A New Notable Newtonian Discovered! Olympic Gold Medallist, Actor, Singer and More…

This gentleman is Charles Kay, also known as Charles Beachcroft Kay, C B K Beachcroft, and even Jack Trent. As his many aliases may suggest, he was quite a character: famous (some would say infamous) within the West Country and further afield. A man-about-town...

Read More

The Tripe and Dripping Dispute 1949

It was January 1949; war time rationing was still in force, with some foods more strictly rationed than during the war. Bread was rationed during the years 1946 -48, potatoes briefly in 1947, tea until 1952 and cheese and meats until 1954.  Although most food...

Read More

There’s One in England

Honeymooning in Devon in 1947, Paul Maher and his wife Pamela found much to remind them of their native Newfoundland. Here is Paul Maher’s own account of his discovery of The Newfoundland Hotel : ‘Coming by Coach into Newton Abbot I sat up and began to...

Read More

The Shop that Never Was…or Was It?

David Bowen, a local Postcard Collector and Museum Talk contributor, acquired this postcard which purported to be in Courtenay Street, Newton Abbot. And yet, extensive research of Trade & Telephone Directories, Censuses and  Advertisements found no reference to this shop in this town. A T....

Read More

7 Wolborough Street- the Story of Jimmy Steere

The early 20th Century was period before the internet and TV, jobs were hard to find, many lived in inadequate housing, sometimes without running water or electricity and money was short. Pleasures were often simple and free: listening to a Band in the Park...

Read More