You are here:
Littleham Bideford
Littleham Bideford photos
Displaying the first of 2 old photos of Littleham Bideford. View all Littleham Bideford photos
Littleham Bideford maps
Historic maps of Littleham Bideford and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Littleham Bideford maps
Littleham Bideford area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Littleham Bideford and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Littleham Bideford
No memories of Littleham Bideford have been shared yet - be the first!
Add your memory of Littleham Bideford
or of a photo of Littleham Bideford.
Devon memories
New Inn Littleham
The picture of the New Inn at Littleham Village brought back memories of my childhood. Together with a sister and three brothers we were evacuated to Littleham and after our home in London was bombed all the family moved into a house, Oasis, just across from the New Inn and we never returned to London. Mr Addis was the Landlord of the New Inn then and when the war finished we had a party in the village for V E Day with tables set up in the drive way of the New Inn. When Mr Addis moved in the late forties Tim Norris was the Landlord.
Growing up in The 1960's
We lived in Headon's Cottage, Fairy Cross - it had been an old German doctor's cottage in the 1700s, a Doctor Wacerill who is buried in St. Andrew's churchyard, and his faded plaque was still above the front door - walls made of cob and thatched roof etc. We were just up the road from Portledge drive - my grandfather William George Harris was woodsman and forester on the Portledge Estate for the Pine-Coffin family for over 50 years and his grandfather before him had been the estate foreman. As a boy I very often walked our Rottweiler dog , Limbo, down Portledge drive turning into the woods halfway down and making our way over some wooden bridges and past a couple of huts my grandfather had made for shelter, past what seemed to be a big lake often with ducks on it and ending up at the sea - also remember the wooden beachhut there (I suppose for changing into swimming costumes - not that it got much use!)... Read more
Church Going in The 1960's
As local village children we used to walk from Fairy Cross meeting other children from the council houses along the way and wind our way through the narrow lane, sometimes picking wild strawberries in summer - moving out of the way of cars that needed to pass us - usually on their way to church also - untill we arrived at St. Andrews, Alwington. We always sat up in the choir stalls with Mrs. Elston (who had been my first teacher at Abbotsham school - Alwington school, where my mother had attended, had closed some years previously because of low numbers and all from our village then went by bus to Abbotsham). I can remember at special services - Christmas etc. - that some of us children would read from the Bible to the congregation and when I did this I was always very nervous and once I lost my place and it seemed like ages before I found it again! Old Colonel and Mrs Pine-Coffin were always in the... Read more
Coffin Ancestry
My great-grandmother was Ellen Amanda Coffin, she was a direct descendent of Richard Coffin who was granted the parish of Alwington and the surrounding area by William the Conqueror for his services during the Norman Conquest (1066). Ellen Amanda Coffin was descended from Richard through the line of Peter Coffin who was born in 1535 at Portledge, Devonshire, England. Peter's son Tristram Coffin emigrated to America in 1642. Ellen Amanda Coffin was a seventh generation descendant of Peter. In the late 1800s Levi Leighton in his writings about his home-town of Columbia, Maine, mentions the local connection to Richard Coffin and Richard's service to William the Conqueror by whom he was rewarded with land and title. Ellen Amanda Coffin married Otis C. Tibbetts in 1855 and died in Columbia Falls, Maine, in 1899. I am 73 years old and living in Columbia Falls, Maine, and grew up in the house where Ellen and Otis had brought up thier family.
Simple Times
Well our address was quite easy ,
Fairy Cross,
Near Bideford,
North Devon.
Tel. Horns Cross 328 !!
Our mail always found us with no problems at all. There were not a lot of us there in those days. We lived in Headons Cottage, it used to have a thatch roof until it caught fire in the mid 1960s and was then replaced with slates. I remember the walls were made of cob and would crumble away if you kept running your toys or marbles into the same place!! The cottage had been a German doctor's house in the 1700s and his faded old plaque was still above the front door - Dr. Wacerill is buried at Alwington church yard - old Colonel Pine Coffin asked my parents to leave the plaque there for historical reasons and I hope it is still there!! My father knocked down a big room adjoining the kitchen as it was in bad repair. The kitchen had a big open fireplace - nothing like a... Read more
Our Old Home
Hi We lived in Fairy Cross at Keepers Cottage, it used to belong to the Pine Coffin family, for a number of years, very happy there.
Growing up in Fairy Cross
Born 1937 in Swan Cottage (demolished for road widening), one of four children, father farm worker for the Jeffrey family. Then moved to Port Ledge where father moved to work and lived in a cottage near a big house about 5 minutes from beach. By this time Port Ledge was a hotel where Miss Vickers was manager. When I was about 10 I helped to take teas to holiday-makers on the lawn, at that time there was often well known stars etc staying. It was good fun playing in the woods and we seemed to have free range throughout the estate, including a lovely walk past the big house around the lake and through the paths in the woods down to the beach without any problems. We later moved to the top of the drive at the main road at the Lodge, lived there till I was called up for National Service in the RAF. Growing up I went to the church and primary school and my best friends were... Read more
