'holiday House'.

A Memory of Croyde.

I was born and lived the early years of my life in South Molton.   My father had his own building firm there.   In 1958 we moved to Croyde Bay my father having bought this large house on the cliffs above the bay for £1800.   This photo shows it before it became a motel.   He put a new roof on the property in tiles rather than the slates which were normally used at that time.   He then converted the top floor into our new home and then still had the two floors below spare.   He had seen films about the American motels and set about converting these floors into one bedroom units with combined living area to let to holidaymakers.   He invented a system where a double bed base and mattress would fold up into a wall cupboard so creating more space for daytime living.   The single beds were the forerunner to bed settees.   The families who rented them were mainly from the Midlands and some from London.   They absolutely loved them. From this we evolved a shop cafe (the speciality being knickerbocker glories), a fresh produce stall in one of the garages and finally hot dogs for the evening trade.   The height of decadence in the late 1950s!   The shop stocked everything the holidaymaker wanted - from TCP to fishing line baked beans to steak and kidney pie, postcards, chocolates, proper ice cream cones and milk, sugar and tea.   I earned quadruple money as the only member of our family prepared to work in the shop when the 1966 football World Cup final was playing.