A plea has been made for Okehampton’s Royal Charters to be returned to the town so that people can view this part of the town’s history.

Former mayor of Okehampton and of West Devon borough, the Rev Mike Davies has asked new town mayor Cllr Richard Colman and the town council to look into seeing if the charters could be returned to go on display in the town.

The documents include charters going back to the medieval times of Edward I and the Stuart kings James I and Charles II. They used to be stored in the town hall but were some years ago transferred to the Devon Records Office, now part of the Devon Archives on the edge of Exeter.

Here they are kept in conditions to prevent them from deteriorating.

Royal Charters were traditionally granted by the sovereign to bestow and define privileges for townsfolk, such as market days. A market charter was granted in 1234 for Okehampton, allowing the people to trade.

Rev Davies explained that during his tenure as town mayor, he and the late Don Bent, the then town clerk, went to view the Royal Charters at the records office.

He said: “They are very special documents and the latter ones are a lot larger than you would expect. The are written in medieval Latin but have been translated into modern English, when this was done is not known. Interestingly they spell Okehampton as Oakhampton.”

Rev Davies said went along to the town council meeting earlier in the month to ask if the charters could be brought back to Okehampton. Failing that, he suggested they could be professionally copied and then handed over to the Museum of Dartmoor Life in the town, so people could see them.

It has been agreed that the matter will be discussed at an upcoming meeting of the town council.