The Three Smaller Mosaics

Following the unveiling and popularity of the large Mosaic outside ‘Dandelion’, the Committee recalled that other towns and villages have used small mosaics to identify an important building or artefact. The Committee felt that the resources were not available for such a large project. An approach to Chudleigh Primary School  produced a positive response whereby a group of pupils and a local artist would design and  produce three small mosaics.

This panel can be found in ‘The Woodway Room’ at Chudleigh Town Hall. This section of the Town Hall is a separate building that was once a Congregational church from 1710 to 1992.

A place of worship had likely existed on or near this site since 1662 and can therefore claim to be the oldest established non-conformist meeting-place in Chudleigh. This building dates from a rebuilding of 1830, replacing an earlier chapel of 1710. On 22 May 1807 the chapel at the junction of what were then called Wood Way and Exeter Way suffered during the Great Fire of Chudleigh but not to the extent one might expect, being as it was surrounded by many cottages that were almost completely ruined. It was not the outside fabric of the building that suffered, but the interior, which appears to have been more or less gutted or at least severely scorched.

Nationally, in 1972 the Congregationalists had merged with the Presbyterians and together formed the United Reformed Church. The local worshippers were not particularly happy with the merger and this probably brought about the closure of the Chapel. The property also needed repairs but there was no money for the upkeep. By 1992 all worship had ceased and the United Reformed Church offered the chapel and associated rooms for sale.

This panel can be located at the entrance to the Library whose building was in fact Chudleigh’s School.

When The National School left the current site of  ‘The Constitutional Club’, in 1858, it moved to a new building which now houses the Library and Youth Centre. The school remained on this site for 132 years when it moved to a purpose built site in Lawn Drive. This land was previously fields that formed part of Lawn Farm in Parkway Road. The redundant building was adapted for use a Youth Centre which opened in 1998. The library was subsequently from 2001.

The third panel depicts The Workhouse and The National School. This was sited on the south side of The Plymouth Inn (now The Bishop Lacey). The building on that site, dating from 1811, now forms The Constitutional Club and the panel is by the entrance to the Club. However, the original building on that site is documented as being a gaol but more accurately a ‘lock-up.’ It became impossible to board out the old and infirm and in May 1744, it became the Workhouse. This continued until 1839 when changes in The Poor Law meant the paupers were removed to Newton Abbot. Schooling, however, continued and a new National School was set up. After the school moved out in 1858, it was tenanted until 1896 when the building was let out to the newly formed ‘Constitutional Club’ who still occupy the building.