With many years of service to the community and to the church, Gillian Geraghty can certainly be counted among the comparatively small number of willing helpers who constitute the backbone of our parish.  Currently, and for some time now, secretary of the Hale DCC, Gillian probably knows as much about what goes on in the parish as anyone, and she is always ready to use this knowledge to smooth the wheels of parish life.

Rita Newell has been praising the Lord in song with her clear, true voice pretty well all her life, and she has been doing this very much in our part of the world. Born in Aldershot, educated in the town and married to a local man, Rita is as much a native of this area as it is possible to be. 

After our somewhat lengthy journeys around parts of the West Country over the past few months, let us return nearer home as we visit the church of St Nicholas, Steventon.  If you are a Jane Austen fan you cannot afford to miss visiting this church.

A Surrey man through and through, Peter Haines was born in Sheen, moved to Farnham nearly forty years ago, and has lived in the home he shares with Elizabeth in Oakland Avenue ever since.  In fact, Peter and Elizabeth have been close to each other all their lives: as children they lived in neighbouring streets, then they attended the same church youth club, and now they are a permanent and well-loved feature of the parish scene.

The first thing that strikes you when visiting this church is the magnificent tower, which stands over 100 feet high.  It was completed by 1350 and is one of the most beautiful medieval church towers in North Devon. 

This church is well worth visiting if you are in North Devon.  It is a large building with plenty of history.  In 1645, during the battle of Torrington, the biggest battle ever fought in Devon, Fairfax and Cromwell defeated the Royalist army.  The Royalists, who held the town, had stored 80 barrels of gunpowder in the church.  The Roundheads, later looking for a suitable place for their prisoners, shut them in the church.  Somehow the gunpowder ignited and blew up most of the church, resulting in a great loss of life.  Outside the church door is a long cobbled mound, and this covers a mass grave.  As you stroll around the churchyard you can see many quaint epitaphs.

There are not many parishioners who would readily visualise our Parish Treasurer working in a coal mine.  It is among the more surprising aspects of Jim Miller's long and busy life that that is what he did. Born and bred in Essex where he spent the first half-century of his life, Jim left his grammar school at the age of 14 and went straight into civil engineering, a field in which he was eventually to build a life-long career.

"Ha!"  Pinky gave a strange laugh.  "Ha ha!"  He had been practising all week.  He had practised at his mother until she had asked him where he hurt.  He had practised in front of a mirror, sucking in his cheeks until his eyes popped.