A Story of Kilmington in Devon in the Twentieth Century
First written to mark the Centenary of Parish Councils. Revised and brought up to date 2001 with additions in 2007.
By Ben Cudmore
Many of the photographs are by Cllr. Bill Kerslake
Donations towards the cost of this publication were from the District Council and Axminster Carpet Factory.
By Ben Cudmore
Many of the photographs are by Cllr. Bill Kerslake
Donations towards the cost of this publication were from the District Council and Axminster Carpet Factory.
INTRODUCTION
Kilmington is a “nice place” to live in. How frequently this comment is made! But what makes the place? A county-wide competition organised by the Council for the Preservation of Rural England for the Best Kept Village Award has three times been won by Kilmington in 1970, 1986 and 1990. Is it the image of a well-kept village and its environment that makes a “nice place”? Yes, to a certain extent it is, but it is also the inhabitants, past and present, who have contributed to its character and helped to lay the foundation for its popularity. In outlining the development of Kilmington over the last hundred years this booklet is therefore a mixture of factual information and anecdote.
PRIOR TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The story of Kilmington would not be complete without a brief reference to the period immediately preceding the twentieth century. Remove the houses which were built between the Wars and the estates of bungalows since the Second War and one can imagine what Kilmington was like in 1900. The Ordnance Survey large scale map reveals 107 buildings scattered over the village; many were small farms with orchards and plots of land. The village had been somewhat dominated by Coryton Park, built in 1756 by Benedict Marwood Tucker. In 1894 an obvious descendant, Marwood Tucker, was both Lord of the Manor and Rector of Widworthy where he lived. In practice, Kelly’s Directory shows that absentee landlords were common in the area.
The Directory describes the area as producing good crops of wheat, barley, roots and pasture with excellent dairy land.
The Church, with the exception of the tower, had been pulled down and rebuilt in 1862. There was a Baptist Chapel with a separate, older foundation at Loughwood. The village was very self contained. There were three bakers / confectioners; a grocer and a draper; three builders / carpenters, a coachmaker / wheelwright and two black smiths; two tailors and a boot and shoe maker. An Axminster auctioneer started business at Summerleaze. There was also a cattle dealer and a haulier. Seventeen farmers were named of whom many were smallholders.
TIMES CHANGE
It is quite natural that everything we think of has changed, sometimes evolving quite slowly, at other times with dramatic speed. From the beginning through to the end of the century there has been much to illustrate this. Imagine the situation ninety years ago when transport to neighbouring villages was difficult and communication was very different; long before radio, television or the daily paper provided news and entertainment. In common with many villages Reading Room facilities in Kilmington were provided in the Pavilion. From 1906 menfolk used to gather three times a week to read the few weekly publications, John Bull, London Weekly or Pulmans, but also to play billiards, card games (but not for money!), dominoes ad darts. As such it closed down after the First War - some would say because money crept into the card games - and the Pavilion was used for cricket only.
Times were changing and there was a need for a different sort of “Room”. In 1923 the village saw the beginning of its Church Room. The site was given by Mr. Arthur Hitchcock who owned the field. Without doubt he was a generous subscriber but members of the public and especially those of the Church also helped to provide the wooden building that was to be a meeting place for sixty years.
Again times were changing. New controls and regulations from the Fire Officer and Public Health Officer, together with the general deterioration of the building, encouraged the Parish Council to hold a public meeting to consider whether several thousands of pounds should be raised to modernise a now rather old building with limited facilities or to provide a new village hall. Thanks to financial help from County, District and Parish Councils and from the Vicar and Church Council and exceptional support from every village organisation and numerous individuals, a new hall was built in 1985. Here is an illustration of something evolving slowly to meet changing circumstances.
But in other ways change can come about more quickly and make a greater impact. Newtons, that charming, typical thatched Devon long house opposite the Post Office in the space of not much more than a decade first had two detached houses built next to it, then, in the orchard behind, developers wanted to build thirty houses, some of them terraced. Thanks to strong resistance from the Parish Council and support from the Planning Committee of the District Council the final development was for nine dwellings, some bungalows, in an area now called Newton’s Orchard. But rapid change in the character of that part of the village had started. George Farm at the end of the Lane had long since ceased to be a butcher’s shop though the stone floored shop and fitments remained as did the sheds that were the slaughter house. These farm buildings were converted into houses. George Lane was no longer a country lane leading from the Butcher’s shop to the Post Office.
From a reading room to a modem well equipped hall, from a thatched house with its cider room and spring apple blossom to the present day housing development, all this tells a tale. The village has changed, sometimes slowly, at times almost too quickly.
THE BUTTER FACTORY
With land in Kilmington and around described in the accounts of Newenham Abbey, formerly in the Axe Valley, and in the Domesday Book as good quality and specifically recorded as good dairy land, it is not surprising that a butter factory was built opposite the Toll House at the entrance to Summerleaze Farm. The Toll House by the Yarty bridge with its bow windows enabling the occupants to look both ways, had been an important place since the mid seventeenth century when tolls were taken to finance the maintenance of the local roads and bridges.
Much of the Story of Kilmington is linked with its people, much respected but alas no longer with us who were able to help with fact and anecdote. The Butter Factory and Mr. Jack Sanders is an example. Born in 1904 in the Toll House his father was manager of the factory which had been built ten years earlier. Farmers from miles around brought their milk as well as eggs, poultry and rabbits. At the morning peak hours Gammons Hill must have been as busy with its horse drawn vehicles as with cars today. The fat was separated to make the butter and the skimmed milk taken back to the farms to feed the pigs with oats and barley which were crushed at the factory. Many farms made skimmed milk cheese, not unlike Dorset Blue Vinney. Butter was packed by hand and despatched from Axminster Station, as were the eggs, poultry and rabbits, for the Midlands and London. At Christmas as many as 1,000 turkeys were handled and in midwinter two or three hundred rabbits were despatched each week. This continued until the First War when the business was sold to the United Dairies at Chard Junction, though the site continued as a collecting point for milk.
Use as a collection centre continued until 1926 when the building was bought by Mr. Frank Hoskins’ father, who at that time farmed at Gammons Hill, and used as a pig house. It was eventually demolished when the new Yarty bridge was built, A length of stone wall remained, however, until preparations for the new Axminster bypass were made.
Mr. Cumming, who had owned the factory, then had a Dairy and Grocery business in Axminster in the premises now occupied by Gribble, Booth & Taylor. The Sanders family lived over the shop for eleven years before moving back to the Toll House for a short time.
Meanwhile, the history of the Sanders family moves to Kilmington. The parents moved in 1933 to be the first occupants of the end house at Fanny’s Ground, so called because the long serving Minister of the Baptist Church, the Rev. Bastable, travelled around his wide ranging parish in a pony and trap and the pony called Fanny grazed in the fields on which the row of houses was built.
Meanwhile son Jack married the daughter of a local farmer and they moved to Kent Cottage, then known as the Poplars, while for a time he continued to work in a stores in what is now a car park by the Old Post Office in Axminster. From here he became a poultry farmer with up to 4,000 free range hens, in orchards covering Whitehayes Close, Brooklands Close, Greenbank and Silver Lea. In common with many local farmers, who all had orchards, the apples were sent to Cole’s Cyder factory near Tytherleigh. During the war years food for poultry was severely rationed and poultry farming ceased. Jack, unfit for war service, worked in Axminster Post Office. In 1943 the Kilmington sub post office on the green became vacant and the Sanders took it on at Kent Cottage. After ten years they moved to the property which is the present Post Office. These premises had for long been a bakery and stores. The Post Office had to be open on Sundays, Christmas Day and Boxing Day from 9.00 to 10.30 am, mainly to despatch telegrams. Incoming telegrams were delivered by bicycle from Axminster. The Office handled a heavy traffic in parcels from the Brush Factory.
Jack Sanders died recently in his early nineties. He was one of Kilmington’s best known men. In his younger days, when Kilmington had no team, he played soccer for Axminster, but for 40 years he played cricket for Kilmington. With a chuckle he says, “Along with Harry Pape we were a couple of good left handers”. Many will remember his part in pantomimes with the Kilmington Players.
THE BRUSH FACTORY
From 1929 to 1960 Kilmington had another factory - a Brush Factory - and again it was very much family run.
Mr. Cooke was born in Australia but his family came to England when he was only three. In London he learnt the brush trade and eventually moved to Kilmington to work as Manager of Bidwell’s Brush Factory at the bottom of Castle Street in Axminster. In 1929 he started to manufacture brushes in Kilmington in the property (now Appletree Cottage and Broadhalfpenny) below the Baptist Church. Here the family, wife, sons and daughter, Edith, developed a flourishing business making high quality brushes - tooth, nail, cosmetic, shaving - supplying many London based outlets such as Elizabeth Arden, the Army and Navy Stores and Marks and Spencer. The output from this Kilmington business was such that three representatives were employed in London. Whale bone and bone taken from the legs of bullocks were used as a base for bristles which were wired on. It is interesting to know that a large number of women in the village did this part of the work in their homes. This continued until 1960.
During this time Mrs. Wakley’s husband, Elijah, worked as a boot and shoe maker in Dawkins in Axminster specialising in leather goods for orthopaedic requirements, a job he did for 52 years. Baker’s Tannery in Colyton supplied the soft leather. Like his friend, Jack Sanders, Lije, as he was known in the village, was a keen sportsman. He captained Dalwood’s football team and was a regular player with Kilmington Cricket Club, as was his father-in-law, Mr. Cooke. Lije later umpired whilst wife Edith followed Miss Bastable, for many years as a scorer.
Lije was for much of his adults years a member of the Parochial Church Council and a sidesman. His was a Kilmington family which did much to help establish a tradition that has made Kilmington a “nice place”.
This is perhaps the place to mention cousin Stanley Wakley of Meadow Bank who, though he has not lived in the village all his life, had been a well known businessman in the immediate neighbourhood with garages in Membury and Axminster. During the war years driving a coach along the country lanes in the blackout provides him with many an entertaining story. Now an octogenarian, in his younger days he was a member of Membury’s brass band. For his eightieth birthday he was given a new trombone. Another of Kilmington’s popular characters. Can you picture him at the age of fourteen, driving a donkey cart (yes, donkey!) from Membury to Axminster Station to collect the weekly Western Times and Western Gazette and deliver them to Kilmington, Dalwood and Stockland?
THE LACE ROOM
About the same time as the Brush Factory there was a small room at the New Inn used as a Lace Room where women came to repair and take home bundles of lace which needed to be checked for flaws and returned to the Swiss Factory at Perry Street.
THE CRICKET PAVILION
The Cricket Pavilion and Monterey Pine: photograph by John Martell.
A landmark in the village is certainly the Cricket Pavilion and the adjacent Monterey Pine. Cricket was played in the village throughout the last century. At first a few friendly games were played on a rather rough field more or less opposite the Church with the outfield uncut and the wicket prepared as best they could for the match. Then Mr. Arthur Hitchcock, a businessman who lived at Betty’s Ground and travelled to London for four days a week, bought the land which is the present recreation field. In 1906 he built the Pavilion which was used also as a Reading Room. At his death the Playing Field and Pavilion were left to the Devonshire Branch of the Playing Fields Association for the benefit of the Parishioners of the Parish of Kilmington. In June 1933 the Charity Commission made a scheme whereby the legal estate in the Playing Field was vested in the Custodian of Charity Lands. In 1989 the Charity Commission arranged for the land to be vested in the Parish Council as Custodian Trustee to hold the land in Trust for the Charity of Arthur Hitchcock.
ST GILES CHURCH
Kilmington is one of 150 churches with St. Giles as Patron Saint who is also the Patron Saint of the woodlands, lepers, cripples and those struck by some sudden misery and driven into solitude like the hind which came to St. Giles wounded. The stained glass window in the north side of the Sanctuary shows this.
The Church has seen many changes in the Century. In 1927 Major Gardner paid £200 for new choir stalls. In the eighties substantial repairs had to be done to the Church Tower at a cost of £18, 000. At the same time the clock needed servicing and repairs to remedy damage done by the weight of snow on the hands!
The clock is one of the village’s most valuable assets. It chimes because two generations from Hills Farm have wound the clock regularly each week. First Henry Trott, a Church Warden for several years and now son Arthur provides this service. Truly as the clock shows “My times are in thy hands”.
Any building as old as the Church needs constant maintenance. In the last decade £10,000 has been spent on repairs on the roof and wall around the south aisle window.
In 1994 a very inadequate and damp vestry behind the organ was replaced at the back of the Church, after much discussion about the removal of pews to make space. It was built in oak largely hand carved by Alec Broom who at the same time carved and gave an oak Cross for use on the Altar (sadly a time has arrived when a valuable silver Altar Cross has to be kept in the safe when not in use in services). For the Vestry Isobel and Ben Cudmore provided carpets, curtains and fitments with suitable hand made furniture.
Towards the end of the Century land given to the Church by William Anning and Arthur Gardner a hundred years earlier was partly used to provide an extension to the Churchyard. At the same time an area was used to provide a Memorial Garden (see The Millennium in Kilmington).
For many years the Mothers’ Union flourished in Kilmington. An interesting product of the period was the collecting of primroses by villagers which were then bunched by Dorothy Carter and Elsie Browning and despatched overnight by express train to Todmorden where they were much appreciated by this Yorkshire Union.
A section on St. Giles Church would not be complete without reference to the floodlighting of the building by the Parish Council prior to the Millennium - something much appreciated.
The Church Room built in 1926 was a wooden building on a site given by Mr. Hitchcock who in addition made a considerable contribution towards the cost. Church members also raised money though over the years there were many. who were not happy that it was a Church Room. The Parish Council tried twice, unsuccessfully, to buy it.
Mr. Locks was its builder, also a wheelwright and joiner. Dick Pound, who lived until his recent death, in the first House in Whitford Road, helped as a Carpenter. In the course of time it had more problems than cricket balls through its roof and windows! The kitchen was very small and badly serviced. In the end the Public Health Authority and Fire Officer considered the cloakrooms and toilets inadequate.
At a Public Meeting in 1983, 135 people (with one opposed) voted the £10,000 needed to improve the wooden building would be better spent building a new Village Hall. For many older Parishioners there will be sixty years of many happy memories.
CAR PARK
In 1980 The Parochial Church Council voted against selling some of the Church- owned orchard for a car park. Parking on both sides of Whitford Road during Church services was proving a problem when the milk lorries wanted to pass. A strong petition produced a change and the site for the Car Park was obtained at a rental of £1 per year. Shortly after, there was a demand for a site for a new, smaller Vicarage and when the site was approved it also allowed room for a new Village Hall.
