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Exploring the rich multicultural history of Devon.

Stephen Palmer

Posted on

19th December 2024

Posted by

Wendy Milne

Posted in

Ilfracombe Community Stories, News

Ilfracombe MuseumStephen tells the fascinating story of his father Mervyn who was the founder of Ilfracombe Museum and also its first public library.

Mervyn was an intrepid adventurer. He was originally from London but liked Ilfracombe and had family connections in the town. 

After early retirement from a career as a chemist he developed wanderlust and travelled to Nicaragua, living there for several years, learning Spanish and the local indigenous languages. He became trusted by the local people and brought many artefacts from Nicaragua back to the UK where collectors would buy them.

Some would be supplied to museums.

He then travelled to Colombia, again befriending the local people and bringing artefacts back to the UK.

After moving to Ilfracombe and founding the museum many of the artefacts ended up there. He encouraged the local townspeople to donate artefacts too – and the majority of the collection is made up of these donations.

Stephen only has a few memories of his father, who died of lung cancer when Stephen was three.

He remembers how his father loved to make wooden model trains for him and his brother right up until the end of his life.

Stephen recalls the riot that led to the building of the railway line to Ilfracombe in 1874, which gave the town a huge boost opening it up to tourism.

He also remembers its closing in 1970 – ‘ a deliberate act’ by the government of the day due to ‘railway politics’.

Listen to highlights from Stephen’s interview below:

Highlight 1: Discussing Stephen’s father – founder of the museum – and why he retired early to Ilfracombe to set up the Museum [0:00:54 – 0:08:41]

Highlight 2: The Museum as ‘the world in one space’ || Spearcombe Woods and ancient standing stones [00:08:41 – 00:10:55]

Highlight 3: The Ilfracombe Railway || Ilfracombe as a Tourist Town [00:10:55 – 00:19:08]

 

Listen to Stephen’s full interview here:

Click on the image below to read a full transcript of Stephen’s interview
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