I was born at Passaford farm, which had been in my family since the 17th century. We lived there until I was 12, when we moved to Ottery. I was ill for 12 months because I was so unhappy. Father sold the farm when tractors came in because the land was so steep. He...
My father was a well-known local character. He always wore a brown suit and brown boots. Even when he went prawning, he would go into the water in his boots. We had so many prawns. He knew better than anyone where to get them. He and John Mortimore went up to...
We used to go to Kings School on the steam train when I first started. People cycled from Sidbury and Sidford to get the train. They could leave their bikes unlocked in the hedge at the station. Nothing was ever pinched. Even at that age I thought how lovely the...
When Pam and I married, my Father bought Feniton Mill and gave it to us. There was a chapel on the land too. The chapel was quite high so I put another floor in, so I could keep pigs in the bottom and chickens up the top. There was a door on the side so the pigs could...
The Bakers from Skinners farm had the dairy behind what is now The Gearbox (this later became Express Dairies). When the weather was snowy, Mrs Baker remembers customers coming for untreated milk with every sort of container. One man came with a whisky bottle that...
When I first left school I got a job pebble picking on Branscombe beach. We worked according to the tide. They had to be round pebbles – the smaller the better – which were used for the milling process in paint making. We collected the pebbles in a bucket...
