THE BELL will toll for the final winner of a Tarka Country Millennium Award ? winner Marcus Vergette of Highampton has just been given a grant to create a special memorial for the village.
Marcus received the 134th and last Tarka Country Millennium Award to create and hang a memorial bell in Highampton to mark and remember the animals slaughtered and the hardship endured during the foot and mouth crisis two years ago.
Marcus witnessed the crisis and, along with almost every other farmer in the parish, lost his animals to the disease.
He feels strongly that something should mark and commemorate the effects of foot and mouth on the community.
He came up with the idea of a bell, because on the day movement orders were lifted, he remembers hearing the church bells ring for the first time in nine months.
It is hoped the memorial bell will be in place in Highampton by March of next year.
The Tarka Country Millennium Awards were launched in September 2001, and have granted 134 awards to individuals to carry out projects which will benefit communities across the area.
John Hardy, chief executive of the Tarka Country Trust said: ?This has gone beyond my wildest dreams. That the original target of 130 awards has been met, and indeed exceeded, has made all the hard work of the consortium members and the awards team really worthwhile.?
The awards were set up by the Tarka Country Trust and a 13-strong consortium, which included representatives from local councils, Dartmoor and Exmoor National Park Authorities, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, the Countryside Agency and Devon County Council.