Over the years we have had many interesting characters living here. Some of us can still remember ‘Tich’ Bellamy who sadly died quite a few years ago. Ken and Margaret have kindly put a few memories to paper for us to read.

Leslie (Tich) Bellamy was born in one of the cottages that used to be at Blagdon Cross. If you look carefully there are still parts of the stone walls present which are often covered in blue periwinkle flowers certain times of the year. He was brought up by Mr and Mrs Moles and later by Mr and Mrs J Melhuish at Blagdon Farm. After leaving school at 14 he went to work at North Quarme and then Little Quarme. When he was 17 he went to work for Mr M C Houlder at Triscombe Farm where he worked for 35 years until Mr Houlder’s death in 1957.
Always interested in horses he hunted 3 days a week always riding to the meets and home again. On one occasion he rode from Barnstaple Station arriving home at midnight and then he had to feed the horses before he could go home – no horse boxes in the those days!
Tich was known to be a bit of a ‘lad’ when he was young, one day while working at Triscombe , Tich and his mate Alan (Lordie) Down decided they would play a trick on the girls who were in service in the big house. Tich and Lordie knew they would be going for a walk down the drive at Triscombe. They took a white sheet off the bed and hid in a gutter, when the girls came pass they placed the sheet over their heads and jumped out in front of them causing one of the girls to faint. Tich said ‘dam’d we haven’t killed her’. They both ran on down the drive to the main road. A cyclist came along and they quickly put the sheet over their heads again and jumped out in front of him. He was frightened and rode like mad up to the Rest and Be Thankful. Tich and Lordie put the sheet in the hedge and decided to go up to the pub for a drink. When they walked into the Rest and Be Thankful the landlord said to them ‘Have you seen a ghost Tich?’ He replied – ‘No, why?’ The landlord said this man (looking very pale) swears he has seen one down Triscombe Drive! Their lips were sealed! Tichie was always up to mischief as a lad at school and after he had left school. Ken and Margaret

A bit more history – thank you

I was flicking through last months magazine, not showing much interest, when all of a sudden 3 words jumped out of the page at me. They were ‘Alan (Lordie) Down. And suddenly I was very focused on the article – because why was somebody writing about my Grandfather?
Thank you Ken and Margaret for the lovely article, it brightened up my day and brought back happy memories of my grampy.
I can remember when telling my granddad that we were going to Wheddon Cross to live how ‘chuffed’ he was that we were moving to the village that he had been born in. How proud he would be now of his great-grandson playing cricket and football for the village teams.

We used to chuckle at the fact that the holiday cottages at Triscombe that I was ‘mucking out’ were the stables that he used to muck out! – was there much difference!!!! Maria Adams