| Then and Now - An Introduction |
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INTRODUCTIONPOSTCARDS BY LES CHANDLER & WARREN RADMOREFROM This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ABOUT THE OLD POSTCARDSI was looking around The Antique Centre in Gloucester Docks and just happened to rummage through some boxes of postcards and it started to snowball. Whenever there was a Collectors Fair in the area, I would go along and see what was around. I think it really started when I purchased my first computer in the mid 1990’s, and realised what could be done with it. I even purchased a couple of cards from Mr. Taylor, ex-Bradninch PO and writer of some very good books on Bradninch. I think the first cards I ever purchased were by Joyce Beresford and would have dearly loved to have the whole series, but although I keep looking, I never find them. I think it is great that she and Mr. Taylor took so much trouble to put Bradninch on the map. ME AND BRADNINCH Here follows a nostalgia trip, not in any particular order, just as it comes. The start of my relationship with Bradninch began in the 1930’s, (before I was born). My Grandparents Eadie and Bill Milton moved up from Callestick, Cornwall. They lived at Hawkaller and Flesterhaies (not sure of the spelling). My mother born in 1926 in Cornwall. She attended Bradninch school where she was made to write right handed, her left hand being tied behind her back. That was the only action she ever did right handed. In 1946 my mother and father were married in St. Disens by the Rev. Basil Guy, who later went on to be the Bishop of Gloucester. My parents moved up to Romford in Essex, my father’s home town. My grandparents moved into the town to 4 Hen Street at some point and when I was about 7 or 8 mum used to send me down to Bradninch to stay with my grandparents for about 4 weeks at time during the school summer holidays. Mum used to put me on the train, The Torbay Express, in charge of the guard, and my grandmother or one of my aunts used to meet me off the train at Exeter St. Davids. Then up to Paul Street to catch the bus to Bradninch. I can remember when the electric was put in at Hen Street, No more fiddling about trying to light gas mantles. Bath time was in the old tin bath hung up outside the back. Water to be drawn from the standpipe out back and the little brown shack out back as well. The neighbours were the Daniel’s and the Stoneman’s. I thought looking back that this was quite ancient being that I had lived in places that had electricity, hot and cold running water and indoor bathroom and toilet. Later, water was piped into the house and the luxury of a Sadia type water heater, still no bathroom though. My many days spent in Bradninch, well what did I get up to?? Building a dam on the stream outside, keeping it weeded, bouncing a ball off the wall opposite. Buying Archie Andrew’s lollies from Bill Vinnecombe’s sweet shop in Parsonage. You could save the wrappers and send off for gifts. Interestingly, Corona pop came in flip top bottles like Grolsch does today. Collecting blackberries in a National Dried milk tin, up Cullompton Hill. Grannie used to bake an awesome blackberry and apple pie, topped with REAL clotted cream that granddad used to bring back from Trinity after he had walked up there with the Sunday papers. Not sure if where he worked was Halford’s or not. Sometimes I would borrow my aunt Joyce’s bicycle and go down to Bradninch and Hele station to collect train numbers. Great to watch the signalman operating the signal levers and the great wheel that opened and closed the level crossing gates. If I got bored, the residents of Bradninch would suffer me knocking on doors and running away!! One time when I was about 7, grannie asked me to go over Mrs. Millers and buy some ice creams. I was so eager to get them back before they melted that coming past Comfort House at a great rate of knots, I tripped on the pavement, and fell over. I always blamed the triangular pattern paving stones for my accident. Lo and behold a couple of years later they had been tarmaced over. My parents would sometimes come down during the summer and we would go off to Dawlish or wherever. I particularly remember when they decided we would go to Exmouth for the day. We had a Vespa 150 cc with a little sidecar attached. Dad filled up with petrol on the way to Exmouth but because there was a steep hill not far from the garage, mum and I had to get out and walk as the combination wouldn’t climb fully loaded. Used to go all over in that one. Sometimes we would go fishing down Millway and Payne’s Farm. I never caught anything, but they did and granddad used to revel in eating a freshly caught trout for his supper. Although grannie had a dining room set, granddad would never eat with us, always in the kitchen. It was revolting to see him tucking into a pig’s head, brains and all. But he thoroughly enjoyed it. I can remember cutting up a block of salt to go in the salt cellar, we always had the ready to use stuff up home. A painful job if you had any cuts on the fingers. On