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Ashridge
Ashridge maps
Historic maps of Ashridge and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Ashridge maps
Ashridge photos
We have no photos of Ashridge, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Westleigh| Instow| Bideford| Appledore| Northam| Weare Giffard| Fremington| Westward Ho!| Tawstock| Littleham| Littleham Bideford| Abbotsham| Torrington| Bishops Tawton| Taddiport| Barnstaple| Braunton| Alwington| Atherington| Pilton West
Ashridge area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Ashridge and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Ashridge
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Devon memories
The Clarke Family of Newton Tracey in The Early 19th Century
Frances “Fanny” Clarke was born about 1810 in Newton Tracey and my interest in both her and the village is because she married Henry Howard, a tin plate worker from Barnstaple. My middle name is Howard which carries on the family name from those far off days. As I have now retired and live in Devon I am looking forward to visiting the parish church at Newton Tracey to see for myself the church where no doubt she and her family worshipped, and the village where she lived. Perhaps I may even find family gravestones in the churchyard? Frances married Henry in 1838 in Islington Parish Church, London and all their many children were born around there. Why ever did they leave beautiful Devon I wonder?
Ladies Hairdressers at Instow
My mother - Hilda Florence Allen - worked as a hairdresser in Instow for a time during the Second World War. At the time she was married to Douglas Steer although the marriage did not survive long and she later joined the WRAF and was posted to Egypt for the remainder of the war years.
She had happy memories of Instow and took me there with my father for one of my earliest summer holidays probably around 1949. I revisited just this weekend in 2008 and tried to locate the hairdressers shop where my mother had once worked but there has been so much change that it proved impossible. I did walk along the sandy beach and thought deeply about having previously walked here almost sixty years ago! I looked across the water to Appledore and thought how beautiful the area is.
Family Home
Ahh Instow.. Always in my heart. Gran moved from Plymouth to Bickleton (2mls inland from Instow) c1930. Mum (Nancy Rooke) went to Instow school. During the war years she met Dad (Ron) married (1942) and moved to Staines where I grew up. Every year, with my two brothers, Doug and Andy, we would have our holidays with Gran, Aunt Lila and Uncle Ray (Spiers). Travelling down by train, watching out for the derelict tower on top of the hill above the old village near the School. Uncle Ray worked at the REME camp. They moved into Instow c1960, gran passed away 1963. We moved to Newton Abbot, Devon in 1964. Mum, Dad, Doug and Andy moved in with Aunt Lila and Uncle Ray c1966. Andy went to Instow School. Andy now lives in the same house that Aunt Lila had. I particularly remember the beach, Norman Johns' ferry to Appledore, I think he went to school with Mum. So many memories.
Springfield Terrace
This view shows my house. It is the one at this end of Springfield Terrace - you can see a number of the terrace chimneys peeping out over the top of the hill to the left. We overlook the River Torridge. You can see the old medieval bridge in the background. Our terrace was built around 1850 for the managers of the railway company (the old Torrington to Barnstaple railway ran just in front of our house until 1965. For the last few years the old track course has been converted to a new use - for cyclists, and renamed the Tarka Trail. Our houses have wonderful views from the middle and top floors over the river and the town of Bideford opposite.
Memories of A Choir Boy
Seeing the pic of the font in St Marys brought back memories of my time as a choir boy there, part of a tradition in our family. Our choir master was Mr Sellers a teacher at Geneva School also known as 'Jumbo' because of his large ears!
New boys were intitated into the choir with a ritual (including me) in which you had to run around the church outside, then hit on head with bell rope and finally thrown into the holly bush!!! It sounds cruel I know but was done and taken in good humour by all and I enjoyed my time in the choir immensely.
Bideford Bridge
My grandmother grew up in Bideford and had a copy of this postcard (which I still have). She told me that the two children in the foreground of the picture were actually her and her brother.
Steeper Than it Looks
It was every school summer holiday that my sister and I used to come with our parents to spend a week or so with grandma Annie Penhorwood. If we had any money we would go to the bakery shop near the bottom of the High Street and carry our prizes in their greased brown paper bag back up (usually in some heat) to eat later.
This usually preceeded a trip to Westward Ho! to spend ages making a monumental shelter in the pebble ridge and carefully picking the biggest pebbles to run on, to get into the surf first. I also remember getting buffeted by enormous waves (especially if nearer September) and gamely hanging on to my home-made wooden surfboard, painted white to help it stay a little bit waterproof. Shame that this was scraped off in the shallows on the sand underneath, because it was warmer in the water there and I could at least stand up on it!
Annie lived in many places including Abbotsham Road and East... Read more
