Down St Mary School

A Memory of Down St Mary.

Down St Mary School was built in 1878 on the site of the Bell Inn by the Rev. W T A Radford. In the 1930s I was a pupil in the infants' class which was divided from the upper class by a green curtain on a pole. There were arund twelve to fifteen pupils taught by Kathleen Andrews from Zeal, her father kept the North Star pub, she cycled over each day. The top class of twenty / twenty-five pupils were taught by Miss Ball, she came from Woolacombe and lodged with Mrs Snell in the cottage next door to the school, she had a brother Jack Towt and would have been an aunt to Joe Towt who was the captain of the bell ringers. I remember in 1936 Joe said it would be nice to have a treble bell to make a ring of six, they would then be also able to compete in ringing competitions which in latter years Down St Mary excelled at with Tom Wright as their captain. To raise money for a new bell a fete was held at Morchard Road in the field beside the main road where council houses are now. I remember going down with my father in the evenings to help get things set up. There was a clay pidgion shoot, the clays being slung out towards the stream, Sid Knight worked the trap which could send the clays left or right or straight out over. The trap was siturated several yards in front of the marks men, for safety Sid was covered by two thicknesses of galvanize sheeting in his bunker, when he wished to emerge he would hold up a red flag. There were races for men children including other activities culminating in a dance which was held in a marquee where the council houses are now. One hundred pounds were raised, enough for the new bell. During the Second World War years we were not allowed to ring the church bells, they were to be rung only in the case of an invasion. After the war a few of us boys learnt to ring under the guildance of Tom Wright, at one time there were two teams of Down St Ringers.
From 1933/39 John Milford was vicar of Down St Mary, he and his wife were a very popular couple, there were on a Sunday morning and evening services with a Sunday school in the afternoon, Christmas parties, a sports day in the summer which was held in the field below the terrace in front of the rectory, whist drives in those days were also popular, there were not many other distractions then as there are now. The sexton at this time was Sid Howard from Stop Gate, he used to get the stove lit which was fuelled by coke on a Saturday night during the winter to get the church warm for Sunday services and his wife cleaned the church, he had a Lee Enfield motor bike with a side car attached which he parked beside the school porch facing the railings. He was a mason by trade, one of his sons during the war was evactuated from Dunkirk, Alf told me the evening before he was taken off he waded out to a boat only to find it was full and had to return to the beach, dig a hole in the sand and wait till next morning to be taken off, as Alf said it was a miracle he did not catch pneumonia. Alf did quite a lot for the church, he put in the the concrete opposite the belfrey door also the bus shelter. Ralf Wright made the desk from a redundant pew by the lectern where the vicar may sit, Ralf also made the stable for the nativity figures, Dick Tucker, a friend of mine carved the nativity figures, I gave him some apple wood from which they are carved, his initials are on the bottom of each figure, Dick was brought up by his uncle and aunt and lived at Slade Farm with his brother and sister, Slade is next farm to me, he married and moved to Exmouth becoming a butcher. I can remember quite a few organist the ealiest being Mr Henry Bushell, Mrs Snelling she lived in the cottage next to Mrs Snell in the thirties, Cis Gunn Sturt Arms, Ann Brock from Bow also George Wright for many years also from Bow. I have been interested in trains all my life, my earliest recalliction being riding down in a farm cart with one of our farm workers when I was about four years old to Morchard Road station, the twelve oclock short goods was stopped by the platform opposite the booking office, the engine driver took me into the cab, lifted me up to pull the cord to blow the whistle, made my day. This short goods would go as far as Umberligh then reeverse back picking up meat wagons on the way getting to Morchard Road about four oclock, I used to call it the backing back which had to be up at Smithfield Market by the next morning, there was a slaughter house at many of the stations. Woolsgrove was the slaughter house at Morchard Road owned by Abert Blackmore, his parents owned Sturt Arms, he first started slaughtering there, the stone landing stage at the back is still there by the line. In 1909 Abert bought two acres from Lilian Wreford who owned Shobrooke Farm upon which he built the slaughter house before building Woolsgrove House. Father used to sell fat lambs to Mr Blackmore and I used go down to get the weights, I remember standing in the doorway watching them killing lambs while one was dying another was being dressed. When I was eleven I travelled by train to QES school for six years, thats another story.
Henry Shapland. Email: henryshapland@tiscali.co.uk

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