A few months ago a friend of mine got in touch with me. He and his son had come across an old photograph album, at a car boot sale in Somerset, dated 1901 which had
"Awarded to Eva Wheaton, from Tipton St John School for punctual attendance"
written in the front cover. He knew of my interest in history and knew that I lived in Tipton so he thought that I may be interested to see the book. He sent me some photos of it and I quickly messaged back asking him to please buy it for me. I was so excited when it arrived; the leather fronted album was very damaged (which I already knew) but it had the inscription in the front, some beautiful printed frames and many old phototgraphs.
So....I set about finding out who Eva was by researching her family tree and blow me if she hadn't grown up just down the road from me! Eva was born into the Wheaton family in 1892 one of nine children, her father Charles was a shepherd in Venn Ottery and Eva went to school at Tipton St John. When I was at school we would be given books at the end of term for kindness and good work, and it seems Eva was given the album by her headmistress, E Symes, for her good attendance. It is even mentioned in the school log books (which Ann Knight and I read a few years ago) that she was given the prize. Ironically her father was fined for not sending his son, Evas brother to school a few years earlier but maybe the boys were made use of at home on the farm or maybe he had learnt his lesson and Eva had been made to go to school! I also discovered that Eva was the cousin of Harry Channon Wheaton, our brave WW1 soldier from Venn Ottery who died in 1917. Harry and Eva would have grown up together and gone to school together.
Eva went onto take servants chores in local houses after leaving school and then she went to work at the Golden Lion with her younger sister Lucy working for the Innkeeper, Mr Fry. In 1925 Eva marries John Drew (who was a footman to Lady Ilchester before joining up to fight in WW1) and in 1939 they are running a pub together in Ottery St Mary, The Five Bells Inn, with their son Norman. She died in 1980
Sometimes it's strange how things come to you...a book from so far away found by an old school friend who I only see every now and then, and it turns out that the book would have been in a house just down the road from me over 100 years ago!
Well I think it's amazing!! Some might say fate, anyway Eva your book is safely back in Venn Ottery and Tipton.
Many thanks to Nick Carter and his son, for discovering this little gem and The Golden Lion for taking delivery of the album.
The photographs are of Eva, before she was married and her baby son Norman.
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