Mid Devon : Velthams Pool

Image: © Lewis Clarke Taken: 31 Dec 2011

Velthams Pool (or Velthams Poole), residence of Colin Rowland. The grandiose eagles on the gate came from Wells Reclamation, and not long after they were finally put up, some wag placed a rubber chicken in the beak of one of the eagles, which caused considerable merriment locally, as it took Colin a few days to notice. Before he converted Velthams Pool to live in, it was a barn with a red corrugated-iron roof, and an enclosed yard. It and the fields around it were sold to his grandfather out of the forty or so acres that belonged to Velthams (the big white house on the corner) in 1947, leaving Velthams with just one field and a garden, amounting to almost two acres. Velthams is sometimes named 'Vilthams' on older maps, which makes me think these were the "home fields of the vill"; vill is another word which may repay investigation, as it is cognate with, though not identical in meaning to, village. Many years ago, a family called Henson lived at Velthams, and they have a plot on the old part of the churchyard, on the left as you look at the Church. The story I heard as a boy was that one of the Mr Hensons kept a pack of hounds out in the barn at Velthams Pool, and that he went mad one day (whether through drink or otherwise was not stated), and let the hounds out into the yard and then got up onto the roof and shot them all. A shocking tale, and true, more likely than not!

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