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Bell ringers, beagles and TB

Old family photos from the Westcott family of Alphington

By Vi Palfrey (nee Westcott) as told to Sarah, Curator of West Exe

Bell ringers of Alphington Church

The old oil lamp is up in the belfry. The gentleman fourth from the left was my grandfather, George Westcott (1861 to 1937). He lived in the three-storeyed house on the corner of Ide Lane, opposite the church. I don't know when this was taken. He was Captain of the ringers. He was also the rural postman. Of course everybody knew him. They delivered on Christmas Day then and people would say 'Come in and have one with us, George', and he'd have a little nip in one house and then in another. He'd come home late for his Christmas dinner and be in trouble.

Land is now St Michael's Close

The picture of him in later life with the Stoke Hill Beagles is in front of the big house. He's the old gent with the trilby hat and the walking stick. Most of that land has now been taken up as St Michael's Close.

Three times married

The portrait is his wife Kate (nee Salter), my grandmother, who came from Somerset. After  being widowed he married Beatrice Waren (believed to be seated second from the left in my sister's wedding photograh). The wedding photograph was taken opposite the old village hall in Alphington on Ide Lane, in what was my grandfather's garden. It's built up there now. My mother is standing on the right, Rosina Kate Westcott (1893 to 1964) and the bride is her sister, Florence Ellen (1895 to 1980).

When he was widowed for the second time he married again for company. His wife Alice had been a spinster until then. She was someone who did good deeds around the village; she'd sit with the ill and the dying and even lay people out.

They say the good die young

My Uncle Fred (in uniform) was one of George Westcott's three sons. They all died young of TB, at 19, 19 and 21. Fred was in the Army Vetinary Corps. He has a military grave because they sent him home shortly before he died.

15 March 2008