Platway House, Shaldon

A Memory of Shaldon.

August 2013
I visited Shaldon with my family as we are staying nearby for a week. We were hoping to see the childhood home of my late father which he always referred to as Platway.
I spoke to a lovely lady in tourist information wondering if she had ever heard of it and she immediately produced a local map with Platway House marked on it and said it still existed but is quite derelict and may be demolished in the future to make way for some new houses.
My father, Peter Hodges lived at Platway House, I'm not sure if it was from when he was born but certainly as a young child. He was born in 1943 and was the only child of Albert, who everyone called Charles, and Eileen Hodges.
Dad spoke a little of his childhood in Shaldon, he loved swimming and used to talk about diving off the yachts which were moored in the harbour. I think he mentioned the regatta as well.
Thank to the lady in tourist information we found Platway House and took some pictures. A cyclist went past as we were there and he said people still lived there although it didn't look inhabited, parts of it still must be.

I remember visiting Platway House with my dad, mum and sister sometime in the late eighties and it had been made into flats then. I have a photo somewhere of my sister and I sitting on the sides of the stone steps which run down the middle of the graduated front lawn. They were still there but totally covered in ivy.

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