THE BAPTIST CHURCH
Contributed by Arthur Loveridge
The present Church was built in 1832 and is situated in Shute Road, on the left hand side of the road as you go up the hill from the A35. It is not easily seen as it is tucked away behind other buildings in Shute Road and approached by a wide footpath from the road. Previous to this the Baptists met at the Loughwood Meeting House, situated about a mile from Kilmington, just off the A35 on the road to Honiton and approached by a narrow lane signposted “Loughwood Meeting House”. It is well worth a visit. The Meeting House was built about 1650 and was the first Baptist Church established in this area and at the time when there was persecution of non-conformists in this country. After the Baptists moved to the present site in Kilmington the building fell into a derelict state. In 1968 the building was transferred to the National Trust who restored it substantially to how it was in the 17th Century. The Baptist Church holds two services at Loughwood each year, on a Sunday afternoon in June and August.
In August 2000, on the 350th Anniversary of “Kilmington with Loughwood Baptist Church”, a special open-air service was held on Kilmington Common which was well attended, with many visitors, including the Juneor of Axminster and the Chairman of the Parish Council.
In the foreword to a book “Backwoods to Beacon” produced by John Whiteley for the 350th Anniversary, The Rev. Laurie Burn, the present pastor, has written “First and foremost the church is people, not buildings. 350 years ago Baptist Christians met in the backwoods of East Devon to worship God and to honour Jesus Christ. They discovered that it is possible to know Jesus personally and they were seeking to know him better. Their aim was - to make Jesus known”. This aim still continues with the present church. Copies of the anniversary book are available from the Manse, The Post Office and Hurford’s Stores.
The number of people attending the Baptist Church in Kilmington has increased considerably in recent years and caters for all age groups, from babies in the crèche on Sunday mornings to senior citizens. In addition to the Sunday Services, there are week-night activities for children and teenagers, including the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Other mid-week groups include parent and toddlers, a parenting course, women’s meeting and a monthly contact lunch for village people.
Due to the age of the buildings and the problem of adequate accommodation for the people attending, in the region of £140,000 has been spent over the past 10 years in the purchase of the adjoining building from the owners of “The Old Bakery”, to provide additional classroom space for the children who attend on Sunday mornings and for week-night activities. Considerable major repairs and improvements have also been carried out, including new entrance hall and toilets, with facilities for the disabled, strengthening the gallery, renewing floors affected with dry rot, new heating, lighting, public address systems and the replacement of the old pews with chairs. The total cost has been met by the direct giving of Church members and friends, also loans from the Baptist Union, which have now been repaid. The Parish Council have also provided a snooker table and a table tennis table for the use of the youth clubs.
A regular “outreach” Sunday morning service is held in The Village Hall, in order to provide adequate seating accommodation.
The Baptist Church enjoys good relations with St. Giles Church and holds regular joint services, including Remembrance Day and Palm Sunday procession.
THE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Kilmington Primary School was built in 1867 on a site adjacent to the Parish Church. For the first fifty years there was dispute about ownership, whether it should be a Church School or a Council School. It became the latter - a County Primary School.
There have been problems however in the Twentieth century with fluctuating numbers in a small ‘all age’ two teacher school. Firstly, in the earlier part of the century families were often much larger than today. Farming families moving in and out of the Village could considerably affect numbers in a small school and cause staffing problems. Later, the raising of the school leaving age to fifteen and the creation of Secondary schools in the towns meant that children over the age of eleven no longer attended the Village Primary school. More recently circumstances relaxed and - subject to accommodation - parents were given free choice of primary schools for their children.
Today a number of children come from Axminster and neighbouring Parishes to Kilmington Primary School. Under the Headship of Malcolm Bettison the School enjoys a high reputation confirmed by an excellent OFSTED Inspection Report. The School is full to capacity with 86 pupils.
THE VILLAGE HALL
Building of the Hall was the achievement of the eighties. From the first public meeting to the official opening by Dr. Geoffrey Parkinson in 1985 was surely a record - 27 months. It was an illustration of how the people of the Village worked together to build a hail for the Village by the Village. Every organisation and almost every individual, led by Mary Seward who was Chairman of the Social and Fund Raising Committee, helped to raise the Village share of the £87,000 required. The Community Council contributed about a third of the total and the District Council a similar £27,000. It is recorded elsewhere that the Parish Council had just sold a plot of land by the Common and was able to buy the freehold of the land for £5,000 from the Church, and so own a piece of land to compensate in part for selling some! A further contribution of £30,000 was made towards the building whilst the Hall Committee raised £12,000 to pay the balance and provide kitchen equipment and 150 seven place-settings plus tables, chairs and curtains. Diana Church was a tireless treasurer during the building of the Hall and thereafter as booking secretary and treasurer until 1992.
Peter and Sally Huscroft was then Treasurer/Secretary for seven years followed by another partnership, Bernard and Christine Paragreen.
A large storeroom was built in 1991 at a cost of £11,000 and two years later £7,700 was spent to double the size of the kitchen in order to meet the requirements of the food and hygiene regulations. This involved tiles on the walls and new sheet vinyl flooring.
The Parish Council are Custodian Trustees and each user organisation has a representative on the Management Committee together with six elected members.
The Hall provides the meeting place for many activities:
The Pre-School Playgroup meets on Monday and Wednesday mornings when a leader and helpers have up to 20 children from the age of three gainfully occupied in play and story telling for nearly three hours.
The Village School finds the Hall floor and space ideal for the sort of physical education outlined in the new School Curriculum. The infants and juniors come as separate groups. The school also uses the Hall regularly for performances needing a stage.
Badminton The Hall was built to allow a floor long enough and a ceiling high enough for this very popular game.
Short Mat Bowls was one of the first activities to take place in the Hall. The Parish Council helped the Club to get started by giving them £100 towards the cost of two mats and in 1991 £162 towards a useful piece of equipment to roll and store these heavy mats. The Club has a small group of enthusiastic followers with a high standard of play.
Keep Fit, Country Dancing, Sequence Dancing all take place in the Hall.
The Produce Association, Women’s Institute, Beekeepers’ Association and others use the Hall for monthly meetings whilst the Cudmore Room with its well carpeted floor (kindly donated by Axminster Carpets) and comfortable chairs makes an ideal meeting place for small groups and for the Parish Council and Parochial Church Council meetings.
Lunches are held regularly in Lent, with profits going to charity and summer lunches are held in aid of Hall funds.
Wedding Receptions, Dinner Dances for the Cricket Club and the Harvest Supper are occasions when the Hall is full to capacity.
HOUSING
By far the greatest private housing development has been since the Second World War. Earlier it had just been the building of individual houses mainly by infilling.
For some time it was building by the District Council that made the greatest impact. In 1929 six properties in Whitford Road were built. Then pre-war, fourteen houses were built in Hillcrest and two at the Cross. The ten houses in the Orchard off George Lane and four in Newtons at the top of the Street were built in 1949. Four years later the six houses in Lynhayes were built. In 1963 three more houses were added to Hillcrest. In 1967 the District Council built twelve houses in the Crescent to provide a warden’s house and sheltered accommodation for elderly people from the area around - not necessarily all from Kilmington.
Of the 57 houses built for rented accommodation tenants in 35 have exercised their option to buy their houses so that today 22 remain rented and 12 of these are those in the Crescent. When houses become vacant the District Council Housing Committee allocates tenants from the area and not just from Kilmington.
The building of private housing and the modernising of older property has changed the face of Kilmington. Many of the older properties have been bought by purchasers from outside the County who have modernised or enlarged them. Beyond the Green, Brook House, Farrants and Westbrook are very old, and after Farrants there was nothing in Whitford Road except the Vicarage (now Fairfax) until the Council houses. The properties from Axover and into South View Lane were built in the early sixties whilst the houses opposite were built in the mid thirties by Harold Symond’s father who lived at Brook House. South View - called Chimneys on the map - is a very old property which once had farm land attached.
Koppers, which for much of the Century was Kilmington Farm, has in recent years been a residential home. Opposite was a dairy farm, the home of the Collier family who produced milk for most of the Village. With the closing of the Farm the Dairy became an attractive house and seven detached properties were built behind the two cottages in the Street. The Collier family moved their dairy farm to Summerleaze at the bottom of Gammons Hill.
Old Ruggs was farmed until the sixties by Stanley Quick’s family. The land at
Meadow Bank was then sold by auction and the first buyer was said to have become bankrupt before building started in 1962. Eastleigh Close bungalows, built by Alec Broom, followed ten years later.
George Harrison of the Beatles lived at Old Ruggs for a short time in the sixties.
Recently the late Mrs. Marion Constable generously donated to the Council a useful plot of land by her bungalow at the very top of Meadow Bank. For any building development to take place in the two fields between the Old Inn and George Lane this plot is the only access to what has been called Kilmington’s Green Belt. It is most unlikely any Parish Council would be willing to sell it.
The two Whitehayes Cottages are interesting in that older parishioners remember a Captain Young living in Laburnham Cottage, breeding rabbits intensively in the end house and adjacent sheds. When skinned they were despatched to London.
Bim Born has a few modern bungalows, built before the District Council drew a boundary line blocking any development beyond Silver Street. The Parish Council formerly owned a small site, “Pit Orchard”, on the right, a little way up Bim Born but when planning consent to build on it was refused the Council sold this small plot in 1980 for £2.760. No-one seems to know the origin or meaning of the name “Bim Born” - it gets no mention in books on place names. The best suggestion is that it could have had an Indian connection - “a road to nowhere”. Mary Seward at Fernwood would smile at the suggestion that she came from outer space!
It is suggested that the name Gore Lane has some connection with dress making, referring to the shape of the piece of land between Gore Lane and Bim Born.
Silver Street and the houses facing the stream are some of Kilmington’s most attractive properties with their gardens on sloping land across the stream. Silver Lea was built in 1963.
From George Farm, by the present War Memorial, up to the Common must have been quite a bustling area. With the Coaching Station nearby, in grounds later occupied by the Brush Factory, the Old Smithy would have been as busy as a cross road garage and petrol station is today. French’s Bakery and Stores, now The Old Bakery, was a feature of Kilmington for half a century and there are still marks on the wall where advertisements for tea were hung. Gowrie House, next door, may have been for many years an hotel, serving a purpose such as Trust Houses do today. At the turn of the century it became a private school where Betty Richards’ grandparents paid one shilling a week for her mother to attend!
In the Hill there are two terraces of great interest, Balfour and Salisbury, named after eminent Prime Ministers of the day. The end house with its stable doors was a bakery renowned for its gingerbread men which were sold by Jobi Adams from a shed in his garden and at local fairs and race meetings.
In the grounds of the New Inn was the well known Lace Room whilst on the opposite side of the road was and still is the Dipping Well with a constant supply of spring water. Indeed along this road in late Spring as the water table rises it is a common feature to see where the springs ‘burst’!
The Adams Family (ancestors of the late Aubrey and of brother John Hutchings of Kilmington Coach fame) were prominent business people at the beginning of the century. Apart from Jobi, the baker, there was Levi who lived in the end house of the Hill, known at that time as Pollocks Corner. Builder, haulier, coal merchant (forerunner of Hutchings Coals until quite recently), he built Balfour Terrace and the detached house, Springwell, the latter for his own occupation. Several old residents have quoted Levi’s philosophy, “You have to speculate to accumulate”.
Along Shute Road we have the mixture of Kilmington’s oldest “big” houses, many occupied years ago by retired military or colonial servants which gave rise to the name “Millionaires' Row”. There has in recent years been a certain amount of infilling with attractive houses and gardens.
PLANNING
Kilmington is a Parish with a population of 750 people. Of the adult population one third are senior citizens. A survey a few years ago showed that out of 350 properties 69 had elderly people without a car.
Kilmington is one of 32 out of 66 parishes in the District Council area which in 1971 the County Council decided had a small area around the Church and centre of the Village which should be designated a Conservation Area. A County Officer made a full and descriptive account of the Village, of particular areas and special features. Attention was drawn to the chert stone walling in early buildings, and the amount of stone walling around the Church and throughout the Village.
In 1974 the Government Department of the Environment made a detailed list of buildings of architectural and historic interest. There are 32 of these “listed Buildings” in the Village. Within the conservation area, not just the ‘listed buildings’ in particular, there are certain building restrictions which over the years have helped to give Kilmington its distinctive character. Planning applications for new housing and for alterations are decided by the District Council but the Parish Council does have the opportunity to make influential comment on every application, brief details of which are posted on the two Parish notice boards.
Our District Councillor is always consulted. It is in this connection that the Parish Council has had notable success in fighting for the interests of parishioners in not letting the character of the village be greatly altered. The whole of Kilmington is within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which in itself does influence the type and style of any development. There also exist County and District Development Plans which over the area lay down limits on private and commercial development One of the Parish Council’s most noticeable achievements was the strong resistance the Council made to stop development in the two fields between George Lane and the Old Inn. The most recent application was by Tarmac to build 72 houses on this land which the Council has always regarded as Kilmington’s Green Belt. Just imagine standing by the War Memorial on a summer evening and looking across to the Church and the cricket field and your view is blocked by a large housing estate. The District Council supported the strong opposition of the Parish Council. Tarmac decided to appeal against the decision. Fortunately before the case was heard the appeal was dropped. Was it the recession, were developers finding landbanks very expensive or was it the knowledge that the Parish Council had decided to spend over two thousand pounds to engage a suitably experienced barrister to fight our case, that influenced Tarmac?
If ever another application is made, the Council will hope for continued support from the public and from the District Council and County Highways Department as well, for traffic problems and access on to both George Lane and the A35 will become even greater.
Newtons Orchard has already been mentioned but the site behind Jubilee Green was also a source of much opposition from villagers and the Council. The developer wanted to build five properties on this quite small, concave piece of land. Permission was refused. The developer appealed against the decision. There was a public inquiry and the Inspector ruled that there could be two properties only on the site.
Pit Orchard and Bim Bom is referred to in the previous section. A recent planning application to build on this site was refused and resulted in an appeal. At a two day inquiry the Government Inspector refused the appeal partly because it was outside the limits of permitted buildings in the Village.
SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITIES of the Parish Council
The Common: Old maps show that much of the built up land from Shute Road and around The Hill was formerly an extension of the present Common which had a history of neglect. About a decade ago the Council started to have the whole area cut once or twice a year. With help from Officers of the Devon Wildlife Trust a management programme has revealed a small area of lowland heath that deserves to be developed.
