“Modbury Through Time – a History of the Devonshire Town and its People” is a newly published book by Helen Charlesworth comprising a fascinating selection of newspaper articles from the 1700s onwards.
Its pages feature grisly deaths, accidents, disputes and plenty of colourful characters. Kingston appears in several articles, alongside tales from Ringmore, Yealmpton, Aveton Gifford and other nearby villages.
In one Kingston story from 1876 the church choir “fled in horror; having witnessed the ghostly apparition of a dead church minister.”
In another a labourer was fatally crushed by a falling wall – his bones having been “shockingly fractured in almost every part of his body”.
Road traffic accidents are nothing new: In 1889, near Orcheton Mill a horse drawn lime cart ran out of control. ”Twenty-eight year old George Southern ran to lend assistance.. but was dragged under the cart and died from the injuries he received. He left behind a wife and three young children all aged under five.”
The book is not currently available in bookshops, but can be bought online here.
Kingston Local History Society 