sal
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Post by sal on Nov 17, 2009 14:40:58 GMT
I don't think you are my pin up girl,Merse ;-)
Yes, I did used to pin up my skirt to make it shorter!!
At NAGS they would make us girls kneel on the floor and measure from the floor to the bottom of our skirts to make sure they were not too short.
My mum had a letter home to say that she had to let down my skirt by an inch or summat like that. She refused to do it.
On a more serious note...this history of Newton Abbot is brill!
My mum and dad were also in Newton when it was bombed .My dad lived near the station so he had a lucky escape .My mum was playing tennis in one of the parks,I believe.
They often talk about it and I keep meaning to record their memories of that day.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Nov 17, 2009 23:39:26 GMT
On a more serious note...this history of Newton Abbot is brill! My mum and dad were also in Newton when it was bombed .My dad lived near the station so he had a lucky escape .My mum was playing tennis in one of the parks,I believe. They often talk about it and I keep meaning to record their memories of that day. Do it Sal - tape it, video it or just write it down. History is real people's memories, not ramblings from politicians or academics. When those memories are gone, they are lost forever. I picked up a book "Memories of Life During World War II in Babbacombe and St Marychurch". It's fascinating stuff - just memories of ordinary people. It brings that period to life far more than anything I'd seen or read before. I mentioned the book to the dad of an old schoolfriend of mine and he told me he was in the sweetshop in the precinct - it's still there! - when the bomb fell on the Church and all the sweet jars fell down off the shelf as the door blew in. I'd known him for nearly forty years, and he'd never mentioned it before. |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Nov 17, 2009 23:45:10 GMT
Jon there is a great thread that has the bombing of the church on it, did you read it, if not I will find it tomorrow and put up a link to it on this thread. I'm sure it had a story on it about how a boy was on the way to the church that morning , but went to the beach instead.
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merse
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Post by merse on Nov 18, 2009 3:57:05 GMT
I mentioned the book to the dad of an old schoolfriend of mine and he told me he was in the sweetshop in the precinct - it's still there! - when the bomb fell on the Church and all the sweet jars fell down off the shelf as the door blew in. I'd known him for nearly forty years, and he'd never mentioned it before.  He probably picked up such a supply of gobstoppers that it took him forty years to finish them! A bit like when Riley's Toy Wharehouse caught fire down the road from my gran's in Manor Cottages NA when I was a kid and there was a great explosion as the asbestos roof blew off and it rained marbles.....................we were picking 'em up for days afterwards oblivious and ignorant of the FACT that they were all probably contaminated and the links between asbestos and cancer! |
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keyberrygull
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Post by keyberrygull on Nov 18, 2009 14:09:56 GMT
Hello Sal, running out of photos of wartime Newton Abbot but did you ever go to Mortenhampstead by train?I know Merse did.  Route map  Newton Abbot station  Leaving Newton Abbot  Teigngrace crossing  Teigngrace Halt  Heathfield  Brimley Halt  Bovey crossing  Bovey Tracey Station  Bovey Heath  Hawkmoor  Lustleigh  Mortenhampstead |
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merse
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Post by merse on Nov 18, 2009 16:14:12 GMT
................ did you ever go to Mortenhampstead by train?I know Merse did. I most certainly did, and it's all covered in The Jelly's Diary ~ see link below. My great aunt was the level crossing keeper at Heathfield and continued manually pushing those great gates until well into old age, whilst her husband had been a fireman on that line. My great regret was that I never rode on the branch that went up the Teign Valley to Exeter St Davids via, Chudleigh Knighton, Chudleigh, Trusham, Ashton and Exeter St Thomas. God's Wonderful Railway was truly that and a taste of what I experienced as a tacker in the fifties can be had by travelling on the Buckfastleigh to Totnes Riverside Steam Railway these days, but in essence I can only ever remember the little train up to Heathfield being a one carriage affair pulled up by a tank engine and then pushed back again in reverse the whole way! |
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sal
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Post by sal on Nov 18, 2009 17:05:26 GMT
Amazing stuff!
I've always loved trains...my Grandad was a driver for the GWR.
I did not go to Moreton by train. I didn't want Merse to trap me in one of those old fashioned carriages so I stayed well away... ;-)
I live at Teigngrace and recently we found the station...or 'Halt' as it was called. Wish the line could be opened!
