The Summerhouse, Sticklepath, Devon.

On the quiet main street that runs through the village of Sticklepath, near Okehampton, stands a former works known as the Finch Foundry. It has been redundant since the 1960s, and is now a museum. Passing through an arch to the side of the works, the visitor is surprised to find a tranquil garden and beyond it a burial ground where the only noise is the rumbling of the river Taw. In the corner of the burial ground is a little thatched shelter, and more recently it has been joined by the most perfect of nineteenth-century rustic summerhouses.

The burial ground was first created by the Quakers, or Society of Friends, in the early eighteenth century. In the middle of the following century it was bought by Thomas Pearse, a woollen manufacturer who had a mill nearby, and vested in trustees from his family. Pearse was a Nonconformist, and it was his wish that people of all beliefs might be buried there. He was a generous donor to local good causes, and in 1838 it was noted that he was planning to mark the coronation of Queen Victoria with ‘a dinner for the whole of the persons under his employ’. The feast would however have been strictly teetotal, for Pearse was the leading light in the local Temperance Movement.

Pearse, who maintained the cemetery, is thought to have erected this little retreat in the corner of the burial ground. In 1942 it was described as having a table and seat, and ‘panels with quotations’ on the walls. Only one can be seen today, and it has lines written by the Scottish poet, journalist and hymn-writer James Montgomery (1771-1854). They first appeared in 1813 in the fifth canto of his long poem The World before the Flood.

A notice in the summerhouse states that it was originally erected in Thomas Pearse’s garden, across the road from the foundry, and that in 1974 it was gifted to the Finch Foundry Trust by a Pearse descendant, Mrs C.N. Jevons. The authors of the National Trust’s guidebook to the foundry are more circumspect about the history of the summerhouse, and it gets only a cursory mention: ‘In front of the graveyard stands what is alleged to be Tom Pearse’s old summerhouse’. Whatever its origins, it is an absolute delight.

The summerhouse is kept in the neatest order, and inside are two painted boards with verses and biblical quotations framed in gothic arches with geometric rustic-work.

In 1966 it was announced that members of the Finch family hoped to turn the ‘dilapidated’ former foundry into a museum where the industrial archaeology of the site could be explained. The Finch Foundry Trust and Sticklepath Museum of Rural Industry ran the site until 1989 when the Museum of Dartmoor Life took over. In 1994 it passed into the care of the National Trust. Finchs’ Foundry is listed at grade II*.

When researching the summerhouse, the Flâneuse discovered that it had inspired a scale model for model railway enthusiasts, and was available to buy in kit form. She was unable to resist, and here is the diminutive work in progress.

Sticklepath was once on the busy main road from Exeter to Penzance, but it is now a peaceful spot after the village was by-passed in 1987. The Flâneuse urges anyone driving along the A30 to make the short detour to visit the village and its attractions. The burial ground and garden can be seen at any reasonable time, and there’s more on visiting the foundry here.

…and greetings from the Flâneuse and thanks for reading. Please scroll down to the comments box below to share any thoughts.