This is where I was born!
The joys and pain
By Elizabeth Marjorie Berry (nee Winser) as written up by her daughter.
I was born in 1922 at 55 Alphington Road on the corner of Ebrington Road.
I was the youngest of three; my brother, Norman, was ten years older and my sister, Joan, four years older than I.
The Christmas big family afternoon tea
We had several relatives living near. Further out on Alphington Road my grandmother lived in a house just past the Crawford, which was then a private house. My grandmother's house is now made into two houses. Next door to her lived my uncle and his family and next door to them were my eldest aunt and her family. Another aunt and her family lived in Queens Road. We used to have very good family parties at Christmas time. While my grandmother was living we all went to her house for tea on Christmas afternoon. She had a very large room with a big dining room table and we played all sorts of games there. My grandmother, who was my mother's mother, was born in 1841 and she was 95 when she died early in 1936.
Playing beneath the beautiful wisteria
Princes Gardens was a favourite place for us to go and play. The very large area of grass for children to play was rarely empty. Now when I visit the Gardens I never see children there at all. I remember seeing the beautiful wisteria tunnel that ran down between a tennis court and putting green. We were told then that this wisteria was about 100 years old.
Our way to the church
The local area was much more rural in those days and 'country' started where the Marsh Barton Trading Estate starts today. On the opposite side of the road was a country lane leading up to Cowick Lane, which, at that time, was a country road with lanes leading off it up over the hill. There were lovely walks to Ide and beyond. We always went for a country walk on a Saturday afternoon and often on a Sunday afternoon as well. On Sunday mornings we always went as a family to St Andrews Church, which used to be in Willey's Avenue but which, I believe, was bombed during 1939/45 war. My brother, when he was a bit older, went to St Thomas Church. St Andrews was a very friendly church. Some of my relatives went there as well.
Tram 'adventure'
The trams used to run out as far as where Marsh Barton starts today and it was always quite an 'adventure' when my mother took us out to the Higher Cemetery off Pinhoe Road to visit her father's grave. We would sit on the top of the tram and enjoy the 'outing'! I think the trams were replaced by buses in the early 1930's. The buses used to go out as far as Waterloo Road, reverse into Wellington Road and then come back into town again. One of the stops was just outside our house!
Watching August Saturday's traffic jam
On Saturdays in August (before the first Exeter bypass was built) there used to be traffic jams going into Exeter past our house. I seem to remember it being two-deep whilst the traffic coming out of Exeter was running freely. This was the holiday traffic from Torquay and Cornwall on its way home I suppose. We had a good view of this from our top window, which looked out towards the city.
Streets at that time
Alphington Street, which starts after the railway bridge, used to have several shops on it after Haven Road goes off. It went as far as the old Exe Bridge, which crossed the river and went straight up Bridge Street. Cowick Street, Alphington Street and Okehampton Street all met to make one road over the bridge. Shooting Marsh Stile, which can be seen now a little way into Haven Road, had several more houses than it has now and went almost up to Exe Bridge. I can remember three or four butchers in Alphington Street and the first part of Cowick Street (as far as the station) with four or five grocers, a fish shop, two chemists, a china shop (owned by my uncle) and many other shops including quite a big millinery, clothes and haberdashery shop on the corner of Alphington Street and Cowick Street. St Thomas Station was used a lot by people going to Dawlish or Teignmouth for a day by the sea. We used to walk up to Queen Street Station (Exeter Central) and go to Exmouth for the day during the summer holidays.
Those school days
I started school when I was nearly six at Comrie House School - a private school with about 100 pupils. It was run by the Misses Warren. It had a good reputation for bringing children on well. When I was nearly ten I joined my sister at Bishop Blackall School (at the bottom of Pennsylvania Road, Thornton Hill and Blackall Road). It was then a Grammar school with nearly 400 pupils and parents had to pay for their children to go there. My parents were not well off but they wanted us all to have a good education. My brother went to Comrie and then Hele's School, which was opposite St Davids Church on the corner of New North Road. Hele's School and Bishop Blackall School joined to become St. Peter's High School after the war. Their buildings are now used by Exeter College. In those days all children had to stay at school until they were 14, but in the grammar schools and private schools most stayed until 16 or 18. I took School Certificate when I was 16 and got Exemption from Matriculation. I went into the Sixth Form for a year and did a commercial course.
We were in the bombing in the War
In 1938 my brother joined the Territorial Army as war looked imminent. When war broke out in September 1939 he was sent straight out to France and was at Dunkirk in May 1940. In April 1942 we had an air raid, which was mainly high explosive bombs. Some were dropped fairly near us. After that we had some air raid warnings but it was the incendiary raid on May 3rd or 4th 1942 which caused the most damage especially to the centre of Exeter - many beautiful old buildings were lost. May 3rd was a Sunday and a beautifully sunny day. That evening my sister and I (we were in the W.V.S - Women's Voluntary Service) were on duty in a Forces canteen in the middle of Exeter. We were making beetroot sandwiches and washing dishes. We left there about 10pm and by about 1am the centre of Exeter, including the canteen, was flattened! The following week my sister and I had to go to help make beds at a place where soldiers stayed somewhere in the Old Tiverton Road area. I can remember cycling up through Sidwell Street and seeing smouldering timber piled up in the middle of the road with room for traffic to flow left on both sides. It was amazing that the Guildhall was apparently unscathed, although the Cathedral was damaged.