Bideford memories
Here are memories of Bideford and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Bideford or a Bideford photo.
Change in Quay Working in The Last 10 Years
Since moving to North Devon 10 years ago from London, have seen the quay area rebuilt as a flood defence system. The equipment on the quay, with the replacement of the old crane with a new modern crane, used mostly for loading brick and ball clay for Spain and Finland. A new trade occurred last year with shipment of timber from local forests to Wismar, to Germany .Most of the ships load approx 2400 tons depending on tides and weather conditions. The local shipyard at Appledore has been busy building pieces for the two Royal Navy aircraft carriers at Rosyth.
CAN ANYONE HELP
After coming out of hospital in the early 1960s when I was 10, I stayed at a Catholic boarding school in Bideford which had a church attached. Over the years I have attempted to find out exactly where the school was, but to no avail. I would be more than happy if anyone out there could help?
Nice Work, Great Grandpa!
It's only been in the last few days that I've learnt that Bideford's St Peter's Church was designed and built in the 1880's by my great grandfather Robert Taylor Hookway who was later the president of the Bideford Amateur Athletic Club at around 1903.
Regards,
A.H.Munro-Smith
Sydney
Australia
East The Water
Hi Folks,
I am looking for an old photograph. Just over the bridge on the East The Water side of Bideford is the parking lot for the Royal Hotel. In days gone by, and in my youth, as I was born in Torrington Street, it used to be a square. At the edge of the square which was the bridge end of Torrington Street was a fish and chip shop. At the top of the building of the fish and chip shop was mounted a sculptered eagle.
Does anyone have a photo of this eagle please
The granddaughter of the fish and chip owners is a wonderful lady. We drifted apart to different sides of the world, but due to a beautiful set of events we have been brought back together. We recently said hello to each other after a gap of 50 years, just magic.
I hope that somebody might be able to help
Thanks in advance
Eddie Neylon
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
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.
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.
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 Devon
Burrough House
My grandparents lived here from the 1960s until 1998, living in the flat. We used to spend our summer holidays here and had great fun!
Abbotsham School In The 1960's
Growing up at Fairy Cross, Alwington and as our village school had closed in the late 1950s we had to catch the school bus daily morning and afternoon to Abbotsham Primary School. (Shown in the centre back of the picture next to St Helens Church). I started in 1963 in the "little ones class" of the two roomed school. Mrs Elston was my first teacher there and she had also taught at Alwington School before it closed - Miss Ball was the headmistress throughout my time there. I can remember the outside boys toilet block in the playground (no flushing then) before they were replaced later in the decade and also there was an old victorian cloakroom (never used by us then - complete with all the hooks and very dusty and dirty because nobody went in there but we could look in through the locked gates) and after one summer holiday break we came back and found that Miss Ball had a new office thanks to the old cloakroom... Read more
Childhood Holidays in Fairy Cross
This photo has brought back so many memories of when I had my summer holidays in the last house before the white houses. There was a gate to the side of the house which lead into a large garden where my grandad grew veg and fruit, and the chickens from the farm behind walked around the garden. I loved to play in the sheds in the garden and pick the peas for dinner. The days would be filled going down to Westwood Ho beach and the swings by the big sea wall; building up all the pebbles so it makes a wind break, and not to forget the icecream which was to die for. Fantastic times! That cottage and surrounding area is so magical and relaxing. My grandparent's names were Fred Cousins and Stella Cousins and her sister was Helen. But it's great to see all this again - I wish I could go back.
Family Connections.
This picture was actually taken in the early 1960's and later turned into a postcard. The man on the motorbike is my late father, John Ridd, who was a local farm manager at the time. The motorbike by the way is a BSA Bantam - he was the only person in the village who had one like it!
My Many Walks to And From Abbotsham 1957
At the side of the Post Office is a single track lane that leads to the cliffs, half a mile along the lane past the farm was a large thatched cottage named "Rixlade". In 1957 our father Major William (Bill) Hay was stationed as O.C. at Fremington camp near Barnstaple, from our home town of Aldershot in Hampshire. As a southern townie from the London commuter belt moving to the quiet but beautiful south western village of Abottsham, in a cottage almost at the cliff edge over looking the sea, was kind of lost on a eighteen year old teenager with girls on his mind. Bearing in mind in those days of fewer motor cars, the only car in our family belonged to the head of the house, and the fact there were only two buses a week, one Wednesday and one Friday, from the village to Bideford. My feet soon learnt to pace out the three miles from the cottage to the bus stop in Bideford to catch the bus to my... Read more
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