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Burlestone
Burlestone maps
Historic maps of Burlestone and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Burlestone maps
Burlestone photos
We have no photos of Burlestone, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Strete| Blackpool| Slapton| Stoke Fleming| Dartmouth| Stokenham| Torcross| Sherford| Chillington| Kingswear| Dittisham| Frogmore| Beesands| Ashprington| Woodleigh| Harbertonford| West Charleton| Stoke Gabriel| Duncannon| Hallsands| South Pool| Batson| Kingsbridge| Galmpton| Churston Ferrers| Gara Bridge| Brixham| Salcombe
Burlestone area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Burlestone and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Burlestone
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Devon memories
I Was Born There
I remember going to school at Strete in the Easter, up to the summer holidays, as a 4 year old in 1964. When we were due to return, we had to go to Stoke Fleming primary because Strete primary had closed. All the Rowdens, Ewings, Harises and Yabsleys blamed me for the school closing. I was totally gutted! I lived in at No 3 Severns Corner, where I was born, with my mother and four sisters. Our next door neighbours were the Skinners, the father's name was Bill. I remember one son's name was Richard, who used to scare me while wearing a WW2 gas mask. I had many wonderful memories of Strete as a child and remember many locals names. We moved from Strete to Dartmouth in 1970, where a new chapter in my life started.
Sailor Boyo!
I remember my parents swinging me between them along a fir tree'd lane to the sea, singing 'Sailor Boy-oh'. We were camping at a site run by a man called 'Roly' (Rowlandson perhaps). Imagine my parents' delight at camping under the stars after the Blitz and London. Their happy memories stayed with them always. And I remember my first experience of the smell of the pine trees - I was three!
Best Holiday Ever !
My family come from the East End of London. My mum and dad took us on holiday from Chingford on a Grey Green coach to Stoke Fleming for two weeks, we stopped en route in Yeovil for tea.... My parents had booked a caravan (one of three) behind the London Inn in the gardens, the landlord had a daughter who my brother and I used to play with. There was also a dog.. and a little spring outside the pub where we caught a newt which we kept in a bucket under the caravan until the dog ate it !!... We used to go winkle picking down in the mud at Dartmouth. I remember playing outside in the pub garden whilst mum and dad went inside for a meal, mum told us that they had had lobster !!! I'd never even heard of it before ! The sun shone continuously throughout the holiday and we all got burned! We would walk down to Blackpool sands during the day and I taught... Read more
Warfleet
I first came to Dartmouth in 1966 as a member of the Vancouver Boys Band. We were a 39 piece military style marching/concert band. All of us in the band fell in love with Dartmouth. We were hired to play for the Carnival in June and the Regatta in August. I returned with the band in 1968 and 1970. On one of the trips, a Mr Dwyer gave Arthur Delamont, the conductor of the band, a history book on Dartmouth and he passed it on to me. It sat on my bookshelf for years, years that saw me become a band conductor and later a writer. At some point I picked the book up again and couldn't put it down, absorbing all the names and the lore from John Hawley to Francis Drake to Thomas Newcombe. I knew all the roads and high streets and low streets from my adventures in the band and made the trip up the Dart often, past Agatha Christie's house, all the way up to... Read more
Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth
I joined the College in Sep 1965 at the last moment so they were not really expecting me despite the fact MOD Navy told me to proceed. I was not a brilliant pupil, but ready to give it my all. I was not the pattern that they were hoping to mold into the standard officer material. Despite the fact that I had swum all my life, I turned out to be a 'backward' swimmer. I was also a 'backward' flasher as it applies to reading morse coded flashing light messages. I was also a 'backward' sailor when it came to passing proficiency tests on the navy's boats. and so on. I did graduate the Basic Training, but had to put considerably more effort in these tests than did the average recruit it seemed. I 'enjoyed' the rest of my five years afloat with the Survey Navy, until other things called for my attention ashore.
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.
Widdicombe Children's Home
Anyone who knows or went to Widdiecombe Home, can you get in touch, do you have some photos, or memories. I went there as a young boy 6 years old, hope to hear from someone, hoping to visit all around south Devon shortly. I remember goingto the beach, and seeing the lighthouse as it always shone in the home.
