Alphington village characters
By Rowena Jay
These tales date back to the very late 1800s to the early 1900s.
A risky sounding hair cut
The land of Carpenter's Farm stretched to the corner of the Chudleigh Road and Chantry Meadow. At one time a very funny and very tall man lived there. He cut his own hair by putting a pudding basin on top of his head and cutting around the edge with a cut-throat razor.
The barber of Alphington
At one time there was another row of old cottages situated behind Scanes Cottages. One of the occupants was a barber and he wore no socks and no shoelaces in his shoes. He liked to spend a lot of time in the New Inn. It was always said that the best time to have your hair cut by him was first thing in the morning before his daily visit to the New Inn.
Tales from the Church
Mr Charter was a rather strict gentleman who at one time was in charge of the Church choir. One evening while the choir members were waiting for Mr Charter to arrive they begged the organist to entertain them. The organist who also played the piano loved to play jazzy tunes and he started to play In The Mood. Unfortunately, he was caught red handed by Mr Charter.
When Mr Bennett was Rector of Alphington Mr Brewer was Sexton. During the Sunday evening services Mr Brewer would stand by a heavy curtain that was heavily decorated with brass. When he felt that Rev. Bennett had delivered enough of his Sermon and it was time to stop he would shake the curtain so that the brass adornments would rattle. Mr Brewer would also stand at the door of the Church before the beginning of these services and hand out peppermints and other sweets to the Worshippers so that they could eat them during the service.
One day the organist was playing away when suddenly the music stopped. On investigating behind the organ the gentleman in charge of pumping the organ had fallen fast asleep.
An honest thief
A gentleman had ridden his bicycle to St. Thomas and parked it while he went into a shop. Upon his return he found that his bicycle had disappeared. One year later this same gentleman visited Alphington village and as he walked passed the Admiral Vernon In (Chudleigh Road) he saw his bicycle leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the road. He made enquiries in the inn about how his missing bicycle came to be in the village and he was informed that a year ago a gentleman had arrived at the inn on this bicycle, lent it against the wall opposite, had his drink and then walked home. He may have "borrowed" the bicycle from St Thomas in order to travel to the Admiral Vernon Inn but at least he was honest enough to leave it and not make any further use of it. It is also amazing that the bicycle stayed against the wall without anyone else touching it for a complete year.