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Life Stories of bygone days (Loddiswell) - Doing the Project
Life stories of bygone days (Loddiswell) - Example Pages
Life Stories of bygone days (Loddiswell) - Review
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Life stories of bygone days (Loddiswell) - Example Pages
Location: Devon
The following are summary examples of the stories contained within the book.
FRED BROOKING
Fred’s life’s work has revolved around the parish and his memories of hauling stone from the local quarries for building and road making gives an insight into the beginnings of our present road structure
"I was born in Town’s Lane in 1906. When I left school I eventually worked for Harry Rundle hauling stone for the roads with a horse and cart from the quarries.
They ripped it out in they days with picks and iron bars, no blasting down there, and as they ripped it out I had to load the cart.
‘Course there wasn’t any traffic about in them days. I had to take it to the Council tips, it was big stone and men were at the tips to break it up. Harry Soper and Tommy Luscombe’s boy Ern Luscombe, they all went breaking stone.
They wore leather gloves and broke the stone down to about the size of an egg with a hammer. The stone was used for surfacing the roads in Loddiswell and part of Aveton Gifford parish.
When I was 21 the lorries took over hauling the stone and I went down to work at Rake Quarry."
CYRIL BROOKING
 "Although we were in reserved occupation. Horace Camp, Den Perring and myself went and volunteered for the Navy. I wanted to go in as a Stoker, but they wouldn’t accept me as a Stoker as I wasn’t colour blind or anything, they wanted seamen. I was called up on the 18th February 1942 when I was eighteen and a half.
I went down to the Raleigh and was down there for six weeks training. I then did six weeks training as a gunner before I came home on leave.
When I went back I was transferred out to Yealmpton and they said I was a volunteer for the submarine service, me and another chap called Bowhay. I said, not me, he is, but I’m not because I always said I’d shoot myself if they put me in one of them things. Anyhow, I passed and he failed with his nerves.
From there I went to the Dolphin, did my submarine training there and then went up to Blythe and did some more training. I went on to Dunoon and then sent down to Walker’s Yard at Newcastle where they were building the submarines.
There were three submarines, the Valiant, the Untamed and the Untiring. The Valiant went out on her trails and was lost; they only found her a couple of year ago. The Untamed went down off Campbeltown and hit the bottom so that was a good start to my submarine career, but we got away with it, we were alright."
NED LETHBRIDGE
Ned’s vivid account of his childhood days brings back memories of village life in the past. His love of the land gave him great enjoyment and kept him occupied.
"When I was a little tacker, Tom Squires at Greystones Farm delivered coal around the village. He would sit me up on his coal wagon, black my face and we would go around the village with the horse and wagon delivering coal.
I went to school in Loddiswell but didn’t like it and ran home a lot. I got home one day and only just arrived when the Attendance Officer called. I had to go back next morning and hold me hand out to have the cane.
I liked it at home, out in the garden feeding my rabbits. Father would bring home turnips, mangolds, flatpoles and corn when he was working down at Ham Farm.
In those days the gypsies would sometimes camp up at Ham Butts, they used to tie their ponies up and sit outside their caravans making clothes pegs. They would cut sticks from the hedges, split them and bind then around with a bit of tin. Then they would come around the village selling them.
I remember there was an old scissor grinder who came around the village with a pedal grinder fixed to the side of a pram. He used to sharpen all the knives and scissors. When he came to Gran she would fill his pot with tea and he would sharpen her knives for nothing."
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