.

The Annual General Meeting will follow at 12:30, after which lunch can be obtained nearby at either the Thorverton Arms (01392 860205) or the Exe Valley Farm Shop (01392 861403). Booking is advised for lunch.

Directions to Thorverton Memorial Hall

From the A396 Exeter to Tiverton road, turn W to Thorverton by the former Ruffwell Arms pub. Passing through Latchmore Green and past the cricket ground to the left, follow Silver Street. Thorverton Memorial Hall is on the left before the centre of the village. A bridge by the hall leads to the free car park.