The Blackmore Family

A Memory of Down St Mary.

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 a drink, met Alice Blackmore whom he evevtually married, after their marriage lived at Woolsgrove with Albert Blackmore, Alice's brother. In 1923 Miss Lillian Wreford put Shobrooke Farm up for sale. My father bought the main farm lot 1, lot 2 consisted of the land between the railway and the brook except the two acres Mr Backmore had built Woolsgrove on, Mr Blackmore out bid my father for lot two. In 1928/29 , William Gunn built Halbury, where the Wright brothers now live, of mass concrete, he built the wotk shop first beside the road to see how he would get on, one can see the board marks in the wall agaist the road, Jack Moise from Lapford was his labourer for two years. After William Gunn and his wife moved into their new bungalow, from Woolsgrove, Mr Blackmore had two ladies to look after him, Miss Eve Cowl as house keeper and Miss Emily Edwards, indoor servant. In 1933 Mr Earn Gunn, Will Gunns son, had Ashbrooke built, just up the farm road between the railway and the main road, I was going to Down St Mary school at this time and passed there every day, he was engaged to marry Miss Dorothy Ash of Samford Countenay, Dorothy's brother Courntney, a builder built the bungalow, I believe it cost Earn about one thousand pounds. Pat, Josephine and David were born at Ashbrooke, Pat married Henry Dockings, Josey married Stuard Reddaway and David married Gill Rice from Morchard Bishop.
I have just had a thought concerning Alf Howard, after he came back from Dunkirk; he served with the Eight Army, The Desert Rats at El Alamein under General Montgomery (Monty) Henry Shapland.

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