Combpyne

St Mary's School, Uplyme 1960 and 1961

I was at St Mary's boarding school, the summer terms 1960 and 1961. I came from Gothenburg, Sweden. I was just 12 and 13 years old and I couldn't speak much English.

I am now looking for girls that spent their school days at St Mary's. My best friend was Heather Dobell and she came from Whitestaunton, Chard.  I have lost contact with her but would like to get in touch with her. Is there anyone who knows something about her?

What about the school? Is it still there? Is the house still there?

I am now 60 years old. Please write to me!!


Contributed by elisabet kaudern

Mid 1960's - mid 1980's

My parents David & Valerie, and younger brother Roger Angus lived at 'Rosevine' opposite the Rectory.
The then vicar, Christopher Leach lived in the Rectory with his wife and children Godfrey and Hilary. Additionally, they charitably fostered many children, having a minimum of four guests at any given time if my memory serves me correctly, hence using many of the available bedrooms.
When the vicar moved to live elsewhere, the new owner, an insidious individual called Mr. Ryan who was very fond of dogs, had the unfortunate habit of discarding his dog waste over the hedge into the road below.
Local farmer Frank Webber used to provide much sought after weekend and holiday employment by lifting potatoes and swedes/turnips for them.
read more here
Contributed by Simon Angus

1994 to date

Richard, I am one of the current owners of the rectory (now The Old Rectory) where you came to visit and review the house you had lived in as a child and pointed out which room had been your bedroom.  Strangely though, the 27 rooms that you remember seem to have shrunk to a present day 12 (plus 2 loos and a bathroom)!

Combpyne has remained a "working village" though, unlike many of the surrounding ones, with many families remaining in the village through the generations!

By the way Frank Webber died a few years back and there were so many mourners that most had to be accommodated outside the church.  Giles is alive and well and to be ...read more here
Contributed by Linda Jackson

Living in Combpyne

I was 9 years old when we came to live in Combpyne, we lived at the end of the village accross the road from a farm where my father worked. The farm must have belonged to the Webbers as I remember they had a son called Giles, like the other reader said, I think his sister was called Frances.  My brother and I used to walk to the other end of the village to catch the school bus.  I used to go to Uplyme school and my brother went to a school in Axminster. I remember the green bus that used to come on a Friday, also many a time we would walk up that long hill to catch the train ...read more here
Contributed by sally cundall

Addendum to first comment on Combpyne

In February 2007 I was able to revisit Combpyne church. I looked at the little St Francis carving in the chancel, and saw that the carving had suffered somewhat from woodworm. Also, I noted that my note, that I had scrawled on a card a few years earlier, was still there; but that I had incorrectly stated that my father had carved it. It should read that a tramp had carved it, and given it to my father as a thank-you for allowing him to spend the night in a shed. Perhaps someone might re-write that card! I spoke to a gentleman living next to the church, the churchwarden, and explained who I was, and we exchanged memories. I was pleased ...read more here
Contributed by richard longridge

Combpyne village reservoir

I am a little bit unsure whether it was 1948 when my late  father, the Revd Peter N Longridge, moved from Sticklpath in Barnstaple down to Combpyne. Or maybe a year or two later. The list of Rectors in the church will confirm. My memories of the village are several, and not in any particular order of importance. There was the church, of course. I recall excavations inside which revealed a very old medieval mural showing a ship on the south wall, and two coffins under the nave when electric cables were laid. And the Yew tree from which I fell at the age of 12, breaking my right leg, whose consequences I now feel at the present age of nearly ...read more here
Contributed by richard longridge

Growing up

I moved to Combpyne when I was 4 years old with my mum, dad, brother and sister. We lived in the house in the centre of the village called Clock House. Its garden backed on to the churchyard. I spent many happy hours on the Webbers' farm next door to the church opposite the village pond, I remember we had an old dingy at one time and had fun on the pond. I have been back a few times since leaving in the mid 70s but it has grown and lots of things have changed, but I had a wonderful happy childhood in Combpyne.
Contributed by anne symons