The Superintendent’s Letters: Victorian Tavistock Steps Back into the Courtroom

dconn40
3 days ago
3 min read

Misdemeanours, accidents, tragedies and some distinctly questionable behaviour. Welcome to Tavistock in the late nineteenth century.

On the final Sunday of Heritage Open Days 2026, Tavistock Edge will transform the historic Guildhall Courtroom into a stage for The Superintendent’s Letters, a theatrical journey into the lives of the ordinary people of Tavistock and West Devon.

And if you are thinking of coming, don't leave booking too long. More than half the available tickets have already gone.

Meet Superintendent Mitchell

At the centre of the production is Police Superintendent Mitchell, the man responsible for policing the Tavistock Division during the final quarter of the nineteenth century.

Tavistock Edge brings Mitchell back to life to recount some of the incidents that crossed his desk during his years in charge. But these aren't invented Victorian melodramas.

The production draws on the experiences of real people and real incidents, with characters stepping forward to give their own accounts and evidence. We encounter misdemeanours and accidents, tragedies and disputes, alongside some rather more amusing episodes of Victorian life.

It is history told not through the lives of the rich and powerful, but through the people who actually filled Tavistock's streets, shops, houses and public houses.

When ordinary lives become extraordinary stories

One of the fascinating things about historical police records is the detail they preserve.

An argument between neighbours, a theft, an accident or an unfortunate night at the public house might once have been an everyday incident. More than a century later, however, those records become tiny windows through which we can glimpse another world.

Who were these people? What worried them? What made them angry? What got them into trouble? And how different was their Tavistock from ours?

Through theatre, Tavistock Edge allows those fragments of history to acquire voices again.

Rather than simply hearing about Victorian Tavistock, the audience meets its inhabitants.

There will be victims and witnesses, respectable citizens and perhaps a few less respectable ones. Some stories are serious, some poignant and others reveal that human beings have always possessed a remarkable capacity for getting themselves into awkward situations.

The perfect setting

And there could hardly be a better place to stage it.

The Superintendent's Letters will be performed inside Tavistock Guildhall Courtroom.

This is a building created for the administration of justice, with the historic police station and cells alongside it. The surroundings therefore become part of the performance itself.

For an hour, we are not simply sitting in a modern theatre watching actors recreate history.

We are back in a nineteenth-century courtroom hearing the stories of the people who might once have stood there.

Everyday Histories brought to life

The production also captures the spirit of this year's national Heritage Open Days theme, Everyday Histories.

Much of history inevitably concentrates on monarchs, politicians, industrialists and great events. Yet the overwhelming majority of our ancestors lived lives that never appeared in history books.

Occasionally, however, something happened that caused their name to be written down.

A police report was made. A witness gave evidence. A newspaper reported an incident. A superintendent wrote a letter.

And suddenly an ordinary life left a footprint.

The Superintendent's Letters takes those footprints and turns them back into people.

It is local history, social history and theatre rolled into one, and is suitable for all the family.

More than 50% of tickets have already gone

The response to this year's Heritage Open Days programme has been tremendous, and The Superintendent's Letters is already more than half sold.

So this is one where we really would recommend booking now rather than adding it to the mental list marked "I'll get around to that later."

The performance takes place at 2pm on Sunday 20 September in Tavistock Guildhall Courtroom and, like all our Heritage Open Days events, tickets are FREE.

But the Courtroom only holds so many people.

Once those seats are gone, they're gone.