South Molton, Church c1900

Childhood in South Molton

I was born in Gothic House, The Churchyard, South Molton in May 1941. My name was Patricia Elizabeth Abbott Huxtable. My father was Charles John Huxtable and my grandparents were Charles George Pearce Huxtable and Elizabeth Avery Abbott (of North Molton). The churchyard was a playground for myself, my brother Roger and our friends. We were lucky not to suffer the effects of the war and have memories of American soldiers, German POW's and some of the evacuated families who lived close to us. We played on the gravestones, climbed the trees on the 'banks' and got told off by Mr Larsen who was a church warden at that time.

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 ( ref below 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.

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, probably in the primary age range. Many of the children had parents working abroad. I do have some photographs. We went for walks in the surrounding countryside, and collected natural history objects which were made into museums. I am still an avid collector today, and also love primroses which must come from early days spent in Devon. In about 1957, I think, the school moved to Tyspane House in Braunton, and I believe much of the old Court Hall was demolished. Because of our circumstances my memories are not happy ones from Court Hall, but I do love Devon so it can't have been all bad. I was Becky Warren in those days, it would be interesting to hear from anyone else who remembers the school.