Sundays when my parents were down, they would troop over the King William before lunch. I then had to go to the off sales hatch and get a bitter lemon for grannie. Never saw her touch alcohol. Grandad used to drink real scrumpy complete with apple pieces!! I still have relations there, Roy and Pam Lake, cousins in Fore Street. There have been many changes in Bradninch since I first became associated with it, not many for the better. Most of the old shops have gone, the traffic has increased so much that it is a problem to park there now. Shops I remember , Agett’s Ironmongers. Love’s butchers, Davy’s electrical, Mrs. Heard’s, Mrs. Conbeer’s, Haberdashery, (can’t recall the name), 2 banks, greengrocers on the right side of Fore Street going up. On the left, general store at the bottom, Crispin’s, King William, Haydn’s bakery. Whenever I was down I always managed to get hold of a roll that had just come out of the oven. What a wonderful smell and taste. Castle Hotel, The Vaults, Fish and Chip shop. Not many of those left now. I can remember going to the Guildhall to watch Bambi, cost about a shilling. I used to go out with Roy Lake when he worked at Reg Ayre’s, taking the meat out to customers. I also believe I used to go out with the District Nurse, so I am told. Roy always told me he would take me to Butterleigh Treacle Mines but never did. Does that one still have a place in modern Bradninch. I believe Mrs. Heard, lived in Comfort House or Court, used to run a coach called Blue Venture or something like that and it used to be parked roughly where the cemetery is now. Used to walk out to Westfield where friends of the family lived. Alice Willis, daughter Averil and son, Colin. Colin later married my younger aunt, Joyce, and now live in Newton Abbot. Averil, famed for her charity walks around Bradninch still lives in West End Road. I think she has retired from doing them. The bus service through Bradninch used to be run jointly by Exeter City Corporation, green and yellow livery, and Devon General, red and white livery. There was a hourly service to Exeter and Cullompton, No.27. I believe the number was changed at some time but has now reverted to 27. There was also a service between Exeter and Cullompton, via main road and Merry Harriers. I think that service was run purely by Exeter Corporation. Remember Walton’s in Exeter on the corner of Sidwell and Queen St. The money taken at the cash desk used to get sent up to the cashier’s office by air tube, your change coming back by the same route. Again an old feature re-appearing in stores like Tesco’s. Della’s in Exeter for a bite to eat while waiting for the bus to Bradninch. No facilities at the bus station. Also think that there was no direct bus service between Exeter St. Davids and Paul Street. I think that service was the Rifford Road bus and you had to walk a little way. One Christmas, in the fifties, my mother and I travelled by coach from Romford to Exeter because Grannie had broken her leg. My father must have been very understanding as he spent Christmas home alone!! I can’t remember how long the journey took. But it seemed to be for ever. We stopped at Hartley Wintney and were due to stop at Honiton. The coach driver asked the passengers if they wanted to stop. No one did as it was so close to Exeter. When the driver pulled into Paul Street lowest level, he got a right telling off from the Inspector. Obviously the pub at Honiton had called the depot and complained that he did not get any custom. We were not concerned as we had arrived in very good time but did feel sorry for the driver, I used to play up Paceycombe Farm with Pauleen Gleeson. She had been adopted by the Gleesons. My mother went to school with Alf. There was a story about one of the Snell’s who on many occasions went to take his motor cycle test in Exeter. He used to get someone to take him and his bike on a lorry to Exeter and bring him back after he had failed it. Don’t know if he ever passed. Greenslade’s forge in Parsonage used to provide me with something of interest, watching him shoe the horses. He also kept rabbits. Morte’s dairy in Parsonage, another memory. Also another about a one-time vicar of St. Disen's. When asked if he was ever going to have a family, he used to reply, “I twied, and I twied” My grandparents moved from 4 Hen Street to 4 The Old Peoples Bungalows in the 1970’s. At last indoor bathroom and toilet facilities!!. They lived there until they died, and are both buried in the Cemetery. Les FROM WARREN First I would like to thank Les Chandler for letting the website use the collection of old postcards that you will be or already have seen on this 'The and Now' section of the website. All the 'Now' photos were taken by me, during the Spring of 2002. I've tried to take them from the same position as the old postcards. The Then and Now section on this site has taken me around 40 hours to edit photos I hope you enjoy a look back in the past and to see how things have changed over the years. Best Wishes Warren Radmore
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