Coming soon!
Please come back soon there will be lots to see here !!
Well preserved3 March 1972
While Jeremy Mugford was helping his builder father, Mr Richard Mugford, of Hartland, carry out alterations to a cottage at Ball Hill he found himself looking at a brick upon which his grandfather had written some 50 years ago.
This strange coincidence happened when Jeremy was using a small hammer to knock apart some Marland bricks. To his delight he came across a brick upon which his grandfather had written in thick pencil ‘William Mugford, builder and contractor, Ball Hill’.
The wording was well preserved and the brick was proudly taken home.
Gazette article dated 3 March 1972
The origin of Windmill Lane?21 November 1952
Memories of the old windmill which once stood off the road
between Northam and Appledore have been revived in the minds of older residents in the Northam district by the recent demolition of Chanter’s Folly.
The mill stood in a field known as ‘Windmills’ which lies on the Appledore side of the lane leading to Bidna off the main Northam to Appledore road just past Knapp House. Like Chanter’s Folly, the tower fell into disrepair and became a danger to cattle wandering around its base and even inside.
In 1922, the late Mr G H Cork of Watertown Farm, Appeldore, on whose land the mill stood, contracted with Mr Jim Beer of Appledore, for the tower to be taken down. Powder was not to be used, stipulated Mr Cork, as back in 1908 when Mr George Cawsey had owned the field an attempt had been made to blow up the tower and a portion had landed on the roof of Knapp House!
As can be seen, the windmill tower was of brick on a stone base. A good deal of the base remains, but the brick walling, which...
Demolished1952
Chanter’s Folly, which over the years has faced up to storm and tempest unaided,
and provided an object of landscape beauty and interest to thousands, met its doom under blue skies and mist-dispelling sunshine.
Comparatively few spectators were about, as it was not generally known that demolition was to take place. Mr S Woolaway, of Messrs Woolaway and Sons, personally supervised the operations. During the afternoon, a number of pedestrians came to view the scene, including some older Appledorians who recalled the days gone by when a fair used to be held within the old quarry, and at one time some half a dozen Appledore mothers with their perambulators were foregathered looking up at the empty spot.
Though with the passage of time younger generations will not miss it, most of the older generation will regret the passing of this old and picturesque landmark and ‘friend.’
Friends of Bideford Society might have started fund
Criticism of what he called 'the indecent haste' with which...