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Heathfield
Heathfield maps
Historic maps of Heathfield and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Heathfield maps
Heathfield photos
We have no photos of Heathfield, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Chudleigh Knighton| Bovey Tracey| South Knighton| Ilsington| Kingsteignton| Chudleigh| Haytor Vale| Haytor| Newton Abbot| Lustleigh| Abbotskerswell| Bishopsteignton| Combeinteignhead| Christow| Manaton| Ashburton| Ipplepen| Kingskerswell| Ringmore| Torbryan| Daccombe| River Dart| Maidencombe| Buckfast| Kennford| Watcombe| Buckfastleigh
Heathfield area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Heathfield and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Heathfield
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Devon memories
Morris Dancing at The Star Inn
It was a lovely warm August evening and a small gathering of 'bikers' stood around in the car park of the Star Inn - a typical Devon pub in Old Liverton. They were enjoying looking at each others bikes but soon got a surprise when the Morris dancers arrived!
We met for the dance performance at 8pm. I brought my piano accordian along and played in the band for Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers and also enjoyed a pint of lovely Bombardier Ale from Wells Brewery.
There were probably no more than twenty folks gathered around the front of the Inn but all seemed to be enjoying the show. It was lovely dancing and playing in the twilight as the pub's illuminations switched on. I wished I had a camera but these words will remind me!
Black Bess Border Morris Entertain With Heather & Gorse Clog Dancers
You really couldn't make this up! The Star Inn is an attractive old Devon village pub and on any normal July mid-week evening you might have expected a handful of local beer and cider drinkers here in Liverton. But, on this particular occasion when my wife drove us into the pub car park we found it was full.
All along one side of the car park were old sports cars. On the other side a succession of motorbikes roared up and parked. And immediately in front of the entrance to this pretty pub were half a dozen attractive women wearing Dick Turpin highwaymen masks!
We had arrived as part of the Heather & Gorse Clog Dancers side and expected to play our usual accordian tunes for the dancers and perhaps half a dozen bystanders. Instead, the lovely summer's evening passed in a seamless hour and a half of entertaining music and dancing from two good morris dancing sides and appreciated by the members of the Triumph... Read more
Chudleigh Knighton Cider Memories
I lived in Chudleigh Knighton when I was 11 years old until I was 15. That was 1932 till 1936. I was taught at the lovely school there. The head mistress was Miss Gill and her assistants Miss Bray and Miss Parkhurst. My family had broken up and I lived with my grandparents Mr. William Thompson and Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson who had a small orchard and bicycle repair business with a couple of petrol pumps there at Bungalow Voysey. Nearby were boys of my age, Jack and Len Rodman, Aubrey Beer, Michael Wills and Joe Bovey to name a few and a girl, Reenie Snell. My grandfather built the bungalow whilst I lived there. It was a timber frame with asbestos cladding in and out and a corrugated iron roof. I particularly remember a huge dining table whose top surface was large spare asbestos sheets piled one on top of the other and we ate many meals off it. It obviously had no effect on our lifespan. I loved the... Read more
The Heath
Memories start in 1953 when Elizabeth became our Queen. I remember all the windowsills were decorated. I was 4 at the time. As I grew up with my sister and 3 brothers we had many a happy time in Gales Crest on the green playing hopscotch, marbles and looking for 4-leaved clover! The heath was our domain - making camps and picking blackberries - those were the days. Shame I didn't appreciate the countryside then. The back lane was walked many times. Our 'Uncle Bill' who lived in Meadow Cottages in the main street of CK. He worked with Farmer Harvey and I spent many a day herding and milking the cows. I could go on and on... but
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.
Heather And Gorse Clog Morris Dance at Rixey Park
Among the attractions at this year's annual Rixey Park Tractor Rally were the Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers and their band - a local dance team based at Combeinteignhead.
For days beforehand the weather had been absolutely atrocious so the venue at Bellmarsh Meadows, on the Chudleigh Road, between Kingsteignton and Chudleigh Knighton, was absolutely sodden and truly muddy! We had been warned about this so made sure we arrived with our wellington boots.
Fortunately the organisers placed some boards in the centre of the arena so there was a small area of firm ground for dancing! I think this is the only tme in my entire life that I have played my piano accordian in public wearling my wellies!!
All around us were some of the finest examples of classic farming machinery, mainly tractors, but also horticultural machinery, stationary engines, classic cars and motorcycles. The event also marked the 50th anniversary of Massey Ferguson, the agricultural machinery manufacturer, so there were special displays... 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.
