Brayford
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Brayford memories
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You can also read memories of nearby places in Devon below.
Devon memories
Memories of a four year old
My memories of Court Hall School started in 1955 when I went with my brother from our London home, at the tender age of four and five. My father was told not to visit us for 3 months and so we were left. The head was Mr. Owen Reidel, and his wife Simone, who was French. They had two children, Nicole and Anthony. I remember the school as huge and rambling, and the ground equally so. There was a kitchen garden and Mr Reidel kept bees. There were two classes, Mr. Reidel taking the older group, and another teacher the younger ones. I don't remember her name unfortunately. There can only have been at the most 20 children in the school, ...read more here
A memory of North Molton contributed by Rebecca Pinniger
Landkey childhood memories
I was born at home at 2 Church Lake and had 2 older sisters, Jo and Barabara. Even as a baby they would take me off on long walks across the church yard and over to Bucky's Meadow towards Venn. Crossing the stream in flood, and crawling around the sides of the flooded quarries with them has left me with a discomfort of deep water. When I walk there now, I'm glad it hasn't changed too much, the grave yard where my cousin Phil Smale and I used to play is much the same except now some of our family are there. We used to stand beneath the tower on summer days and look straight up and it appeared the tower ...read more here
A memory of Landkey contributed by Nick Crocker
Barnstaple Street South Molton
I was born at 18 Barnstaple Street, in 1941. My name was Kingdon. My dad had a newspaper shop and he sold crystal sets until 1944. I have many happy memories playing with the children who lived in Barnstaple Street and Bidders Court. The Taylors lived in Barnstaple Street and their father was a saddler. I remember farmers riding along Barnstaple Street to visit Bob Taylor to have their saddles fixed. Mrs Dight sold sweets and Mr Bond sold sewing machines. Bob Howarth was the dentist. There was a blacksmith and Chanters the bakers and Lethbridges - a grocery shop. On market days the farmers rode in to town on a horse, or walked with their cattle and sheep. Sometimes the ...read more here
A memory of South Molton contributed by Angela Bavidge
My School
I was born at Filleigh and went to Filleigh Infants School. But then at eleven years old went to school at South Molton Secondary Modern. It was 1953 and the school was quite new, opening in 1952 if I remember correctly.
As I recollect Mr Larson (above post) had an upholstery business in South Molton. My memories are of the Terraneaux buses taking me from where I lived to South Molton School and the bottles of school milk that we were instructed to drink at break time. The Headmaster was Mr Hawkes, we kids called him "Buzzard". I remember the the sound of the children saying "Watch out, Buzzard's coming". Those were the days.
A memory of South Molton contributed by michael tucker
Extracts From Brayford & Devon books
On the day Queen Victoria
died, the postmistress at
Lee`s old post office was
taking down a telegram
announcing the Queen`s
death when she was
struck by lightning in the
left eye and blinded.
An extract from from"Ilfracombe Photographic Memories".
Morte Point`s reputation as a sailors` graveyard was
never more deserved than on 26 October 1859 when
eight ships - the I`ll Try, the Matthew Thompson, the
Rose, the Thistle, the Hannah, the Clara, the Anne, and
the William Robertson, were lost. From one ship, all the
crew survived; from the other seven, all but four men
were lost.
An extract from from"Ilfracombe Photographic Memories".
It is thought that the first
ocean-going ships to visit
this harbour belonged to
the Phoenicians, who came
to trade for silver around
400BC.
An extract from from"Ilfracombe Photographic Memories".
The Velindra was just
one of the paddle
steamers that were
the lifeblood of
Ilfracombe`s tourist
industry in the latter
part of the 19th
century and the
first half of the 20th.
Before the building of
the pier, passengers
often had to be
ferried to and from
the steamers, which
anchored off Warp
House Point.
An extract from from"Ilfracombe Photographic Memories".
The slopes between Little Hangman and Sherrycombe, to the east, were often descended by
local women to gather laver (seaweed) from The Rawns. It was carried in 20lb bundles up
the steep cliffside and taken home to be cooked with vinegar and bacon. Laver is still served
in local cafes today.
An extract from from"Ilfracombe Photographic Memories".