In Summer there is now a splash of purple with all three types of heather present - common heather (ling), rare cross-leaved heath and bell heather. Also to be seen are birds foot trefoil, tormentil and devil’s-bit scabious. Tormentil was once used medicinally to ease aches and pains, especially toothache!
The Council is preserving this plot. Apart from trying to control the gorse care is being taken to make it worth a visit in the right weather to see some interesting growth and, if lucky, a rare butterfly - the marsh fritillary - on the scabious.
The Inclosure Award of 1845 gave the Common to the Parish and following a Public Hearing in 1972 the Common and the Village Green were registered as owned by the Council.
Kilmington is a “nice place” to live in. How frequently this comment is made! But what makes the place? A county-wide competition organised by the Council for the Preservation of Rural England for the Best Kept Village Award has three times been won by Kilmington in 1970, 1986 and 1990. Is it the image of a well-kept village and its environment that makes a “nice place”? Yes, to a certain extent it is, but it is also the inhabitants, past and present, who have contributed to its character and helped to lay the foundation for its popularity. In outlining the development of Kilmington over the last hundred years this booklet is therefore a mixture of factual information and anecdote.
PRIOR TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The story of Kilmington would not be complete without a brief reference to the period immediately preceding the twentieth century. Remove the houses which were built between the Wars and the estates of bungalows since the Second War and one can imagine what Kilmington was like in 1900. The Ordnance Survey large scale map reveals 107 buildings scattered over the village; many were small farms with orchards and plots of land. The village had been somewhat dominated by Coryton Park, built in 1756 by Benedict Marwood Tucker. In 1894 an obvious descendant, Marwood Tucker, was both Lord of the Manor and Rector of Widworthy where he lived. In practice, Kelly’s Directory shows that absentee landlords were common in the area.
The Directory describes the area as producing good crops of wheat, barley, roots and pasture with excellent dairy land.
The Church, with the exception of the tower, had been pulled down and rebuilt in 1862. There was a Baptist Chapel with a separate, older foundation at Loughwood. The village was very self contained. There were three bakers / confectioners; a grocer and a draper; three builders / carpenters, a coachmaker / wheelwright and two black smiths; two tailors and a boot and shoe maker. An Axminster auctioneer started business at Summerleaze. There was also a cattle dealer and a haulier. Seventeen farmers were named of whom many were smallholders.
TIMES CHANGE
It is quite natural that everything we think of has changed, sometimes evolving quite slowly, at other times with dramatic speed. From the beginning through to the end of the century there has been much to illustrate this. Imagine the situation ninety years ago when transport to neighbouring villages was difficult and communication was very different; long before radio, television or the daily paper provided news and entertainment. In common with many villages Reading Room facilities in Kilmington were provided in the Pavilion. From 1906 menfolk used to gather three times a week to read the few weekly publications, John Bull, London Weekly or Pulmans, but also to play billiards, card games (but not for money!), dominoes ad darts. As such it closed down after the First War - some would say because money crept into the card games - and the Pavilion was used for cricket only.
Times were changing and there was a need for a different sort of “Room”. In 1923 the village saw the beginning of its Church Room. The site was given by Mr. Arthur Hitchcock who owned the field. Without doubt he was a generous subscriber but members of the public and especially those of the Church also helped to provide the wooden building that was to be a meeting place for sixty years.
Again times were changing. New controls and regulations from the Fire Officer and Public Health Officer, together with the general deterioration of the building, encouraged the Parish Council to hold a public meeting to consider whether several thousands of pounds should be raised to modernise a now rather old building with limited facilities or to provide a new village hall. Thanks to financial help from County, District and Parish Councils and from the Vicar and Church Council and exceptional support from every village organisation and numerous individuals, a new hall was built in 1985. Here is an illustration of something evolving slowly to meet changing circumstances.
But in other ways change can come about more quickly and make a greater impact. Newtons, that charming, typical thatched Devon long house opposite the Post Office in the space of not much more than a decade first had two detached houses built next to it, then, in the orchard behind, developers wanted to build thirty houses, some of them terraced. Thanks to strong resistance from the Parish Council and support from the Planning Committee of the District Council the final development was for nine dwellings, some bungalows, in an area now called Newton’s Orchard. But rapid change in the character of that part of the village had started. George Farm at the end of the Lane had long since ceased to be a butcher’s shop though the stone floored shop and fitments remained as did the sheds that were the slaughter house. These farm buildings were converted into houses. George Lane was no longer a country lane leading from the Butcher’s shop to the Post Office.
From a reading room to a modem well equipped hall, from a thatched house with its cider room and spring apple blossom to the present day housing development, all this tells a tale. The village has changed, sometimes slowly, at times almost too quickly.
THE BUTTER FACTORY
With land in Kilmington and around described in the accounts of Newenham Abbey, formerly in the Axe Valley, and in the Domesday Book as good quality and specifically recorded as good dairy land, it is not surprising that a butter factory was built opposite the Toll House at the entrance to Summerleaze Farm. The Toll House by the Yarty bridge with its bow windows enabling the occupants to look both ways, had been an important place since the mid seventeenth century when tolls were taken to finance the maintenance of the local roads and bridges.
Much of the Story of Kilmington is linked with its people, much respected but alas no longer with us who were able to help with fact and anecdote. The Butter Factory and Mr. Jack Sanders is an example. Born in 1904 in the Toll House his father was manager of the factory which had been built ten years earlier. Farmers from miles around brought their milk as well as eggs, poultry and rabbits. At the morning peak hours Gammons Hill must have been as busy with its horse drawn vehicles as with cars today. The fat was separated to make the butter and the skimmed milk taken back to the farms to feed the pigs with oats and barley which were crushed at the factory. Many farms made skimmed milk cheese, not unlike Dorset Blue Vinney. Butter was packed by hand and despatched from Axminster Station, as were the eggs, poultry and rabbits, for the Midlands and London. At Christmas as many as 1,000 turkeys were handled and in midwinter two or three hundred rabbits were despatched each week. This continued until the First War when the business was sold to the United Dairies at Chard Junction, though the site continued as a collecting point for milk.
Use as a collection centre continued until 1926 when the building was bought by Mr. Frank Hoskins’ father, who at that time farmed at Gammons Hill, and used as a pig house. It was eventually demolished when the new Yarty bridge was built, A length of stone wall remained, however, until preparations for the new Axminster bypass were made.
Mr. Cumming, who had owned the factory, then had a Dairy and Grocery business in Axminster in the premises now occupied by Gribble, Booth & Taylor. The Sanders family lived over the shop for eleven years before moving back to the Toll House for a short time.
Meanwhile, the history of the Sanders family moves to Kilmington. The parents moved in 1933 to be the first occupants of the end house at Fanny’s Ground, so called because the long serving Minister of the Baptist Church, the Rev. Bastable, travelled around his wide ranging parish in a pony and trap and the pony called Fanny grazed in the fields on which the row of houses was built.
Meanwhile son Jack married the daughter of a local farmer and they moved to Kent Cottage, then known as the Poplars, while for a time he continued to work in a stores in what is now a car park by the Old Post Office in Axminster. From here he became a poultry farmer with up to 4,000 free range hens, in orchards covering Whitehayes Close, Brooklands Close, Greenbank and Silver Lea. In common with many local farmers, who all had orchards, the apples were sent to Cole’s Cyder factory near Tytherleigh. During the war years food for poultry was severely rationed and poultry farming ceased. Jack, unfit for war service, worked in Axminster Post Office. In 1943 the Kilmington sub post office on the green became vacant and the Sanders took it on at Kent Cottage. After ten years they moved to the property which is the present Post Office. These premises had for long been a bakery and stores. The Post Office had to be open on Sundays, Christmas Day and Boxing Day from 9.00 to 10.30 am, mainly to despatch telegrams. Incoming telegrams were delivered by bicycle from Axminster. The Office handled a heavy traffic in parcels from the Brush Factory.
Jack Sanders died recently in his early nineties. He was one of Kilmington’s best known men. In his younger days, when Kilmington had no team, he played soccer for Axminster, but for 40 years he played cricket for Kilmington. With a chuckle he says, “Along with Harry Pape we were a couple of good left handers”. Many will remember his part in pantomimes with the Kilmington Players.
THE BRUSH FACTORY
From 1929 to 1960 Kilmington had another factory - a Brush Factory - and again it was very much family run.
Mr. Cooke was born in Australia but his family came to England when he was only three. In London he learnt the brush trade and eventually moved to Kilmington to work as Manager of Bidwell’s Brush Factory at the bottom of Castle Street in Axminster. In 1929 he started to manufacture brushes in Kilmington in the property (now Appletree Cottage and Broadhalfpenny) below the Baptist Church. Here the family, wife, sons and daughter, Edith, developed a flourishing business making high quality brushes - tooth, nail, cosmetic, shaving - supplying many London based outlets such as Elizabeth Arden, the Army and Navy Stores and Marks and Spencer. The output from this Kilmington business was such that three representatives were employed in London. Whale bone and bone taken from the legs of bullocks were used as a base for bristles which were wired on. It is interesting to know that a large number of women in the village did this part of the work in their homes. This continued until 1960.
During this time Mrs. Wakley’s husband, Elijah, worked as a boot and shoe maker in Dawkins in Axminster specialising in leather goods for orthopaedic requirements, a job he did for 52 years. Baker’s Tannery in Colyton supplied the soft leather. Like his friend, Jack Sanders, Lije, as he was known in the village, was a keen sportsman. He captained Dalwood’s football team and was a regular player with Kilmington Cricket Club, as was his father-in-law, Mr. Cooke. Lije later umpired whilst wife Edith followed Miss Bastable, for many years as a scorer.
Lije was for much of his adults years a member of the Parochial Church Council and a sidesman. His was a Kilmington family which did much to help establish a tradition that has made Kilmington a “nice place”.
This is perhaps the place to mention cousin Stanley Wakley of Meadow Bank who, though he has not lived in the village all his life, had been a well known businessman in the immediate neighbourhood with garages in Membury and Axminster. During the war years driving a coach along the country lanes in the blackout provides him with many an entertaining story. Now an octogenarian, in his younger days he was a member of Membury’s brass band. For his eightieth birthday he was given a new trombone. Another of Kilmington’s popular characters. Can you picture him at the age of fourteen, driving a donkey cart (yes, donkey!) from Membury to Axminster Station to collect the weekly Western Times and Western Gazette and deliver them to Kilmington, Dalwood and Stockland?
THE LACE ROOM
About the same time as the Brush Factory there was a small room at the New Inn used as a Lace Room where women came to repair and take home bundles of lace which needed to be checked for flaws and returned to the Swiss Factory at Perry Street.
THE CRICKET PAVILION
The Cricket Pavilion and Monterey Pine: photograph by John Martell.
A landmark in the village is certainly the Cricket Pavilion and the adjacent Monterey Pine. Cricket was played in the village throughout the last century. At first a few friendly games were played on a rather rough field more or less opposite the Church with the outfield uncut and the wicket prepared as best they could for the match. Then Mr. Arthur Hitchcock, a businessman who lived at Betty’s Ground and travelled to London for four days a week, bought the land which is the present recreation field. In 1906 he built the Pavilion which was used also as a Reading Room. At his death the Playing Field and Pavilion were left to the Devonshire Branch of the Playing Fields Association for the benefit of the Parishioners of the Parish of Kilmington. In June 1933 the Charity Commission made a scheme whereby the legal estate in the Playing Field was vested in the Custodian of Charity Lands. In 1989 the Charity Commission arranged for the land to be vested in the Parish Council as Custodian Trustee to hold the land in Trust for the Charity of Arthur Hitchcock.
ST GILES CHURCH
Kilmington is one of 150 churches with St. Giles as Patron Saint who is also the Patron Saint of the woodlands, lepers, cripples and those struck by some sudden misery and driven into solitude like the hind which came to St. Giles wounded. The stained glass window in the north side of the Sanctuary shows this.
The Church has seen many changes in the Century. In 1927 Major Gardner paid £200 for new choir stalls. In the eighties substantial repairs had to be done to the Church Tower at a cost of £18, 000. At the same time the clock needed servicing and repairs to remedy damage done by the weight of snow on the hands!
The clock is one of the village’s most valuable assets. It chimes because two generations from Hills Farm have wound the clock regularly each week. First Henry Trott, a Church Warden for several years and now son Arthur provides this service. Truly as the clock shows “My times are in thy hands”.
Any building as old as the Church needs constant maintenance. In the last decade £10,000 has been spent on repairs on the roof and wall around the south aisle window.
In 1994 a very inadequate and damp vestry behind the organ was replaced at the back of the Church, after much discussion about the removal of pews to make space. It was built in oak largely hand carved by Alec Broom who at the same time carved and gave an oak Cross for use on the Altar (sadly a time has arrived when a valuable silver Altar Cross has to be kept in the safe when not in use in services). For the Vestry Isobel and Ben Cudmore provided carpets, curtains and fitments with suitable hand made furniture.
Towards the end of the Century land given to the Church by William Anning and Arthur Gardner a hundred years earlier was partly used to provide an extension to the Churchyard. At the same time an area was used to provide a Memorial Garden (see The Millennium in Kilmington).
For many years the Mothers’ Union flourished in Kilmington. An interesting product of the period was the collecting of primroses by villagers which were then bunched by Dorothy Carter and Elsie Browning and despatched overnight by express train to Todmorden where they were much appreciated by this Yorkshire Union.
A section on St. Giles Church would not be complete without reference to the floodlighting of the building by the Parish Council prior to the Millennium - something much appreciated.
The Church Room built in 1926 was a wooden building on a site given by Mr. Hitchcock who in addition made a considerable contribution towards the cost. Church members also raised money though over the years there were many. who were not happy that it was a Church Room. The Parish Council tried twice, unsuccessfully, to buy it.
Mr. Locks was its builder, also a wheelwright and joiner. Dick Pound, who lived until his recent death, in the first House in Whitford Road, helped as a Carpenter. In the course of time it had more problems than cricket balls through its roof and windows! The kitchen was very small and badly serviced. In the end the Public Health Authority and Fire Officer considered the cloakrooms and toilets inadequate.
At a Public Meeting in 1983, 135 people (with one opposed) voted the £10,000 needed to improve the wooden building would be better spent building a new Village Hall. For many older Parishioners there will be sixty years of many happy memories.
CAR PARK
In 1980 The Parochial Church Council voted against selling some of the Church- owned orchard for a car park. Parking on both sides of Whitford Road during Church services was proving a problem when the milk lorries wanted to pass. A strong petition produced a change and the site for the Car Park was obtained at a rental of £1 per year. Shortly after, there was a demand for a site for a new, smaller Vicarage and when the site was approved it also allowed room for a new Village Hall.
