Seafield House or "The Spooky House"Built around 1885
Seafield House - Westward Ho!
The house on the cliff edge known locally as ‘Spooky House’ or even ‘Haunted House’ was built about 1885. The road was especially built to enable access to the house and was initially known as Seafield Road; later it became Merley Road.
The house was built as a summer residence by Brinsley de Courcey Nixon
(5 May 1825-18 April 1903) whose occupation on the 1881 Census was a ‘banker’ from London. Of Irish and Scottish descent he was born in Edinburgh and died in 1903 whilst on holiday at Seafield. There were 4 children from his marriage to Frances Evelyn Hampton – Charlotte; Gladys; Fergus and Brinsley (1884-1971).
He entered the house of Messrs W R Robinson and Co. Russian Merchants, London but because his interest was in studying other habits, customs and resources of European nations, as well as the American continent, considerable time was spent abroad. He was one of the founders of the London and Provincial Bank and for several years, an officer in...
Talking to Sue Scrutton
Rosemoor
Lady Anne Berry talks to Sue Scrutton about Rosemoor:
https://youtu.be/3rvtAm8-eRo
To many North Devonians Rosemoor, Torrington, is well known as the home of Col J E Palmer, who has given long and valued service to the county of Devon. But many people, too, know Rosemoor equally well for its beautiful gardens created during the past 15 years by his wife Lady Anne, a noted horticulturist.
Born in Norfolk and daughter of the late Earl of Orford, Lady Anne’s earliest memories of the house are from childhood visits in the spring for the salmon fishing on the River Torridge, which runs through the grounds. In those days, she recalls there was so little traffic one could “whizz down the hill from Torrington on a bicycle with the brakes off – and without touching the handlebars! Sometimes I could get right to the gate without pedalling at all.”
Now she worries about pedestrians – and particularly school children – obliged to use that busy...
A Shebbear farmer reminisces
MAURICE LEWIS JOHN ADAMS
Maurice on his 98th birthday
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To all my friends over 90 years, to all my family, past, present and future. To my son, Brian, for his inspiration and to my son-in-law, John, for typing up and interpreting my scrawl!
FOREWORD
On 9th January 2017, Brian and I were driving back to my home at Westward Ho! from the Bickford Arms pub at Brandis Corner. We had been there for the ‘wake’, after my cousin, Rene Glidon’s funeral. As we passed North Worden Farm (my home for most of my life), Brian said, “I doubt if anyone in the next 90 years will see as many changes as you have seen in the last 90 years.” It started me thinking and I decided to write down my memories, instead of watching so much television. I decided to write down a few memories, each evening, when possible!
John Adams married Elizabeth Paige Quance in 1894 and they had 3 sons - Embert John Adams was born in 1896; Clarence Paige Adams, 1899; and William Redvers Adams, 1902. Pivate Embert...