Kingskerswell
Kingskerswell photos (5 available)
Kingskerswell maps (2 available)
Map of Devon
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Kingskerswell books (12 available)
Kingskerswell memories
Read and share memories of Kingskerswell and Devon inspired by Frith photos
Childhood Memories
Hi my name is Maria Brown (maiden name Zalmen). I lived in Kingskerswell up until 1967 when I was seven. We then moved to Australia. I have never forgotten this lovely place and in 2005 I decided to come back and relive my childhood memories. Back in the 1960s we lived at no.13 Bourne Road in a lovely little white house. I remember living next to a field where my rabbit used to escape to and where I use to roll down the hill inside a barrel. I remember pushing my mum up the hill to the milk bar because it was such a steep road - I don't remember which road, it might have been on the post office side ...read more here
Contributed by Maria Brown
childhood days
I lived in Kingskerswell as a young child and emigrated to Australia in 1986. I was 10yrs.
I missed it dearly and have fond memories although I forget the names of streets etc. I went to the local Primary school both old and new. I played conkers with my friends where the trees were opposite the church on bonfire night. We had days off school when it snowed heavily and tobogganed down my street (Park Rd) on my mum's catering trays. We went for adventures up the Kerswell downs and the boys told us scary stories and ran away. We played hide and seek and kiss chasey at the playing fields with Justin Harrison (my first kiss). After school we often ...read more here
Contributed by Kirstie Bond
childhood days
My mum's family (Beer) owned the village shop in Fore Street, consequently my family spent many holidays in the village. I remember playing with cousins in the orchard in Yon Street where my Great Aunt Anne and Great Uncle Harry lived, playing pooh sticks in the stream by the church, getting fresh bread from the baker's in the morning (strange how there was no crust by the time I got it back!?), climbing the oak tree on the playing fields and no holiday was complete without feeding Starlight the donkey.
Funny how when I returned many years later I had failed to remember the thatched cottages and narrow lanes, obviously not very important at the age of nine!
Contributed by Hilary Wakely
South Devon
I lived in Kingskerswell from August 1963 to July 1974, first in Lyndhurst Avenue and then in Weavers Way.
Contributed by Peter Bannister
Extracts From Kingskerswell & Devon books
This view was taken from the building at the very end of Morton Crescent. To the immediate left is the Imperial Hotel,
seen in its original architectural design, changed now after the fire in the 1970s.
An extract from from"Exmouth Photographic Memories".
By the middle of the 20th
century we see something
resembling the modern
scene. There is the more
familiar red telephone
box on the traffic island,
a modern post box, and
Belisha beacons to aid
pedestrians wishing to
cross the road. In the
centre of the photograph
is the white tower of the
Pavilion Theatre. Much of
the street furniture was
removed by the start of
the 21st century, leaving
a more traffic-dominated Esplanade.
An extract from from"Exmouth Photographic Memories".
The construction of a substantial
sea wall, seen here in section to the
right, led to Exmouth’s prosperity
as a seaside resort. Before the
wall was built, much of the sea
front was marshland and sand
dunes, and subjected to constant
flooding. The first section of the
wall was completed in 1842, paid
for by the local landowner John
Rolle. It was 1,900 feet long and
constructed from Devon limestone.
The designer was John Smeaton, a
veteran engineer and the designer
of London Bridge.
An extract from from"Exmouth Photographic Memories".
This fine view looks across the
clock tower and Morton Crescent
to the estuary of the River Exe, with
Starcross and the Haldon Hills in
the distance.
An extract from from"Exmouth Photographic Memories".
The wall was designed to deflect the waves that so often come up the English Channel from the south-west on stormy days.
This scene has changed little in fifty years, though now a shelter from the wind stands on the position of the nearest bench
in the photograph. It was donated by local resident William Frederick Stokes in 1964.
An extract from from"Exmouth Photographic Memories".