Ian Churchward’s Blog 26th July 2026

Edna Coles sent me some very interesting photos after I shared my recent blog which mentioned the battle of Jutland. She told me that her father had written a diary about his time on HMS Tiger at the battle of Jutland and it is now on display in the naval museum in Devonport. Edna sent me two photos of the pages of the diary, a newspaper article about her father and of his invitation to attend the commissioning of a new HMS Tiger in 1972.

Ian’s Blog 16th July 2026

Last week Stephanie Medwell travelled down to Torquay so that we could investigate some of the addresses where her Grandmother used to live in South Devon. Stephanie was staying with a relative in Livermead and I drove over to meet her and her second cousin Fiona. The three of us have a connection to Christopher Marks Churchward which I find quite amazing. I think I had forgotten that Fiona’s Grandmother was the sister of Stephanie’s Grandmother Olive Reynolds and by a strange coincidence I used to work with Fiona in Barclays Bank and we used to car share together when we worked at the office in Exeter. It feels a bit strange to think that if Christopher Marks Churchward hadn’t died at the battle of Jutland then he would have married Stephanie’s Grandmother and Stephanie would never have been born. I guess I would then have been related to Fiona. Olive kept the postcards that Chris sent to her. I think the earliest one was dated 1907 which was sent to where she was living in Newton Abbot. This was the first property that we tried to find. The road name on the postcard was Keyberry Road and the property is still called The Anchorage but it is now 22 Keyberry Park. While we were in Newton Abbot we also went to Union Street where Christopher’s father had a cheese and basket shop. Later this business was taken on by Christopher’s brother George when their father set up another business in Exeter.

Ian Churchward’s Blog 12th July 2026

Last Sunday I started writing a script for a local heritage project for which I hope to obtain some grant funding. This would involve a local historian being filmed talking about and at some places of historical interest in Torquay followed by some of my songs about those places. This is my song about the opening of the station at Torre which is on one of my Torbay Pageant albums and my idea is that it would be part of some of my musical compositions for my project. https://open.spotify.com/track/3fQi7DNL02N61zE1SdvGHs?si=f54cc1d8f5324052

Ian Churchward’s Blog 5th July 2026

I have added some new short video clips onto my youtube channel. This one is the view from the top of Ludlow castle taken by my son Tom when we were on holiday in Wales last month. The background music is a song called Sunnes of York composed by myself and Ashley Mantle which is on the Mer de Mort album:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6szv7hnrIOY