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Malborough memories

Here are memories of Malborough and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Malborough or a Malborough photo.

PRIMARY SCHOOL

I attended the old Primary School (3 small classes) from 1955 to 1961 when I passed my 11 Plus and went on to the Kingsbridge Grammar.
I remember the Headmistress Mrs Cooper who made us recite our Times Table and Hiawatha until our heads span with it all. She was a stern disciplinarian and a spinster who lived in the schlool house attatcched to the school.
I also remember fondly, Mr Cooper who was very lenient with me and encouraged my artistic talents to show.
I have so many memories of Malborough as a child as I lived at Hope Cove and had to cycle here or walk the two and a half miles to go riding, see friends, catch the bus for Kingsbridge or Salcombe and go to Bonfire Night every year.

Sergeant William Luckham

Village And Church 1890
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My husband's great-great-grandfather William Luckham was b ca 1795 in Malborough, son of Thomas Luckham and Susannah Prowse. He joined the British Army, married Ann Fardy from Ireland and sailed with the army to Canada in 1827, settling in Ontario.

Barbara Luckham bluckham@ciaccess.com

Worked in Village

Higher Town 1927
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I knew Leonard Yeoman,my sister Doris was married to his brother Percy.I worked in the village at the post office, Callender Stores.Lots and lots of happy times there. My name was NURSE before I married.

Clara Pine, my Grandmother Lived Here

Village And Church 1890
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Clara Pine was born in 1891 at Shute Farm in Lower Town, Malborough (see other photo). Aged 3 years she went with her Mum and older brother to America where she met her Dad for the first time in New York. Another brother was born but the young family returned to England a year later. Elizabeth Pine and the three children returned to Malborough to live in the cottage in the photo - on the righthand side of the road, in the middle of the photo (where the sunlight is shining brightly). The adjoining cottage was the village shop where Elizabeth Pine's sister, Catherine Boyce lived. My grandma grew up in a one parent family - her Dad was killed in a gold mining accident in Cripple Creek, USA in 1898. Both my grandma's parents and her aunt are remembered on a gravestone in the 'new' graveyard at the church. My grandma had lots of happy memories of Malborough. She was married at the church in 1919, moved to London... Read more

Leonard John Yeoman

The tall young chap in the right-hand side of the photograph was my grandfather, Leonard John Yeoman. He also features in a photograph taken in Higher Town.

Sydney Wood

My father, Sydney Wood was born in Malborough in 1914. He moved away to get married in 1940 but always considered Malborough as home right up until his death in 1992. He always maintained that he was the young water carrier in this picture and had a copy of the original postcard. It is believed that the gentleman with the beard was "Datcher" Shepherd (This being Devon dialect for "Thatcher"). Some of my relatives still live in Malborough and I have traced our ancestry in Malborough back to 1712.

Leonard John Yeoman

Higher Town 1927
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Leonard John Yeoman (my grandfather) always claimed that he was the young chap carrying the buckets in this photograph. He spent his whole life living around the Malborough/ Hope Cove area. Therefore, it's quite plausible that it is indeed him in this photograph.
He went on to serve in the RAF in Malta, Egypt and Palestine during World War II. From his childhood up until his last few years he was a central member of the local church choir. A real character.

Memories of Devon

My Soldier

Bolberry Down, brings back such lovely memories to me of the days of National Service. My boyfriend and I spent some of his leave sitting there and dreaming of his demob. We would go there and do a lot of walking, the cliffs are so high that now when I go back its quite frightening. I remember when a man drove his car right over the cliff. In 1956 I married my soldier and had 50 years of happy marriage. I have a photo of him sitting on the cliff that I keep on my bedside table.

Customs Quay Salcombe

The Quayside 1896
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This view shows Customs Quay and out of sight on the right is the Customs House. Mrs Florrie Gasson and her husband lived in the building and she would make a great show to the visitors of feeding the swans. A flock of 20 or so would swim in the water looking for her and she called each one by a different name.
I can remember sitting here with my friend Michael H when film-makers arrived to shoot a washing powder commercial. I never saw the finished ad but a friend told me that the happy family descended the steps to the fore of the photo to soft golden sand! Such artistic licence! More like shingle and mud ... AND the film crew  used large silver discs to reflect the sun on to the towels making them appear snowy white. I have never trusted commercial advertising since.

Ss ''Channel Queen''

'Channel Queen' 1896
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This vessel was built by Messrs Craggs of Middlesbrough - launched 13th July 1895. 185 ft long - Gross tonnage 386 tons with full electric lighting. She ran a regular service across the Channel calling at Guernsey, Jersey and St Brieuc and was a well know tourist vessel in and around the Devon and Cornwall coast. The company traded and ran the ship from Sutton Pool Plymouth. The Channel Queen was chartered by local business men for a voyage to Spithead for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Review of the Fleet in 26th June 1897. Less than a year later she was shipwrecked in fog on 1st Feb 1898 with my great grandfather as captain (Capt E J Collings born St Peter Port Guernsey 1844 - died Plymouth 1923). The wreck occured on the north coast of Guernsey and a memorial to those 21 who perished is in the churchyard of St Sampson's church on Guernsey. Many of those who perished were Breton onion sellers returning from selling thier produce in... Read more

Normandy Way

Normandy Way 1962
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As someone who was born in Courtenay Street, Salcombe in 1941, I have a fairly good knowledge of local people. The man on the extreme left of the picture in waders is Larry Prinn or Prynn, the one on the extreme right would appear to be Ian Cooper. I recognise the central man in the group- I think he may have been ? Distin (Eric Distin's grandfather).

Courtenay Park Salcombe

This view of Courtenay Park is quite poignant for me.  It shows houses at the lower end of Devon Road and also the land on which Egremont Terrace was later built.

My parents lived in no. 10 Egremont Terrace from the late 1930s until they moved to St Dunstan's Road in 1970. We had a splendid view over the estuary from the balcony of no. 10 and sitting out there in the summer was like having an extra room. Courtenay Park could be reached by a long flight of some 50 wide steps from Devon Road. I tripped over a cat rushing down them one day and still bear the scar on my right knee.

The Park was a delightful place in which to play and I have wonderful memories of rolling in the freshly-cut grass with the Tucker family who were great friends and climbing the trees playing games and travelling the world in our young and impressionable imaginations. We used a pebble to bang on the... Read more

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