Christow memories
Here are memories of Christow and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Christow or a Christow photo.
Heather And Gorse Clog Morris Entertain at The Teign House Inn, Christow
It was the weekend of the Royal Wedding and on Sunday, the day before the May Bank Holiday, everyone was in a party mood.
We took a party of dancers and musicians to the Teign House Inn which is a delightful country pub several miles north along the lanes from Christow. The jolly landlord provided a camping field for some folks to to stay for the entire long weekend as there is a tradition among Morris Dancers to rise at dawn on May Day to greet the sun at the start of summer!
On this particular Sunday we had more than fifty dancers and a lot of musicians too. We came from many different "sides" around Devon and Cornwall. I brought along my small piano accordian and played along with the band for the Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers. They looked splendid in their blue and white kit with shiny black clogs although they did find it tough dancing on the grass!
Memories of Devon
THe New Inn
My parents ran the New Inn (now The Nobody Inn) when my grandmother died, and we moved from Higher Ashton to take over the tenancy. The Pub was owned by the St Annes Well Brewery who operated from Exeter. Many memories flow from those days. School with Miss Mary Wippell Mallet who had the typical bun hairstyle, and lived with her sister in the school house just below the school. The school inspector?attendance officer called on a weekly basis, he was called Mr Bray, commonly known as "Donkey Bray", he used to drive in his black Austin 7. When Miss Mallet retired she and her sister went to live at Tedburn St Mary. She was replaced by a Miss Harper, a rather younger lady, who had many seemingly revolutionary new ideas. The village came alive when a neighbouring farmer, Reg Lovey, was spied journeying through the back fields and entering the School House at evening times, such things were never heard of, eventually they moved to Honiton and got married.... Read more
A Ramble in The Dunsford Nature Reserve And Lunch in The Royal Oak
Today I joined a group of friends on an organized ramble through the Dunsford nature reserve run by the Devon Wildlife Trust. My friends are all dancers and musicians with Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers but on this occasion we were happy to enjoy a five mile circular walk on a beautiful early Spring sunny Devon day instead of our more usual dancing at a pub!
We started our ramble at Steps Bridge, close to where we parked our cars in the Dartmoor National Park car park next to the Youth Hostel. The reserve entrance is just past the Exeter side of the bridge and we followed the footpath and bridlepath along the valley floor, from Steps Bridge to the Clifford Bridge where we played “Pooh Sticks” (just shows how grown up Morris Dancers can be!).
By the time we returned to Steps Bridge it was lunchtime and we were feeling quite thirsty so we all made our way to The Royal Oak in Dunsford for... Read more
A Little Bit of Chudleigh History
When a boy, my father, Donald William Stevens, used to show visitors through the Pixie caves for 1/2d per person, with the light from a candle for illumination. After WWII he followed in his father's (William Henry Stevens) footsteps of being a Chudleigh shopkeeper, and opened a shoe shop at 7 The Square, (or Fore Street as some preferred). This shop was in business for 39 years, and sold all types of footwear from Wellies, plimsoles and brogues, although there was not much call for ballet shoes! Due to ill health the business was closed, and sadly he died in 1989.
My mother continued to live in Chudleigh until her death earlier this year at the age of 85 years. How Chudleigh has changed recently would have made my father weep, I'm sure, with the lovely views he enjoyed from his bungalow, with the leat and daffodills in spring, but life must go on.
Heather And Gorse Clog Dancers Entertain at Chudleigh
Chudleigh hosts a wonderful Christmas late night shopping evening each year when the Christmas lights in Fore Street are switched on. The shops stay open until late evening and their windows twinkle with fairy lights and decorations. Shops, cafes and pubs are crowded and stay open late in the evening, and the place is transformed into a fairyland of old-fashioned entertainment and street traders.
The Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers and I went along to provide part of this entertainment and I played my piano accordian in the band and my wife Elizabeth was one of the team of dancers. We took our one-year old granddaughter Anna in a puchchair and made sure she was well wrapped up to keep warm! We had a big band of squeezeboxes and drums. The dancers looked magnificent in their smart kit of black waistcoats, bright blue skirts and shiny black wooden clogs as they danced six times during almost an hour long performance. The best spot to play and dance... Read more
Lemnos
I was born in Bovey Tracey in 1952, on a Wednesday afternoon, the eleventh of June. I arrived in the middle of a garden party being held at 'Grey Gables' a house owned by a Mrs Pedrick (I do not remember her husband, but we children called her Aunty Lottie). My parents, my older sister and I lived in a house called Lemnos. I do not remember the name of the street it was on but I do remember that from our front door if you turned right and started walking down the hill you crossed a river and the road did a sharp turn to the left. A white pub was on the outside corner of the bend. I left Bovey Tracey in 1955 and went to live in Letchworth (Herts) and then migrated to Australia in 1968.
One day, I don't know which year, I remember looking out of our front room bay window, with my sister, and watching a May Day procession.
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