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Down St Mary
Down St Mary photos
Displaying the first of 3 old photos of Down St Mary. View all Down St Mary photos
Down St Mary maps
Historic maps of Down St Mary and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Down St Mary maps
Down St Mary area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Down St Mary and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Down St Mary
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Down St Mary.
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Down St Mary School
Down St Mary School was built in 1878 on the site of the Bell Inn by the Rev. W T A Radford. In the 1930s I was a pupil in the infants' class which was divided from the upper class by a green curtain on a pole. There were arund twelve to fifteen pupils taught by Kathleen Andrews from Zeal, her father kept the North Star pub, she cycled over each day. The top class of twenty / twenty-five pupils were taught by Miss Ball, she came from Woolacombe and lodged with Mrs Snell in the cottage next door to the school, she had a brother Jack Towt and would have been an aunt to Joe Towt who was the captain of the bell ringers. I remember in 1936 Joe said it would be nice to have a treble bell to make a ring of six, they would then be also able to compete in ringing competitions which in latter years Down St Mary excelled at with Tom Wright as... Read more
Rice Relatives
I have no memories of Down St. Mary, but I have a great-great-grandad from this village, Michael Rice, born December 12, 1791. I do not know when he left. He died in Independence, Missouri, USA, in March 1854. Are there any more Rices in this area?
The Blackmore Family
A little more information on the Blackmore family, they moved from Ide to become the licences of the Sturt Arms, I would say around 1880, Albert was born 1886 and his sister Alice in 1874. Miss Lillian Wreford sold Albert Blackmore 2.011 acres, which was part of Shobrooke Farm, it would have been the close of land bordering the A377 from the stream to the farm lane. The Shobrooke (Sheep) Brook borders I should think three quarters of the way around the farm, which is also the boundary between the parishes of Down St Mary and Morchard Bishop. The A377 cut throught the farm in 1824 and the railway approx: 1855, the LSWR, London South Western Railway became part of the Southern Railway in 1923, this in turn became the Southern Rrgion in 1948. The Gunn family came into the picture when William Gunn from Witheridge, his family were wheelwrights at Withridge, came to pick up the mail at Morchard Road station, called in at Sturt Arms for... Read more
Morchard Road to Crediton Railway 1930.
From 1935 to 1941 I was a pupil at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School Crediton, travelling every day by train from Morchard Road Station, leaving home at ten minutes past eight to board the eight thirty train to Crediton, to walk up to the school at the top of the town, I must have walked between three and four miles every day. Children cycled down from Morchard Bishop to catch the train every day leaving their bikes at the Sturt Arms, one of the boys Lou Richards who was a year or so older than me, went on to be a bomber pilot had a bad crash in a Wellington Bomber, was in hospital for six months than went on to pilot Lancaster Bombers doing a total of thirty three operations, the longer you went on the less likely you were to get shot down, I suppose experience came into it as the whole crew gained experience, I believe Lou was a squadron leader at the end of the war,... Read more
Devon memories
War Time
My parents, Eddie and Doris Blackstone, stayed with the people who ran the post office during the war. I would have been about seven years old then and I can not remember the name of the people. In 1955 when I was doing my training as a Royal Marine at Lympstone I went by train and on foot the last couple of miles to see what Morchard Bishop was like and I went into the Post Office and the couple who had befriended my parents were still there. As I remember it was a beautiful village, so peaceful and quiet. The photograph shown here is just as I remember.
The Old School House at Coldridge
I went with my cousin Robert Allen to see the village of Coldridge to find out where our Grandad's sister had lived. Now many of what were once the important village businessses are modernised houses called The Old Forge or The Old Bakery or The Old Post Office. It is a shame to realise that the heart of this beautiful country community has been lost but I have heard that village life still thrives.
My cousin and I thought that Coldridge is a beautiful place. Our Grandad was George Creasey Allen and he had a younger sister Winifred Kate who married a Mr Plumridge and lived in The Old School House right next to lovely Coldridge Parish Church.
Their home is still a lovely brick and stone building with a large porch and the old school hall still there on one side. Great Aunt Winifred died and was buried in the beautiful churchyard within sight of the windows of her house in 1972. Her daughter... Read more
Playing at Eggesford
I will never forget as a child playing around the ruins of Eggesford House. My imagination ran wild and still to this day, the house inspires me. It amazes me how such a beautiful house could fall to such ruin. As a child I imagined my self as a baron of a secret society and Eggesford House was my headquarters. Funny! I used to sneak up there alot for my "secret meetings". Don't tell anyone but it was just a couple of scrappy boys getting in trouble. I have since moved to America back in 1985 and would just love to vist it today. My understanding is that someone lives there today and has restored the place? I would just love to see it and imagine once again.
