The Society was contacted recently by a member who told us that he had some items belonging to Hope Bourne which he wanted to donate to the archive. We discovered that he and his family lived for a while at Lower Sherdon and that Hope had been his neighbour and friend. She visited the family often, for meals and hot baths, and she gave his 10 year old son one of her guns to learn how to shoot. It is this gun that he now wanted to donate to the archive.
Living as she did, in isolation at Ferny Ball, Hope Bourne owned a number of guns which she used to shoot rabbits for her pot. The gun we now hold is a heavy air rifle with a solid wooden stock and a big scope for accurate aiming. It tells an important part of Hope’s story, of how she lived and ate.
The society is grateful to Lance Nicholson of Dulverton for checking the gun over and making it safe to store in the archive by removing key firing components.
Lisa Eden, Archivist and Trustee