THE BAPTIST CHURCH
Contributed by Arthur Loveridge
The present Church was built in 1832 and is situated in Shute Road, on the left hand side of the road as you go up the hill from the A35. It is not easily seen as it is tucked away behind other buildings in Shute Road and approached by a wide footpath from the road. Previous to this the Baptists met at the Loughwood Meeting House, situated about a mile from Kilmington, just off the A35 on the road to Honiton and approached by a narrow lane signposted “Loughwood Meeting House”. It is well worth a visit. The Meeting House was built about 1650 and was the first Baptist Church established in this area and at the time when there was persecution of non-conformists in this country. After the Baptists moved to the present site in Kilmington the building fell into a derelict state. In 1968 the building was transferred to the National Trust who restored it substantially to how it was in the 17th Century. The Baptist Church holds two services at Loughwood each year, on a Sunday afternoon in June and August.
In August 2000, on the 350th Anniversary of “Kilmington with Loughwood Baptist Church”, a special open-air service was held on Kilmington Common which was well attended, with many visitors, including the Juneor of Axminster and the Chairman of the Parish Council.
In the foreword to a book “Backwoods to Beacon” produced by John Whiteley for the 350th Anniversary, The Rev. Laurie Burn, the present pastor, has written “First and foremost the church is people, not buildings. 350 years ago Baptist Christians met in the backwoods of East Devon to worship God and to honour Jesus Christ. They discovered that it is possible to know Jesus personally and they were seeking to know him better. Their aim was - to make Jesus known”. This aim still continues with the present church. Copies of the anniversary book are available from the Manse, The Post Office and Hurford’s Stores.
The number of people attending the Baptist Church in Kilmington has increased considerably in recent years and caters for all age groups, from babies in the crèche on Sunday mornings to senior citizens. In addition to the Sunday Services, there are week-night activities for children and teenagers, including the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Other mid-week groups include parent and toddlers, a parenting course, women’s meeting and a monthly contact lunch for village people.
Due to the age of the buildings and the problem of adequate accommodation for the people attending, in the region of £140,000 has been spent over the past 10 years in the purchase of the adjoining building from the owners of “The Old Bakery”, to provide additional classroom space for the children who attend on Sunday mornings and for week-night activities. Considerable major repairs and improvements have also been carried out, including new entrance hall and toilets, with facilities for the disabled, strengthening the gallery, renewing floors affected with dry rot, new heating, lighting, public address systems and the replacement of the old pews with chairs. The total cost has been met by the direct giving of Church members and friends, also loans from the Baptist Union, which have now been repaid. The Parish Council have also provided a snooker table and a table tennis table for the use of the youth clubs.
A regular “outreach” Sunday morning service is held in The Village Hall, in order to provide adequate seating accommodation.
The Baptist Church enjoys good relations with St. Giles Church and holds regular joint services, including Remembrance Day and Palm Sunday procession.
THE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Kilmington Primary School was built in 1867 on a site adjacent to the Parish Church. For the first fifty years there was dispute about ownership, whether it should be a Church School or a Council School. It became the latter - a County Primary School.
There have been problems however in the Twentieth century with fluctuating numbers in a small ‘all age’ two teacher school. Firstly, in the earlier part of the century families were often much larger than today. Farming families moving in and out of the Village could considerably affect numbers in a small school and cause staffing problems. Later, the raising of the school leaving age to fifteen and the creation of Secondary schools in the towns meant that children over the age of eleven no longer attended the Village Primary school. More recently circumstances relaxed and - subject to accommodation - parents were given free choice of primary schools for their children.
Today a number of children come from Axminster and neighbouring Parishes to Kilmington Primary School. Under the Headship of Malcolm Bettison the School enjoys a high reputation confirmed by an excellent OFSTED Inspection Report. The School is full to capacity with 86 pupils.
THE VILLAGE HALL
Building of the Hall was the achievement of the eighties. From the first public meeting to the official opening by Dr. Geoffrey Parkinson in 1985 was surely a record - 27 months. It was an illustration of how the people of the Village worked together to build a hail for the Village by the Village. Every organisation and almost every individual, led by Mary Seward who was Chairman of the Social and Fund Raising Committee, helped to raise the Village share of the £87,000 required. The Community Council contributed about a third of the total and the District Council a similar £27,000. It is recorded elsewhere that the Parish Council had just sold a plot of land by the Common and was able to buy the freehold of the land for £5,000 from the Church, and so own a piece of land to compensate in part for selling some! A further contribution of £30,000 was made towards the building whilst the Hall Committee raised £12,000 to pay the balance and provide kitchen equipment and 150 seven place-settings plus tables, chairs and curtains. Diana Church was a tireless treasurer during the building of the Hall and thereafter as booking secretary and treasurer until 1992.
Peter and Sally Huscroft was then Treasurer/Secretary for seven years followed by another partnership, Bernard and Christine Paragreen.
A large storeroom was built in 1991 at a cost of £11,000 and two years later £7,700 was spent to double the size of the kitchen in order to meet the requirements of the food and hygiene regulations. This involved tiles on the walls and new sheet vinyl flooring.
The Parish Council are Custodian Trustees and each user organisation has a representative on the Management Committee together with six elected members.
The Hall provides the meeting place for many activities:
The Pre-School Playgroup meets on Monday and Wednesday mornings when a leader and helpers have up to 20 children from the age of three gainfully occupied in play and story telling for nearly three hours.
The Village School finds the Hall floor and space ideal for the sort of physical education outlined in the new School Curriculum. The infants and juniors come as separate groups. The school also uses the Hall regularly for performances needing a stage.
Badminton The Hall was built to allow a floor long enough and a ceiling high enough for this very popular game.
Short Mat Bowls was one of the first activities to take place in the Hall. The Parish Council helped the Club to get started by giving them £100 towards the cost of two mats and in 1991 £162 towards a useful piece of equipment to roll and store these heavy mats. The Club has a small group of enthusiastic followers with a high standard of play.
Keep Fit, Country Dancing, Sequence Dancing all take place in the Hall.
The Produce Association, Women’s Institute, Beekeepers’ Association and others use the Hall for monthly meetings whilst the Cudmore Room with its well carpeted floor (kindly donated by Axminster Carpets) and comfortable chairs makes an ideal meeting place for small groups and for the Parish Council and Parochial Church Council meetings.
Lunches are held regularly in Lent, with profits going to charity and summer lunches are held in aid of Hall funds.
Wedding Receptions, Dinner Dances for the Cricket Club and the Harvest Supper are occasions when the Hall is full to capacity.
HOUSING
By far the greatest private housing development has been since the Second World War. Earlier it had just been the building of individual houses mainly by infilling.
For some time it was building by the District Council that made the greatest impact. In 1929 six properties in Whitford Road were built. Then pre-war, fourteen houses were built in Hillcrest and two at the Cross. The ten houses in the Orchard off George Lane and four in Newtons at the top of the Street were built in 1949. Four years later the six houses in Lynhayes were built. In 1963 three more houses were added to Hillcrest. In 1967 the District Council built twelve houses in the Crescent to provide a warden’s house and sheltered accommodation for elderly people from the area around - not necessarily all from Kilmington.
Of the 57 houses built for rented accommodation tenants in 35 have exercised their option to buy their houses so that today 22 remain rented and 12 of these are those in the Crescent. When houses become vacant the District Council Housing Committee allocates tenants from the area and not just from Kilmington.
The building of private housing and the modernising of older property has changed the face of Kilmington. Many of the older properties have been bought by purchasers from outside the County who have modernised or enlarged them. Beyond the Green, Brook House, Farrants and Westbrook are very old, and after Farrants there was nothing in Whitford Road except the Vicarage (now Fairfax) until the Council houses. The properties from Axover and into South View Lane were built in the early sixties whilst the houses opposite were built in the mid thirties by Harold Symond’s father who lived at Brook House. South View - called Chimneys on the map - is a very old property which once had farm land attached.
Koppers, which for much of the Century was Kilmington Farm, has in recent years been a residential home. Opposite was a dairy farm, the home of the Collier family who produced milk for most of the Village. With the closing of the Farm the Dairy became an attractive house and seven detached properties were built behind the two cottages in the Street. The Collier family moved their dairy farm to Summerleaze at the bottom of Gammons Hill.
Old Ruggs was farmed until the sixties by Stanley Quick’s family. The land at
Meadow Bank was then sold by auction and the first buyer was said to have become bankrupt before building started in 1962. Eastleigh Close bungalows, built by Alec Broom, followed ten years later.
George Harrison of the Beatles lived at Old Ruggs for a short time in the sixties.
Recently the late Mrs. Marion Constable generously donated to the Council a useful plot of land by her bungalow at the very top of Meadow Bank. For any building development to take place in the two fields between the Old Inn and George Lane this plot is the only access to what has been called Kilmington’s Green Belt. It is most unlikely any Parish Council would be willing to sell it.
The two Whitehayes Cottages are interesting in that older parishioners remember a Captain Young living in Laburnham Cottage, breeding rabbits intensively in the end house and adjacent sheds. When skinned they were despatched to London.
Bim Born has a few modern bungalows, built before the District Council drew a boundary line blocking any development beyond Silver Street. The Parish Council formerly owned a small site, “Pit Orchard”, on the right, a little way up Bim Born but when planning consent to build on it was refused the Council sold this small plot in 1980 for £2.760. No-one seems to know the origin or meaning of the name “Bim Born” - it gets no mention in books on place names. The best suggestion is that it could have had an Indian connection - “a road to nowhere”. Mary Seward at Fernwood would smile at the suggestion that she came from outer space!
It is suggested that the name Gore Lane has some connection with dress making, referring to the shape of the piece of land between Gore Lane and Bim Born.
Silver Street and the houses facing the stream are some of Kilmington’s most attractive properties with their gardens on sloping land across the stream. Silver Lea was built in 1963.
From George Farm, by the present War Memorial, up to the Common must have been quite a bustling area. With the Coaching Station nearby, in grounds later occupied by the Brush Factory, the Old Smithy would have been as busy as a cross road garage and petrol station is today. French’s Bakery and Stores, now The Old Bakery, was a feature of Kilmington for half a century and there are still marks on the wall where advertisements for tea were hung. Gowrie House, next door, may have been for many years an hotel, serving a purpose such as Trust Houses do today. At the turn of the century it became a private school where Betty Richards’ grandparents paid one shilling a week for her mother to attend!
In the Hill there are two terraces of great interest, Balfour and Salisbury, named after eminent Prime Ministers of the day. The end house with its stable doors was a bakery renowned for its gingerbread men which were sold by Jobi Adams from a shed in his garden and at local fairs and race meetings.
In the grounds of the New Inn was the well known Lace Room whilst on the opposite side of the road was and still is the Dipping Well with a constant supply of spring water. Indeed along this road in late Spring as the water table rises it is a common feature to see where the springs ‘burst’!
The Adams Family (ancestors of the late Aubrey and of brother John Hutchings of Kilmington Coach fame) were prominent business people at the beginning of the century. Apart from Jobi, the baker, there was Levi who lived in the end house of the Hill, known at that time as Pollocks Corner. Builder, haulier, coal merchant (forerunner of Hutchings Coals until quite recently), he built Balfour Terrace and the detached house, Springwell, the latter for his own occupation. Several old residents have quoted Levi’s philosophy, “You have to speculate to accumulate”.
Along Shute Road we have the mixture of Kilmington’s oldest “big” houses, many occupied years ago by retired military or colonial servants which gave rise to the name “Millionaires' Row”. There has in recent years been a certain amount of infilling with attractive houses and gardens.
PLANNING
Kilmington is a Parish with a population of 750 people. Of the adult population one third are senior citizens. A survey a few years ago showed that out of 350 properties 69 had elderly people without a car.
Kilmington is one of 32 out of 66 parishes in the District Council area which in 1971 the County Council decided had a small area around the Church and centre of the Village which should be designated a Conservation Area. A County Officer made a full and descriptive account of the Village, of particular areas and special features. Attention was drawn to the chert stone walling in early buildings, and the amount of stone walling around the Church and throughout the Village.
In 1974 the Government Department of the Environment made a detailed list of buildings of architectural and historic interest. There are 32 of these “listed Buildings” in the Village. Within the conservation area, not just the ‘listed buildings’ in particular, there are certain building restrictions which over the years have helped to give Kilmington its distinctive character. Planning applications for new housing and for alterations are decided by the District Council but the Parish Council does have the opportunity to make influential comment on every application, brief details of which are posted on the two Parish notice boards.
Our District Councillor is always consulted. It is in this connection that the Parish Council has had notable success in fighting for the interests of parishioners in not letting the character of the village be greatly altered. The whole of Kilmington is within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which in itself does influence the type and style of any development. There also exist County and District Development Plans which over the area lay down limits on private and commercial development One of the Parish Council’s most noticeable achievements was the strong resistance the Council made to stop development in the two fields between George Lane and the Old Inn. The most recent application was by Tarmac to build 72 houses on this land which the Council has always regarded as Kilmington’s Green Belt. Just imagine standing by the War Memorial on a summer evening and looking across to the Church and the cricket field and your view is blocked by a large housing estate. The District Council supported the strong opposition of the Parish Council. Tarmac decided to appeal against the decision. Fortunately before the case was heard the appeal was dropped. Was it the recession, were developers finding landbanks very expensive or was it the knowledge that the Parish Council had decided to spend over two thousand pounds to engage a suitably experienced barrister to fight our case, that influenced Tarmac?
If ever another application is made, the Council will hope for continued support from the public and from the District Council and County Highways Department as well, for traffic problems and access on to both George Lane and the A35 will become even greater.
Newtons Orchard has already been mentioned but the site behind Jubilee Green was also a source of much opposition from villagers and the Council. The developer wanted to build five properties on this quite small, concave piece of land. Permission was refused. The developer appealed against the decision. There was a public inquiry and the Inspector ruled that there could be two properties only on the site.
Pit Orchard and Bim Bom is referred to in the previous section. A recent planning application to build on this site was refused and resulted in an appeal. At a two day inquiry the Government Inspector refused the appeal partly because it was outside the limits of permitted buildings in the Village.
SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITIES of the Parish Council
The Common: Old maps show that much of the built up land from Shute Road and around The Hill was formerly an extension of the present Common which had a history of neglect. About a decade ago the Council started to have the whole area cut once or twice a year. With help from Officers of the Devon Wildlife Trust a management programme has revealed a small area of lowland heath that deserves to be developed.
