Memories of Sheila Ward

 “......... Some of you may have belonged to Marldon even more years than I, but most have only become acquainted with it since it became a modern developed area, and may be interested to know just what conditions were like when I came with my parents to live here nearly 55 years ago.

The reason for doing so was that my father was taken very ill just prior to the First World War in 1914, and was ordered by the doctor to get away from the fog and cold of the Midlands to a kinder climate, at least during the winter.  Each autumn he came to Torre in Torquay and stayed until the Spring. During that period he would get comparatively well, but as soon as he returned to Birmingham he had a relapse.   

Once again he was advised to return to the soft, kind climate of Devon, at least during the severe Midland Winter months.  This arrangement went on during the war years.  My mother was unable to join him as she had to keep the home going for my three sisters and for when my three brothers came home on leave.   In due course the war was over, the older members of the family got married and there was nothing to keep Mother, Father and me (a school girl) in Birmingham any longer.   In fact, the Doctor told my father it would be only 6 more months for him to live if he returned to city life.

During his long spells in Torquay he used to ramble in the countryside through Shiphay round to Paignton, and it was during one of those walks he came across Marldon.    He decided that this was the ideal place to try to prolong his life, and I must add now that he had 34 more years to live!  He found tiny Singmore Cottage and then arranged for my mother and I to join him here. Neither of us had seen it or had any details, but to a schoolgirl the idea of leaving school and home town seemed a great adventure.  However when Mother went to tell the Headmistress I would have to leave school as we were going to live at Marldon, Devon, the Headmistress said “ You mean Maldon in Surrey”. We had to explain it was near Paignton in Devon, and she admitted she had heard of Paignton (which at that time was a small select holiday resort) then insisted on producing a map for us to show the exact location. Alas! No name of Marldon was to be seen, although it was a fairly detailed map. Marldon just wasn’t there!!

Eventually our house in Birmingham was sold, good-byes said and we journeyed to Paignton and came out of the station looking for transport to our new home. There was one solitary horse cab and when we told the driver our destination was Five Lanes, he said “Dusn’t take the hoss up that hill with passengers and luggage”. So thinking it wasn’t very far we started the trek up Marldon Hill with what luggage was essential for immediate needs. Little thinking that we should walk that hill many times during the next few years until buses came along. Of course there were a few privately owned cars at this period, but no buses, taxis, coaches or tradesmen’s motor vehicles. When we did at last reach the cottage, we were in for a terrible shock. We had left a large house with all mod. cons. And here there was no gas, electric, tap water, bathroom or main drainage. Our water was obtained from a pump outdoors and there was no flush toilet. How like a man not to consider how these primitive conditions would distress my mother. However my father assured us that he would arrange for all these improvements to be started without delay.

During the next few days we learnt the worst!!!  Upon general enquiry we found that this couldn’t be done as no gas, water or electricity had yet been brought to Marldon (and in fact did not come until middle 1920’s). The fact that we were no worse off than any of the farmhouses or other dwellings in the area was a slight consolation, as all these also had to use pump or well water and had no flush toilets. There were, however, three exceptions to these conditions, The Vicarage, Weekaborough and Cross Cottage (now Linden Lea), as these had been built within the previous few years. Each had their own large water storage tank which was filled by a hand pump, daily or as required, and this supplied running water indoors for all purposes, including the luxury of a bathroom which no other home possessed.  Also these new dwellings had their own drainage of septic tanks, which was quite an innovation. Even these new premises had to depend on either oil stoves or were equipped with kitchen ranges for all cooking and hot water, and candles and oil lamps for lighting.

It was quite understandable that the authorities did not feel justified in the expense of bringing amenities to Marldon as there were so few houses in the area.  Apart from Toll Cottage at Five Lanes, the whole stretch of land which now comprises Belfield, Nether Meadow & Devon Oak were merely fields, the first building one way was Mrs. Stuart’s “Whitehayes”, which was then a farmhouse, (now Millmans Farm - MLHG) and the other way was Marldon House and then came the few houses and cottages in the main village Street. From Five Lanes to Marldon Cross was yet another field and the first building to be erected there was Mrs. Holman’s house after which the various bungalows were built.  Later still came Bampton Close.

In July 1919 the village were planning a Peace Celebration Day. We had no Village Hall at that time so the party was held in the barn belonging to Whitehayes which has now been converted to “Greystones”. A piano was brought in, someone had a concertina , others mouth organs and altogether the locals went quite gay with singing and dancing. Although rationing was still in force in England this did not prove an obstacle to the self-supporting farming community and all the farmer’s wives contributed cakes, pies, ham etc. Not forgetting barrels of cider, and the  whole affair was truly memorable.

During those years the Apple Pie Fair had lapsed and the great Annual event was Marldon Flower Show & Sports Day.  This used to be held in the large field at Five Lanes adjoining Occombe.  Folk came from the outlying villages, also from Paignton, Preston and Torquay for the occasion, either by pony and trap, cart, bicycle or walking.  In fact the attendance put our present day Apple Pie Fair in the shade with the numbers of people.

