Demon Barber

The name of the Beer produced for Street Market is, I hear, to be Sweeney Todd. Todd, of course was the demon barber of legend who gained infamy by chopping up some of his unfortuate customers and turning them into meat pies. While the name Todd' connected with villainy might ring a few bells amongst some silvertonians this would be for reasons far removed from haircutting. Our best remembered barber was someone totally unlike the ghastly Sweeney Todd.

Older Silvertonians will certainly remember George Carpenter who plied his trade from a tin shack at the bottom of Tiverton road next to Archie Tremletts forge, which can now be found in Tiverton museum. Despite having serious mobility problems, George was always cheerful and had a considerable knowledge of village affairs of all kinds. I can still remember qeueing up at his shop on a saturday morning and reading surruptitiously his collection of rather risque (for the 1960s) magazines while listening to George and his collection of mainly elderly friends discussing the events of the day. The qeues for his services were always long as long hair had not really become fashionable in these parts for most of the period and and a good few men used the shop as a social meeting place in the way they would have done with the pub. As I remember it, Adult haircuts cost one shilling and boys were sheared for sixpence. The village lost part of its character when George gave up the business and his shack was replaced by housing just as it did when the forge went the same way. We didnt know it but we were watching a world sliding away before our eyes.

Perhaps we should see people like George and Archie as the amongst the real Silverton heroes. They,and others like them, helped give Silverton its iindividual character and helped maintain its sense of community in ways that are often lacking today.