Wrecked off Bolt Tail 15th February 1760 In late 2023, the History Group was able to buy this wonderful model of HMS Ramillies which was built by Alan Quester from Oswestry, who dived on the wreck in 1973. During lockdown, Alan researched and then built his model, and gave us information about his dive, and some…
I have written before about how most people these days have still and video cameras on their phones and how we have all unwittingly become recorders of history. We spend time worrying about new additions to the village but little – it would seem – to what we have lost. Below is listed a few…
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…
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…
Snow at Christmas never really happened but the very dark nights and brilliant starry skies helped the Christmas feeling along. Curtains were drawn so room decorations could not be seen from outside and fairy lights outside the house were not a thing. Indoors trees were decorated with the usual stuff but also with clip-on candles….
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…
The 1841 census shows that only The Hope and Anchor, and the Bird in Hand (now the Cove) offered accommodation, but before the end of the 19th century, and before the Earl Devon of was forced to sell his property here, he encouraged local people to take in paying guests. The history group has copies of wonderful comments…
This is a long overdue “Thank you” to all the people who have been in touch after reading the blog…. We have had some marvellous new information from people who grew up in the parish and who came here on holiday. We always welcome your memories. I loved the memory of Mrs. Jarvis giving children…
When Emperor Haile Selassie was exiled from Ethiopia from 1936 to 1941, his presence in the UK was an embarrassment to the government, so he soon bought a house in Bath well away from London. He came with a big retinue of family and staff. He had two granddaughters who were sent to boarding school in…
I had been expecting to write about bad winters in days gone by, but as we haven’t had any snow … yet, I thought I’d save the snow stories, and thought instead about what we are missing during the pandemic, and one of the many things is entertainment especially dancing. The first evidence of dancing in the…