Early in 1920 another Norman Invasion occurred when a French Vicomte, realising the potential of the district,  purchased Moor Tor cottages (now Mrs. Lucas’s) and had them made into one residence.  Naturally this turn of events was a source of great interest to locals, but as time went by quite a number of properties were bought and converted by newcomers to the district, and gradually various pieces of land were bought and developed into building sites on which small bungalows were erected.  This was before the Government or local Planning had any say in the indiscriminate use of farmland and Totnes Council wasn’t concerned in how or what went up, but they did become aware of the necessity to provide Gas, Electricity and Water for the growing community.  There was at last a communal water tap in the village, and one by the Smokey House and gradually water supplies could be installed in our homes.  But we still had no main drainage, and this didn’t arrive at Five Lanes until 1952, but was brought to the village with building council houses in Furzegood.

However about 1924 a once monthly refuse collection was started.  Prior to this each household had to burn, bury or otherwise dispose of all refuse, which really was a problem indeed.

Until about 1922 there was no shop at Compton or Marldon and our nearest source of supplies was Paignton or Preston, and we had to carry most of our shopping from there. Although Evans the baker & the Co-op baker delivered twice a week, and Dellers Grocers also brought up orders. A Fishman came from Brixham and a Butcher from Paignton each week and these were all horse drawn vehicles. There was no milk delivery and we had to get it from nearest farm each day and before the days of fridges it was quite a problem keeping food in good condition with such infrequent supplies and deliveries.

About 1923 we heard the joyful news that a privately owned  one man bus was to operate between Compton and Paignton. There was great rejoicing and even if the bus did have hard wooden seats it proved more acceptable than a Rolls Royce would be in these days, and the service was more convenient and regular than that of today and cheaper !!!

Previous to this bus service there was a great problem in people getting employment from the village. If they did work in shops in town, it meant an early start and late home, walking in all weathers, though there were a few intrepid cyclists who did more pushing bikes than riding up and down Marldon Hill. Consequently most of the young girls went into domestic service to “live in”, whilst the lads usually worked on the farms.  With the coming of a bus there was wider scope for jobs and schooling.

Mention should be made of our postman who for 40 years had trudged daily up and down from Paighton P.O.. He was often laden like a packhorse especially at Christmas times with parcels strapped to his back. He would call at all outlying farms when there was mail to be delivered as he would not entrust letters to be handed from one person to another even if it did entail another couple of miles walk.

Of all the changes through the years, the oldest building to remain unaltered outside must be “Churscombe”, as this farmhouse was built in 1640 and is structurally the same now.  However the barn and cider press ( which was still used up to 1928 ) has now been converted by Mr. Brockhurst and you all know it as Brocks Barn.

Another farmhouse built about the same period was Occombe, and until it was bought by the Singer family in 1925, remained a farm.  Singers had another wing added and what was the cobbled farmyard was incorporated with the house and made into the entrance hall.  No expense was spared in the conversion, a Minstrels Gallery, stone fireplace and floor tiles were imported from Italy to make it a millionaire’s country home.

That wide road between Occombe House and Eastdown was built as Singer’s private road with gates each end and the narrow lane to the left of this was the public one.  However after a few years when Singer’s sold the place and returned to America, Totnes council acquired that stretch of road and it was made public.

In two respects we were better off then than now – we had our resident policeman who lived  in house near Tor Field.  Maybe in those days more discipline was needed.  I wonder!!

I think back on Marldon as it used to be, narrow lanes, high banks with primroses, honeysuckle, dog roses and the sweet scent of newly cut hay.  Lanes that were quiet and safe to walk along with no cars or petrol fumes to pollute the air.

Marldon so primitive and inconvenient, but so beautiful and serene, which at least helped my father to have 34 years more to live. If there are “Many ticky tacky boxes just the same” they did bring all the amenities to make things easier for we old Marldon residents...... "

 

The Memories of Peter Ward  

You may have read how my Mother, Sheila Maureen Carey came to live at Singmore Cottage in the 1920’s.  Later she married my father, CPO Geoffrey William Ward, RN in Birmingham and then went to live in Plymouth, where he was an Instructor on HMS Defiance.  I was born in  Devonport , Christened in Marldon Church and visited Marldon regularly with my Mum, to see my grandparents who still lived at Singmore Cottage. It was easy to travel by bus to come up to Paignton and get back home in one day quite comfortably.

When the War broke out in 1939, Dad decided that the Dockyard would be an obvious target and moved us (for Safety??) to Birmingham. He died on active service in 1941. I received the rest of my education in Brum, served an apprenticeship at ICI Witton for 5 years and then went for National Service.

Whilst I was away, Mum moved back to Marldon and with two of her brothers and sister-in-law bought Singmore House to run as a B and B, and to use the cottage for the family Summer holidays. When I came home I worked for a short while at a local garage before applying for a job at STC in the Rotunda at Oldway.  I was asked if I would go to Ilminster until the move to Brixham Road took place. I did this for 18 months travelling weekly (meeting David Best, we were surprised to find we both came from Marldon!) before returning to Oldway and then the factory, where I worked until I retired in 1997.

That is the dull bit as to how and why I finally came to settle in Marldon early in the 1950’s.

At that time Marldon was still a village, a few bungalows going up from Five Lanes to the (Marldon)Cross. This piece of road was supposed to be widened on the right hand side even as early as the start of the Fifties. We are still waiting!   The Ring Road was just an idea, what is now a footpath was the road, all traffic coming up Shiphay Rd and on through Five Lanes past the Smokey and down to Tweenaway. You can probably imagine the noise, confusion and smell.  Holiday makers thought once they had reached Exeter that was it.  It was usual to see steam coming from under bonnets.   Moor View was still Smallwell Lane, where the Top Shops are was  allotments, Cox’s garage was the field where Donkey Daniells overwintered his Beach animals, much of the Belfields was fields, as was the area opposite the School, Singmore Road and  most of the houses and  bungalows on the left hand side between Five Lanes and the Smokey. Now I was on home ground, got married and started married life at Singmore Cottage, and lived there for four years, when we moved to Furzegood in 1962 when our second child was born on Dec 31^st. It was an interesting trip to Paignton Hospital due to the snow !!!.

