Kevin Ford, Recollections – 22 March 2022

Kevin Ford, Recollections – 22/03/2022

These remarkable memories from Kevin prove how useful personal anecdotes can be.  Joined with other information, so much can be learned.  If anyone would like to write something similar for some later years, it will be very much appreciated.

My comments are in Bold Italics after Kevin’s notes.

Martin,

I wandered the highways and byways of Musbury from 1945 to 1947, so here is a sort of list of those that dwelled here before us during July 1947

  • Reverend Rich – Vicar who fed and housed me for a week or two at the end – Arthur T Rich was indeed the rector at this time.
  • Mr and Mrs Rendall – who ran the New Inn and housed me on my last day before Torquay.  They took a pub in Axminster. – This is interesting, as we didn’t know who the publicans were at this time.  The Rendalls ran the Lion Inn in 1939, so did they transfer to the New Inn or perhaps run both?
  • Mr Snell – who ran the garage and actually transported me to the home in Torquay. My Uber driver.  – Yes, George Snell ran Musbury Garage in the 1930/40s.
  • Mr and Mrs Reid – Ran the shop in the Street with the attached bakery, probably the shop was a branch of Sewards, also in Sidford.  Here I spotted my first banana, a strange thing and it got mashed up.  Mr Reid of course was the baker. – I’ve seen the name of Reid before, but we also have an invoice from 1946 headed “Seward” with a stamp showing the baker as H F Hooke.  More investigation is required.
  • Mr and Mrs Wanless – ran the Post Office and general store. – We have a note saying Molly & Jack Wanless ran the PO & store after WW2, but we didn’t have a date.
  • Mr Gear – ran the Market Garden off The Street.  – Yes, Oscar Gear, nursery man.
  • Mr and Mrs Tedbury ran Musbury farm know now as Musbury Barton, they moved to Crediton farming there also.  – The Tedburys ran Lower Bruckland before WW2, so this useful new information.
  • Mrs Mason – was the Headmistress – This was not known, but we did know a Miss Mason from the school purchased items from the Bakery in 1946.
  • Mrs Arnold – who lived on your current plot was a dinner lady.  – Agnes Arnold lived on the Adcroft plot in Princess Cottage.  She was unemployed in 1939, but we now know she worked in the school after the war.
  • Mr and Mrs Lovering sort of ran a farm from that building up the road from you on the next corner.  – Blanche Miller inherited Mount Pleasant farm from her uncle and married William Loving in 1939.  We did not know that they were still farming there after the war.
  • Mrs Day Lewis lived further up the hill.  – Mary Day-Lewis, of whom we would like to know more, especially about her life in Musbury following the departure of her husband, Cecil.
  • Mrs Cameron lived halfway up Church Hill. – We knew the Camerons lived at Rumah Kita on Church Hill, but didn’t know they were still there in the late 1940s.
  • Mrs Evans also lived halfway up Church Hill.  – Similarly, we knew the Evans lived in the Old Cottage in 1939, but didn’t know they were still there in the late 1940s.
  • The chap who lived in the house attached to the PO on Church Hill was a dab hand at haircuts but was a farm labourer by trade. – This must be ‘Missals’ then known as ‘Violet Cottage’.  This may have been John Cox a ‘Farm Hand’.
  • Mr and Mrs Salter had the farm on the Whitford Road corner. – Drakes Farm?
  • Mr and Mrs Partridge were next door in that farm – And presumably this is the other part of Drakes Farm, on the Seaton side.
  • Mr Parker who seemed to run the farm off The Street used to walk a couple of cows up past your dwelling daily, presumably to the field beyond.  – This must be the Samuel Parker who ran Baxter’s farm in 1939, so it seems he was still doing this in the late 1940s.
  • Cow shit was plentiful and Dad did not complain, your garden may still have memories.  – Even more has been delivered since, but the local stone still rises to the surface!
  • The winter of ’46 was not kind and I can still hear the Post Office van chains clinking past the house. – No doubt they were hoping to make it up Mounthill Lane!..
  • My Mum  arrived in Musbury to provide one on one nursing to the owner or inhabitant of Mountfield.  How many months I do not know but she met and married Hubert Leslie Ford of Adcroft. – The Dutfields were in residence at this time.  Did they perhaps have an elderly of infirm relative?

Kevin