In Summer there is now a splash of purple with all three types of heather present - common heather (ling), rare cross-leaved heath and bell heather. Also to be seen are birds foot trefoil, tormentil and devil’s-bit scabious. Tormentil was once used medicinally to ease aches and pains, especially toothache!
The Council is preserving this plot. Apart from trying to control the gorse care is being taken to make it worth a visit in the right weather to see some interesting growth and, if lucky, a rare butterfly - the marsh fritillary - on the scabious.
The Inclosure Award of 1845 gave the Common to the Parish and following a Public Hearing in 1972 the Common and the Village Green were registered as owned by the Council.
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List of plants found on Kilmington Common:
Plants: Common heather (ling) Cross-leaved heath Bristle bent Cock’s foot Betony Tormentil Devil’s-bit scabious Lesser stitchwort Heath milkwort Western gorse Butterflies: Meadow Brown Small Skipper Marsh Fritillary Marbled White Amphibians: Common Lizard |
Bell Heather Purple moor-grass Yorkshire fog Greater bird’s-foot trefoil Slender St John’s Wort Meadow vetchling Meadowsweet Saw-wort Cat’s-ear European gorse Devon Wildlife Trust & Sites Office, Alison Cox B.Sc. prepared this list. |
Allotments
As is common in most villages, a field which can be adapted for allotments has been available for well over a hundred years. Our 1897 map shows “allotment gardens” opposite Bywood in Shute Road and opposite Lambley Brook (formerly Maryland) at the far end of the Street. The present field off George Lane was first used in 1953 when it was leased to the Parish Council. After a short time it was purchased by Miss M J Snell who lived in the adjacent new bungalow, Coombe Garden, and who continued to lease the land to the village to provide 23 plots. Miss Snell died in 1976 and the land was sold to the Council for £2,300.
Water Supply
For over forty years keen gardeners carried cans of water from home when transplanting seedlings. However, in 1995 it was found that to sink a bore and use electricity to pump water when required would be much cheaper than using a supply from South West Water.
The Chairman, with some knowledge of geology, talked with the Geologist on the staff at County Hall and a study of the local geological map showed that an ordinary pump could get a supply from a well just ten feet deep but this shingle bed would certainly dry up in a hot summer just when the water was most needed. So a bore one hundred feet deep through an impermeable bed was sunk to reach another layer of water-bearing rock which would not dry up. The cost of this and to bring an electrical supply to provide water to three standpipes cost the Parish only £24 thanks to financial grants. The electric pump cuts in when the tap is turned on otherwise the only charge for power is very small plus the usual domestic charge. The cost is obviously summer only and the allotment holders have an unlimited supply for their hosepipes.
The present cost to rent an allotment is £12 per year. The Parish Council give Kilmington Produce Association ten pounds each year for prizes at its Annual Show for the best kept allotments.
Sale of Land: A property adjoining the Common known as “Gravel Pits” was part of the area given to the Council under the Inclosure Award of 1845. Tn 1984 Planning permission was given for three dwellings. Two thirds of the plot was sold the following year for £42,000 to include access for a sewer along the edge of the Common. The Council still owns one third of the site, rather a poor quarry pit area.
When Newtons Orchard was being developed the access for the site road proved a problem for the developer. He acquired a triangular piece in front of Coombe Garden but had to cross a small rectangular plot between the allotment gate and the road which belonged to the Council. The Chairman and Vice Chairman represented the Council at a number of meetings with the Planning Officer, the developer and his solicitor and finally it was recommended that this area of 22 square yards be sold for £30,000.
Certain services in Newtons Orchard had to be extended to the top boundary hedge of the allotment field so that if the allotments were ever sold for development services would be available. It is none the less most unlikely that the field would ever be sold.
It is with this capital that the Council has been able to help so many projects and organisations in the village, notably the building of the Village Hall. With about £50,000 invested the Council has for several years restricted its spending to the interest the capital earned. For a Council this is free of income tax.
Rubbish Skip: Since 1987 the Council has provided a skip for garden rubbish at a cost of about £35 per month on the first weekend of every month, alternately in the Car Park and a layby near Hillside. Note, please, that bulky items of equipment and furniture will be collected free from households by the District Council (Telephone 0392 516551. Extension 466).
Telephone Boxes: The Council has decided to retain the two red telephone boxes rather than replace them by modem grey ones.
THE QUARRIES
A look at the old large scale map shows evidence of many old quarry sites in the woods and in the fields now marked as pits. Doubtless in the days before macadam surfaces there was a need for the sort of flint and grit which is readily available for maintaining the country roads and in particular the coach routes such as the well known Roman Road. Basil Gosling tells how he remembers “stone crackers” working in the quarries preparing stone for the roads. This was between the Wars, something also seen by the roadside where piles of large road stone had been tipped.
In modem times however, the Council quarried the field at the top of Gammons Hill beyond the Farm. It was subsequently bought by Mr. Harold Pratt of Tytherleigh and when exhausted was finally refilled and about twenty five years ago grassed over. It may surprise some readers to know that land on the other side of the road (the former bulb field) and fields behind the Churchyard are potential gravel beds. For the last fifty years it is the quarries in Whitford Road that have employed a lot of men and also provided sand and grit for the Ready Mix Concrete Works. Mr. Pratt started the Quarry at the beginning of the Second World War when huge quantities of materials were taken to help the construction of aerodrome runways at Dunkeswell and Smeathorpe which were used by American Liberator bombers. (Many readers may not know that President Kennedy’s elder brother, Lt. Joseph Kennedy was killed in action from Dunkeswell - the Parish Church has records of this period).
A parishioner who at that time worked in Axminster for Bradfords - the only place locally with a weighbridge - says that on one day 349 lorries were weighed full of shingle and gravel from Seaton en route to Dunkeswell.
Kilmington quarries are part of very extensive gravel beds in the Axe Valley. The material quarried consists of grit and quartz mixed with typical river alluvium. Formerly this was washed and crushed in a plant which has recently been removed. The muddy water was pumped back to settle in the first quarry as a sludge pit before the flint was crushed and graded from coarse grit to fine sand. There is an authentic story of a tractor sinking in the sludge - such is the danger even today. A second quarry was behind the Whitford Road Council houses and during the last decade a layer of soil has allowed this site to be planted with grass. A four acre site beyond South View was quarried to a depth of sixty feet and infilled very quickly by fleets of lorries bringing inert material through the Village ç from building sites in Axminster. Before quarrying ceased and all the plant removed the quarry behind Gammons Hill was started. Part of the field is left as a sixty foot deep pit. An interesting feature is that a two foot deep bed of yellow sand is exposed on both sides where in summer migrant sand martins nest - twenty or so pairs.
Before this quarry was closed English China Clay had applied for planning permission to excavate twenty feet deeper. Because of the need for gravel for road construction as well as for concrete the County Council, which is the planning authority for mineral extraction, approved the work on condition that a new road be built across the marsh from the bottom of Gammons Hill towards the Sewage Works and Quarry. Lathes bringing material to back fill the quarry would have had to use this road as would all Quarry and Sewage Works lorries instead of driving through the Whitford Road - an agreement the Parish Council had fought to obtain. The recession has slowed up this project but there is a distinct possibility that before any future development is approved regarding the Quarry site a road across the marsh will have to be built.
A rare and huge boulder on the bank by the Car Park was in recent years unearthed at the Whitford Road Quarry. The ECC geologist suggests it may have rolled down the valley side in a landslip from different geological beds on the hill and become covered with deposits of river alluvium during one of the glacial periods. It could be millions of years old.
Mention must be made of the Ready Mix Concrete plant on the old Quarry site and the red lorries passing through the village. In the pre-recession period and when the Axminster Bypass was under construction three lorries were engaged practically full time delivering concrete. The aggregate was supplied originally by the Kilmington Quarry but today the sand and gravel needed for the concrete is brought from quarries near Chard and Dorchester.
THE SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS
The Sewage Works at the bottom of South View Lane were extended in 1974 to take the flow pumped from Axminster as well as the gravity sewer from Kilmington. For several years there was a restriction on house building in Kilmington until 1984 a larger pipe was laid from the entrance to Farrants / Axover in Whitford Road through the gardens and fields to the Sewage Works.
By 1992 a new regional sludge treatment works was built and sludge was brought by tanker from smaller treatment plants.
This type of plant was one of the first of many being built along the South Devon and Cornwall coast. The sludge is screened to remove rag and plastic material (subsequently burnt) and then pumped into sealed, heated sludge digesters at 34°C for about three weeks. The resultant methane gas is used as fuel to generate all the electricity and heat needed at the Plant, with surplus going to the national grid. The digested sludge is odourless and inert and, according to weather conditions, is either spread on agricultural land in liquid form or pressed and stored as dry cake (very much like garden compost) for future farm use.
Whilst accepting the need for such plants the Parish Council has been concerned about the number and size of these tankers coming through the village. The current tankers carry 3,000 gallons and weigh fourteen tons.
FOOTPATHS
The County Council has since 1996 been responsible for the preparation of a definitive map of all footpaths, bridleways and byways in every parish. Kilmington was one of the first to join the Parish Paths Partnership and get its paths up to an acceptable standard.
VILLAGE ACTIVITIES
Kilmington Players - Contributed by Phillippa Beckingsale
A history of Kilmington during the last one hundreds years would not be complete without mentioning our very own Drama Society; started in 1944.
The Second World War had been on for five years when a small band of enthusiasts led by Mrs. Peppiette, decided to do something to bring some cheer to the village and the Kilmington Players was born.
From the first Committee there are two people still living in the village today. They are Miss M. Hurford (May Lavender) and Miss B. Simmons (Betty Richards).
From the first Minutes we read of a social evening and entertainment that raised the princely sum of £8.lOs and this put them in business and they prepared to stage their first Pantomime, which was Dick Whittington. These days the cost of putting on a show is more like £810!
But this was the start of something that was to grow and flourish, and today we are extremely proud of that fact. There have not only been Pantomimes, but Revues, Music Hall and Plays.
Literally hundreds of actors have come and gone, and it is hardly fair to pick out names. However, one recurring name is the late Jack Lavender, and ‘there was nothing like his Dame’! Now, happily, his son David has stepped into this role. In fact, in a number of instances there have been second and even third generations of the same family. Bob Newbery’s family is one of these.
Producers have come and gone too. Barbara Brierley, who some will still remember, brought professionalism to the job and gave our Shows a great name in the district. Marjorie Lambert followed, and Jeremy and Sandra Ward and Joan Humphry and Phillippa Beckinsale, whose collaboration lasted for nearly twenty years.
In the old Hall, the Church Room as it was then, we had some marvellous scenery painters, giving us Fairy Castles and Haunted Woods and a world of Fantasy where clever perspective made the stage seem at least twice its real size. From those days one particularly remembers Brigadier ‘Nobby’ Carter, whose work was outstanding. Sadly we cannot use the rollers that carried this scenery in the modern hall, but Mary Hibberd made the most of the Hall facilities.
Since then the talented Rob Preece and his wife, Gail joined the Players and more recently the equally gifted Sue Deas with mother, daughter Vickie and husband Tim Pearce have shared in the production of some extremely popular pantomimes.
Kilmington Village Produce Association
The war years, with the “Dig for Victory” slogan, saw the birth of the Produce Association and the Annual Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Show. Today the Association has a wide range of activities. Monthly talks are well supported as are coach trips to gardens of interest. Affiliation to the Royal Horticultural Society enables members to visit Wisley and the rapidly developing Rosemoor Gardens at Torrington, free of charge.
The Village Show has for long been one of the main events of the summer when in addition to the usual horticultural competitions there are sections for cookery, handicrafts, photography and art and special classes for children’s entries. Entertainment for the children is also provided at the Show.
The Women’s Institute - Contributed by Jacquie Jones
Kilmington Women’s Institute celebrated its Diamond Jubilee early in 1994. Sixty years ago it was stated that “The main purpose of Women’s Institutes is to improve and develop conditions of rural life”. We have come a long way from that worthy beginning, and our motto now is “Today’s women working for tomorrow’s world”. Kilmington WI would like to think that they are involved in “Today’s World”.
We are fortunate in our village, to have several ladies who have been connected with the WI for many of those sixty years. Our aim is to continue the good fellowship, public service, national awareness and support of issues particularly the wellbeing of women and children, animal welfare and the environment.
The Royal British Legion - Contributed by Harry Price
The Kilmington Branch of the Royal British Legion has flourished for many years and today has 100 members, which is more than 10% of the total population of the Village. It plays a significant part in furthering the main objects of the Legion, namely to promote the welfare of serving and ex-Service men and women and the widows, children and dependants of those who have served and to relieve hardship where it exists. It does so in many ways including raising, and through its Serving Committee, distributing money to those in need and assisting such persons to obtain statutory benefits and allowances. The necessary fund-raising activities of the Branch normally consist of coffee mornings, lecture evenings and an annual coach-outing - in addition of course, to the sale of poppies and the collection at the Remembrance Day Service.
In the New Inn (where the Branch holds its business meetings) there hangs a photograph depicting the dedication of the Village’s War Memorial in 1921.
SPORTING ACTIVITIES
The Cricket Club has gone from strength to strength. It maintains a wicket the envy of many a village and fields strong teams playing local clubs and visiting teams which come back year after year from as far as London. It is to the Hurford family that the credit goes for organising the Club and working behind the scenes for most of the Century to provide the facilities and teams of which Kilmington is proud. When Harry Hurford returned home at the age of 26 in 1904, after a short spell working his apprenticeship with the Army and Navy Stores in London, he bought the Village Stores. He became Secretary of the Club for nearly fifty years before his son-in-law, Jack Lavender, took over. During this time son, Dudley Hurford, grandson John Lavender and more recently brother David, have served as Captain. Another regular player was son-in-law Dennis Hutchings who also played soccer for Exeter City.
Since joining the East Devon League in 1996 the Club were unbeaten for three seasons, winning Divisions Four, Three and Two and, the following season, mid- Division One. Last year the Club fielded a first and second team in the East Devon League, the first comfortably team winning all the matches.
In the current year following the merger between the East Devon and the Devon League the Club will be fielding two teams. At the same time young players in the village are encouraged to use training facilities and a Junior team will play in an under-fifteen League.
Harry Pape, has until recent years been a regular figure on the field as an Umpire and he recalls that many years ago apart from keeping wicket for Kilmington he played cricket and rugby for Devon. Harry followed another keen sportsman, Dick Snell, as Club President. The Club very much appreciates the gift of a new scoreboard by Sheila Snell in memory of her husband.
