Over the last 5 years, volunteers and staff at the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon have been cataloguing the Vernon Carr Boyle Collection, which includes over 5000 watercolours, sketches, pen and ink drawings, illustrations, poems and reference material. In 2020, the Museum Development Trust were offered the archive, which was gifted to the Museum by Richard Boyle, who sadly passed away in 2022.

Born in Bideford in 1886, Vernon spent time overseas during the First World War keeping a pictorial record of his experiences. The current exhibition highlights the breadth of the collection and documents the workings of a creative mind.