by Mary Hall (Hendrickson)

I lived in Sydenham, London with my parents Victor & Julie Hendrickson. With heavy bombing expected, the advice was to move out of London, so we locked up the house we owned, and rented Mill View No 14 Church Street in Modbury from Mr Coyte, a local farmer in Ivybridge. We lived in Modbury for the duration of the war, I was 17 at the time.

Here are some of my memories. It was a long time ago, so I apologise for any errors. I worked in Kingsbridge.

My first job was working for the Kingsbridge Rural and District Council (KRDC) for Sid Caygill who was the KRDC Accountant. I wasn’t really cut out for figures, so I changed to an office administration job working for the Medical Officer, Colonel William Clayton Smales. I helped run the office, dealing with the evacuees. As I was in a reserved occupation I was not required to join the WAAF.

There was not much public transport during the war, so at the weekend, sometimes we would walk to the beach (8 miles). There were only two or three buses to Kingsbridge so my father bought me a bicycle so I could cycle to and from work the seven miles to Kingsbridge. There was no plastic at the time – when it rained, I got wet. There was a tiny cinema in Kingsbridge.

When the battle training area opened, huge US Army convoys would take up much of the road. One day, while I was cycling, a Jeep came over the hilltop, the driver waving frantically. A huge convoy followed and I had to leap off my bike to let the convoy pass.

My parents and I would sometimes go for tea with the farmer who owned the farm behind No 14 Church St. I would play the piano for them, then we would walk home through the orchard.

There was no entertainment for the British soldiers ( Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery) who were in the area, so we would open our front room for soldiers to drink Oxo for one penny, and I would play the piano for them. I still have the piano. There was a dance for the soldiers in the village hall, but the pianist was sick, so I had to stand in.

There were some New Zealand submariners taking R&R, camped in a village between Modbury and Plymouth. Matron Searle at Treveor House heard about them and organised a dance. About eight New Zealand submariners came, along with some of the local girls from the village and we all had a great time.

Mrs Ethel Groves, who ran Groves the Ladies Outfitters once arranged a tap dance lesson for me and a few of the other local girls. We drove (although I don’t know where the petrol came from !) to a hall somewhere in the local countryside for the lesson which was run by a lady called Babette.

On VE day (6 May 1945), there was a victory parade in Modbury lead by the Town Crier. Soon after this I returned to London, and was at the VE celebrations in the Mall on 15 August 1945.

List of shops & houses

Starting at the top of Church Street, heading away from Plymouth, on the right hand side :

Houses:

• House owned by Misses Moore
• Vicarage?
• Doctor Falvey
• Mr Rogers, the Thatcher
• MOON LANE
• Hendrickson’s (No 14)
• Mrs Wroath
• The Chapel Shops
• A Clapham, the grocer
  • Three children, Stanley, Gwen & Joan
  • Joan married TV Producer (Bagpuss) Peter Firmin
• Rogers the Butcher
  • Daughter Vera joined the ATS
• Mrs May, Haberdashery
  • Daughter Stella

• Gordon Dunne the Electrician
• White Hart pub
• POUNDWELL STREET
  • There were three or four cottages in this street
  • The Watts family lived in this street
  • Mr Hine the Cobbler lived in this street. His daughter Mary married Les the mechanic from Stevens garage.
  • Mary Hine and I would play the piano together.
• B Cawsey, Post Office & General Store
• Browns the Baker
• Red Devon pub (demolished)
• ROAD BENDS towards Kingsbride, junction with GILPIN STREET

Other side of the road, and back up the hill

• Stevens Garage
  • Mechanic Les Muggeridge
• Maurice Lee, the Chemist
• Grove, Ladies Outfitters
  • Dressmakers Miss Raffles & Mrs Crocker
• Perkins, the grocer
• BROWNSTON STREET
• Co-op on the corner
• Exeter Inn, owned by Mr Cawsey (same family as Cawsey Post Office & General Store)
  • I had my 21st birthday party at the Exeter Inn
• House: Dr Paterson who left and was replaced by Dr Stribling

Up stairs to raised pavement and houses:

• Mary Cummins (directly opposite No 14) & sister, who would walk to Ugborough to play church organ

At the top of the hill the road bends round (right) towards the local school, headmaster George Close

Other recollections :

• Treveor House, was owned by Mrs Treneer, requisitioned during the war to be used as an isolation hospital. There were many children from London at Coombe Royal Residential for young evacuees, and there was an outbreak of Whooping Cough, so children were quarantined in Treveor House looked after by Matron Searle and her staff
• Vicar Calder from the church transferred to Feltham after the war
• My mother, Julie Hendrickson joined the local Women’s Institute which met in the village hall