Teignmouth memories
Here are memories of Teignmouth and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Teignmouth or a Teignmouth photo.
Music And Dancing in The Streets of Teignmouth
Teignmouth Folk Festival attracted crowds who filled the sunny promenade and town centre streets to watch the many Morris Teams at this 2009 event.
Musicians and dancers formed a procession at the East Cliff Cafe to parade along the Den and the promenade towards the Triangle where each "side" gave a display for for the Mayor and civic dignitaries. I played my piano accordian with the Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers' Band and provided a rousing chorus of the British Grenadiers tune as they performed in front of the Mayor.
Recently Morris Teams have had some mainstream news attention due to suggestions that the tradition is slowly dying out, but this is not the case judging by the large crowds who came to watch and enjoy the different styles of dance and music from teams from many parts of England and Wales. These performances were at venues throughout the town including The Triangle, East Cliff Café, Northumberland Place, Teign Street, the seafront and more. My... Read more
Auditing The Tolls
Plymouthian Edward (Ed) Vosper's second wife, now Mrs Doreen Skidmore was interviewed in March 2009 and recalled that my grandfather (Ed Vosper) used to work for the Bayly Estate in Plymouth. He worked in the Estate Office retiring in August 1934 after 38 years service with the family. Doreen says that Ed would go twice a year to Shaldon Bridge Tollhouse, not to collect the tolls, but on a sort of audit to check that the tolls were correctly charged and to ensure no-one was missed out. Ed Vosper kept a record of all traffic and then compared the numbers with the toll collector's takings at the end of the day.
(Comment: one wonders if in fact he viewed the toll gate from the main road above the tollhouse close to where the photographer was standing in the photo).
This story was confirmed when the daughter of tollhouse keeper Mr Tucker was interviewed in 1981 by reporter Monica Wyatt of the Teignmouth Post & Gazette. That interview revealed... Read more
Music And Clog Morris Dancing on The Promenade at Teignmouth
One summer evening in July I met my music and dancing friends on the promenade at Teignmouth to play my piano accordian for the Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers.
It was a cool but dry evening with few holidaymakers about but as soon as the dancers began their entertainment it took only a few minutes for the promenaders to stop to watch and gradually form a crowd around us. I particularly remember two families from Ireland as their children just loved to dance alongside us and joined the band with some of our spare instruments. Their parents snapped away with cameras to record the kiddies' fun! They had never seen any clog morris dancing before and were amazed.
We began soon after 8 o'clock and as the dusk fell on us and the gathering crowd, the promenade illuminations were switched on. It was a lovely evening which we rounded off with a walk to the end of Teignmouth Pier as it got dark.
Teignmouth Folk Festival 2008
A weekend long folk festival in June attracted crowds of spectators to the street entertainments around Teignmouth and also to the concert performances in the Carlton Theatre.
Many of the entertainers were morris dancers performing at the Teignmouth Triangle. The "morris sides" at the festival included Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers- a Devon based morris dancing group with dances and tunes from the north west of England. They looked very smart with their shiny black clogs stepping out the rhythm of the lively jigs and polkas played by their band.
There were several venues around the town set aside for music and dancing so this special tenth anniversary folk festival was a happy and succesful occasion. The largest of the dance venues was the Teignmouth Triangle - the view above is now rather different as the area has been beautifully landscaped with paving and seating to make a traffic free haven in the centre of the town. There must have been hundreds of spectators watching... Read more
Heather And Gorse Clog Dancers Entertain at Teignmouth Triangle
There is a beautiful wide paved area at Teignmouth Triangle which is a natural focal point to meet people and maybe sit and chat on one of the many benches nearby. This was the venue chosen by the Heather and Gorse dancers to put on a display of clog morris dancing along with their band of accordians and melodeons.
The dancers kit of blue dresses black waistcoats and dancing clogs attracted the attention of passers by and there was soon a gathering of interested spectators. This was my very first opportunity to play my accordian for Heather and Gorse and it was a magical morning as dancers, musicians and spectators all seemed so friendly - even the sun shone warmly on this November day and I was able to play my accordian in just shirt sleeves!
Memories of Devon
Blackpool Stores
As a child my annual family holiday was spent in Shaldon, first staying at The Teign Crest as a baby and small child, later at The Clipper. Two weeks of blissful freedom - shoeless and carefree. Not many cars in the village in the 1960s, so we children ran wild, only turning up at feeding times. Great family mackerel fishing jaunts, or trips up river to Coombe Cellars in the Hooks' boats. Fabulous clotted cream from Mary at the Dairy opposite The Clipper, and hot bread rolls from Petes the bakery (now a bistro).
The shop front in this picture of Fore Street is of 'Blackpool Stores' - possibly our own family name for an emporium that was an Aladdin's cave for my brother and I, selling everything from crabbing lines to cheap watches. I am convinced that the woman in the picture is my mother - disputed by some members of the family, but I'd know her back view anywhere!
The family have taken their holidays in Shaldon at... Read more
The Most Beautiful Place to Grow up
I just ‘stumbled’ across this site whilst looking for information about Shaldon. How lovely to recall childhood memories. Viewing the photographs, the shot of the Ness House c1955. I grew up there; we lived at the Ness House throughout the 1950’s, I attended Shaldon Primary, was a choir boy at St Peter’s Church and a cub with the 1st Shaldon pack. I imaging one of the car parked outside the Ness House is my father’s, there weren’t that many about at that time.
I return to the Ness regularly, it still is the most beautiful place.
Wedding Celebrations in Shaldon
Thursday 14th August 2008 was a sunny summer day for the wedding of a lovely Japanese girl, Nakki, to Ra - the son of one of the Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers - Jane.
Following the ceremony in Paignton, there was a barbeque party at Platway House which is an old mansion up the hillside above Shaldon with amazing views across the river just like the view shown here.
As both Nakki, the bride, and Jane, the groom's mother are dancers, there was plenty of entertainment in the Platway House garden from the Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers plus their merry band of musicians. We had a large tent but it was scarcely needed as not a drop of rain fell on this sunny day. I joined in the music with my piano accordian and the first dance was - of course - the "Wedding Reel" danced to the tune of "Portsmouth". It was great fun and a lovely way to celebrate a wedding.
Shaldon Regatta
This view is a photograph just in front of the Ferryboat Inn at Shaldon - a popular haunt for the sailors and oarsmen taking part in the annual Shaldon Regatta. As part of the week long programme of entertainments there was an evening of morris dancing and mumming by the Ferryboat Inn.
It was a warn and dry August evening and crowds filled the tables on the beach in front of the Inn waiting for the entertainments to begin. First up were the Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers looking really smart in their blue skirts, coloured ribbons, white blouses and black waistcoats. Their shiny clogs stamped out the rhythm of the jigs and polkas played by the band, including me with my Hohner piano accordian. After a couple of dances it was the turn of the Grimspound Mummers who entertained the crowds with the traditional St Gorge mumming play.
Good fun was had by all and it was a lovely evening helped by great company,... Read more
Sydney Curnow VOSPER
From internet research, it would appear that the Victorian artist Sydney Curnow Vosper, who was born in 1866 at Stonehouse in Plymouth, died at this hotel in Shaldon 10th July 1942.
He painted what became a very famous painting entited 'Salem'. The painting shows the congregation inside a small Baptist chapel in Cefncymerau, Llanbedr, near Harlech, North Wales. The chapel was built in 1850. It would appear that Curnow Vosper often visited the chapel when he holidayed in the area. Because of this painting, Salem is perhaps the most famous place of worship in Wales. The painting has become a Welsh icon.
See
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/salem.asp
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