Nostalgic memories of Shaldon's local history
Share your own memories of Shaldon and read what others have said
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
Add a Memory!
It's easy to add your own memories and reconnect with your shared local history. Search for your favourite places and look for the 'Add Your Memory' buttons to begin
Displaying all 10 Memories
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 ...see more
My mother, Gladys Mary Jefford as she was known (her birth certificate said she was Gladys Ethel Mary Parkhouse Grey) lived in Shaldon from 1912- 1942. She married my father up in Birkenhead and my sister and I returned to Shaldon with her on vacation when we were about 8 years old. My parents and my sister are now dead but I have been doing some family research this past week and trying to remember some of ...see more
I have driven - very slowly - past The Ness many times whenever our family makes our way up the steep narrow lane from the Shaldon sea front to the car park. For the very first time I went inside one evening this summer, as a result of being asked to leave the Ferryboat Inn earlier!
I was in Shaldon with my wife Elizabeth who is a dancer with the Heather and Gorse Clog Morris - her dance ...see more
Pip Parkinson's memories are so similar to my own that we could have been on the same holidays. I first went to Shaldon with my parents in 1952 and we returned for one week at Easter and two weeks in August every year for the next nine years. We met the same families each year also - the Lees and the Parkers - there were six children in total and we did pretty much the same things that Pip did, including the mackerel ...see more
As a child my annual family holiday was spent in Shaldon, first staying at The Teign Crest as a baby and small child, later at The Clipper. Two weeks of blissful freedom - shoeless and carefree. Not many cars in the village in the 1960s, so we children ran wild, only turning up at feeding times. Great family mackerel fishing jaunts, or trips up river to Coombe Cellars in the Hooks' boats. Fabulous clotted cream from ...see more
The two Shaldon ferry boats were at anchor when our Morris Dancers performed in front of the Ferry Boat Inn this week. They looked just like this photograph - although there were no sails! It was a lovely warm July evening with a good crowd of folks sitting at the beachside tables in front of the Inn watching the entertainment. I brought along my piano accordian to play for the Heather ...see more
From internet research, it would appear that the Victorian artist Sydney Curnow Vosper, who was born in 1866 at Stonehouse in Plymouth, died at this hotel in Shaldon 10th July 1942. He painted what became a very famous painting entited 'Salem'. The painting shows the congregation inside a small Baptist chapel in Cefncymerau, Llanbedr, near Harlech, North Wales. The chapel was built in 1850. It would appear that ...see more
This view is a photograph just in front of the Ferryboat Inn at Shaldon - a popular haunt for the sailors and oarsmen taking part in the annual Shaldon Regatta. As part of the week long programme of entertainments there was an evening of morris dancing and mumming by the Ferryboat Inn. It was a warn and dry August evening and crowds filled the tables on the beach in front of the Inn waiting for the entertainments ...see more
Thursday 14th August 2008 was a sunny summer day for the wedding of a lovely Japanese girl, Nakki, to Ra - the son of one of the Heather and Gorse Clog Dancers - Jane. Following the ceremony in Paignton, there was a barbeque party at Platway House which is an old mansion up the hillside above Shaldon with amazing views across the river just like the view shown here. As both Nakki, the bride, and ...see more
I just ‘stumbled’ across this site whilst looking for information about Shaldon. How lovely to recall childhood memories. Viewing the photographs, the shot of the Ness House c1955. I grew up there; we lived at the Ness House throughout the 1950’s, I attended Shaldon Primary, was a choir boy at St Peter’s Church and a cub with the 1st Shaldon pack. I imaging one of the car parked outside the Ness ...see more