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Musbury
Musbury maps
Historic maps of Musbury and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Musbury maps
Musbury area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Musbury and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Musbury
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memories of Musbury.
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The Post Office
I grew up in Combpyne but I remember that we used to have a van that came up to the village from Musbury 2 or 3 times a week with everything any body might need from paraffin to bread. I remember the man who owned the post office then was called John Fenner. My Mum and Dad always had a friendly banter with him. I recall my mum teasing him and calling him butter fingers because he was always dropping things. Nobody was more distressed than Mum when he came and said he was giving up the round because he had M.S. But they remained friends until John and his family moved.
Devon memories
Mid 1960's - Mid 1980's
My parents David & Valerie, and younger brother Roger Angus lived at 'Rosevine' opposite the Rectory.
The then vicar, Christopher Leach lived in the Rectory with his wife and children Godfrey and Hilary. Additionally, they charitably fostered many children, having a minimum of four guests at any given time if my memory serves me correctly, hence using many of the available bedrooms.
When the vicar moved to live elsewhere, the new owner, an insidious individual called Mr. Ryan who was very fond of dogs, had the unfortunate habit of discarding his dog waste over the hedge into the road below.
Local farmer Frank Webber used to provide much sought after weekend and holiday employment by lifting potatoes and swedes/turnips for them.
It was a wonderful place to live your childhood with the multiple benefits of having a close knit local community and no major external distractions such as traffic, pollution and crime.
You truly learnt how to live in and with the countryside, being able to run free and investigate... Read more
Growing up
I moved to Combpyne when I was 4 years old with my mum, dad, brother and sister. We lived in the house in the centre of the village called Clock House. Its garden backed on to the churchyard. I spent many happy hours on the Webbers' farm next door to the church opposite the village pond, I remember we had an old dingy at one time and had fun on the pond. I have been back a few times since leaving in the mid 70s but it has grown and lots of things have changed, but I had a wonderful happy childhood in Combpyne.
Combpyne Village Reservoir
I am a little bit unsure whether it was 1948 when my late father, the Revd Peter N Longridge, moved from Sticklpath in Barnstaple down to Combpyne. Or maybe a year or two later. The list of Rectors in the church will confirm. My memories of the village are several, and not in any particular order of importance. There was the church, of course. I recall excavations inside which revealed a very old medieval mural showing a ship on the south wall, and two coffins under the nave when electric cables were laid. And the Yew tree from which I fell at the age of 12, breaking my right leg, whose consequences I now feel at the present age of nearly 68! There was Farmer Webber and his son Frank, and we used to collect fresh milk every other day in a aluminium pail. Clotted cream almost every day. Then the clunk-clunk of the water ram which pumped beautiful tasting fresh water up to the tiny covered reservoir above the... Read more
Addendum to First Comment on Combpyne
In February 2007 I was able to revisit Combpyne church. I looked at the little St Francis carving in the chancel, and saw that the carving had suffered somewhat from woodworm. Also, I noted that my note, that I had scrawled on a card a few years earlier, was still there; but that I had incorrectly stated that my father had carved it. It should read that a tramp had carved it, and given it to my father as a thank-you for allowing him to spend the night in a shed. Perhaps someone might re-write that card! I spoke to a gentleman living next to the church, the churchwarden, and explained who I was, and we exchanged memories. I was pleased to see the Village Reservoir again, in my time there were rainbow trout living in it. My late father was also Chaplain to Allhallows School in Rousden, but that unique school, whose buildings were constructed by the 19th C Tea-Baron named Sir Henry Peake has long-since closed, leaving our... Read more
Living in Combpyne
I was 9 years old when we came to live in Combpyne, we lived at the end of the village accross the road from a farm where my father worked. The farm must have belonged to the Webbers as I remember they had a son called Giles, like the other reader said, I think his sister was called Frances. My brother and I used to walk to the other end of the village to catch the school bus. I used to go to Uplyme school and my brother went to a school in Axminster. I remember the green bus that used to come on a Friday, also many a time we would walk up that long hill to catch the train to Lyme Regis. My mother used to get eggs from a house across the road from the church. I remember going to church every Sunday, also as we didn't own a lawn mower back then my dad used to bring the black and white bull from the farm and... Read more
1994 to Date
Richard, I am one of the current owners of the rectory (now The Old Rectory) where you came to visit and review the house you had lived in as a child and pointed out which room had been your bedroom. Strangely though, the 27 rooms that you remember seem to have shrunk to a present day 12 (plus 2 loos and a bathroom)!
Combpyne has remained a "working village" though, unlike many of the surrounding ones, with many families remaining in the village through the generations!
By the way Frank Webber died a few years back and there were so many mourners that most had to be accommodated outside the church. Giles is alive and well and to be seen now and again in the Glebe opposite our house.
Linda Jackson
