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eggesford.net |
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Personal memories of life and times in Eggesford |
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My grandfather Frederick CHARLES Snell is mentioned on the roll of honour in the church and his father, William Snell , and mother Susan Snell are buried there too. We could still just about read the inscriptions - the grave is marked with a large stone cross and is under the tree. William Snell was Station Master at Eggesford and had 11 children! Many of them went on to work at other railway stations including Exmouth, Torrington, Barnstaple, Chard and Gunnislake. |
| My family were all employed by the Forestry Commission at Eggesford and I like John Nunn walked from Eggesford Station to the site of the memorial stone which the Queen unveiled I remember my Grandad Herbert Kelly and my Uncle Norman Kelly being presented to the Queen I was born at Triggers Cottage,Wembworthy (The Old Forge) and then after a few years we moved to The Forest Houses at Challis top of he village toward Partridge Walls I have recently retired so have time to reflect I still visit Wemborthy to look after the family gravestones and still have a great affinity to the area Some of my school mates were Colin Hulland mentioned by John Nunn,John Heale,the Sanders Boys all lived in the row of cottages that is EGGESFORD i will only to pleased to help with any history between 1950 and 1964 when I left the area for pastures new at Crediton and then to Cornwall. Ian Kelly |
| My name is Arthur Tunbridge & I was evacuated to Eggesford village at the beginning of the second world war. The village then,which was about 1 mile from the station ,consisted of 15 houses, I was first billeted with the Skinner family, & later with the Trigger family who ran a smallholding. Their son in law had a garage workshop in Winkleigh, My first school was at Wembworthy and after at Chumleigh. My first job on leaving school was at a big house at odd job boy until I became a porter at South Molten Road, where i stayed untill National Service called. |
Chris Elliott: |
Nick Watson: GREAT TO FIND YOUR WEB PAGE, WHAT LOVELY MEMORIES I HAVE OF THAT AREA. I LIVED AT HAWKRIDGE FARM UNTIL I WAS SIXTEEN AND THEN LIVED AT KITCHADON HOUSE, MY FATHER [EDDY WATSON} WAS HEAD CHEESEMAKER FOR BEERS OF HAWKRIDGE, WE MOVED AWAY IN 1978 WHEN I WAS EIGHTEEN. I CAN REMEBER PLAYING IN THE RUINS OF EGGESFORD HOUSE WHEN I WAS A CHILD, DANGEROUS NOW WHEN I THINK OF IT BUT OH WHAT FUN. I FISHED IN THE RIVER TAW FROM ABOUT THE AGE OF TEN UNTIL I LEFT AT EIGHTEEN, OR SHOULD I SAY POACHED, I HAD MANY A FINE TROUT AND ONCE CAUGHT A EIGHTEEN POUND SALMON AT CHENSON ON THE FLY, I WAS AGED ABOUT THIRTEEN AT THE TIME AND STILL HAVE THE TREASURED PHOTO |
Birdie Allison: Happy memories of my youth around Eggesford and Wembworthy. I lived at Heywood House for 10 years. My father was the huntsman with the Cheriton Otter hounds. |
Danny Foster: I have no personal web page (ought to set one up though) so I've used my band's one. My mother was brought up at Heywood House from 1929 to 1939. Her father was the huntsman there when it housed otter hounds belonging to the Cheriton Hunt. Unfortunately the Second World War broke things up somewhat and she and her family had to move to Bristol, then Chippenham Wiltshire where they remained. We have been back to visit Eggesford and Wembworthy on many occassions. I think your web site is great. If you want any stories relating to the area and the Cheriton Otter Hounds please contact me. My grandmother had enough to fill a book!! |
Angela Elizabeth Lake (nee Manning): I'm the daughter of Maurice Frank Manning, the next-to-youngest of ten children of railway porter William, and Annie Elizabeth (nee Cole) Manning, who lived at 10, Eggesford Fourways. Unfortunately, the youngest, and last surviving son of the family, Reginald Cecil, has just died at his home in Landkey, nr. Barnstaple, and is to be buried at the Methodist Chapel there on Friday 3rd June. Even at 97, he was a mine of information, his memory never failed him, and how I wish he were still alive so that I could tell him what I have found! I DID record some of his tales, but being the youngest, he spent quite a lot of his childhood in north Devon, when grandad (who I never knew, as I was born in 1946) moved to Stoneybridge Halt between Knowle and Ilfracombe. I tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to record his memories on tape. One story I vaguely remember is how my father, Maurice, helped guard prisoners of war who were sent to work on the land at Eggesford. |
John Nunn: Childhood memories came flooding back. My family moved to Rose Cottage then called "Potchefstroom" after a place in South Africa where the previous owner Major Wheaton had served in 1955 (and left a deceased daughter). His son ran the garage on the A377 for many years. Although I left in 1970 my parents stayed till 1980.
I and my two brothers attended Wemworthy School and then QES in Crediton. As children we used to play at the Gardens, then a market garden rather than a garden centre and used the old gardeners cottage built into the wall as a den. It's now either part of, or replaced by the cafe. When I have returned and visited the gardens I find it hard to relate it to what it was like. I and my brothers were sidesmen at All Saints and rang the bells on a Sunday morning with Colin Hulland (who I haven't seen since I left - if you know him say hello from me). My father was Church Warden along with Burt Fassenfelt, now resting alongside his beloved wife in the graveyard. We also played, as I guess kids still do, in the woods and in the ruins of the old house. Although I've spotted the glass in the windows from the church I still can't really believe that it is lived in again. An elderly friend of ours at the time from Chulmleigh had been a boot boy in its great days. I believe that at least one weekend in the C19 the cabinet stayed with Lord Portsmouth so the whole of the British Empire was ruled from Eggesford for that weekend. The story may be apocryphal. When I was 8 we were all walked down from Wembworthy School to see the Queen plant a tree at the enclosure along the main road to commemorate the planting of the millionth acre (or something) of the Forestry Commission which of course began at Eggesford - in Heywood forest I think. The first trees are still there or were when I was a kid.
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