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Rockbeare
Rockbeare maps
Historic maps of Rockbeare and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Rockbeare maps
Rockbeare area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Rockbeare and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Rockbeare
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Rockbeare.
Add your memory of Rockbeare
or of a photo of Rockbeare.
Lowbrook
The field in your picture where the sheep roam is now a football field and a park for the children of Rockbeare.
Devon memories
Young Lad on The Platforms
I was a 10 year old lad living at the Alexandra Inn now known as the Hungry Fox pub.
Being a keen rail fan then and as now, wandering around the station and the platforms watching trains was a regular past time. Of course I used it when we went to Exeter or on one of my many trips back to London. Sad it is all gone.
Budlake Post Office
What an amazing place! The old post office in Budlake has been preserved by the National Trust and it is absolutely fascinating getting close up to the village shop goods and the post office stamps and stationery from the 1950's!
The National Trust staff allow visitors supervised access behind the counter where you can handle pounds shillings and pence from pre- £ s d days! Also enjoy remembering things like the old postal orders that I used to receive for half a crown almost sixty years ago.
Pure nostalgia and what memories! This is one National Trust property you really MUST see!
I visited with my wife Elizabeth and sister-in-law Margaret and we couldn't stop talking about it afterwards as it was so lovely. They also have a cottage garden attached which is attractive.
Our House!
How funny! We now own and live in this house. It has barely changed since this photograph, although it is no longer a guest house and its name is different. There are some barns and a coach house in the background which have been partly demolished; a small conservatory has been added to the left of the porch. We believe the people who ran it as a guest house were called Haywood, his first name being Cecil. He had been a manager at the factory in Ottery (since closed). Mrs Haywood was famous for her cooking. They rented it from Lord Coleridge (known as "Lordy"). It was called "The Cottage" because it had been Lady Devon's Cottage, a dower house for the Courtenay family. It was originally built in the 17th Century as a Huguenot weaver's dwelling. This part of Ottery is known as Dunkirk, because of that French connection. The house then comprised only the left hand section and there are four other cottages nearby that share the same... Read more
A Lovely Devon Village
We moved to No. 6 Tipton Vale in 1950. Maureen a baby, myself (Valerie) and parents Eric and Joan White fom Fenny Bridges. The house was a new council house, pink and blue. Dad dug out a bank at the rear and we found hundreds of flint arrow heads, knives and tools which we collected in Oster Milk tins and left in the garage. They should have gone to Exeter museum. I started at the school in November 1950. We played in the big trees of the Angela Home where children with T.B. were sent for treatment and took them comics and toys. In springtime the whole school would walk up to the hills above the Sidmouth Road and pick primroses, violets and bluebells to send to schoolchildren in London. I loved these beautiful days. I remember making the Easter Garden in the church. One day I found a hissing adder in the school sandpit. Miss West took the Infant Class and Miss Richardson the senior's. She was... Read more
Evacuee
My name was Evelyn Smith "Eve". I was evacuated to my uncle and aunt's home during the war. My uncle was Sidney Smith - he was station master. We lived at 3 Coombe Lea. Miss Richardson was our school teacher - a really beautiful lady and an excellent teacher. My best friend was Nancy Leach - she lived in Dawes Cottage. I remember the gypsies who came through the village - the eldest girl was named Caroline. There were twin boys who lived on a farm - can't remember their names. Skinner's farm was just down the lane from 3 Coombe Lea - they brought fresh milk to our house every day - or maybe we fetched it from the farm in our little churn - not sure - but it was always warm from the cow - LOVERLY!! My cousin Josie and another cousin from London (Ettie) were land girls in Tipton.
Buster (last name skips my memory at the moment - was connected with the Great Train Robbery... Read more
The Old Railway Station
My friends and I spent many happy hours playing on the old platform and under the old railway bridge before they were both demolished.
We used to play hopscotch on the platform and had a camp amongst the trees at the back.
We made a rope swing there and used to take a packed lunch down on school holidays and spend all day there messing about.
We had a secret club and had to give a password before you could enter it like children do.
The old bridge was shored up with peices of wood and we would climb up and down it racing each other to the top.
I remember there was an old tramp lived under there at one time.
