What's Mr Pollard's tall tale?
RAMM Accession No: 99-1919-100
and a link to a rather taller tale
By Curator of West Exe
As told to the Curator of West Exe on 7th August 2007.
"I was born in Alphington in 1921. I was a choirboy and took part in the yearly Armistice Service on the village green. We delivered bread to the house opposite the war memorial. My father had the bakery and grandmother had the grocer's shop in Alphington - I think it's a hairdresser's now.
The last time I was up there in Alphington was a long time ago. It's very different now. When I was youngster the church had electricity put in and an illuminated cross on the roof of the Church, paid for by Mr Sibley. I don't know if its still there now.
I went to Hele's School in Exeter. It used to be off Queen's Street but I think its Heavitree way now. When I left I started work with my father. I remember delivering bread, pushing the handcart through the village aged 16. You wouldn't see that nowadays. I soon passed my driving test and that was it. We had a van for the bakery. Two uncles who lived in London both had cars. They used to take me on trips to Widdecombe and places. We delivered bread all round the village and up as far as Shillingford. We used to get our flour from Malletts Mills in Exwick.
During the war I was away when Exeter was blitzed so I missed that, but my father in law carried on. There were services in the Men's Institute. They were joint services for the church and the chapel because they couldn't black out the church windows. They were too big. Me and some others joined the Auxiliary Fire Service and our bakery van was the emergency fire engine. Someone from the main fire brigade came out once and week and gave us drills. There were hosepipes and things we kept in the garage. We were never called out.
Up Shillingford Hill was all allotments then they took them all over for building. They were transferred to a field down Clapperbrook Lane towards the canal. My father and the others had to dig the turf off to make their new allotments.
I regret ever leaving there really. My father rented the bakery from a lady who kept the shop, but she didn't do anything with it. We lived two doors down. I wanted a shop of my own so we sold up and moved. About a year later the lady with the shop died and someone else bought the business. I could have had the whole lot.... We moved to East Allington and then ran the bakery in Ashburton for 20 years."
The Curator adds:
Here's another taller tale from Mr Pollard: taller tale