Michael Marsh has also played for the County side - a real Mr. Chips born and educated locally before spending his teaching career at Colyton Grammar School. John Lavender works winter and summer to ensure a good wicket and many others will be remembered for their, help. Edith Wakley scored for many years and later a much loved character, the late Les Wilkinson. Today Peter Trim umpires and Geoff Brown scores - both vital to the team.
Throughout the years May Lavender has put heart and soul into the organisation and well-being of the Club. Throughout, wives of players and friends have given invaluable help fund raising and providing teas. The Cricket Club Jumble Sales are renowned. The Team has never been short of Club supporters.
This section clearly shows how the Recreation Field, the Cricket Club and generations of people have together contributed much to the history of the Village.
The Tennis Club
Before the days of the JCB May Lavender and the late Jack Hurford were two of the parishioners who helped to dig out the foundations for the hard tennis court. By 1982 the court needed resurfacing and new netting, towards which the Club obtained a grant of £750 from the Sports Council, about £2,600 from the District Council (plus an interest free loan of £2,830 for ten years) and £200 from the Parish Council.
The Football Club
Over the years it has always been a problem to find a suitable pitch. Fields in Shute Road and beyond the former Police House on the A35 (roughly beyond the Snack Bar lay-by) were once used. Another site was the field on which Well Mead bungalows were later built. Rumour has it that the field could have been bought for £500. A pity there was not an Arthur Hitchcock around or a few parishioners or a Council brave enough to back a mortgage! More recently farmer Jimmy Webb provided a pitch at Dulcis Farm. Two sons were in the last Kilmington team which in fact did well in its league. Mrs. Webb boiled the hot water for the tub in a barn. There are men in the village with happy memories.
The Bowling Club
Adjacent to the pavilion until a couple of years ago there was a well cared for Bowling Green. Many members used it in the summer months and the Village Hall in winter but the excellent all-weather facilities in the Axminster Cloakham sports area saw the demise of the Kilmington Green.
Swimming
For very many years Mrs. Joan Levett (who lived in that typical long house opposite the Post Office) and Mrs. Juliet Hurford took children after school to Honiton Swimming Baths in the winter months when the School’s learner pool could not be used. How times have changed! The Flamingo Pool in Axminster now provides excellent facilities. In support of the project the Parish Council gave £1 .750 when an appeal was first started. Later when all neighbouring Parishes were contacted a further £479 was donated.
THE MILLENNIUM IN KILMINGTON
The Parish Council together with representatives of the churches and main organisations in the Village formed a Millennium Committee to organise events for the year 2000, under the able Chairmanship of Councillor Bill Kerslake.
Celebrations started on New Year’s Eve with a torchlight procession to the Armada Beacon in Shute Woods where about 200 people, including some from Shute Parish, sang songs around the fire before returning to the Village Hall where Councillors Chris Bolton and Michael Collier with family and friends had a roast pig ready to provide baps throughout the evening. An Ecumenical Church Service was a main part of the evening before everyone collected in the car park to witness the lighting of a gas fired beacon on the Church Tower at a time to coincide with national bonfires. The beacon container was specially made by Adrian Quick of the metal works in South View Road. Family and groups of friends spent the rest of a happy evening in the Hall with Brian Lavender in excellent voice leading the singing.
During the Spring two parties were held for the Children. The younger ones were entertained after lunch by a magician whilst the teenagers had an evening of Karaoke and a barbeque. A Millennium Mug was given to every child in the Village. A special lunch was held for the Senior Citizens.
The main Millennium project was the construction in the churchyard extension of a beautiful walled garden designed by Elizabeth Stonex and built by local craftsman, Richard Churchill. Attractive iron gates designed by Nicola Stonex were donated by Church members, Mary Nowell and Vera and Stuart Bowles. Seats were given by the Royal British Legion and by Mary Seward in memory of her husband Allan. The project was paid for by the Church with a contribution of £5,000 by the Parish Council. A Church Flower Festival was organised by Caroline and Brian Lavender and many willing helpers who shared in the dressing of the loveliest display ever to be seen in many a church. This three day event took place at the same time as a display of photographs of historic interest collected and arranged in the Hall by Michael Collier and Chris Bolton which attracted tremendous interest and was the subject of many complimentary comments and considerable nostalgia. The Bishop of Exeter, The Rt. Rev. Michael Langrish, brought the proceedings to a memorable conclusion with Evensong followed by the Consecration of the new Burial Ground extension and the formal opening of the Garden. Afterwards refreshments were served in the Hall where Bishop Michael spent time meeting and chatting with Parishioners.
The Sundial was given by Bill and Molly Kerslake and the seats by the Royal British Legion and Mary Seward in memory of her husband Allan.
PUBLICATIONS
Village Booklets
At the close of the Sixties the County W.I. encouraged its branches to think about the history of their village. General Elliot, who did just this job for his wife before he died in 1969, left an envelope of notes, some handwritten in pencil and ink, a few typed - the result of hours of work in the County Library and Record Office. Fourteen years later Mrs. Elliot agreed to the notes being published as a History of Kilmington, exactly as he had written them. They were to be mainly for the benefit of the younger generation who could learn much about their own village. Some years later when a reprint was needed Alec Broom was able to lend an interesting collection of old photos to illustrate the booklet (on sale at the Post Office and Hurfords Stores).
In the Seventies Brigadier Carter who was very active in so many village activities (Kilmington Players, Produce Association, etc.), not least as Church Warden, wrote articles on St. Giles Church in three consecutive Church magazines. Since his death in 1977 the articles were put together in an illustrated booklet which includes his own descriptive plan of the Church (the original is kept in the Church) together with his painting of the stained glass of the Patron Saint St. Giles.
A more recent publication the ‘Parish of Kilmington’ intended mainly for newcomers to the village, provides general information, facilities and amenities.
A Story of Kilmington (this booklet) by Councillor B H Cudmore describes the development of the Village during the Twentieth Century and as far as the Millennium. Photographs and maps are included.
Parish Map
At the beginning of the Nineties much publicity was given to the painting of parish maps. Some villages happened to have professional artists or an architect in residence so maps of different styles were easily prepared. Kilmington was fortunate in having ten ladies, talented amateurs, who painted an excellent map. The above Booklets and Maps are on sale at the Post Office and Hurfords Stores.
Flowers by the Stream
On the bank of the stream between Brooklands Farm Close and Hurfords Stores no fewer than thirty wild flowers can be found during the course of the year. Our village artists made attractive flower paintings which have been mounted on an all-weather display on the former milk stand.
Kilmington “Postscript”
For many years periodic News Sheets were distributed to every household then in March 1998 Jan Elliot of the Post Office started a monthly newspaper, “Postscript”, which has become a welcome source of news and interesting articles. Several parishioners and for a time Helen Burn, Jay Dawe and Helen Shaw as Editors, have contributed. Stephanie Hathaway (Chair), Savile Burdett, Sandra Ingles, Judith Chapman, Bob Farley, Helen Shaw, Sasa Janovik and Vicky Larcombe form the present Committee. “Postscript” depends on a monthly subscription from the Parish Council plus donations and income from advertising. Its continued success depends on support in the form of articles/anecdotes etc. and donations. Help with distribution is much appreciated.
MISCELLANEOUS
County Competitions
A countywide competition for the Best Kept Village has three times been won by Kilmington.
A similar competition for Village Signs resulted in a second prize of £500. This sign, which illustrates the Monterey Pine and the Cricket Pavilion, is fixed for all to see on the bank of the Car Park.
The County Village Ventures Award was given to the new Village Hall in 1986, a year after it was built, in recognition of its quality and the way the funds had been raised.
A few years later, Kilmington won the Best Run Village Hall Award.
The Water Spout
No-one seems to know when water was first piped from a spring behind Kate’s Well in Shute Road but outlets on the Hill and at the end of George Lane were used increasingly by a large number of parishioners for their drinking water (and indoor plants!). Samples of water have in the past been tested and found satisfactory, though the Health Officer did qualify his remarks by saying in a supply of this nature quality standards can vary from time to time. In December 2000 it was tested again and deemed unsatisfactory to drink. Notices to this effect are displayed on the Parish Notice boards.
The Plantation
Behind the War Memorial the land between Shute Road and the A35, known as the Plantation, has a unique record. For many years ale had been brewed at Coryton Park. The Butler had a squabble and left. He built a small brewery near the Baptist Chapel. The owners of Coryton Park are said to have planted the trees to hide the building from view.
The Beacon
On the highest part of Shute Hill are relics of an ancient ‘Armada’ beacon, the base of which was circular in shape, constructed of stone and with an arched roof. It probably dates from the Sixteenth century.
The Beacon is in fact in Shute Parish and it was with the cooperation of Shute Parish Council that it was lit on the occasion of the Millennium celebrations.
Foot and Mouth Disease
The war years made an impact on every village in different ways. Under the section on the Quarry reference is made to lorry loads of gravel being taken for the runways at Dunkeswell. It is just possible that one lorry and its driver had had contact with a farm in the Culm Valley, where there was an outbreak of foot and mouth Disease, and may have brought the infection to Kilmington, for in 1942 an outbreak at Hills Farm resulted in over 100 cows having to be destroyed. The consternation and impact on the village and restriction of movement must have been considerable.
Kilmington Fair
For many years the highlight of the year was the Annual Fair on the first Wednesday in September when cattle and sheep were sold in the field behind the Old Inn and more cattle were crowded together by men and boys on the main road up as far as the War Memorial. This continued until the Axminster Cattle Market opened in 1908. Village celebrations continued the following day with traditional sports at the New Inn - sack and wheelbarrow races, climbing the greasy pole etc. At the same time there were stalls and a roundabout behind the Old Inn. Naturally Jobi Adams had his gingerbread men on sale!
The Story of Bow Bridge
At a time when there were Adders in the scrubland there was a doctor in Kilmington called Bow. It is said he had a potion that cured Adder bites and he used to demonstrate this on market days. On one occasion in Axminster a pickpocket stole his precious bottle of potion, as a result of which, bitten by an adder, he died on the bridge on his way home - hence the name Bow Bridge.
NOSTALGIA
Betty Richards, born at Farrants in the twenties, must be one of the very few living in her home in Kilmington all her life, as did her parents before her, and she has some nostalgic recollections of Kilmington in the past. From the entrance to Farrants (now shared by Axover) a footpath went along by the stream into Bumbles Broom and through a stile into Long Mead to come out just below the old Butter Factory. This path cut off half a mile from the walk into Axminster and continued until the early fifties. How many people walk into Axminster today!
Betty is one of many who remember when Old Symes was until 1936 a very flourishing slaughter house. The butcher was a character, Mr. Sidney Dare, Uncle Sydney to everyone and even remembered on his grave stone in the Churchyard as “Uncle Sydney”. Betty says, “They used to kill the pigs there. I can still remember the screams; it has haunted me all my life. He then used to come down our step by the brook and clean out the chitterlings with a long stick”. Do many people today eat chitterlings, one wonders.
Ladies met weekly at working parties at the vicarage (now Fairfax) making garments subsequently sold at “Sales of Work”. Summer garden parties were held at the Vicarage and Betty remembers her mother telling her they always held a ‘Best Baby’ competition. “One year while very young, I came first and the late Jack Hurford second!”.
“South View Lane was a dear little lane full of foxgloves, primroses and bluebells, and as children we always rode the hay carts down to the river, and made ‘sweet hay’ with the boys. This was the boys taking a handful of hay and chasing the girls, putting the hay around their necks and kissing them!”.
“There used to be a signpost in the middle of the cross roads by the Old Inn that said, “London 144 miles. It seemed a long way when I was a child”.
Several properties seem to have had slaughter houses and Butchers’ shops. Another well known shop for many years was at George Farm owned by Mr. Johnny Dare. Then the shop moved to Ashes Farm in Whitford Road where Mr. Bill Hurford had long bought and bred cattle for local slaughter. The late Jack Hurford had a butcher’s business there and such was the excellence of his reputation customers came from far and wide. This business (but without a slaughter house) moved to a site on Shute Road in 1981 for a short time.
But back to the days of Uncle Sydney, - “Spider” Wright tells the tale of how when he left school at the age of 14 he worked for him and delivered milk locally on his bicycle, by horse and cart to neighbouring villages and to a shop in Axminster on Market days all for seven shillings a week. Spider’s hardest job must surely have been taking skins, which could have weighed 70 pounds, in the carrier of his bicycle to Baker’s Tannery at Colyton.
Spider remembers fried chitterlings with the same pleasure that Johnny Dare spoke of three inch thick fat bacon, fried. Reminded of catching eels in the stream he confirms Basil Gosling’s version that especially after thunderstorms the lads went “clatting” with worms on a thread and a long pole to catch eels and congers.
Frank Hoskins recalls people walking out from Axminster in the spring to pick wild Daffodils in the marshes below Fordhayes and Studhayes and putting a donation in a Charity box for Axminster Hospital.
Dr. Geoffrey Parkinson, a former Parish Councillor, well known to so many people in Kilmington for he rightly claims that he helped to bring so many of them into this world, recounts the following anecdotes:
Characters
Old Buckingham (no living relations) was a recluse living in a cottage (since demolished) in the Shute Road. He was almost bent double, like a croquet hoop, and he attributed all his ailments to “nuclear fall-out”. He was most known, however, for his solemn opinion that the Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, was a fraud, and that he wasn’t English - he was Chinese - and that his real name was A T Lee.
Miss Stone - an elderly, plump, prim and excellent ladies’ tailor, who lived in Silver Street. Mrs. Patterson, of All Saints, said to her once, “I suppose you couldn’t make a pair of trousers for my husband? Her reply, in slow measured emphatic terms, “I make trousers for Gentlemen, without embarrassment to myself or the gentleman”.
Village Surgery
1948. Old Mrs. Peppiatte lived in Whitehayes (where John and Pat Martell live) and she asked me to start a village surgery in her home - once a week - Wednesday mornings. Many fewer people in the village had cars then. She was very anxious for it to be a success, so, to start with, she served free coffee and biscuits to all who came, Her Uncle, at that time, had his signature on every pound note, confirming that “The Bank of England promises to pay the bearer twenty shillings”.
