Farming At Hessenford

A Memory of Hessenford.

I moved to Hessenford in about 1958 when my father took on the tenancy of St Anne's Farm. The farm was situated up past the church on the lane that led from Hessenford to Bake. Previously we had lived at West Trenean Farm, near Widegates but, for some reason my father, Dick, and his brother Jack, had decided to take on a second farm so we moved. We often had to move sheep and bullocks from one farm to another and we did this by driving them along the 3 miles or so between the farms. There was very little traffic in those days.

The biggest change for me was moving schools, always a traumatic time for a young child. Hessenford Primary School boasted just one teacher, Miss Cook, and one classroom in which sat all children from 5 to 11. It must have been a formidable task having to teach such a wide age range. The school had outside toilets and no cooking facilities at all. Instead, lunch was brought daily in insulated containers by the schools meals service. I can't say we ever felt deprived because we knew noting else. In winter the only source of heating was an old fashioned coke fired stove that sat in the classroom. I remember that, when the bottles of milk froze, we used to stand them around the stove to thaw out. There was, what seemed to me, to be a huge playground which backed onto the Seaton river which ran through the village.

I used to pass a lot of my time at the local mill, which, in those days, was used as a store for animal feeds and run by a company called Bibby. The manager, and only employee, was Percy Rowe and I would go there and help out, as I thought. The mill still had the old water wheel along side and this was used to power a hoist which raised bags through a series of trapdoors to the top of the mill. At the age of 9 I was exposed to all sorts of dangers from machinery but, in those days, long before the health and safety police came along, we took such things as being normal. I rarely got killed while playing in and around the mill. The building is now a private house.

Among the names I remember were the Painters, who lived just below the church, and a formidable lady called Mrs Littleton. Mrs Pote and her son, who drove a bus for Western National. lived behind the pub which was called the Copley Arms. The biggest house in the village was owned by Mr Tannock who also owned many of the surrounding farms. Just along from him George Hancock, who kept bees. The Lane's farmed at Hessenford farm while the Babbages ran the local taxi service. When Hessenford school closed down in about 1960 we had to travel by taxi to a new primary school at Downderry.

The Hollands used to live in a small cottage on the lane between Hessenford and Trebrownbridge. They had two daughters, Shirley and Trenet. The house had no electricity and, when the girls called at our farm, they used to love turning the light switches on and off. We did not have a phone the whole time we lived in Hessenford and we did not leave until 1965.

In later years Hessenford became a place where incomers bought houses and I doubt whether there are many, if any, names left from the time I lived in the village.

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