| The photograph from
which this illustration was copied is in the Museum
of Barnstaple and North Devon. It shows the
butcher's shop at No 74 High Street that was one of
the properties owned by Benjamin Manning in around
1850. The man in the doorway is almost certainly
Benjamin himself. |
Benjamin Manning
Who was Benjamin Manning, what is his connection with Pilton and Manning's Pit,and why is he such an interesting character?
Benjamin Manning was a man who could be described as something of a "rough diamond", and entrepreneur, a man who came to Pilton as a factory worker but ended up as a well known figure in both Pilton and Barnstaple, with a butcher's and grocer's shop in Pilton. He also became an auctioneer, and opened two other shops, the butcher's shop in the illustration above, and what can be described as the first ever Wine Bar in Barnstaple, "The Bodega" selling Spanish Wines and spirits in Joy Street, where he and son William ended their days. All the enterprises were very much family ones, with William also an auctioneer and John a butcher and cattle merchant.
We will be posting a more detailed history of his life,
but to begin with here is his obituary, which gives a real
flavour of the the kind of man that he was, and does much
to explain why his memory has lingered on:
From the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, Friday 11th May
1883
The cutting was taken from the British Newspaper
Archives, who gave us permission to reproduce it.
The full text is copied below, as it isn't so easy to read the cutting: