Memories of Salcombe

Salcombe Parish Church

The church was built on land donated by the 10th Earl of Devon and the foundation stone laid in 1841 The architect was J H Ball who designed several other churches in Devon. The magnificent east window shows scenes from the life of Christ and commemorates benefactors of the church, especially the 11th Earl of Devon who died in 1888. Henry Wilson's Art Nouveau copper-sheathed chancel gates are remarkable for their early date of 1889.

I was christened here in 1942 and later confirmed by the Bishop of Exeter. My first memories of the church are of Sunday School and of Mothering Sunday services when we children were given posies of violets and primroses to take home to our mothers. The vicar in those days was the Reverend Hawkins and his wife Gwen was a teacher at the Infants School, a lovely couple. At Christmas we performed a Nativity Play and this was usually produced by Miss Elizabeth Jennings, a lady of great imagination. Miss Jennings had a marvellous box of materials and props and we loved all the dressing-up which took place in the Vestry. I remember singing 'We 3 Kings of Orient are' in a piping voice at the annual Carol Service. Later, following my confirmation I attended Holy Communion for the first time and I well recall rushing out to be sick outside the porch! Mr.Jack Vivian who was a Churchwarden very kindly looked after me.

I have always held Salcombe Parish Church in great affection and it is a great pity that the interior is now being re-modelled following the sale of the Church Hall, which was previously the Girl's School.  Nothing stays the same forever....

summer holidays

Browsing through the Book "I Remember when..." published by The Francis Frith Collection, I was so delighted to see a picture of The Quayside in 1896 at Salcombe, Devon. There standing proud above the quay was 'Harbour Lights', the home and guest-house of my brother-in-law Syd Waldron and my sister Betty. What a feast of memories the picture evoked. Sadly Syd died in 2005 and my sister is now in a care home but the wonderful holidays all our families spent with them every summer for over forty years will never be forgotten.
Salcombe was a magical place for our children as they grew up with crabbing on the quayside, picnics and sandcastles on Millbay, wandering round the lovely shops and sitting in Uncle Syd's beautiful garden eating ice cream. The view over the estuary was wonderful and as Syd often reminded us "the finest in all the world". This was some testament from a man who had travelled the world in the Royal Navy.
Thanks for reminding me again of so many happy holidays spent with Syd and Betty.

Eileen Combellack, Loughborough

Early teenage fun at The Salcombe Hotel

The Salcombe Hotel was at one time owned by the formidable Mrs. Ryder. She could be seen in her latter years being escorted to and from The Ferry Inn by Mike Philpotts, a long-term hotel employee. Mrs Ryder had a bulldog, wore a silver bulldog brooch and it is remarkable how some people are said to resemble their pets.......
The Hotel used to hold an afternoon party in the ballroom on Christmas Day and my friend Michael H and I went one year as two girls from St.Trinians. We borrowed gymslips, hats and hockey sticks from the Mulligan girls and made plaits from coarse tractor twine.
As we paraded around a daring gentleman pinched my bottom - a dubious thrill!

Customs Quay Salcombe

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.

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 old bomb-shell at the bottom of the Park. Every summer we would have a great time catching cabbage white butterflies in jam jars and sometimes my cousin David would lean over Daisy Brooking's garden wall to nick some very sour gooseberries with an old tennis racquet for us all to share. Great times!

Normandy Way

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).

ss ''Channel Queen''

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 Cornwall. The Chief Engineer (Alfred Scawn - freehold grave renovated 2006) and commercial traveller Frank Cowell (common grave unmarked) were drowned, their bodies taken by ship to Weymouth and then by train to Plymouth and were buried in Ford Park Cemetery Plymouth.