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Plympton
Plympton maps
Historic maps of Plympton and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Plympton maps
Plympton area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Plympton and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Plympton
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Devon memories
My First Memories
I was born in Garden Village, Billacombe in 1944 and lived there until I was 8 years old. My memories are very strong of walking up Pleasure Hill to Sunday School at Pomphlet, walking to and from Goosewell Infant School and buying cream buns from Goodbodys Bakery on the way home. We lived with my grandparents who kept chickens, had wonderful apple trees, raspberry bushes and gooseberries in their garden. Summers were very colourful. We did not own a car and my mother used to walk us to all the woods in the district such as Staddiscomb, Radford, Saltram and Colesdown where picking primroses and bluebells were a strong feature of my memory. I have always been haunted by Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' after seeing Plymstock School's version in a Christmas concert. These were the days when steam trains ran on many branch lines and my most vivid memory was of catching the train to Steer Point and collecting shells for the chickens. We owned a caravan at Bovisand where we spent a lot of... Read more
Great Grandfather Finemore
I have just discovered that my great grandfather William L Finemore was born in Knacker's knowle, Egg Buckland in 1841. He later moved to Gosport in Hampshire where he married Mary and had 5 children, one of which was my paternal grandmother.
I'm interested to know if there are any Finemore's still living in the area who could be possible relatives?
Navy Transit Camp Lyneham
Nights at the local inn. Hikes to Yealm River. Company of land girls at nearby camp. Newton Ferrers.
A Very New Broadway
In 1962 my parents and I (12 years old) moved from Bristol to open Victoria Wine (later to become the Wine Market before reverting back to Victoria Wine). There were still several empty units awaiting occupation. I can recall most of the shops that were open, starting at the fire station end was James & Rosewell hardware, a ladies hairdresser, Lloyds? Bank, newsagent, service road, Barclays Bank, ladies & childrenswear, coffee bar (bane of our lives with noisy motor bikes racing around every night), South Devon Textiles, Co-op, Midland? Bank, Sharp & Savage TV, our shop, Dingles foodshop. Mays florist, Millbay laundry, Widgers decorators, Dewhurst, Pearkes grocery, Lockharts hardware then lastly was Fine Fare which was one of the first supermarkets to open in the UK.
There was no development on the south side at this time. It was another 2 or 3 years before Woolworths, then another year or two before Co-op (Plym House?), Boots and Halfords appeared.
We had the pleasure of the sight of cows grazing... Read more
Bubbles up Your Bum!
Just look closely at the picture, sitting on top of the fountain was half the fun & excitement of coming to the pool. Water wings under my arms and the supervision of Granddad Russell I made my first attempt at learning to swim. Getting really daring swimming to the back of the pool, climbing out would lead to the open sea where only the brave would swim. The pool was accessed by steps from the road at the front of the Hoe. Walking down the damp steps we then divided into boys and girls changing rooms from where we emerged into the circular concrete pool. There were 2 four layer fountains to climb and sit on and a central taller fountain where the 'teenagers' hung out. Without the luxury of an indoor swimming pool we went from Sailsbury Road, Primary School, I can only think by pd2 Bristol bus, for our swimming lessons. After the time in the pool we dressed and walked through the passage way by the pool... Read more
Ford Park Cemetery
The Cemetery, popularly known as Ford Park Cemetery, and owned by the Plymouth, Devonport & Stonehouse Cemetery Company finally went into liquidation in 1999 owing to the decline in burials following the opening of the two Council run cemeteries at Weston Mill and Efford and also in part due to the increasing popularity of cremation. At that time there had been upwards of 250,000 pesons interred in the Cemetery but there was still room for some 10,000 more.
A charity - The Ford Park Cemetery Trust - was formed in 2000 to run the over-grown and vandal damaged cemetery and has now, with the help of a very willing team of volunteers and a dedicated ground staff, completely cleared the grounds, replanted trees, restored many of the graves and turned this once ailing eyesore into a fully functioning cemetery with annual burials numbering some 50. There is also a fund-raising drive underway to restore the old Victorian Chapel and turn the new chapel into a heritage centre.
Plymouth College
Whilst this is the best known photograph of Ford Park Cemetery in the late nineteenth century it is also one of the best of Plymouth College (seen in the top right), because it was taken at a time when the school still owned all the land down to the eastern cemetery wall and had continuing hopes of extending the first phase of the Oxbridge style complex to both sides and forward as well as further developing the prominent site into impressive gardens and playing fields. Regretably expensive civil proceedings arising from a sporting accident left the school almost bankrupt and all but the small residual cricket pitch had to be sold to speculative residential developers who quickly filled the huge site with dense terraces right down to the edge of the burial grounds.
