At the Annual General Meeting of the Devon History Society last Saturday (12th October 2019) Roger Barrett, the curator of Salcombe Maritime Museum, received the Society’s prestigious W.G. Hoskins Prize

The W.G. Hoskins Prize is awarded in memory of the historian Professor William George Hoskins (1908-1992) who played a leading role in establishing the previously marginalised discipline of local history as an academic subject

The prize was awarded to Roger for his book Salcombe: Schooner Port: A Maritime History of Salcombe and its Merchant Sailing Vessels in the Nineteenth Century. (Published 23 March 2018)

‘Roger’s book is the first comprehensive account of Salcombe’s heyday as a shipbuilding and ship owning port, famed for its clipper fruit schooners. Beautifully illustrated, it tells the story of the Haven’s maritime community in the nineteenth century and describes the ships, their trades and the men and women who built, owned and sailed them. Many of the illustrations are in the Salcombe Maritime Museum collection.’