The Marldon Village Players was a drama group putting on plays twice a year. They were short of men, I was coerced into joining, and took part in plays by various authors, well known and not so well known. We had several producers such as Marlow Heath, Violet Purry, John Bennett and whoever wanted to try their hand at producing. This was in the OLD village hall, scenery store being the air raid shelter. Cramped conditions for dressing room and make up were alleviated when the new kitchen was built onto the side and nearly up to the quarry wall, Max capacity was approx 100, seats being fold-up wooden, for an extra 6d cushions available for the first few rows. Later on Health and Safety got involved and demanded rows of seats had to be joined together. This was done with J bolts and pieces of 2x1. With so many of the cast dependent on Summer jobs, plays fell off to one and a panto, the last being a bit of a job on the small stage, using the Billiard table suitably covered made a useful stage apron. I took part in most of these, then when the NEW Hall was built, carried on until I had to give up due to Shift work. When that finished I rejoined the group in Cinderella as an Ugly Sister, (type cast?)  and played various parts in subsequent shows.

An off shoot of being in the Marldon Village Players and pantos, I was asked by Miss Clarke if I would help in a fund raiser for the King George V Fund for Sailors she was arranging. This was to be in the Old Hall, to take the form of a “Lord Mayor’s Banquet”.   I was to be the Mayor (type cast?), with a “wife”, a visiting Russian dignitary, Trumpeter, Mace bearer and pages. Miss Clarke had borrowed the real Robes and Chain of Office as well as uniforms etc. This was to be followed by an entertainment. The Mayoral Party entered the Hall to applause and after the Banquet sat down in front of the stage for the entertainment which was by the Evening WI. The curtains opened - “My Lord Mayor, This is Your Life”. I had been well and truly set up by my wife and her friends.  Although one of the participants was wearing my scout uniform and another one of my sweaters, I had no prior knowledge of what had been planned. It was said that I had been found under a gooseberry bush in Nether Meadow, had a liaison with a luscious blonde who came to confront me with offspring, you name it, I had done it before reforming!  It was a success but could only be a one -off to work. ( Names can be found if required and a photo I think)

APPLE PIE FAIR.

The Apple Pie Fair was restarted in 1958 as a Village “Do” to raise funds for the Village hall and for a new hall.   Children from the School were chosen from the top form for the Princess and the other forms for attendants. The first few years were simple, pies made by the WI, Bingo, second hand books, Baby Show, Ram roast and a Mouse Race, a draw for which mouse went in which maze on the course and the winner was the first to reach the middle. The mice were changed at regular intervals to give them a rest. Probably not allowed today! The present Fair (2010) is much more commercialised but the increase in Stalls all helps the Hall funds.

SCHOOL.

My son started School when it was opposite the Church,  Miss Dunthorne was the teacher and they all moved to the New School when it opened in 1964 ( I think). When my daughter started School,  Mr Fillan and Fiona both started on the same day. Originally the School was built to take only the existing number of pupils (80), despite the fact that the Village had increased in size and it would be obvious it would have to be enlarged to cope.  I was the Parish Council representative on the Managers (which became Governors!). The 111 Club was formed to help pay off the Diocesan Loan for the extensions to the School and as enlargements became necessary.  It still plays a valued part as a fund raiser. We helped with the digging of the Swimming Pool, to “drown-proof children” its aim, and I was the first person to use it. Members of the PTA acted as supervisors during the holidays. The PTA also ran Firework Displays to help raise funds for the School.  We had two very successful years, then other schools caught on, prices rose, Health and Safety was a problem, and we gave up. The same sort of safety snags arose with the swimming, now the pool is gone and the space a quiet area. The School still retains its excellent scholastic record as witness the enlarged  attendance of 180.

BITS AS THEY COME BACK TO MIND.

My son-in-law was a RN Observer, flying from HMS Osprey at Portland in Lynx helicopters. On one occasion Plymouth Navy Days coincided with the Apple Pie Fair, so on the way back from taking part in the flying display, they went back to base via holding over Compton until 3pm then flew over the Meadow streaming the White Ensign. He also had to train Photographers, flew up to Marldon, photographed the Church where he married (this went to Fr.Grant) then went on to take shots of the work on the Ring Road construction (1990) which have been on show at an MLHG meeting. (MarldonLocal History Group)

After Toll Cottage and the end of Singmore House were demolished, a pair of mini-roundabouts were painted on the roads at Five Lanes, many were the “just in time” brake applications!

The bell ringers re-formed under Fred Westaway as Captain. My son Geoffrey came along as a teenager, and gave up when he went away to University, after which he got married and eventually went to live in North Yorkshire and took up the hobby/pastime/exercise again. He is now Tower keeper at St John Baptist in Knaresborough, and still rings down at St John Baptist, Marldon when visiting.

