AS one of the most historic towns in the county of Devon, Tavistock has been well served by the Devonshire Association for the advancement of science, literature and the arts.

This organisation, which is open to all, has a Tavistock Branch which was founded in 1862.

It has published 146 substantial volumes of its transactions and each year an annual meeting is held in a different part of the county at which a president is installed. This year Tom Greeves became the 154th person to receive that privilege and honour.

The association has met in Tavistock eight times – in 1866, 1889, 1914, 1937, 1949, 1978, 1996 and 2015. Presidents on these occasions have been Earl Russell (Duke of Bedford), W H Hudleston (geologist), AM Worthington (scientist), W JHarte (historian), B W Oliver (architect), W G Hoskins (historian), G Boalch (marine biologist), and Tom Greeves (cultural environmentalist).

The published papers in these and other years contain important new material about Tavistock and district.

Of special significance have been Tavistock Abbey by Mrs Radford (1914), The Stannary of Tavistock by H P R Finberg (1949), The Duke of Bedford’s Model Cottages by Mark Brayshay (1982) and Tavistock Abbey in its Tenth Century Context by Christopher Holdsworth (2003).

This month, as president, Mr Greeves will be giving two talks in Tavistock – the first, at the invitation of the Tavistock Branch of the Devonshire Association, is at The Wharf on Saturday (October 10) at 2pm, and will cover the remarkable range of archaeological discoveries made on Dartmoor in the past 40 years.