What Happened at The Fair
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The South Hams and the Cornwall connection
Devon and Cornwall are like brothers. There is nothing the inhabitants like better than getting one over the other county. However there is more that unites them rather than dividing them and a look back in history gives clues as to why. After the Romans left Britain Devon and Cornwall existed as a single entity…
Three slipways and two paths
My first Slipway is at at Inner Hope and was used for launching the Lifeboats. In the 1700’s this area was known as Hope Gate. This slipway has good for access to all the beach at low tide only. This is one of the first lifeboats pre-1900; the slipway presumably built or improved in 1878 when…
Was Hope ever a sleepy fishing village?
Early hotel brochures often described Hope Cove as “A sleepy fishing village”, but was it ever the case? Tales of smugglers in earlier centuries indicate they were lively and interesting times, locals outwitting the many Coastguards working in the village, with plenty of contraband. So sleepy probably not, but is was a fishing village. There have…
Gunfight at the Hope and Anchor – March 1858
The title of this note is what in modern parlance is called click-bait. Something written to get attention. There was no gunfight. However, there was a gun; there was a fight; and it does feature the Hope and Anchor Inn. So, to paraphrase Eric Morecombe in his comment to Andre Previn – the words are…
A very photogenic part of the world
The arrival of the actor Jim Broadbent in Kingsbridge last autumn to shoot some scenes for a film “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” prompted some old memories. Who remembers the 1950’s TV series Quatermass (which terrified me) and later the first series of “Maigret” in the early sixties both of which starred Rupert Davies? The…
What’s in a name?
The origins of the names of the three villages in the parish are all ancient. Hope comes from the old Norse “Hop” meaning a small bay or inlet. South Huish is Old English for “southern household” and the name Galmpton has had many variations over the centuries, but the root of all the variations concerns rent-paying…