Mobile tradesmen were common. We had two milkmen, a baker, butcher, grocer (Lionel Garrett from Compton), who doubled as a paraffin salesman once a week when not delivering groceries, fish merchant, greengroceries (Jim Furze). There was coal, coke from Preston Gasworks, (also could supply creosote) and when civilization (television!) reached Marldon, a Video rental service and competing Ice cream salesmen. There was also a Post Office down in the Village, and I can vaguely remember as a small boy when visiting Grandparents before the War being taken to Bridgeman’s shop to be bought sweets. Can’t remember where it was.

Vague memories of a story when living at Singmore House that during the War a barrage balloon had broken free and had got snagged around the chimney pot, and another tale from my Mum when the Ring Road was being constructed, she had a visit from a man enquiring if she knew anything about the Americans leaving an Army Tank buried in the field  opposite the Cottage either when they left for D-Day or closed the Camp down.   Any takers for either of these stories?

 

TRANSCRIPT OF RECORDINGS TAKEN ON 8th JULY 1957

IRON FOUNDRY.

Mr Bridgeman     “The iron foundry was at Compton, which was started by my father, and carried on ‘til the last war by myself when I succeeded my father in the business. When the war came I was left with one man and myself, and it was too hard work for he and I do the foundry and I finished with that.  And there’s been no foundry since, and it doesn’t look to me as though there’ll be any other foundry there because I’ve sold the business, sold the property, and I understand there’s an artist living there now, so he isn’t likely to make castings.”

“What did he make ?  When the foundry was started by my father,  we made Lowcock’s ploughs, pulled by horses, and that was from a patent of a man who lived in Marldon, and all the castings and all the ploughs were made in Compton. At that time there was three smiths, four forgers and the foundry.”

“At that time there was no wheelwrighting done, but father started that.  And we made a lot of wagons to go in various parts of the country and in various counties; and if I might let you know an interesting little bit to me, when I was married and like the rest I wanted a little holiday my wife and I went to Bournemouth for a week, and we were waiting outside the station there at a place called Hook, Winchfield, when I said to my wife, “Look out there!”, and there was a wagon there – Bridgeman, Compton, Devon – in the railway yard.”

“Some ploughs were sent to Australia. But the ploughs didn’t last long. They began to use a balance plough around here.”

“We made scores and scores of little cottage stoves 30 inches long or two feet six – there’s plenty of them about now in old cottages.”

Mrs Shepherd    “I’ve got one of them now and it works beautiful.  I don’t want to turn it in to cook.  I can cook on an open fireplace.”

Mr Bridgeman    “Manufacture of these stoves came to an end when the bigger foundries in Scotland made it and we couldn’t compete with them for prices.  But they weren’t so thick, they was thinner.  When I left school at the age of sixteen father told me to put some stoves together.  We had a chap who’d been there for years.  “Come on”, he said “We’ve got to do this in a day!” Well, I’d only just started.  You’d get all the castings put out on a bench and you’d trim’ em up after coming out of the sand, and put your stove together. Day’s work!!.” (Chuckle).

THE FIREBACKS IN THE GREAT HALL AT COMPTON CASTLE

“Commander Gilbert came to me and said, ‘ Do you think you could make some firebacks?’. We had three. He gave the patterns which were in plaster, and we moulded them.  George Counter and I – if this ever goes out on history George might read it one day – and me moulded them, and each of them weighed two and a half hundredweight. And we hadn’t got such a thing as a crane to carry the metal around in the foundry. We had two ladles which held one hundredweight and a half of molten metal. Well, I had three men working for me and my brother. My brother and I carried one ladle and the other two chaps carried the other ladle, and Counter with the one leg, he skimmed the scum off both ladles before we poured it. And that’s how that was made.” (Rope was used to form the pattern of the scroll round the edges.)

APPLE PIE DAY

Mr. Rendell    “Yes, it was a huge apple pie.  It was drawn by donkeys on a little flat cart.  The pie was made in five or six different sections, and was made to look like one in the cart.  It was taken from the bakehouse up to the field, and there they had a general holiday you see.  It was in September.”

Mr. Bridgeman    “I can tell you the last apple pie that was carried about in the village was drawn by four donkeys because I rode on one of them, and their harness was of straw ropes.  That was the last apple pie that was made in Marldon.  There was an old gentleman by the name of Hill.  He was the instigator of that.  There was a general sports and so on, and people came, and you’d buy six penneth of apple pie.  I don’t know if there was any Devonshire Cream.”

Mr Rendell    “Oh, yes there was!”

Mr Bridgeman    “There was a room in the village that was used for dancing, and the only musical instruments they had was fiddles.  My father played one and it was in that room – you know, where Arthur Heath lives  - that was the dance hall.  We hadn’t a parish hall then.”

Mr. Rendell    “I was too young to remember dancing.  I was like Mr. Bridgeman, I rode on one of the donkeys at that show.  It used to start at two-o’clock. The pie was baked at what they used to call The Royal Oak.  That’s where the blacksmith is now.  It was loaded up there, and there was a procession with the band in front to take it up to the field.”

MARLDON SHOW

Mr. Bridgeman    “Yes, we had a show here:- Marldon Sheep-Shearing Horse Show and Athletic Sports, and I was the Secretary for that for eleven years, and there was sheepshearers from all around the various parts of the county.  For there was several good sheepshearers in this parish and they won prizes at the County Shows and so on.  And the horses were shire horses chiefly, or farm horses, and after that jumping horses – hunters.  And after that athletic sports for those who liked to take part in it, and a dance after that I believe.”  * MLHG has in it's Archive the Programme for the 1913 Show (described as the 18th Show) which confirms all of the above, and also refers to "Spear making, best horse & cart, and potato picking (on horseback) Events.

