Picture research by Thomas Wills
Image provided by Devon Library and Information Services (source unknown)
An unexpected move to Alphington
By Geoff Mitchell
On the Saturday before the Blitz we went to a fete in Alphington. It was a marvellous day, blue sky. My mother was in a cycle touring club and we went to see some cyclist friends of hers there, and their son Philip. There was a horse ride. I'd never been on a horse. To my disappointment it was Philip who was to ride first. He got up but the horse became a mule and wouldn't budge. The man threw a bucket of water over it and off it went, with Philip clinging on for dear life. He was alright but that was the end of the horse rides so number two in line, me, didn't get a go at all.
I was in church when the house was bombed
Our house was in Sidwell Street, right opposite St Sidwell's Church. I was in that church when the house was bombed on 4 May. Our house was three storeys. The front stayed up for a while. Then I watched it come down. It was the middle of the night. The shower of sparks went up into the heavens and I watched it rise and rise into a black sky. I watched it with my grandfather. At least nobody was killed, except my cat. I've never forgotten that.
We didn't have anywhere to live
There was no school next Monday morning. We didn't have anywhere to live, so we lived with my mother's cycling friends in turn. Anybody who'd put us up. The first place was Alphington. We went to those same friends. Philip, their son, was a year younger than me so I went to school with him.
Alphington was a village then. The house where I lived was 17 Devonia Terrace. It's renamed now as Church Road, the whole lot. It was definitely a village. In 1966 the Rector of Alphington flew the flag at half-mast for the death of Alphington when it came into Exeter. Behind Devonia Terrace was fields, all fields. At the end was a pile of builders' sand that we used to play in. It's now Marsh Barton trading estate.
We got used to it.
We finished up in a requisitioned house, one that the council had requisitioned for homeless families, in another part of the city. Children are very adaptable. We got used to it.
Later we learned to smoke in Alphington. We used to picnic on the fields. It was pasture. When it rains, which it always does on a picnic, there were handy railway arches where you could go and shelter. That was the railway that went to Ide. It's all gone now. The bus used to get as far as the cattle market then it was a walk from the Marsh Barton entrance to Alphington. It was a trip to the country.
-Return to Philip Miller's memories