About The Silverton Local History Society

The Society was formed by David Edmund (pictured top right), and a number of residents on the 26th October 1981. 

An enthusiastic local historian, David was an authority on the village as well as having a keen interest in many other historical topics, including Exeter's Theatre Royal. 

Monthly meetings were originally held at The New Hall (until it was demolished), and then at the Silverton Primary School, with guest speakers when David was not giving the talk himself and he regularly illustrated these with slides from his large collection.

After David's death from Leukaemia in May 1993, when aged only 64, the Society continued under the leadership of Wilf and Joan Barnes. During 1998 a number of members decided to collate as much information as possible with the aim of publishing a book depicting village history. "The book of Silverton" an A4 hard back volume with 160 pages, priced at £19.95, was launched on November 1st 2000. 400 copies were sold prior to publication, and by December 2004 all remaining copies had also been sold.

Monthly meetings are now held in Silverton Millennium hall, on the third Monday of each month from March to November, with visiting speakers giving talks on a variety of historical and other subjects. These talks are advertised in the monthly Parish Magazine, which also contains an historical article aimed at sustaining an interest in the Society and the history of the parish. 

In recent years the average attendance at the Society's monthly meetings has doubled from previously being in the region of twenty and membership now stands at over fifty.

The Society has many research resources including: 

• Copies of the Silverton Parish Registers c 1620 to 1837
  
• Transcripts of the census returns for the Parish
  
• Transcript of the Endowed School Admission Register from 1874 to 1947
  
• Transcript of the Girls and Infants School Admission Register from 1912
  
• Extracts of 19th & 20th century articles from local newspapers