FOLLOWING a letter to the Times last week from a Canadian woman enquiring about Oaklands House in Okehampton, a reader with an interest in family history who has made a study of the house, has shed light on its past. Andrew Jones lives in Taunton, but is sent the Okehampton Times each week by relatives who live locally. In his spare time, Andrew has compiled a study of Oaklands and the three families who have owned the property over its 185-year lifetime. Caroline Herbert, who lives in Ottawa, Canada, wrote to the newspaper asking for information about her great grandparents. Andrew has since sent an e-mail to Mrs Herbert with details about her ancestors. Mrs Herbert?s great grand-daughter, Gertrude Charlotte Holley, married Henry Hills Goodeve at Okehampton Parish Church on June 5, 1865. Andrew said he had been able to obtain the marriage date from the Okehampton Parish Register. The Holley family moved to Okehampton from Norfolk in 1859 and Oaklands was sold and the estate broken up in the late 1920s ? the house belonged to the family for almost 70 years. Mr Holley was effectively the Squire of Okehampton though not to as great an extent as his illustrious predecessor Albany Savile MP. Andrew said Holley ?only? owned around 2,200 acres, mainly consisting of farms on the outlying parts of the town. He said: ?Mr Holley was very interested in farming and when he moved to Okehampton, he brought many of his farm workers from Norfolk to Devon. ?The census compiled around that time reveals that there were around 20 to 25 people born in Norfolk who were living in Okehampton at the time.? The house was built in around 1820 and Andrew said he had amassed a good collection of pictures of Oaklands over the years. Andrew said his interest in the house came from the fact his great grandfather, George Henry Gratton, bought the house in 1930. He said family history had been a hobby of his for around 30 years, and he had been fascinated to find out more about his family connection to Oaklands. Andrew said he had not spent much time in Okehampton himself, though he had been christened in the old Methodist Church in East Street, which is no longer there. However, he said he was ?very interested in the Okehampton area?.