Brian Blakeway, 1920-2014, had a full and interesting life, taking part in World War 2 and events that followed. The About page has a summary of his life in his own words.
In 1982, Brian and Marcia retired to Germansweek in North Devon. Construction of Roadford Lake, next to Germansweek, started soon after they arrived. With a life-long interest in buildings and how they are constructed, Brian worked voluntarily alongside Devon Council’s Exeter Museum Archaeological Field Unit to record some of the structures that would be lost under the waters of this new reservoir.
Brian became an active member of Devon Buildings Group and Devon Archaeological Society, and continued to survey, sketch and paint buildings in Devon and further afield over the rest of his life.
This website was started in early July 2018, primarily to showcase his studies of Devon buildings and vernacular architecture that are now in the Brian Blakeway Archive, in the Devon Archives and Local Studies collection housed at the Devon Heritage Centre at Sowton, Exeter.
The ‘Devon Heritage Centre‘ section of this website is almost complete. Sorting through boxes and boxes of papers, photos and drawings from other periods of Brian’s life will take time, and more might be added to this website if anything seems of public interest. This might include something about Brian’s army service in Burma, India and Pakistan, Palestine, Hong Kong and Australia.
This website has only low quality photos of Brian’s work.
Thank you for visiting. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please send a message through the contact form in the About page.