Thomas Tedrake
Forty-eight Mill Street, Bideford, was home to Thomas Tedrake from 1863 to about 1908, as well as being his newspaper office with printing press. His wife also ran a shop there.
He was a man with many interests: he opened a photographic studio in Bideford and also published a guidebook to the area as well as running his own newspaper for many years. He was active on the Town Council for decades and, if he needed a hobby, it must have been issuing and receiving court summons' of which there were many!
Tedrake's original photographic business was started in Meddon St and in 1863 he moved to Mill Street. He suffered a setback in 1873 when a stove caused a fire. The photographic studio was a wooden structure at the back of his shop which had been waterproofed with tar on the outside so it burned fiercely and the building was completely destroyed.
Examples of his photographs are:
A new photo-studio is opened:
The 1871 Census identifies Thomas’s profession as ‘photographer’, whereas by 1881, he is a ‘Journalist, Editor of newspaper and proprietor – artist – photographer’ and living with Mary (born in Buckland Brewer) and a son, Thomas Walwin, age 18, who is a ‘reporter and compositor’.
Tedrake's Illustrated Guide to Bideford and North Devon was published in 1894. The matter of the Bideford cannons provided quite a lot of newspaper coverage and correspondence. These had been used on the quay as mooring posts and TT had asserted that the cannons were of great historical interest, having come from one of the ships in the Spanish Armada. On several occasions he was a guest speaker to various local organisations, tackling such diverse subjects - Oliver Cromwell, Mahomet, Napoleon and popular delusions (witchcraft!). He was also a friend to Edward Capern who holidayed with them in 1876 while collecting material for a new work.
As a Town Councillor and member of the Bideford Local Board in the 1880s and 90s he was very active and often outspoken, a gift for the reporters charged with submitting stories and sometimes a curse on the Chairman of the meeting. He occasionally criticised fellow councillors if he thought their actions were not honourable and often challenged the authority of the Mayor - more than once he was told to sit down and be quiet (NDG 13/2/94). On at least one occasion the meeting was closed while he was still on his feet - according to the local press Tedrake was “cantering joyously on...declaring his firm intention to unfold his argument in his own way”.
Newspaper reporters at that time were less constrained than now, so their comments were often quite amusing. On one occasion he was (laughingly?) described as a guardian angel seeking to save the town council from itself, protecting the ratepayers with a vengeance. An on-going concern to him was cash flow in the council and the likely burden on ratepayers: reservoirs, graveyards, gas lights, police, quay renovations, gasworks, the park, markets, local government salaries and local government debt – all costs were challenged!
His own newspaper was called the Western Express (including the Torrington Chronicle) and he started it after leaving the North Devon Journal. Peter Christie's publication "Secret Bideford" tells us that he was in fact fired by the NDJ in 1872 after libelling a powerful local landowner, but he remained outspoken throughout his journalistic career. The Bideford Temperance Society, the local "Art Union Exhibition", the cricket club, the church, were all targets. He regularly sued people for both personal and business issues, even a couple of his own neighbours and employees! Peter also reminds us that the original statue on the roof of No 48 must have been erected by TT (other records show it was from 1886). Apparently it was also sometimes called ‘the dirty child’, a reference to the sometimes scurrilous articles he printed. He further acted as local correspondent for the Western Morning News.
The 1901 Census shows shows Thomas and Mary in their 50s, living with Grace Ley (a widow and Thomas’ mother-in-law), age 90, Barbara Cullen, age 20, a ‘stationer’s assistant’ and Roslia Leach (a visitor). His wife, Mary, died quite suddenly in 1906 and he subsequently sold the Mill Street property and continued to trade from New Street and then Market Place. In the 1911 Census he is living at Market Place, Bideford, and his occupation (at age 71) is a ‘general journalist’. He put the business up for sale a number of years later when he was in his late 70s. He told a potential purchaser that following his wife's death he had lost interest in the business, indeed had lost interest in life itself, and it is clear that this was the beginning of the end. Indeed within a couple of years he had gone to live with his son in Sussex where he died in 1912 from “senile decay”.
And some opinions from the local press…..
“In that elegant diction particularly his own”….he took issue with some comments made by the NDJ and used his own paper to voice his criticism. “We look upon our contemporary as, personally, a very good fellow who it is a pleasure to meet, and we only regret that he does not always carry his courtesy into his columns”.
In 1896 the North Devon Gazette commented on the forthcoming elections: "of Mr T., I wish to say nothing unjust. Give the councillor his due, he has been active and diligent. On the other hand, it is possible that Church people and all who respect the memory of the late Rector, will remember the vituperative and vulgar abuse of him which lately appeared in the paper for which Mr T. is responsible". 1898 re forthcoming election: "Mr Tedrake comes up again smiling, undeterred by former failures".