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chelstongull
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Post by chelstongull on Nov 18, 2009 17:32:30 GMT
I would have loved to have traveled on that line - shame that the local lines closed down. You can't beat a nice train journey through the open fields. Shame.........
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Dec 20, 2009 16:32:00 GMT
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merse
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Post by merse on Dec 20, 2009 19:34:45 GMT
Now where is this?  That's where Shaldon Road meets St Marychurch Road with what is now Queensway emerging from the left. |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Dec 20, 2009 23:40:06 GMT
Yes Merse you are spot on and how different it looks now, so often the cars are queuing on the Shaldon Hill from the top all the way down to the traffic lights.
The winter of 1963 turned out to be a very profitable one for one nine year old boy and a few of his friends and all thanks to Shaldon Hill.
We spent all our spare time helping the cars get up the hill in the snow and when we got them to the top, most gave us some money. Well kids in those days were very enterprising and they had to be because the mums and dads sure did not have any spare money to give to their kids.
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Post by graystar on Dec 21, 2009 11:40:41 GMT
Looked so much nicer then than it does today! Thats the problem with the development of the town to accommodate so much traffic. It loses its charm and ends up becoming a rat-run! Wouldn't it be great sometimes to borrow that Delorean from BTTF and go back 40/50 years (just for a day) and enjoy some of the calmness and tranquility of life compared to how it is now!
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jan 1, 2010 19:34:02 GMT
To date I have not been able to find a picture of Mrs Elliot's shop Merse, but I will put up a few pictures I know you are just going to love. The first one must just miss the shop as I think it was just a little further back on the left hand side  I have talked on here before about the old public baths that were in the market and how people went there once a week to have a bath as many houses did not have then in the old days. This was the last bit of the building standing when it was all being knocked down for the new market square etc.  Not sure if you remember the Clothing Mark Merse, can't say I do ;D I do remember all the buildings mind you.  I know you love the old fire station  The place we spent so much time when we were small, sadly long gone, the Penn Inn paddling pool  |
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merse
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Post by merse on Jan 1, 2010 21:14:42 GMT
It's so frustrating recalling how the old market area was re-developed so that it now looks no different than so many other small towns in England. A former work colleague of mine at Devon General ~ Denis Waller and his wife Margaret , wheel barrowed away loads of old granite and sandstone pieces, beautiful old doors and fixtures and fittings and incorporated them into their home in Abbotsbury Road. No-one had a clue about architectural heritage in NA in those days and they were simply allowed to help themselves! If you look at the area in the picture I have highllighted, you can see where the current market square and Willow Walk were built and without using much imagination, envisage how it could and should have been developed as a lovely tree shaded town place such as we see whenever we visit France. That clothing emporium later became known as Laws & Warehams.................I should know; my mother's brother worked in there! Actually the shop on the right was purely for hats (and men's hats too) at the time of that photo being taken. As we all know from looking at photos of old sporting events, one simply didn't go out to a sporting event bareheaded and indeed I think that the Popside should invoke such a dress code now. Bowlers, Trilbys or Homburgs for the Middle Classes and flat caps for Northern exiles and little oiks like you Dave who should be forced to stand at the front  Of course on sunny days at the beginning and end of the season it should be Panamas all round and knotted 'ankerchiefs for you lot down the front  On no occasion either should one remove one's jacket until the order was given by Mr Liddicote-Mee (does any other club have such a magnificently titled announcer?) of "Gentlemen may now remove their jackets" Ties of course, should never be removed as just how would one know which school one went to?  N.B: You just know I'm going to ask for the source link for those wonderful pics don't you Dave! 
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sal
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Post by sal on Feb 11, 2010 17:39:48 GMT
This whole thread is an amazing history of good old downtown N.A.!!
First time I have seen the market photos...I read not long ago that the planners admitted making a 'terrible mistake' when they redeveloped the market etc.
BTW ...I remember chasing Andy Donnelly through the market, one lunch time...must have been when I was in 6th form as we were not allowed out at lunch time until 6th form..(although there was room to break the rules even in those days!!)
That was in the days when I could flippin run fast!!
;-)
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