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Wedmore
Wedmore maps
Historic maps of Wedmore and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Wedmore maps
Wedmore area books
Displaying 1 of 11 books about Wedmore and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Wedmore
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Wedmore.
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When I Was Eight
Our family, living in India at the time, decided to travel to England for the Queens Coronation in 1953. We stayed in Wedmore for two months, in what was known as The Elmset Hall Hotel. It was a fun time for a small boy, me. I went to a school in Wedmore run by an elderly lady, whose name I have now forgotten. She told my mother I would never amount to anything. I made Captain in a major airline just to prove her wrong.
Somerset memories
Grandad's Chickens
My Grandparents lived in Crickham, they were George and Lily Evans and they lived in one of the little houses next to a white church. I remember if you went down a long hill there was a Post Office and the other road led to a pub where my Aunt Sally and Uncle Alex had their wedding reception after they married at the church. I now live in the USA but have fond memories as a child riding the bus from Weston-super-Mare through Eastertown and then on to Crickham. We would take one of Grandad's chickens home for Sunday dinner, I could never watch him kill it but my brother did!
Rodney Stoke Inn
My great-grandfather, Silvester Hale, ran the Inn from about 1880 until he died in 1911. One of his sons, my great-uncle Reginald, was lost on the Titanic. His body was recovered and I still have a shilling piece which was found in his pocket.
I have many fond memories of holidays in Rodney Stoke from 1949 until 1976. My parents and myself used to stay with Charlie and Queenie Fear at Rosedene in Scaddens Lane. Just left of centre in the picture is the Post Office which was run by Mrs Rhodda during the 1950s. The left turn by the Post Office took you up Scaddens Lane. The right turn opposite the Post Office took you down Stoke Street. My great-uncle George owned Hollybrook farm on the right and my great -uncle Howard owned Etcombe Farm on the left. Some of the bench ends in Rodney Stoke church were carved by my great-uncles.
Rodney Hale Crediton Devon
Past Memories of Rodney Stoke
The war years I spent in Rodney Soke from 1940 until I married in in 1962. My great-grand father was Silvester, and my father took his name of Silvester and I have it as a second name. My grandfather Rowland was the landlord of the Rodey Stoke Inn, my sister Sheila lived there all her life until Grandad's death in 1958. St Leonard's church never had electricity and I used to pump the organ for Mrs Sealy and if I did not pump fast enough she would soon let me have some black looks. And Reg Carey had some hard work lighting the boiler just under the floor on entry to the church. I attended Sunday School every Sunday with my sister, then had tea at the Rodney Stoke Inn with my grandad and stepgran. Bonfire Night was always held at the inn. There were two walnut trees there at the time. The garage at Rodney Stoke was run by Jack Hewish, he was a great man, if ever I... Read more
''The Grapevine'' And Others!
My uncle, the late William John Wilcox, was the proprietor of the 'Grapevine' from the mid 1930s through to the early 1960s. I remember it as a truly old fashioned 'pub' complete with a 'games room' with darts, shove ha'penny board and bar skittles. A game with the skittles placed on dots on the board, a wooden ball was suspended by a cord on a vertical pole. The player had to swing the ball in an arc to knock the skittles over. Painted on the Transom over the front door was the 'Legend' W. J. Wilcox, for the most part easy letters to paint, even from the inside, as they were, the J however was reversed - must have been a good brew! My eldest sister was sent to my uncle's to help recuperation from an appendix operation. She met the man who was to become her husband there. He was living with his widowed mother in one of a pair of cottages named 'Porter's Hatch' directly opposite the old Fish House.... Read more
The Ring o' Bells Public House, Meare
The building on the extreme right of the photograph used to be the Ring o' Bells Public House, owned by my great grandfather, Jesse Laver Difford. It was initially called The Grapevine Inn, or was called that when my grandmother was born there, in 1880 and its name changed to the Ring o' Bells at some time later.
Ring of Bells
I have a will dated 1865 for Robert Rood "of the Grape Vine Inn known by the ancient name of Brakeland". He bequeathed the property to his wife Mary Rood and it suggests the property was owned and bequeathed to him by his father Thomas Rood. His wife also had a property at Stileway beaqueathed to her.
