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Spreacombe
Spreacombe maps
Historic maps of Spreacombe and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Spreacombe maps
Spreacombe photos
We have no photos of Spreacombe, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Georgeham| Woolacombe| Putsborough| Buckland| Mortehoe| Lee| Saunton| Braunton| Croyde| Ilfracombe| Sterridge Valley| Watermouth| Berrynarbor| Fremington| Pilton West| Barnstaple
Spreacombe area books
Displaying 1 of 26 books about Spreacombe and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Spreacombe
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Devon memories
School in Georgeham
I was evacuated to Croyde and would walk to school in Georgeham every day. I stayed at a house called Watersmeet with a family named Rogers, daughter Pat. I remember at school we would listen to the radio. I particularly remember Bunyon's 'Pilgrim's Progress' being read on the BBC. The introductory music was 'The Trumpet Voluntary' by Purcell. I do not remember the name of the school.
Childhood Holidays
My family started to have our annual holiday in Ilfracombe in 1964, and virtually every day we made the trip to Woolacombe to sit on the beach and have a go at surfing. After years of south coast beaches, Woolacombe was a revelation and everything was so clean. The beach was owned by Parkins Entertainments, and I believe it was Mr Moon who used to go round in a land rover, trying to re-unite lost children with their parents. There was one occasion in the late 60s when someone was taken ill on the beach and a surgeon who happened to be on holiday, performed some sort of operation with a pen knife before the helicopter arrived from Chivenor to take the person to the North Devon Infirmary (as it was then called). Many happy memories, and not a year has gone past since 1964 when I haven't visited again. Wonderful place!
First Camp Site
Does anyone remember the old camp site run by Mr and Mrs Dymond? It was roughly where Woolacombe Sands is now, near the riding stables. I can recall it was a steep field (no terracing then!) and we used to walk down to the old farmhouse kitchen every morning to get our milk. Mrs Dymond used to ladle the still warm milk into our jug. The facilities were basic - just a couple of toilets on the opposite side of the farm yard. How different it all is now with 'Elf and Safety'!
We had a small 4-berth caravan called Celia for some reason which my dad and my uncle built together.
When that site closed we moved Celia to Cleevewood (now the huge Golden Sands) which was the last place she resided until the 1970s when Dad was asked to move her as she wasn't what they wanted any more. So she came to rest after 20 years good service in... Read more
CASTLE ROCK
My Great Aunts Martha, Sarah & Elizabeth built the Castle Rock Hotel for around £3000. It then became a nursing home and somebody was heard to say that it was the closest place to Heaven as the view over the sea to Lundy was oustanding. I was very sad to see it demolished and apartments put in its place.
They also owned Blue Bay, Glenavon and the Cleeve. My father was brought up in Mortehoe in the 1920s and had to catch a train to Braunton every day to attend school. He always remembered that a bus used to crawl up the hill with chickens, the post and any merchandise that needed moving from Woolacombe to Mortehoe.
My Grandmother played the organ at the Wesleyan chapel and I have a clock that she was presented with when the chapel opened in 1903.
My Parents' Honeymoon
My parents John and Constance Leblique spent their honeymoon at the Castle Rock Hotel in Mortehoe starting on 11th October 1945.
Saunton Sands Hotel in WW2
The hotel was used by the Duke of York's Military School which had been evacuated from Dover - on the cliff tops. Wooden huts were erected along the cliff in front and alongside the hotel to be used as classrooms - each with coke-operated stoves leading to outside chimneys.
All doors were taken off the hotel rooms [to create space?]. Bunk beds were installed. The sands had been used for Commando training and, since we were allowed down, we were able to acquire large stocks of discarded or lost ammunition from cartridges to grenades and 'gelly'!! A small amount of gelegnite and a hot coke-stove chimney makes a satisfactory bang!! Since we were mostly Army 'brats' whose fathers were serving or had been killed we were 'aux-fait' with the use of such as we found. Grenades were a little too noisy, causing school staff to react so were rarely used! Little booby traps -found on the beach. These could have a rifle round fitted and be delicately placed.
The House I Lived in
I lived in the white bungalow on the right of the picture with my parents from 1953 until 1959. My father was Secretary of the Saunton Golf Club and the house was owned by the Christie Estates at that time. I have many happy memories of holidays at Saunton during that time.