In 1960 Mrs. Peppiatte, alas, had a stroke and died. Miss Dorothy Bindloss offered her house instead. She lived then at the Old Parsonage on the green (now occupied by the Overtons). We had a surgery there until 1971, when she moved to a smaller house. The village population had grown considerably by then so we moved to the old wooden Church Room on the playing field. This was not ideal. The doctor was all right - seeing patients in the “Ladies”, where there was a wash-basin and an electric fire - but the waiting accommodation was really not acceptable. At first, patients waited in the body of the hall, but this was cold and draughty. A change of plan, and patients waited in the entry passage to the hall, but this was too small, and, furthermore, those sitting next to the door of the “ladies” could overhear confidential conversations! - so we promptly put chairs in the “Gents”, and that it was how it remained. Visitors (especially women) were intrigued to wait in the “Gents”, and then see the doctor in the “Ladies”. Surprisingly, no complaints were received from the British Medical Association. Finally, in 1985 for a short time the surgery moved to excellent accommodation in the Committee Room in the new Village Hall. Thereafter the Surgery moved to Axminster.
As is common in most villages, a field which can be adapted for allotments has been available for well over a hundred years. Our 1897 map shows “allotment gardens” opposite Bywood in Shute Road and opposite Lambley Brook (formerly Maryland) at the far end of the Street. The present field off George Lane was first used in 1953 when it was leased to the Parish Council. After a short time it was purchased by Miss M J Snell who lived in the adjacent new bungalow, Coombe Garden, and who continued to lease the land to the village to provide 23 plots. Miss Snell died in 1976 and the land was sold to the Council for £2,300.
Water Supply
For over forty years keen gardeners carried cans of water from home when transplanting seedlings. However, in 1995 it was found that to sink a bore and use electricity to pump water when required would be much cheaper than using a supply from South West Water.
The Chairman, with some knowledge of geology, talked with the Geologist on the staff at County Hall and a study of the local geological map showed that an ordinary pump could get a supply from a well just ten feet deep but this shingle bed would certainly dry up in a hot summer just when the water was most needed. So a bore one hundred feet deep through an impermeable bed was sunk to reach another layer of water-bearing rock which would not dry up. The cost of this and to bring an electrical supply to provide water to three standpipes cost the Parish only £24 thanks to financial grants. The electric pump cuts in when the tap is turned on otherwise the only charge for power is very small plus the usual domestic charge. The cost is obviously summer only and the allotment holders have an unlimited supply for their hosepipes.
The present cost to rent an allotment is £12 per year. The Parish Council give Kilmington Produce Association ten pounds each year for prizes at its Annual Show for the best kept allotments.
Sale of Land: A property adjoining the Common known as “Gravel Pits” was part of the area given to the Council under the Inclosure Award of 1845. Tn 1984 Planning permission was given for three dwellings. Two thirds of the plot was sold the following year for £42,000 to include access for a sewer along the edge of the Common. The Council still owns one third of the site, rather a poor quarry pit area.
When Newtons Orchard was being developed the access for the site road proved a problem for the developer. He acquired a triangular piece in front of Coombe Garden but had to cross a small rectangular plot between the allotment gate and the road which belonged to the Council. The Chairman and Vice Chairman represented the Council at a number of meetings with the Planning Officer, the developer and his solicitor and finally it was recommended that this area of 22 square yards be sold for £30,000.
Certain services in Newtons Orchard had to be extended to the top boundary hedge of the allotment field so that if the allotments were ever sold for development services would be available. It is none the less most unlikely that the field would ever be sold.
It is with this capital that the Council has been able to help so many projects and organisations in the village, notably the building of the Village Hall. With about £50,000 invested the Council has for several years restricted its spending to the interest the capital earned. For a Council this is free of income tax.
Rubbish Skip: Since 1987 the Council has provided a skip for garden rubbish at a cost of about £35 per month on the first weekend of every month, alternately in the Car Park and a layby near Hillside. Note, please, that bulky items of equipment and furniture will be collected free from households by the District Council (Telephone 0392 516551. Extension 466).
Telephone Boxes: The Council has decided to retain the two red telephone boxes rather than replace them by modem grey ones.
THE QUARRIES
A look at the old large scale map shows evidence of many old quarry sites in the woods and in the fields now marked as pits. Doubtless in the days before macadam surfaces there was a need for the sort of flint and grit which is readily available for maintaining the country roads and in particular the coach routes such as the well known Roman Road. Basil Gosling tells how he remembers “stone crackers” working in the quarries preparing stone for the roads. This was between the Wars, something also seen by the roadside where piles of large road stone had been tipped.
In modem times however, the Council quarried the field at the top of Gammons Hill beyond the Farm. It was subsequently bought by Mr. Harold Pratt of Tytherleigh and when exhausted was finally refilled and about twenty five years ago grassed over. It may surprise some readers to know that land on the other side of the road (the former bulb field) and fields behind the Churchyard are potential gravel beds. For the last fifty years it is the quarries in Whitford Road that have employed a lot of men and also provided sand and grit for the Ready Mix Concrete Works. Mr. Pratt started the Quarry at the beginning of the Second World War when huge quantities of materials were taken to help the construction of aerodrome runways at Dunkeswell and Smeathorpe which were used by American Liberator bombers. (Many readers may not know that President Kennedy’s elder brother, Lt. Joseph Kennedy was killed in action from Dunkeswell - the Parish Church has records of this period).
A parishioner who at that time worked in Axminster for Bradfords - the only place locally with a weighbridge - says that on one day 349 lorries were weighed full of shingle and gravel from Seaton en route to Dunkeswell.
Kilmington quarries are part of very extensive gravel beds in the Axe Valley. The material quarried consists of grit and quartz mixed with typical river alluvium. Formerly this was washed and crushed in a plant which has recently been removed. The muddy water was pumped back to settle in the first quarry as a sludge pit before the flint was crushed and graded from coarse grit to fine sand. There is an authentic story of a tractor sinking in the sludge - such is the danger even today. A second quarry was behind the Whitford Road Council houses and during the last decade a layer of soil has allowed this site to be planted with grass. A four acre site beyond South View was quarried to a depth of sixty feet and infilled very quickly by fleets of lorries bringing inert material through the Village ç from building sites in Axminster. Before quarrying ceased and all the plant removed the quarry behind Gammons Hill was started. Part of the field is left as a sixty foot deep pit. An interesting feature is that a two foot deep bed of yellow sand is exposed on both sides where in summer migrant sand martins nest - twenty or so pairs.
Before this quarry was closed English China Clay had applied for planning permission to excavate twenty feet deeper. Because of the need for gravel for road construction as well as for concrete the County Council, which is the planning authority for mineral extraction, approved the work on condition that a new road be built across the marsh from the bottom of Gammons Hill towards the Sewage Works and Quarry. Lathes bringing material to back fill the quarry would have had to use this road as would all Quarry and Sewage Works lorries instead of driving through the Whitford Road - an agreement the Parish Council had fought to obtain. The recession has slowed up this project but there is a distinct possibility that before any future development is approved regarding the Quarry site a road across the marsh will have to be built.
A rare and huge boulder on the bank by the Car Park was in recent years unearthed at the Whitford Road Quarry. The ECC geologist suggests it may have rolled down the valley side in a landslip from different geological beds on the hill and become covered with deposits of river alluvium during one of the glacial periods. It could be millions of years old.
Mention must be made of the Ready Mix Concrete plant on the old Quarry site and the red lorries passing through the village. In the pre-recession period and when the Axminster Bypass was under construction three lorries were engaged practically full time delivering concrete. The aggregate was supplied originally by the Kilmington Quarry but today the sand and gravel needed for the concrete is brought from quarries near Chard and Dorchester.
THE SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS
The Sewage Works at the bottom of South View Lane were extended in 1974 to take the flow pumped from Axminster as well as the gravity sewer from Kilmington. For several years there was a restriction on house building in Kilmington until 1984 a larger pipe was laid from the entrance to Farrants / Axover in Whitford Road through the gardens and fields to the Sewage Works.
By 1992 a new regional sludge treatment works was built and sludge was brought by tanker from smaller treatment plants.
This type of plant was one of the first of many being built along the South Devon and Cornwall coast. The sludge is screened to remove rag and plastic material (subsequently burnt) and then pumped into sealed, heated sludge digesters at 34°C for about three weeks. The resultant methane gas is used as fuel to generate all the electricity and heat needed at the Plant, with surplus going to the national grid. The digested sludge is odourless and inert and, according to weather conditions, is either spread on agricultural land in liquid form or pressed and stored as dry cake (very much like garden compost) for future farm use.
Whilst accepting the need for such plants the Parish Council has been concerned about the number and size of these tankers coming through the village. The current tankers carry 3,000 gallons and weigh fourteen tons.
FOOTPATHS
The County Council has since 1996 been responsible for the preparation of a definitive map of all footpaths, bridleways and byways in every parish. Kilmington was one of the first to join the Parish Paths Partnership and get its paths up to an acceptable standard.
VILLAGE ACTIVITIES
Kilmington Players - Contributed by Phillippa Beckingsale
A history of Kilmington during the last one hundreds years would not be complete without mentioning our very own Drama Society; started in 1944.
The Second World War had been on for five years when a small band of enthusiasts led by Mrs. Peppiette, decided to do something to bring some cheer to the village and the Kilmington Players was born.
From the first Committee there are two people still living in the village today. They are Miss M. Hurford (May Lavender) and Miss B. Simmons (Betty Richards).
From the first Minutes we read of a social evening and entertainment that raised the princely sum of £8.lOs and this put them in business and they prepared to stage their first Pantomime, which was Dick Whittington. These days the cost of putting on a show is more like £810!
But this was the start of something that was to grow and flourish, and today we are extremely proud of that fact. There have not only been Pantomimes, but Revues, Music Hall and Plays.
Literally hundreds of actors have come and gone, and it is hardly fair to pick out names. However, one recurring name is the late Jack Lavender, and ‘there was nothing like his Dame’! Now, happily, his son David has stepped into this role. In fact, in a number of instances there have been second and even third generations of the same family. Bob Newbery’s family is one of these.
Producers have come and gone too. Barbara Brierley, who some will still remember, brought professionalism to the job and gave our Shows a great name in the district. Marjorie Lambert followed, and Jeremy and Sandra Ward and Joan Humphry and Phillippa Beckinsale, whose collaboration lasted for nearly twenty years.
In the old Hall, the Church Room as it was then, we had some marvellous scenery painters, giving us Fairy Castles and Haunted Woods and a world of Fantasy where clever perspective made the stage seem at least twice its real size. From those days one particularly remembers Brigadier ‘Nobby’ Carter, whose work was outstanding. Sadly we cannot use the rollers that carried this scenery in the modern hall, but Mary Hibberd made the most of the Hall facilities.
Since then the talented Rob Preece and his wife, Gail joined the Players and more recently the equally gifted Sue Deas with mother, daughter Vickie and husband Tim Pearce have shared in the production of some extremely popular pantomimes.
Kilmington Village Produce Association
The war years, with the “Dig for Victory” slogan, saw the birth of the Produce Association and the Annual Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Show. Today the Association has a wide range of activities. Monthly talks are well supported as are coach trips to gardens of interest. Affiliation to the Royal Horticultural Society enables members to visit Wisley and the rapidly developing Rosemoor Gardens at Torrington, free of charge.
The Village Show has for long been one of the main events of the summer when in addition to the usual horticultural competitions there are sections for cookery, handicrafts, photography and art and special classes for children’s entries. Entertainment for the children is also provided at the Show.
The Women’s Institute - Contributed by Jacquie Jones
Kilmington Women’s Institute celebrated its Diamond Jubilee early in 1994. Sixty years ago it was stated that “The main purpose of Women’s Institutes is to improve and develop conditions of rural life”. We have come a long way from that worthy beginning, and our motto now is “Today’s women working for tomorrow’s world”. Kilmington WI would like to think that they are involved in “Today’s World”.
We are fortunate in our village, to have several ladies who have been connected with the WI for many of those sixty years. Our aim is to continue the good fellowship, public service, national awareness and support of issues particularly the wellbeing of women and children, animal welfare and the environment.
The Royal British Legion - Contributed by Harry Price
The Kilmington Branch of the Royal British Legion has flourished for many years and today has 100 members, which is more than 10% of the total population of the Village. It plays a significant part in furthering the main objects of the Legion, namely to promote the welfare of serving and ex-Service men and women and the widows, children and dependants of those who have served and to relieve hardship where it exists. It does so in many ways including raising, and through its Serving Committee, distributing money to those in need and assisting such persons to obtain statutory benefits and allowances. The necessary fund-raising activities of the Branch normally consist of coffee mornings, lecture evenings and an annual coach-outing - in addition of course, to the sale of poppies and the collection at the Remembrance Day Service.
In the New Inn (where the Branch holds its business meetings) there hangs a photograph depicting the dedication of the Village’s War Memorial in 1921.
SPORTING ACTIVITIES
The Cricket Club has gone from strength to strength. It maintains a wicket the envy of many a village and fields strong teams playing local clubs and visiting teams which come back year after year from as far as London. It is to the Hurford family that the credit goes for organising the Club and working behind the scenes for most of the Century to provide the facilities and teams of which Kilmington is proud. When Harry Hurford returned home at the age of 26 in 1904, after a short spell working his apprenticeship with the Army and Navy Stores in London, he bought the Village Stores. He became Secretary of the Club for nearly fifty years before his son-in-law, Jack Lavender, took over. During this time son, Dudley Hurford, grandson John Lavender and more recently brother David, have served as Captain. Another regular player was son-in-law Dennis Hutchings who also played soccer for Exeter City.
Since joining the East Devon League in 1996 the Club were unbeaten for three seasons, winning Divisions Four, Three and Two and, the following season, mid- Division One. Last year the Club fielded a first and second team in the East Devon League, the first comfortably team winning all the matches.
In the current year following the merger between the East Devon and the Devon League the Club will be fielding two teams. At the same time young players in the village are encouraged to use training facilities and a Junior team will play in an under-fifteen League.
Harry Pape, has until recent years been a regular figure on the field as an Umpire and he recalls that many years ago apart from keeping wicket for Kilmington he played cricket and rugby for Devon. Harry followed another keen sportsman, Dick Snell, as Club President. The Club very much appreciates the gift of a new scoreboard by Sheila Snell in memory of her husband.
Michael Marsh has also played for the County side - a real Mr. Chips born and educated locally before spending his teaching career at Colyton Grammar School. John Lavender works winter and summer to ensure a good wicket and many others will be remembered for their, help. Edith Wakley scored for many years and later a much loved character, the late Les Wilkinson. Today Peter Trim umpires and Geoff Brown scores - both vital to the team.
Throughout the years May Lavender has put heart and soul into the organisation and well-being of the Club. Throughout, wives of players and friends have given invaluable help fund raising and providing teas. The Cricket Club Jumble Sales are renowned. The Team has never been short of Club supporters.
This section clearly shows how the Recreation Field, the Cricket Club and generations of people have together contributed much to the history of the Village.
