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Billacombe
Billacombe maps
Historic maps of Billacombe and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Billacombe maps
Billacombe photos
We have no photos of Billacombe, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Plymstock| Plympton| Plymouth| Bovisand| Plym Bridge| Wembury| Heybrook Bay| Stoke| Yealm River| Yealmpton| Newton Ferrers| Cremyll| Devonport| Noss Mayo| Wotter| Bickleigh| Kingsand| Shaugh Prior| Cawsand| Torpoint| Millbrook| Rame| Bere Ferrers
Billacombe area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Billacombe and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Billacombe
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Billacombe.
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My First Memories
I was born in Garden Village, Billacombe in 1944 and lived there until I was 8 years old. My memories are very strong of walking up Pleasure Hill to Sunday School at Pomphlet, walking to and from Goosewell Infant School and buying cream buns from Goodbodys Bakery on the way home. We lived with my grandparents who kept chickens, had wonderful apple trees, raspberry bushes and gooseberries in their garden. Summers were very colourful. We did not own a car and my mother used to walk us to all the woods in the district such as Staddiscomb, Radford, Saltram and Colesdown where picking primroses and bluebells were a strong feature of my memory. I have always been haunted by Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' after seeing Plymstock School's version in a Christmas concert. These were the days when steam trains ran on many branch lines and my most vivid memory was of catching the train to Steer Point and collecting shells for the chickens. We owned a caravan at Bovisand where we spent a lot of... Read more
Devon memories
A Very New Broadway
In 1962 my parents and I (12 years old) moved from Bristol to open Victoria Wine (later to become the Wine Market before reverting back to Victoria Wine). There were still several empty units awaiting occupation. I can recall most of the shops that were open, starting at the fire station end was James & Rosewell hardware, a ladies hairdresser, Lloyds? Bank, newsagent, service road, Barclays Bank, ladies & childrenswear, coffee bar (bane of our lives with noisy motor bikes racing around every night), South Devon Textiles, Co-op, Midland? Bank, Sharp & Savage TV, our shop, Dingles foodshop. Mays florist, Millbay laundry, Widgers decorators, Dewhurst, Pearkes grocery, Lockharts hardware then lastly was Fine Fare which was one of the first supermarkets to open in the UK.
There was no development on the south side at this time. It was another 2 or 3 years before Woolworths, then another year or two before Co-op (Plym House?), Boots and Halfords appeared.
We had the pleasure of the sight of cows grazing... Read more
A Naval Hideaway.
What a great little place to be when in the RN. I was serving on the Boom Defence Boats in 1954/5. These boats were coal burning, and I was a stoker, so it was pretty hard work! We spent most of our time in Pembroke Dock, but now and again we had to do some work in the Plymouth area, and berthed in Turnchapel, a real hideaway, no Naval Patrols, no Naval Officers, as our Skipper used to leave for his home in Plymouth, well I think that's where he went!! Then we all used to go up to a little pub, just up the road from the jetty, on a hill, brilliant little place, good beer, always a sing song, nice female company!! And everyone was happy, that is until closing time! Yep, that's fifty odd years ago now but I will always remember Turnchapel, although for the life of me, I am unable to remember the name of that pub. I remember the name of one of the... Read more
Teenage Days
My parents bought the little cottage, 1 Harbour View (end of Boringdon Rd) in Coronation year. The area at that time was, quite frankly, a slum and many of the surrounding houses were being condemned and pulled down. Our cottage was ear-marked for demolition, but it was saved by my parents' refurbishment. We bought it from a elderly couple who ran a taxi service. My parents created a very cosy interior, adding a Crittal window on Borringdon Road side, near the corner which still bears a hinge - the remnant of a large gate which used to hang across a long gone entrance - perhaps to the old boat yard. The sewage pipe, like all the others, still however ran straight into the Cattwater, where hoards of little boys swam and shrimped. I was just 14 when we moved from a modern bungalow on the outskirts of Birmingham. For me, at that time, Turnchapel was quite a culture shock. I had to cross the ferry which... Read more
Growing Up
We moved to Cattedown in 1952 when I was 8 years old, to Tresillian Street. My first memory is of the Coronation celebrations and a resulting street party, when we received Coronation Mugs, had bicycle decoration contests and street games. How I escaped getting into serious trouble is still a mystery to me because we (the boys in the street) used to roam around the wharves and quarries fairly late at night, and trespass on various properties. We'd round off the evening at the fish and chip shop at the top of the sreet, hanging around till we ran out of ideas! In the summer, we swam down at The Battery across to the Mayflower Steps and back. This was our challenge. We always went in a crowd as we were scared of the Coxide boys. Occasionally we would make war with the kids from Mainstone Avenue and hurl stones across the railway line at them. My parents would have been devastated had they known. (They had their suspicions several times due... Read more
Bubbles up Your Bum!
Just look closely at the picture, sitting on top of the fountain was half the fun & excitement of coming to the pool. Water wings under my arms and the supervision of Granddad Russell I made my first attempt at learning to swim. Getting really daring swimming to the back of the pool, climbing out would lead to the open sea where only the brave would swim. The pool was accessed by steps from the road at the front of the Hoe. Walking down the damp steps we then divided into boys and girls changing rooms from where we emerged into the circular concrete pool. There were 2 four layer fountains to climb and sit on and a central taller fountain where the 'teenagers' hung out. Without the luxury of an indoor swimming pool we went from Sailsbury Road, Primary School, I can only think by pd2 Bristol bus, for our swimming lessons. After the time in the pool we dressed and walked through the passage way by the pool... Read more
Ford Park Cemetery
The Cemetery, popularly known as Ford Park Cemetery, and owned by the Plymouth, Devonport & Stonehouse Cemetery Company finally went into liquidation in 1999 owing to the decline in burials following the opening of the two Council run cemeteries at Weston Mill and Efford and also in part due to the increasing popularity of cremation. At that time there had been upwards of 250,000 pesons interred in the Cemetery but there was still room for some 10,000 more.
A charity - The Ford Park Cemetery Trust - was formed in 2000 to run the over-grown and vandal damaged cemetery and has now, with the help of a very willing team of volunteers and a dedicated ground staff, completely cleared the grounds, replanted trees, restored many of the graves and turned this once ailing eyesore into a fully functioning cemetery with annual burials numbering some 50. There is also a fund-raising drive underway to restore the old Victorian Chapel and turn the new chapel into a heritage centre.
