Women Writing on the Devon Land: A County's Women Who Wrote - circa 1965

  By T Bonner - Polwhele's History of Devon, Public Domain,         Downes near Crediton in Devon is one of the county's country houses which has threaded in and out of my life from childhood. In the 1950's we drove past Downes on every trip out to Exeter in the 50's and each time I remember asking my parents, ‘Who lives there’? Later, during the years when my parents retired and lived in Crediton they loved visiting the estate for meals or coffee when a café and shop was opened.            In more recent times when researching other things I’ve occasionally stumbled upon the house and family linked with its once time occupants, in particular in connection with E M Delafield’s The War Workers, in which the heroine is a fictionalised Dame  Georgiana Buller of Downes. (See Devon’s Doublescapes ) . During the last couple of years, when I’ve been looking into the archives in search of forgotten manuscripts by Devon-linked women, I’ve found letters and journals writte