Mr. Rendell    “There was, for certain.”

Mr. Bridgeman              “I can remember going to a show at Blackawton where the village was no bigger than Marldon.”

TOOLS

Mr. Bridgeman          “Before I left school, all the fellows that were on the wheel were cut out by hand, and the belly as they call it – the inside of the fellow – was cut out by an adze.  I cut out scores of fellows with a bandsaw that was driven by a steam engine, and after that we had an oil engine. And when the oil engine was wore out we got on to electric.  And all the gear I had when I went out of business – it was all electrified.  We had a special tool for making rings, in cast iron five feet high, all tapered. The blacksmith would weld his ring and turn it on the beat of his anvil and weld it and put it on his mandrill to round it up properly.  For the wheel-write business I used to buy the plank.  Father bought the trees, and we had a sawpit and two sawyers to cut the plank by hand. I did have two old pit saws hanging around for a long time – but I haven’t got them now. We used barkers or strikers for sharpening scythes and so on – they were round, tapered towards the end.”

Mr. Rendell          “At the foundry we made our own chisels and punches. ‘Tweren’t no good buying punches, they wouldn’t stand up to anything. You’d break them or bend them.”

MRS. SHEPHERD’S COTTAGE

Mrs. Shepherd          “It was a man called Mortimer, and he made it for himself, and he stole every stone he had in the house.  And now it’s falling down – so it’s many, many years ago.  I don’t know how many, but it was many, many years ago.  How was it nobody stopped him? But then, my dear man, nobody wasn’t there then, and he’d just hop over and pull down a stone or two and throw them in over.  He was all right. There’s heaps of stones.”

“Us used to go up and tease him, you know.  Tap to his window, knock to his door, put reels on the handle of his door.  What would he say?  'Twouldn’t do for me to repeat He used to have a pip of cider out in the back kitchen and he got a pipe that came in through and he used to sit by the fire and his ashes used to come up over his knees; and he used to sit there and drink ‘till he couldn’t drink no more, and then he used to go to bed I suppose.  But we children we used to go up and we used to terrify the life out of him.”

“Yes, I remember Apple Pie Day.  We used to think it was a fine holiday – used to like – bit of apple pie.  You see my mother she had thirteen children, and we didn’t often get that luxury, you know.”

SCHOOL

Mr. Bridgeman          “About Marldon Church music and the choir.  Before the organ was installed in Marldon Church they had the orchestra. My father played the violin, my grandfather played the cello, my uncle played a flute, and there was two or three others from Paignton. That orchestra was about six or seven; and then they decided to play an organ, and when the organ was installed the orchestra struck.  They’d never go to church any more and they went to chapel – that was true. They gradually came back afterwards, but that’s the history of the music at Marldon.  Up at the Chapel at Marldon they had an old gent with a fiddle, called Wills.”

“For other affairs my father played, and there was an old man called John Neck – he’s got a son living in the parish now.  He was a fiddler.  There was another old gent from Little Hempston every Sunday, and I forget what instrument he played – but he did come.  When somebody played a false note he’d call out, ‘Stap, stap, stap. You’m wrong!’”

“What happened when the organ came?  Well, my grandmother was the wife of a farmer and they had a tea party in one of the fields near the house when the organ was played first. Those who had sixpence paid for it, and those who hadn’t paid threepence.”

 PARISH ROADS

Mr Rendell                 “There used to be what they called ‘waywardens’; there was two waywardens appointed every year.  They had to look after the roads, make the rate, what they used to call way-rate.  They’d go right around the parish, so the roads was always kept up because each waywarden would look after his own roads, you see.  The roads were mended with cracked stones, cracked by old men, something like I am now. They wouldn’t get two pounds a week – they might get half a crown.  Well, you see, they couldn’t live on that, so they’ go crack stones for ninepence or tenpence a day. Most of the stone came from the parish quarry, what they call Poorland; some from Compton and some from Aptor.”

 EARLY MEMORIES

Mr Rendell                 “He drove a milk cart to Torquay when he was ten years of age – right past Torre station to the Strand.  Torquay was then mainly a winter residence for the rich. Village children never spent a day at the sea, never went away from the village.”

“Some of the farmers would have a harvest supper – that would be a sing-song when the harvest was finished up. ‘Twouldn’t be anything very great.  I remember the first self-binder that came in this parish – in’87 on Stantor; a man called Mortimer used to live there then – in a field called Crockett Wood. Down in a dip – fine place to try him. Took five horses to work him.”

EARLY FARM MACHINERY.

Mr. Bridgeman          “I remember the first mowing-machines. They had trouble.  There were men that were so bitter against it ( they used to do them out of a job ) and they put iron stakes in the ground. Men who sold the machines would work it and the farmer provided the horses until such time as their own men learnt to use the machine. They drove iron stakes in the ground and of course that broke up a knife or two and so they tried to stop that game.”

LIME KILNS

Mr. Bridgeman          “There was five lime kilns in Marldon.  Farmers had the use of one, or small farmers would share.  The first one on the right was worked by Compton Barton, a biggish farm down to Compton.  Mr. Bridgeman’s father rented one and employed a man to burn the lime.  The limestone was in pieces about nine inches square.  They used culm for the burning; it was a kind of coal that was mined in Wales.  That would hold the heat, and that was what burned the lime.”  ( Mr. Rendell recalled that lime and dung were the chief manures. “Nitre was used for lifting things – for forcing things on. There wasn’t much else.”)

