Mortehoe memories
Here are memories of Mortehoe and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Mortehoe or a Mortehoe photo.
My Parents' Honeymoon
My parents John and Constance Leblique spent their honeymoon at the Castle Rock Hotel in Mortehoe starting on 11th October 1945.
CASTLE ROCK
My Great Aunts Martha, Sarah & Elizabeth built the Castle Rock Hotel for around £3000. It then became a nursing home and somebody was heard to say that it was the closest place to Heaven as the view over the sea to Lundy was oustanding. I was very sad to see it demolished and apartments put in its place.
They also owned Blue Bay, Glenavon and the Cleeve. My father was brought up in Mortehoe in the 1920s and had to catch a train to Braunton every day to attend school. He always remembered that a bus used to crawl up the hill with chickens, the post and any merchandise that needed moving from Woolacombe to Mortehoe.
My Grandmother played the organ at the Wesleyan chapel and I have a clock that she was presented with when the chapel opened in 1903.
Memories of Devon
Childhood Holidays
My family started to have our annual holiday in Ilfracombe in 1964, and virtually every day we made the trip to Woolacombe to sit on the beach and have a go at surfing. After years of south coast beaches, Woolacombe was a revelation and everything was so clean. The beach was owned by Parkins Entertainments, and I believe it was Mr Moon who used to go round in a land rover, trying to re-unite lost children with their parents. There was one occasion in the late 60s when someone was taken ill on the beach and a surgeon who happened to be on holiday, performed some sort of operation with a pen knife before the helicopter arrived from Chivenor to take the person to the North Devon Infirmary (as it was then called). Many happy memories, and not a year has gone past since 1964 when I haven't visited again. Wonderful place!
First Camp Site
Does anyone remember the old camp site run by Mr and Mrs Dymond? It was roughly where Woolacombe Sands is now, near the riding stables. I can recall it was a steep field (no terracing then!) and we used to walk down to the old farmhouse kitchen every morning to get our milk. Mrs Dymond used to ladle the still warm milk into our jug. The facilities were basic - just a couple of toilets on the opposite side of the farm yard. How different it all is now with 'Elf and Safety'!
We had a small 4-berth caravan called Celia for some reason which my dad and my uncle built together.
When that site closed we moved Celia to Cleevewood (now the huge Golden Sands) which was the last place she resided until the 1970s when Dad was asked to move her as she wasn't what they wanted any more. So she came to rest after 20 years good service in... Read more
School in Georgeham
I was evacuated to Croyde and would walk to school in Georgeham every day. I stayed at a house called Watersmeet with a family named Rogers, daughter Pat. I remember at school we would listen to the radio. I particularly remember Bunyon's 'Pilgrim's Progress' being read on the BBC. The introductory music was 'The Trumpet Voluntary' by Purcell. I do not remember the name of the school.
'Holiday House'.
I was born and lived the early years of my life in South Molton. My father had his own building firm there. In 1958 we moved to Croyde Bay my father having bought this large house on the cliffs above the bay for £1800. This photo shows it before it became a motel. He put a new roof on the property in tiles rather than the slates which were normally used at that time. He then converted the top floor into our new home and then still had the two floors below spare. He had seen films about the American motels and set about converting these floors into one bedroom units with combined living area to let to holidaymakers. He invented a system where a double bed base and mattress would fold up into a wall cupboard so creating more space for daytime living. The single beds were the forerunner to bed settees. The families who rented them were mainly from the Midlands and some from London. They absolutely loved... Read more
1970's in The Carlton
My family ran the Carlton from the early 1970s. We lived there for a year or two in the flat which was on the right where the garage is in the picture here. I remember cycling around the place on my blue plastic tractor (I was born in 1971 was I wasn't old). We found that some guests came into the flat and used our bathroom so we hid a fake rubber severed hand poking out of the toilet. They never came in again. Mike Ward used to play the Hammond Organ in the Caribbean Lounge (which was once a snooker room). The Lions Club would come in and I would try to win a huge lion every week but never did. After years of trying they presented me with a small one which I still have!
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Places this week
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- Patshull Park, West Midlands
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- Dan Y Parc, Powys
- Severn Beach, Avon
- Watford, Hertfordshire
- Netherbury, Dorset
- Maidenhead, Berkshire
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- Taxal, Derbyshire
- Rochdale, Lancashire
- Ilfracombe, Devon
- Thornton Heath, Surrey
- Godstone, Surrey
- Shelsley Walsh, Worcestershire
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