Beesands, Devon

Childhood and Marriage

I went to Sunday School here from 1949, and I sang in the church choir from 1950 until 1960 alongside my Nan.I was also allowed to learn to play the organ, the church has (had?) a wonderful organ, 2 keyboards and foot operated keyboard pedals, plus more stops than I could ever get used to. An uncle also sang in the choir, and he and my aunty ran the Church House Inn.
Uncle often used to sing 'Bless This House' in the pub and I used to play the piano for him.
I came home and got married in the church in January 1963, with full choir and bells. It was SO COLD, that was a really bad winter. The reception was at The Torcross Hotel and there was even ice at the edge of the sea.

Early teenage fun at The Salcombe Hotel

The Salcombe Hotel was at one time owned by the formidable Mrs. Ryder. She could be seen in her latter years being escorted to and from The Ferry Inn by Mike Philpotts, a long-term hotel employee. Mrs Ryder had a bulldog, wore a silver bulldog brooch and it is remarkable how some people are said to resemble their pets.......
The Hotel used to hold an afternoon party in the ballroom on Christmas Day and my friend Michael H and I went one year as two girls from St.Trinians. We borrowed gymslips, hats and hockey sticks from the Mulligan girls and made plaits from coarse tractor twine.
As we paraded around a daring gentleman pinched my bottom - a dubious thrill!

Customs Quay Salcombe

This view shows Customs Quay and out of sight on the right is the Customs House. Mrs Florrie Gasson and her husband lived in the building and she would make a great show to the visitors of feeding the swans. A flock of 20 or so would swim in the water looking for her and she called each one by a different name.
I can remember sitting here with my friend Michael H when film-makers arrived to shoot a washing powder commercial. I never saw the finished ad but a friend told me that the happy family descended the steps to the fore of the photo to soft golden sand! Such artistic licence! More like shingle and mud ... AND the film crew  used large silver discs to reflect the sun on to the towels making them appear snowy white. I have never trusted commercial advertising since.

Courtenay Park Salcombe

This view of Courtenay Park is quite poignant for me.  It shows houses at the lower end of Devon Road and also the land on which Egremont Terrace was later built.

My parents lived in no. 10 Egremont Terrace from the late 1930s until they moved to St Dunstan's Road in 1970. We had a splendid view over the estuary from the balcony of no. 10 and sitting out there in the summer was like having and extra room. Courtenay Park could be reached by a long flight of some 50 wide steps from Devon Road. I tripped over a cat rushing down them one day and still bear the scar on my right knee.

The Park was a delightful place in which to play and I have wonderful memories of rolling in the freshly-cut grass with the Tucker family who were great friends and climbing the trees playing games and travelling the world in our young and impressionable imaginations. We used a pebble to bang on the old bomb-shell at the bottom of the Park. Every summer we would have a great time catching cabbage white butterflies in jam jars and sometimes my cousin David would lean over Daisy Brooking's garden wall to nick some very sour gooseberries with an old tennis racquet for us all to share. Great times!