Kennford, Devon

The Wakely Family

I was born in Lower Shillingford (Shillingford Abbot) in 1939. My grandparents lived in Rectory Cottage, Higher Shillingford (Shillingford St George). My grandfather was gardener at the vicarage. He was also the sexton at the church, gravedigger, bellringer and caretaker at the church.
At Christmas time we would walk from Lower Shillingford to Higher Shillingford to attend the midnight service at the church on Christmas Eve. My grandmother would not attend the service as she was stone deaf. She looked after my little brother instead while we were at the service. It was always bitterly cold and I remember starlit nights and chattering teeth. The church was warm and bright and full of holly and ivy that my grandfather had collected to decorate the church. I loved this service and often think about it even now. After the service we walked home and by the time we got home we were very tired and slept very well. I think that my parents had an ulterior motive for we were never up early on Christmas morning

THe New Inn

My parents ran the New Inn (now The Nobody Inn) when my grandmother died, and we moved from Higher Ashton to take over the tenancy. The Pub was owned by the St Annes Well Brewery who operated from Exeter. Many memories flow from those days. School with Miss Mary Wippell Mallet who had the typical bun hairstyle, and lived with her sister in the school house just below the school. The school inspector?attendance officer called on a weekly basis, he was called Mr Bray, commonly known as "Donkey Bray", he used to drive in his black Austin 7. When Miss Mallet retired she and her sister went to live at Tedburn St Mary. She was replaced by a Miss Harper, a rather younger lady, who had many seemingly revolutionary new ideas. The village came alive when a neighbouring farmer, Reg Lovey, was spied journeying through the back fields and entering the School House at evening times, such things were never heard of, eventually they moved to Honiton and got married. I also recall the infant teacher Miss Down cycling to and fro from Kingsteignton on a daily basis, a journey of about 25 miles a day.

Cann Family History

My Great Great Grandfather was born William Honey Cann.   Born: March 12, 1845 in Topsham, England son of John Cann and Jane (Hill) Cann.  (William Married - Ann Pidgeon, from England also!).  Looking for more information on Cemeteries in this area.  John Cann was the son of Samuel Cann & Charity (Arscott) Cann.  Looking for information on location of where they lived in Topsham, or worked.

There was always the ghost stories...

In 1973 having just left school that summer, I started my State Registered Nurse training with tutor Miss Wilmot at this Southernhay Hospital.
Being a 'young lady' from Bristol my new colleagues and I were expected to live in the Nurses Home with a larger than life home matron Miss Hermitage. The Nurses Home was behind the hospital between Wynards Lane and Southernhay Gardens where there was an access lane. It was a red brick 4 story building that you could see the back of Southernhay and some of the multi-walkways and verrandas linking the many buildings such as the casualty block to the corridor towards the childrens wards and theatres. I remember being shown around one of the theatres that had a filled in fireplace at an angle in the corner of the room space!
In the Home there was large shared bathing rooms of 6 that you could screen off your bath while bathing. They were the most enormous cast iron white baths that when full of water you could completely dunk down in, and after a shift with the Bedpan Sterilizer in the Sluice, you would want to.
At this time everyone was getting excited about moving to the 'new' Wonford hospital on Barrack Road, sadly already gone and replaced after my time there.
Southernhay was a friendly old place that was missed by everyone who remembers working within the high ceilings, mercury-soaked floors, drafty windows and squeaky dark corridors.
That brings me to the 'Grey Lady', and as a young impressionable trainee scared me, and still does! In those days the staff were friendly but the ward sister was boss and unquestionable when it came to job allocation.
The Night shifts were busy and punctuated by 'rounds' with the Night Sister who wanted 'Name Age and Diagnosis' of every patient at least once each shift. On one of the bottom wards Summerhays we had a quiet night, relatively so, and thats when I heard of the Grey Lady. As you can guess other nurses had other and slightly different tales to tell and be told.
My initiation was on a windy night, adding to the sinister atmosphere, and darkened by the nightlights in the corner of the ward with whispering so the night sister wouldn't hear. The Grey lady was supposed to be a young nurse who having found she was pregnant by her soldier fiance, jumped off the balcony after receiving word of his gruesome death on the battlefield. It was supposed that the wind was her wailing in anguish and falling, and it was said every windy night you may catch a glimpse of her as a grey misty figure floating along the balcony on the upper floors before suddenly dissappearing from site!
Yes, I was spooked and I expect a lot of other people have seen her and after being told their own version. Perhaps you were one of them? My saving grace was Miss Hermitage who was probably used to soothing scared trainees. She wisely said she had never nursed or even heard of anyone being hurt by a ghost, so what was there to worry about! Curiously she didn't deny there was a Grey Lady but I only thought of that after being reassured. Actually the most scarey thing in the old hospital was the Malaysian nurses choice of music. They were needed to boost numbers [even in the 70s] and many were homesick. My neighbour had one vinyl record to play, 'Jingle Bells' that sounded like the Goons 'Yingtong Song' in Chinese, repeated again and again and again. We all used to sing along to cheer her up but it got a little cringeworthy morning noon and night!