QUARRYING

M. Bridgeman (Speaking of the quarry rented by his father.)          “That same quarry – the stone was ripped in big lumps.  Some weighed five tons, some weighed seven and eight tons.  My father was renting that quarry then, and it was used on the sea-wall at Torquay. A man drilled his hole in the rock – the jumper – put down his gelignite or whatever he used, and blew it out. Horse took it down on low wagons. They had their shearlegs to load ‘em. And also I don’t suppose you all know in this room that the stone and the stuff mixed with the cement was out of the quarry to build the reservoir that’s on top here to supply Paignton. Father had horses and carts to do it.”

(Splitting stone)   “The man who had any brains at all or who knew what he was doing would find out the grain of the stone, and he would  have gads – sometimes called flies.  Those little tools was made of steel, four or five inches long, and you’d use two, you’d drive them down.  You’d drill your hole and then put your gads in; you’d split it if you got in the right grain.”

FARM CALLS

Mr. Rendell          “Well, if a farmer was going out to fetch his cows in at any time he’d go to the gate and he’d call. ‘Hoi, hoi, hoi’, and each of the herd would come up, and they’d come away to him.  When a man was driving his horses if he was ploughing or doing anything at all, if he wanted the horse to go the right he’d say ‘Wug’, and if he wanted him to go to the left he’d say ‘Come here’. ‘Come hither’ some of them used to say.”

CARTS

Mr. Bridgeman          “The first carts that were made you couldn’t tip them, not to tip your load.  Their shafts were bolted to the body.  They’d shovel the load out of the cart or take the horse out of the shafts.  Tip the cart up, shafts in the air.”

CIDER

Mrs. Shepherd              “At Littlehempston I had a sister there and I used to see twenty or thirty children down there having a cup when they were cider making.  They used to drink it up with a straw sometimes.  They used to have a fine time there.”

Mr Bridgeman          “On Occombe Farm they used to have their own pound, and they used to make their own bottled cider there.  That’s lovely stuff, you know, it glints like champagne. Well, I’ve made or helped to make, cider presses, and repaired them. Six inch round cast-iron screw; some of them were not like that; some were a double screw, three inches or three and a half steel.”

WHEELWRIGHTS AND MILLWRIGHTS.

Mr. Bridgeman          “The gear wheels in the mills are made with wooden cogs and apple-wood is chiefly used for that.  I’ve cut out on a bandsaw hundreds.  And help fix ‘em – that was a job.  And then you’d trim them to get the right pitch.  You’d trim them with a hand chisel.  Hours and hours at it. I helped do one in Totnes. A man asked father if he’d do this job at Totnes Mill.  I don’t know if any of that gear is there now – down near the bacon factory.  And father had a millwright from a firm in Exeter to come down and help him do that, and I was with him for three weeks, and that’s where I picked up a bit of knowledge about millwrighting.”

ROADS

Mr. Rendell.                “In the old days two main roads went through Marldon – one from Dartmouth to Exeter, and the other from Paignton to Dartmoor.  You see, there’s two turnpike houses here, one at the bottom of Marldon Cross and one at Five Lanes, you see. Up at Smokey there’s a place called ‘The Stable’ now where they used to stable the horses for the stage coach from Dartmouth to Exeter.”

RECREATIONS

Mr. Bridgeman          “There was a skittle alley in the old days – a popular game that was.  My grandfather carried on that and brewed his own beer in that Royal Oak Inn.”

“There were choir outings to Slapton, in a brake pulled by four horses.  Every third year the choirs from Ipplepen Deanery went to the Cathedral in Exeter to attend the annual Choral Festival  We had to go away early in the morning in a charabanc for that, say seven o’clock, get up to Exeter, have a practice in the morning and sing the service in the afternoon. That was our annual outing.  I went with the Old Age Pensioner’s outing on Saturday and we were singing from Plymouth to Yelverton, all the way, and there were such songs as ‘John Brown’s Donkey, he had a wooden leg’ and that sort of thing.  Well, that was the sort of sing-song we had. ‘Twas amusing and it helped to pass away the time, if you didn’t want to look at the country.”

“When the choir wanted an outing they’d get some subscriptions out of the people that went to the church and if you hadn’t enough money to have a good two feeds – that’s dinner and tea, well, carry pasties.”

“We used to walk sometimes and go away with sixpence. You used to think then you’d got a fine lot to play with.  Walk from Compton to Goodrington Sands before any houses were built down there and that was a little outing, but wasn’t much swimming attached to it. You might go in and paddle a bit, but they didn’t learn the way to swim then, the way boys do to-day.  People thought it dangerous.  Might get washed down to Dartmouth got in at Totnes, mightn’t you?.”

CHARITY

Mr. Rendell.                “The allotment rents were paid at the Castle. You’d simply go into the Big Hall, and there’d be bread and cheese and cider on the table and you’d pay your rent and you’d stop as long as you like.  You’d just have a chat around and then come away.  There was nothing laid out at all.  That was all that ever I saw of the Castle.  Blankets were given away every Christmas Eve to the poor of the parish.  You wouldn’t get them every year.  You’d simply take it in turn.”

Mrs. Shepherd.             “Yes, all my blankets come like that.  About every two year they used to send for me to come and get one.  Course I hadn’t a particularly large family neither, but they always used to send for me.”

