Oddicombe
Oddicombe maps (2 available)
Map of Devon
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Oddicombe books (8 available)
Oddicombe memories
Read and share memories of Oddicombe and Devon inspired by Frith photos
A KID'S HEAVEN AND HELL
A St Marychurch boy, I lived at Hampton Farm Cottage, St Marychurch... and I can still smell the tar and the salt from old fisher and other boats pulled up on Oddicombe beach... and I can still feel the beautiful shining pebbles.... Together with my friends Brian and Roy - just two of many wonderful pals - we would spend school holidays at the back of Hampton Farm, scrumping apples, making camp among the trees, eating wild strawberries and loganberries... and at various times of the year picking bluebells and mushrooms and trying to catch a rabbit (money for the skin)...collecting waste paper (pocket money again).. Oddicombe beach was my favourite... I could swim in rough water at the age of ...read more here
Contributed by Frederick Watson
Devon memories
An outing to Babbacombe Model Village
My wife Elizabeth and I went to Babbacombe on 1st April to give our granddaughter Anna a treat on her second birthday. We spent almost the whole day in Babbacombe Model Village which is close to the top of the cliff railway in this photo.
She loved to walk and run along the narrow paths between the model houses. She enjoyed gazing at the koi carp in the pond and kept going back to look at them. We took lots of photographs as we really enjoyed a happy day's outing.
There is a terrace at the top of the slope where we ate our picnic and looked down over the entire village. Its a beautiful place ...read more here
A memory of Babbacombe contributed by John Howard Norfolk
A KID'S HEAVEN AND HELL
A St Marychurch boy, I lived at Hampton Farm Cottage, St Marychurch... and I can still smell the tar and the salt from old fisher and other boats pulled up on Oddicombe beach... and I can still feel the beautiful shining pebbles.... Together with my friends Brian and Roy - just two of many wonderful pals - we would spend school holidays at the back of Hampton Farm, scrumping apples, making camp among the trees, eating wild strawberries and loganberries... and at various times of the year picking bluebells and mushrooms and trying to catch a rabbit (money for the skin)...collecting waste paper (pocket money again).. Oddicombe beach was my favourite... I could swim in rough water at the age of ...read more here
A memory of Oddicombe contributed by Frederick Watson
Longing to hear from the St Marychurch Ghosts
Where are you... all my friends... people I knew... people who knew me... MRS ROOK... Roy Chick's family... I have actually spoken to only one person... MISS HOCKIN from the sweet shop in Fore Street... but where are all the ghosts... all the great people who lived in and around Fore Street in the 1940s... young BROWN from Ellacombe (Royal Navy)... friends and congregation from the Catholic Church in Fore Street... and from St Marychurch (Church)... (the bombing.. I lost so many school friends)... HILDA CORIO... are you still alive and well and living in Torquay.. I have so many memories to share with anyone but no one is answering... so come on all you ghosts... think of me living down ...read more here
A memory of St Marychurch contributed by Frederick Watson
Extracts From Oddicombe & Devon books
This view was taken from the building at the very end of Morton Crescent. To the immediate left is the Imperial Hotel,
seen in its original architectural design, changed now after the fire in the 1970s.
An extract from from"Exmouth Photographic Memories".
By the middle of the 20th
century we see something
resembling the modern
scene. There is the more
familiar red telephone
box on the traffic island,
a modern post box, and
Belisha beacons to aid
pedestrians wishing to
cross the road. In the
centre of the photograph
is the white tower of the
Pavilion Theatre. Much of
the street furniture was
removed by the start of
the 21st century, leaving
a more traffic-dominated Esplanade.
An extract from from"Exmouth Photographic Memories".
The construction of a substantial
sea wall, seen here in section to the
right, led to Exmouth’s prosperity
as a seaside resort. Before the
wall was built, much of the sea
front was marshland and sand
dunes, and subjected to constant
flooding. The first section of the
wall was completed in 1842, paid
for by the local landowner John
Rolle. It was 1,900 feet long and
constructed from Devon limestone.
The designer was John Smeaton, a
veteran engineer and the designer
of London Bridge.
An extract from from"Exmouth Photographic Memories".
This fine view looks across the
clock tower and Morton Crescent
to the estuary of the River Exe, with
Starcross and the Haldon Hills in
the distance.
An extract from from"Exmouth Photographic Memories".
The wall was designed to deflect the waves that so often come up the English Channel from the south-west on stormy days.
This scene has changed little in fifty years, though now a shelter from the wind stands on the position of the nearest bench
in the photograph. It was donated by local resident William Frederick Stokes in 1964.
An extract from from"Exmouth Photographic Memories".