The Tennis Club
Before the days of the JCB May Lavender and the late Jack Hurford were two of the parishioners who helped to dig out the foundations for the hard tennis court. By 1982 the court needed resurfacing and new netting, towards which the Club obtained a grant of £750 from the Sports Council, about £2,600 from the District Council (plus an interest free loan of £2,830 for ten years) and £200 from the Parish Council.
The Football Club
Over the years it has always been a problem to find a suitable pitch. Fields in Shute Road and beyond the former Police House on the A35 (roughly beyond the Snack Bar lay-by) were once used. Another site was the field on which Well Mead bungalows were later built. Rumour has it that the field could have been bought for £500. A pity there was not an Arthur Hitchcock around or a few parishioners or a Council brave enough to back a mortgage! More recently farmer Jimmy Webb provided a pitch at Dulcis Farm. Two sons were in the last Kilmington team which in fact did well in its league. Mrs. Webb boiled the hot water for the tub in a barn. There are men in the village with happy memories.
The Bowling Club
Adjacent to the pavilion until a couple of years ago there was a well cared for Bowling Green. Many members used it in the summer months and the Village Hall in winter but the excellent all-weather facilities in the Axminster Cloakham sports area saw the demise of the Kilmington Green.
Swimming
For very many years Mrs. Joan Levett (who lived in that typical long house opposite the Post Office) and Mrs. Juliet Hurford took children after school to Honiton Swimming Baths in the winter months when the School’s learner pool could not be used. How times have changed! The Flamingo Pool in Axminster now provides excellent facilities. In support of the project the Parish Council gave £1 .750 when an appeal was first started. Later when all neighbouring Parishes were contacted a further £479 was donated.
THE MILLENNIUM IN KILMINGTON
The Parish Council together with representatives of the churches and main organisations in the Village formed a Millennium Committee to organise events for the year 2000, under the able Chairmanship of Councillor Bill Kerslake.
Celebrations started on New Year’s Eve with a torchlight procession to the Armada Beacon in Shute Woods where about 200 people, including some from Shute Parish, sang songs around the fire before returning to the Village Hall where Councillors Chris Bolton and Michael Collier with family and friends had a roast pig ready to provide baps throughout the evening. An Ecumenical Church Service was a main part of the evening before everyone collected in the car park to witness the lighting of a gas fired beacon on the Church Tower at a time to coincide with national bonfires. The beacon container was specially made by Adrian Quick of the metal works in South View Road. Family and groups of friends spent the rest of a happy evening in the Hall with Brian Lavender in excellent voice leading the singing.
During the Spring two parties were held for the Children. The younger ones were entertained after lunch by a magician whilst the teenagers had an evening of Karaoke and a barbeque. A Millennium Mug was given to every child in the Village. A special lunch was held for the Senior Citizens.
The main Millennium project was the construction in the churchyard extension of a beautiful walled garden designed by Elizabeth Stonex and built by local craftsman, Richard Churchill. Attractive iron gates designed by Nicola Stonex were donated by Church members, Mary Nowell and Vera and Stuart Bowles. Seats were given by the Royal British Legion and by Mary Seward in memory of her husband Allan. The project was paid for by the Church with a contribution of £5,000 by the Parish Council. A Church Flower Festival was organised by Caroline and Brian Lavender and many willing helpers who shared in the dressing of the loveliest display ever to be seen in many a church. This three day event took place at the same time as a display of photographs of historic interest collected and arranged in the Hall by Michael Collier and Chris Bolton which attracted tremendous interest and was the subject of many complimentary comments and considerable nostalgia. The Bishop of Exeter, The Rt. Rev. Michael Langrish, brought the proceedings to a memorable conclusion with Evensong followed by the Consecration of the new Burial Ground extension and the formal opening of the Garden. Afterwards refreshments were served in the Hall where Bishop Michael spent time meeting and chatting with Parishioners.
The Sundial was given by Bill and Molly Kerslake and the seats by the Royal British Legion and Mary Seward in memory of her husband Allan.
PUBLICATIONS
Village Booklets
At the close of the Sixties the County W.I. encouraged its branches to think about the history of their village. General Elliot, who did just this job for his wife before he died in 1969, left an envelope of notes, some handwritten in pencil and ink, a few typed - the result of hours of work in the County Library and Record Office. Fourteen years later Mrs. Elliot agreed to the notes being published as a History of Kilmington, exactly as he had written them. They were to be mainly for the benefit of the younger generation who could learn much about their own village. Some years later when a reprint was needed Alec Broom was able to lend an interesting collection of old photos to illustrate the booklet (on sale at the Post Office and Hurfords Stores).
In the Seventies Brigadier Carter who was very active in so many village activities (Kilmington Players, Produce Association, etc.), not least as Church Warden, wrote articles on St. Giles Church in three consecutive Church magazines. Since his death in 1977 the articles were put together in an illustrated booklet which includes his own descriptive plan of the Church (the original is kept in the Church) together with his painting of the stained glass of the Patron Saint St. Giles.
A more recent publication the ‘Parish of Kilmington’ intended mainly for newcomers to the village, provides general information, facilities and amenities.
A Story of Kilmington (this booklet) by Councillor B H Cudmore describes the development of the Village during the Twentieth Century and as far as the Millennium. Photographs and maps are included.
Parish Map
At the beginning of the Nineties much publicity was given to the painting of parish maps. Some villages happened to have professional artists or an architect in residence so maps of different styles were easily prepared. Kilmington was fortunate in having ten ladies, talented amateurs, who painted an excellent map. The above Booklets and Maps are on sale at the Post Office and Hurfords Stores.
Flowers by the Stream
On the bank of the stream between Brooklands Farm Close and Hurfords Stores no fewer than thirty wild flowers can be found during the course of the year. Our village artists made attractive flower paintings which have been mounted on an all-weather display on the former milk stand.
Kilmington “Postscript”
For many years periodic News Sheets were distributed to every household then in March 1998 Jan Elliot of the Post Office started a monthly newspaper, “Postscript”, which has become a welcome source of news and interesting articles. Several parishioners and for a time Helen Burn, Jay Dawe and Helen Shaw as Editors, have contributed. Stephanie Hathaway (Chair), Savile Burdett, Sandra Ingles, Judith Chapman, Bob Farley, Helen Shaw, Sasa Janovik and Vicky Larcombe form the present Committee. “Postscript” depends on a monthly subscription from the Parish Council plus donations and income from advertising. Its continued success depends on support in the form of articles/anecdotes etc. and donations. Help with distribution is much appreciated.
MISCELLANEOUS
County Competitions
A countywide competition for the Best Kept Village has three times been won by Kilmington.
A similar competition for Village Signs resulted in a second prize of £500. This sign, which illustrates the Monterey Pine and the Cricket Pavilion, is fixed for all to see on the bank of the Car Park.
The County Village Ventures Award was given to the new Village Hall in 1986, a year after it was built, in recognition of its quality and the way the funds had been raised.
A few years later, Kilmington won the Best Run Village Hall Award.
The Water Spout
No-one seems to know when water was first piped from a spring behind Kate’s Well in Shute Road but outlets on the Hill and at the end of George Lane were used increasingly by a large number of parishioners for their drinking water (and indoor plants!). Samples of water have in the past been tested and found satisfactory, though the Health Officer did qualify his remarks by saying in a supply of this nature quality standards can vary from time to time. In December 2000 it was tested again and deemed unsatisfactory to drink. Notices to this effect are displayed on the Parish Notice boards.
The Plantation
Behind the War Memorial the land between Shute Road and the A35, known as the Plantation, has a unique record. For many years ale had been brewed at Coryton Park. The Butler had a squabble and left. He built a small brewery near the Baptist Chapel. The owners of Coryton Park are said to have planted the trees to hide the building from view.
The Beacon
On the highest part of Shute Hill are relics of an ancient ‘Armada’ beacon, the base of which was circular in shape, constructed of stone and with an arched roof. It probably dates from the Sixteenth century.
The Beacon is in fact in Shute Parish and it was with the cooperation of Shute Parish Council that it was lit on the occasion of the Millennium celebrations.
Foot and Mouth Disease
The war years made an impact on every village in different ways. Under the section on the Quarry reference is made to lorry loads of gravel being taken for the runways at Dunkeswell. It is just possible that one lorry and its driver had had contact with a farm in the Culm Valley, where there was an outbreak of foot and mouth Disease, and may have brought the infection to Kilmington, for in 1942 an outbreak at Hills Farm resulted in over 100 cows having to be destroyed. The consternation and impact on the village and restriction of movement must have been considerable.
Kilmington Fair
For many years the highlight of the year was the Annual Fair on the first Wednesday in September when cattle and sheep were sold in the field behind the Old Inn and more cattle were crowded together by men and boys on the main road up as far as the War Memorial. This continued until the Axminster Cattle Market opened in 1908. Village celebrations continued the following day with traditional sports at the New Inn - sack and wheelbarrow races, climbing the greasy pole etc. At the same time there were stalls and a roundabout behind the Old Inn. Naturally Jobi Adams had his gingerbread men on sale!
The Story of Bow Bridge
At a time when there were Adders in the scrubland there was a doctor in Kilmington called Bow. It is said he had a potion that cured Adder bites and he used to demonstrate this on market days. On one occasion in Axminster a pickpocket stole his precious bottle of potion, as a result of which, bitten by an adder, he died on the bridge on his way home - hence the name Bow Bridge.
NOSTALGIA
Betty Richards, born at Farrants in the twenties, must be one of the very few living in her home in Kilmington all her life, as did her parents before her, and she has some nostalgic recollections of Kilmington in the past. From the entrance to Farrants (now shared by Axover) a footpath went along by the stream into Bumbles Broom and through a stile into Long Mead to come out just below the old Butter Factory. This path cut off half a mile from the walk into Axminster and continued until the early fifties. How many people walk into Axminster today!
Betty is one of many who remember when Old Symes was until 1936 a very flourishing slaughter house. The butcher was a character, Mr. Sidney Dare, Uncle Sydney to everyone and even remembered on his grave stone in the Churchyard as “Uncle Sydney”. Betty says, “They used to kill the pigs there. I can still remember the screams; it has haunted me all my life. He then used to come down our step by the brook and clean out the chitterlings with a long stick”. Do many people today eat chitterlings, one wonders.
Ladies met weekly at working parties at the vicarage (now Fairfax) making garments subsequently sold at “Sales of Work”. Summer garden parties were held at the Vicarage and Betty remembers her mother telling her they always held a ‘Best Baby’ competition. “One year while very young, I came first and the late Jack Hurford second!”.
“South View Lane was a dear little lane full of foxgloves, primroses and bluebells, and as children we always rode the hay carts down to the river, and made ‘sweet hay’ with the boys. This was the boys taking a handful of hay and chasing the girls, putting the hay around their necks and kissing them!”.
“There used to be a signpost in the middle of the cross roads by the Old Inn that said, “London 144 miles. It seemed a long way when I was a child”.
Several properties seem to have had slaughter houses and Butchers’ shops. Another well known shop for many years was at George Farm owned by Mr. Johnny Dare. Then the shop moved to Ashes Farm in Whitford Road where Mr. Bill Hurford had long bought and bred cattle for local slaughter. The late Jack Hurford had a butcher’s business there and such was the excellence of his reputation customers came from far and wide. This business (but without a slaughter house) moved to a site on Shute Road in 1981 for a short time.
But back to the days of Uncle Sydney, - “Spider” Wright tells the tale of how when he left school at the age of 14 he worked for him and delivered milk locally on his bicycle, by horse and cart to neighbouring villages and to a shop in Axminster on Market days all for seven shillings a week. Spider’s hardest job must surely have been taking skins, which could have weighed 70 pounds, in the carrier of his bicycle to Baker’s Tannery at Colyton.
Spider remembers fried chitterlings with the same pleasure that Johnny Dare spoke of three inch thick fat bacon, fried. Reminded of catching eels in the stream he confirms Basil Gosling’s version that especially after thunderstorms the lads went “clatting” with worms on a thread and a long pole to catch eels and congers.
Frank Hoskins recalls people walking out from Axminster in the spring to pick wild Daffodils in the marshes below Fordhayes and Studhayes and putting a donation in a Charity box for Axminster Hospital.
Dr. Geoffrey Parkinson, a former Parish Councillor, well known to so many people in Kilmington for he rightly claims that he helped to bring so many of them into this world, recounts the following anecdotes:
Characters
Old Buckingham (no living relations) was a recluse living in a cottage (since demolished) in the Shute Road. He was almost bent double, like a croquet hoop, and he attributed all his ailments to “nuclear fall-out”. He was most known, however, for his solemn opinion that the Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, was a fraud, and that he wasn’t English - he was Chinese - and that his real name was A T Lee.
Miss Stone - an elderly, plump, prim and excellent ladies’ tailor, who lived in Silver Street. Mrs. Patterson, of All Saints, said to her once, “I suppose you couldn’t make a pair of trousers for my husband? Her reply, in slow measured emphatic terms, “I make trousers for Gentlemen, without embarrassment to myself or the gentleman”.
Village Surgery
1948. Old Mrs. Peppiatte lived in Whitehayes (where John and Pat Martell live) and she asked me to start a village surgery in her home - once a week - Wednesday mornings. Many fewer people in the village had cars then. She was very anxious for it to be a success, so, to start with, she served free coffee and biscuits to all who came, Her Uncle, at that time, had his signature on every pound note, confirming that “The Bank of England promises to pay the bearer twenty shillings”.
In 1960 Mrs. Peppiatte, alas, had a stroke and died. Miss Dorothy Bindloss offered her house instead. She lived then at the Old Parsonage on the green (now occupied by the Overtons). We had a surgery there until 1971, when she moved to a smaller house. The village population had grown considerably by then so we moved to the old wooden Church Room on the playing field. This was not ideal. The doctor was all right - seeing patients in the “Ladies”, where there was a wash-basin and an electric fire - but the waiting accommodation was really not acceptable. At first, patients waited in the body of the hall, but this was cold and draughty. A change of plan, and patients waited in the entry passage to the hall, but this was too small, and, furthermore, those sitting next to the door of the “ladies” could overhear confidential conversations! - so we promptly put chairs in the “Gents”, and that it was how it remained. Visitors (especially women) were intrigued to wait in the “Gents”, and then see the doctor in the “Ladies”. Surprisingly, no complaints were received from the British Medical Association. Finally, in 1985 for a short time the surgery moved to excellent accommodation in the Committee Room in the new Village Hall. Thereafter the Surgery moved to Axminster.