“There was a lady that lived up to Marldon House that was very good to the poor.  Well of course I had two little children and our wages was only nine shillings a week at that time.  Well she used to allow my children a pair of shoes or of boots every twelve months, so I was all right in that respect. Cos, of course, on nine shillings a week you couldn’t do it.  (This lady was a Miss MacKenzie )  She knew everybody in the village, and I used to live just down under where their big house was.  She often used to come down and see me. If they’d got anything left over from their dinner they’d bring it down.”

MARKET DAY

Mrs. Shepherd.             “You’d drive the cattle on, and when you got them to a corner run and see they didn’t go the wrong way.  At Newton Abbot you’d put them in the market and then go and have something to eat.  One cow got hanged halfway over a gate. You know, one half inside and the other half out. I had to wait till somebody came to give me a hand.  I was there for nearly an hour waiting.  The farmer and his wife would ride to market and if you were going a bit quick they’d stop ‘ee.”

WORKING CONDITIONS

Mrs. Shepherd.             “Cattle men and horse men would work six to six. But what you used to call ‘stand-to-work’ men – that’s men living away from the farm – they’d be seven to five, you see.”

Mr. Bridgeman          “At the iron foundry they’d leave off Saturday two o’clock and that was a wonderful job – sixty hour week.  I know father never paid more than sixpence an hour in his life.”

GLEANING.

Mr. Rendell.                “What I remember of gleaning was before I was six years of age.  We was living at a village called Rattery then, near Totnes, and we as children used to go out with my mother.”   (No local memories of gleaning).

WATER SUPPLY.

Mr. Bridgeman.                    “In the house where I’m living now, where I was born seventy-eight years ago, when that house was built – it was built by a butcher –there was no such thing as water by pipes through the village then. They had to trust generally either to a pump to pump the water up to them from a well or had plenty of rain water. And under my backyard I’ve got a tank that holds 7,000 gallons of water in that old tank.  And I know when we lived there we had to go down to one of the farms and get a bucket of water to make some tea with because that water wasn’t always so well.  It was all right perhaps if you boiled it.  And I was telling someone only last week ‘If you like to come and look in that old tank there’s stalactites hanging six inches down from the roof, something like Kent’s Cavern’.  I ought to charge people to come and have a look at them.”

HOUSING OLD AND NEW

Mr. Bridgeman.                    “Do you know what a man said to me the other day? ‘Bungalows do you call it? I call it rabbit hutches’.  And he said, ‘Your house has been up some years, and your house will be standing when they’m tumbling down.’  Now then, mine’s and old fashioned house I know, but the walls is of limestone, eighteen inches thick, some parts are more than that – two feet.  (Masons preferred 18 inches to 2 feet because it was easier to find stones to cover the whole width and tie in the wall.)  D o you remember the town-planning people came to Marldon once and they said they’d never build in the village, they’d built around the village, they didn’t want spoil the old village appearance.”

“I was talking to a man on Saturday that came from Sheffield. I said to him, ‘Do you like Marldon?’  He said, ‘Yes, and I don’t want to go away again’.  But another man said ‘This one-eyed show, I wouldn’t come here if I was going to die!’  That was another yarn.  'Tisn’t all that one-eyed show.  There’s a lot of parishes that isn’t as well fitted as Marldon is.”

“A man said the other day, ‘We were a happy family before the up-country folks come here, they’ve upset all the lot.’  Well that was his idea, but 'tisn’t true.  In country villages you know everybody and you know when they’ve gone out to tea, but down to Paignton they don’t even know their next-door neighbour.”

FIRE BRIGADE

Mr. Rendell.          ( He remembers the Torquay Fire Brigade coming over when Lower Westerland Farm was burnt out.  He was working at Stantor Farm then – about twelve years of age.)

SCHOOLS

Mr. Rendell.                “Bidham’s. Yes, I took out the stone from the foundations there.  I picked up a bit of a chain there that was very old.  Well, it was all jointed up with sodder so you can tell it was very old.  I don’t know how many years that went back.  One of those neck-chains you know, and it was formed of links, but every link was joined up with sodder.  So worn you could hardly see it without glasses.”

Mr. Bridgeman.                    “Well, father went to school there you know, and he didn’t go to school after he was eleven.  Father went there, it was the only one.  But mother went to a little school in Compton, where the old man Crutch lived – that’s where she went to school.”   (New Church School replaced one that was over the archway that went into a farm.).

MARLDON HISTORY TAKEN FROM ‘ BROCK’S TAPES ‘  by Peter Fillan..

LIME KILNS IN MARLDON

Sea sand was used for fertilizer, for it’s calcium content. By 1770 farmers wanted lime. 

Lime kilns.  Look out for keyed entrance, height, diameter and shape. Packhorses could go to the top and walk round to allow stone to be unloaded direct.  Wells were packed with alternate layers of small coal and limestone, and above kiln (sink ? as burnt.)? Into the eye or grate was pushed furze bush burning birch twigs. Door shut fast and sealed (for slow and thorough burning). Half burnt or overburnt lumps angered the farmer. 1 ton of limestone = 11cwt after 8 hours burning. 3 to 5 tons per acre.  Busiest times were Autumn and Spring. Heat and fumes. Drink included in the cost to the farmer. Cold and wet weather, the kilns were social places and keep dinners warm. Tramps would often climb to the top of the kiln and fall asleep. (1¹/₂ cwt bushel was used. )?

CHURCH

Pembroke – Survey 400 years ago.

