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Gara Bridge memories

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Memories of Devon

Recent Visit to This Spot

Recently we took my Dad's Canadian cousin to this spot. John Pine (her father) was born here at New Mills, Loddiswell in 1889. William Henry Pine (my great grandfather) was miller and parish overseer. In our family photos we have an identical photograph and family lore is that they remembered the photograph being taken. After working at New Mills my great grandfather moved to Garden Mills, Kingsbridge.
Today the scene across the River Avon is little altered - although the mill is no longer in operation. The village of Loddiswell is up at the top of the hill.

Woodbine House Next to The Turks Head

Turks Head Inn c1960
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My grandparents lived in the house nextdoor to the Turks Head from c1952 to c1961. The house was called Woodbine House in those days and all the windows faced the street. The garden was across the street and my grandfather kept chickens and grew vegetables and my grandmother tended the flower garden. I believe the the people who ran the Turks Head were called Mr and Mrs Cherry. My grandfather died in 1959 and my grandmother continued to live there for awhile before moving to the cottage nextdoor to her daughter who lived near Ugborough. I remember that there was a butchers shop, a couple of general stores and the post office in the village.

Loddiswell School Dinners

I was fortunate to be at Loddiswell Primary school in the last few years of the reign of Ms Christian Michell and Ms Margaret Common, in the late 60s. In these days the summers were always very hot, and winters very cold with plenty of snow to have fun in.

These ladies were formidable, and I still shudder a little thinking of them. There were other teachers I vaguely remember, but these two left an impression on me.
Ms Michell would love to tell us the same old joke about some foreigner who came to paint her house. Something about him being an "Artiste" not an "Artist". I still don't get it. I think she just wanted the walls painting.

One of the most odd things that sticks in my memory is that there were 4 sizes of school dinners. One had to book the size of the dinners for the week early on Monday morning, and it would be... Read more

Memories 1920 - 1951

My name is James Ryder, i was born on the 2nd January 1920 in Factory Road, the youngest of seven children, of William and Lucy. Started school [C of E] at the age of 3 and left at the age of 14., during which time I sang in the Village Choir untill my voice broke. In 1934 I started a 6 year Apprentiship with T Brooks of Totnes as a Builder and cycled daily to where ever I was directed. One period was to Holne Chase for several months (sixteen miles e/w!!). On my twentiith birthday I volunteered for service in the Army and was enlisted in the Royal Engineers on the 16th April 1940 and servied six and a half years in Iceland, North Africa and Italy. In June 1946 I returned to Harbertenford after being discharged. When I came home I lived with my mother in chapel cottages as she had now moved. This lasted until a new council house was built in riverdale where i moved in... Read more

War Years

Born in 1938 in Modbury, I can remember the latter years of World War II.

I remember vividly the nights during the months of the heavy blitz on Plymouth, with the beams from searchlights that were based just outside the town criss-crossing the sky as German bomber formations droned overhead.

The American forces had an army camp in a field across from Modbury School and as a youngster I used to wander through the camp and GIs would give us sweets or chewing gum. The roads were lined with trucks and tanks preparing for the build-up to the Normandy invasion and the villagers used to volunteer for rehearsals by lying in the streets as casualties to be carried off to first aid stations.

In the evenings, some of the GIs would sneak into town and come to our home. My sister Peggy would sometimes play the piano for them and they would bring canvas bags of goodies for me and my sister. At Christmas time the children... Read more

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