Local MemoriesA Selection of News Articles Related to Local Memories

  • 1 Evacuees

    Basil Pidgeon

  • 2 Bideford Bridge collapses

    January 1968

  • 3 An Appledore 'maid' reminisces

  • 4 Talking to Sue Scrutton

  • 5 Seafield House or "The Spooky House"

    Built around 1885

  • Evacuees

    Basil Pidgeon

    Reminisceses of Evacuees

    Basil Pidgeon was recorded by another volunteer at the Bideford & District Community Archive in 2020

    More information on Mr Langford can be found AT THIS LINK  and HERE

     

     

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  • Bideford Bridge collapses

    January 1968

    January 1968

    The famous 700-year-old Long Bridge collapsed in early January 1968. One of the Archive's volunteers chats, in 2020, about his reminiscences in this YouTube link:

     

     

     

     

     

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  • An Appledore 'maid' reminisces

    Playing on the “Beach” at Bell Slip,

    no shoes on, the mud squelching between your toes, avoiding the sharp stones and broken glass. Paddling across the gut when the tide went out to play in the ponds, and rushing back as the tide came in before the gut filled with water from the incoming tide. I could not swim and would have been in trouble if the timing was wrong. When eventually I learnt to swim my friend and me would swim from Bell Slip to the Quay slip, which was quite dangerous as there was a strong current on the

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  • Talking to Sue Scrutton

    Rosemoor

    Lady Anne Berry talks to Sue Scrutton about Rosemoor: 

     

     

     

       RHS Rosemoor

    Lady Anne Berry - Wikipedia

    25.6.1976 Lady Anne Palmer

    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

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  • Seafield House or "The Spooky House"

    Built around 1885

    Seafield House - Westward Ho!

    seafield house

    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

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