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Abbots Bickington
Abbots Bickington maps
Historic maps of Abbots Bickington and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Abbots Bickington maps
Abbots Bickington photos
We have no photos of Abbots Bickington, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Milton Damerel| Parkham| Woolsery| Alwington| Holsworthy| Bucks Mills| Littleham Bideford| Weare Giffard
Abbots Bickington area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Abbots Bickington and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Abbots Bickington
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Devon memories
SHEBBEAR COLLEGE
Shebbear College is a famous West Country public school which my grandfather attended. It's a great place and I enjoyed visiting the college and the village. Very friendly people in Shebbear and pretty sourrounding countryside.
Family Tree - Hiscott Davie
In researching my family tree I have discovered a number of ancestors born in and around Frithelstock. The family name is Davie with either a middle name or secondary surname of Hiscott. I have tracked back to Philip Davie born in 1825. I would be interested in any information relating to the name Hiscott as I have not yet found when this was first used within the family. Thanks
Evacuee
I was an evacuee to Parkham in 1943 and would love to hear from anyone who might have been there at that time. I had very happy memories of Parkham and attending the village school.
If anyone has memories of this period please contact me.
My email address is alecnav@hotmail.co.uk
Growing up in The 1960's
We lived in Headon's Cottage, Fairy Cross - it had been an old German doctor's cottage in the 1700s, a Doctor Wacerill who is buried in St. Andrew's churchyard, and his faded plaque was still above the front door - walls made of cob and thatched roof etc. We were just up the road from Portledge drive - my grandfather William George Harris was woodsman and forester on the Portledge Estate for the Pine-Coffin family for over 50 years and his grandfather before him had been the estate foreman. As a boy I very often walked our Rottweiler dog , Limbo, down Portledge drive turning into the woods halfway down and making our way over some wooden bridges and past a couple of huts my grandfather had made for shelter, past what seemed to be a big lake often with ducks on it and ending up at the sea - also remember the wooden beachhut there (I suppose for changing into swimming costumes - not that it got much use!)... Read more
Church Going in The 1960's
As local village children we used to walk from Fairy Cross meeting other children from the council houses along the way and wind our way through the narrow lane, sometimes picking wild strawberries in summer - moving out of the way of cars that needed to pass us - usually on their way to church also - untill we arrived at St. Andrews, Alwington. We always sat up in the choir stalls with Mrs. Elston (who had been my first teacher at Abbotsham school - Alwington school, where my mother had attended, had closed some years previously because of low numbers and all from our village then went by bus to Abbotsham). I can remember at special services - Christmas etc. - that some of us children would read from the Bible to the congregation and when I did this I was always very nervous and once I lost my place and it seemed like ages before I found it again! Old Colonel and Mrs Pine-Coffin were always in the... Read more
Coffin Ancestry
My great-grandmother was Ellen Amanda Coffin, she was a direct descendent of Richard Coffin who was granted the parish of Alwington and the surrounding area by William the Conqueror for his services during the Norman Conquest (1066). Ellen Amanda Coffin was descended from Richard through the line of Peter Coffin who was born in 1535 at Portledge, Devonshire, England. Peter's son Tristram Coffin emigrated to America in 1642. Ellen Amanda Coffin was a seventh generation descendant of Peter. In the late 1800s Levi Leighton in his writings about his home-town of Columbia, Maine, mentions the local connection to Richard Coffin and Richard's service to William the Conqueror by whom he was rewarded with land and title. Ellen Amanda Coffin married Otis C. Tibbetts in 1855 and died in Columbia Falls, Maine, in 1899. I am 73 years old and living in Columbia Falls, Maine, and grew up in the house where Ellen and Otis had brought up thier family.
Several
My mother Edna Furse and her brother Kenneth Furse had the first double wedding held in the church and they married Victor Beech and Barbara Cook. My grandparents who lived in Holsworth were Bert and Beatrice Furse. I was born in 1942 and was the first girl child to be called Valerie in the then villiage. I spent many happy holidays with my grandparents and I also attended the junior school when I was 9 or 10 years old and my teacher was Miss Piper. Holsworthy has changed considerably since then and instead of a large villiage is now a very large town. My great uncle was Richard Furse who ran the bakery and indeed made my wedding cake in 1962 which my grandfather Bert brought all the way to Birmingham by car for me (it was a beautiful 3 tier cake). My grandparents are buried in the cemetery and when ever I am in the area I visit and put fresh flowers on their grave.... Read more