Local limestone.  Red sandstone doors.  Beer stones for arches.  Granite for windows has been replaced, once had wooden frames.

Organ 1880 --  before there was a string orchestra in the Tower gallery.  Bert Bridgeman sang in it.  Uncle , the flute, 6 or 7 in all.  Orchestra went on strike and went to the Chapel ( on the hill?). Choir outings in four-horse brake to Slapton.

Bells go back to 1553, (recent 1636,1639,1885).

Clock – modern, 1914-1918 Great War memorial.

Floodlighting – 1939-1945 War Memorial.

 IRON FOUNDRY

Frederick John Bridgeman (85 years old),  Born in Torhill House in 1882.  He remembers :- the Castle in ruins, caretaker in charge. The estate owned by the Buse family. Items in the castle made in the foundry. Gilberts 1930? Cast iron firebrakes, wall brackets, agricultural work, ploughshares. Cooking ranges in the local cottages, with the name ‘Bridgeman’ on the doors.

4 wheelwrights, 4 smiths, moulders and machinists employed. On the top floor by wheel provided power. Horse shoes. Washtubs. My brother and I paddled down main road. My uncle owned the “Roal Oak “ pub.  Ropewalk close by.  Dame school run by Otway at Compton. Mr. Grey was the headmaster at Marldon, 3d. a week for children, 1d. for villagers.

MRS.MOORE – MISS BAWDON.  (80 years old)

She went to Sunday School at the age of three in the Old Chapel by Compton shop, then the new chapel (now old house at Compton). 96 children in Sunday School.

Blacksmiths shop on both sides, double doors for the smithy are still there.

Walked to Marldon School – home to dinner and back again. Home at 4p.m.

3 cottages and later 7 cottages pulled down. Floods.

Marldon Congregational Church. Miss Parsons. The building was opened in 1864.  Rocky room underneath opened in 1964.

TOM STEVENS

Employed at Foundry in 1916. Fixed all sorts of things. Waterwheels maintained at Bickley Bottom to send water to Bulleigh Barton. Tom did gardening for 6d. an hour. Never allowed to smoke except when firing wheels, - took a long time to get a pipe going. The brook goes under the foundry.  Culvert closed the stream and made the water flood over water meadows on the other side of the road.

MR. BENNETT

(Talking about 1912-1913).  Sheep shearing, horse races, Smokey House cider and ginger at 6p.m. (Smokey-Ship Inn, (Sheep Inn)).  Marldon sheep shearers were famous as far as Plymouth.

ERNIE HARVEY  (60 years old)

Born at Rookery Cottages, remembers – Horse carriages outside the pub on election day. (no date). At age of 4 invited to Compton Castle which was owned by Mr. S Hellier of Brixham. The castle was all in ruins.

A silent picture was made at Compton Castle called “The Silver Bridge” with Madge Tree, George VI, as a cdet told to put out fire or his pants would be --------?.

Cider press in farmyard. (Peter Farm)

Chapel Sunday School outing (all day) to Teignmouth in farm wagons.  4 in --- carriage from Torquay called at Marldon church.

FRED WESTAWAY

End of 1918 War. Barn at Peters Farm for celebration.  * This is now the private house known as "Greystones".   See the reference to this celebration in Mrs.  Wards Memoirs.

Old quarry now the village hall.  Water came from Clappps Well. Water piped across field.

Ford Tin Lizzy into Paignton once a week, getout and walk up Marldon hill.

Big garage near the shops for the first chassis bus*. 1924 first buses from Palace  Avenue to Compton Castle, return via Preston down road.  * This was the original  large garage (replaced 2009) adjoining "Springwater Cottage".  The MLHG           has the original large enamel tinplate sign.

MR. GEORGE WHITE

Independent hall (from Church school) Quarry sold for 1s. A year, Hall cost £525.

BENNETT OF FURZEGOOD

Council houses built in 1928 in Furzegood. (Land) belonged to Revd. Trewelvyn(?), he kept a part for a garden (near Smith’s house). 16 originally on one side. Furzegood was a private road with big white gates – closed for 1 day a year.  7/6 a week rent until 1965.  Light allowed for 1 room upstairs and 3 downstairs, but not connected. Baths in wash-houses – cold tap. Hot water from boiler and ladled out. No refuse collection, tins and bottles over hedge. Many trees gone in school field.

MRS. HILEY

The W.I. was started in 1934 by Mrs. Edwards or Edmonds ? of Cross Cottage ? Mr. & Mrs. Hiley came to Marldon in 1932.

MRS. B. (BROCK?)

“Downalong” was Club Cottage – medical dues paid for free treatment.  Alice Westaway’s son cut his head and she had to ask for a medical letter and then she pushed her son down to Paignton Hospital, he got stitched up and then she pushed him back up the hill again in the pushchair.

First sewage system laid after 1945, before that there were earth closets.

Compton Castle 1329. Saxon family (William de Compton) over 7 generations held from the Bishops of Exeter.  Re-owning – get rid of ivy and then consider how to restore to modernrequirements – no passages.  3 0f 5 towers have sanitary shafts – still used for soilpipes and water pipes.  Old kitchen.

MRS. SID MILES

Lived in cottage near chapel – now pulled down. Went to Aptor to get milk.  School – infants tiered by steps?  Boys and girls separated by big curtain.   Lime kilns were in constant use (Underhill) Kids would warm up.  Worked for Singers at Occombe House and then Oldway. 1915.