6th March
St Baldred’s Day/ Uncle Tom Cobbley And All
Old uncle Tom Cobley and all. Source: Devon Heritage’s postcard collection
On this day in 1794, Thomas Cobbley a prosperous yeoman from Crediton in Devon died. Cobbley was the inspiration for the drinking song Widdecombe Fair which tells the repetitive story of Cobbley and his mates piling onto an unfortunate grey mare to get to the fair. Perhaps the rhyme was knowing mockery of the local squire because Cobbley was a landowner who possessed several horses and had no need to borrow his steed from Tom Pearce. At least two of Cobbley’s gang are mentioned in church records, including Pearce, and Cobbley himself was buried in the churchyard at Sprayton where his grave can still be seen. Apparently Cobbley and his crew, including the long suffering mare, haunt the roads in and out of Widdecombe in eternal search of the fair, which still takes place every September.
Today is also St Baldred’s Day. Baldred’s most noteworthy feat was to remove a dangerous reef between Bass Rock and mainland Lothian by the power of prayer and deposit it on the coast near North Berwick where it still resides.