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Heath House

Heath House maps

Historic maps of Heath House and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Heath House maps

Heath House area books

Displaying 1 of 11 books about Heath House and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Heath House

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Somerset memories

When I Was Eight

Our family, living in India at the time, decided to travel to England for the Queens Coronation in 1953. We stayed in Wedmore for two months, in what was known as The Elmset Hall Hotel. It was a fun time for a small boy, me. I went to a school in Wedmore run by an elderly lady, whose name I have now forgotten. She told my mother I would never amount to anything. I made Captain in a major airline just to prove her wrong.

Grandad's Chickens

My Grandparents lived in Crickham, they were George and Lily Evans and they lived in one of the little houses next to a white church. I remember if you went down a long hill there was a Post Office and the other road led to a pub where my Aunt Sally and Uncle Alex had their wedding reception after they married at the church. I now live in the USA but have fond memories as a child riding the bus from Weston-super-Mare through Eastertown and then on to Crickham. We would take one of Grandad's chickens home for Sunday dinner, I could never watch him kill it but my brother did!

Childhood Holiday And Later Holiday in my Teens

My first visit was with my parents. From memory, they had booked to stay somewhere, but for some reason we were directed to stay with a Mr & Mrs Salter who owned a farmhouse near the church. We were made very welcome.

Around 1949, I decided to cycle to Somerset from Dagenham Essex at the age of 16 against my parents wishes, I was only earning £2.10.0 (£2.50 today) each week. I had to borrow a decent cycle from a good friend, and set off on a Saturday morning not knowing where I was going to stay or even knowing if I would make it all the way.
Heavy rain made me do B&B in Marlborouigh for 10/- (50p). Sunday was brilliant sunshine, and I made it to the village of Mark at around 6pm in the evening.
I happened to stop outside this house with railings around the front that I recalled, and a voice from a window above asked if they could help me. I looked up,... Read more

Family Tree

Since my parents died within a few weeks of each other a few years ago I have been looking into my father's family tree, and it seems all his relatives came from Mark in Somerset so I hope to visit there soon to trace my family tree further as I have hit a brick wall at the moment. I have got as far as a "Thomas Urch" who was born around 1737 and married to Sarah? If anyone could help I would be very grateful.

''The Grapevine'' And Others!

The Village c1955
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My uncle, the late William John Wilcox, was the proprietor of the 'Grapevine' from the mid 1930s through to the early 1960s. I remember it as a truly old fashioned 'pub' complete with a 'games room' with darts, shove ha'penny board and bar skittles. A game with the skittles placed on dots on the board, a wooden ball was suspended by a cord on a vertical pole. The player had to swing the ball in an arc to knock the skittles over. Painted on the Transom over the front door was the 'Legend' W. J. Wilcox, for the most part easy letters to paint, even from the inside, as they were, the J however was reversed - must have been a good brew! My eldest sister was sent to my uncle's to help recuperation from an appendix operation. She met the man who was to become her husband there. He was living with his widowed mother in one of a pair of cottages named 'Porter's Hatch' directly opposite the old Fish House.... Read more

The Ring o' Bells Public House, Meare

The Village c1955
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The building on the extreme right of the photograph used to be the Ring o' Bells Public House, owned by my great grandfather, Jesse Laver Difford. It was initially called The Grapevine Inn, or was called that when my grandmother was born there, in 1880 and its name changed to the Ring o' Bells at some time later.

Ring of Bells

The Village c1955
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I have a will dated 1865 for Robert Rood "of the Grape Vine Inn known by the ancient name of Brakeland". He bequeathed the property to his wife Mary Rood and it suggests the property was owned and bequeathed to him by his father Thomas Rood. His wife also had a property at Stileway beaqueathed to her.

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