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Heybrook Bay
Heybrook Bay photos
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Heybrook Bay maps
Historic maps of Heybrook Bay and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Heybrook Bay maps
Heybrook Bay area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Heybrook Bay and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Heybrook Bay
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Devon memories
Home Away From Home
We were one of the early families to have a caravan at Bovi. This was what the campers called it back then. Caravans were positioned randomly before terraces were excavated in the field over the fence from the green above Sandy Parlour (Bovisand's third beach). There was a community of campers and Christmas parties each year were fabulous for us kids. A good present could be depended on. We spent all summer holidays there and there wasn't a corner of Bovi we did nt know. An interest in ships was always big in our family and this was the perfect place to see trans-Atlantic liners when they called into Plymouth. The boom of the coastal defence guns off Wembury frequently startled us when target practice was being conducted. Our parents were very active and we were taken on coastal walks to Heybrook Bay, Wembury and Jenny Cliff frequently. Sometimes this included walking home to Billacombe when we had missed the last bus. My dad made a trailer from an old pram which... Read more
A Naval Hideaway.
What a great little place to be when in the RN. I was serving on the Boom Defence Boats in 1954/5. These boats were coal burning, and I was a stoker, so it was pretty hard work! We spent most of our time in Pembroke Dock, but now and again we had to do some work in the Plymouth area, and berthed in Turnchapel, a real hideaway, no Naval Patrols, no Naval Officers, as our Skipper used to leave for his home in Plymouth, well I think that's where he went!! Then we all used to go up to a little pub, just up the road from the jetty, on a hill, brilliant little place, good beer, always a sing song, nice female company!! And everyone was happy, that is until closing time! Yep, that's fifty odd years ago now but I will always remember Turnchapel, although for the life of me, I am unable to remember the name of that pub. I remember the name of one of the... Read more
Teenage Days
My parents bought the little cottage, 1 Harbour View (end of Boringdon Rd) in Coronation year. The area at that time was, quite frankly, a slum and many of the surrounding houses were being condemned and pulled down. Our cottage was ear-marked for demolition, but it was saved by my parents' refurbishment. We bought it from a elderly couple who ran a taxi service. My parents created a very cosy interior, adding a Crittal window on Borringdon Road side, near the corner which still bears a hinge - the remnant of a large gate which used to hang across a long gone entrance - perhaps to the old boat yard. The sewage pipe, like all the others, still however ran straight into the Cattwater, where hoards of little boys swam and shrimped. I was just 14 when we moved from a modern bungalow on the outskirts of Birmingham. For me, at that time, Turnchapel was quite a culture shock. I had to cross the ferry which... Read more
A Very New Broadway
In 1962 my parents and I (12 years old) moved from Bristol to open Victoria Wine (later to become the Wine Market before reverting back to Victoria Wine). There were still several empty units awaiting occupation. I can recall most of the shops that were open, starting at the fire station end was James & Rosewell hardware, a ladies hairdresser, Lloyds? Bank, newsagent, service road, Barclays Bank, ladies & childrenswear, coffee bar (bane of our lives with noisy motor bikes racing around every night), South Devon Textiles, Co-op, Midland? Bank, Sharp & Savage TV, our shop, Dingles foodshop. Mays florist, Millbay laundry, Widgers decorators, Dewhurst, Pearkes grocery, Lockharts hardware then lastly was Fine Fare which was one of the first supermarkets to open in the UK.
There was no development on the south side at this time. It was another 2 or 3 years before Woolworths, then another year or two before Co-op (Plym House?), Boots and Halfords appeared.
We had the pleasure of the sight of cows grazing... Read more
Growing Up
We moved to Cattedown in 1952 when I was 8 years old, to Tresillian Street. My first memory is of the Coronation celebrations and a resulting street party, when we received Coronation Mugs, had bicycle decoration contests and street games. How I escaped getting into serious trouble is still a mystery to me because we (the boys in the street) used to roam around the wharves and quarries fairly late at night, and trespass on various properties. We'd round off the evening at the fish and chip shop at the top of the sreet, hanging around till we ran out of ideas! In the summer, we swam down at The Battery across to the Mayflower Steps and back. This was our challenge. We always went in a crowd as we were scared of the Coxide boys. Occasionally we would make war with the kids from Mainstone Avenue and hurl stones across the railway line at them. My parents would have been devastated had they known. (They had their suspicions several times due... Read more
My First Memories
I was born in Garden Village, Billacombe in 1944 and lived there until I was 8 years old. My memories are very strong of walking up Pleasure Hill to Sunday School at Pomphlet, walking to and from Goosewell Infant School and buying cream buns from Goodbodys Bakery on the way home. We lived with my grandparents who kept chickens, had wonderful apple trees, raspberry bushes and gooseberries in their garden. Summers were very colourful. We did not own a car and my mother used to walk us to all the woods in the district such as Staddiscomb, Radford, Saltram and Colesdown where picking primroses and bluebells were a strong feature of my memory. I have always been haunted by Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' after seeing Plymstock School's version in a Christmas concert. These were the days when steam trains ran on many branch lines and my most vivid memory was of catching the train to Steer Point and collecting shells for the chickens. We owned a caravan at Bovisand where we spent a lot of... Read more
My Stay at Collaton Cross
I lived in Collaton Cross for a short while when my Husband was in the R.A.F. My surname then was TURTLE. My son Nicholas was born in the house in Collaton Cross. He was ill at birth and taken to Freedom Fields Hospital in Plymouth where he had a successful operation and is now a strapping six foot 3inches and very fit. I had a Daughter Julie and another son Tony. I enjoyed my stay at Collaton Cross and used to enjoy walking into Newton Ferrers. I had very friendly neighbours who were very helpful when my son was born and in hospital. My husband was working from R.A.F. Mountbatten on air/sea rescue. As I recall Newton Ferrers was a very pretty village which I hope some day to revisit,I also hope that my son will decide to visit his place of birth in the not too distant future.
I feel that I did enjoy the area but sometimes,when you are young and bringing up a family, you do not... Read more
