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Picture Memories

Photos from Family Collections

Photos from Family Collections
With other mammy
norman1
atnewholm
norman3
thefour
band
norman2
norm1
norm2
norm3
grantham
johntennis
beachgroup
withdog
seated
norman
car

1955 Telephone Directory

1955 Telephone Directory
LM1

Norman at his Plot

Norman at his Plot
plot1
plot3
plot2
estuary

Old print of Combeinteignhead

Old print of Combeinteignhead
normanlilian


Uncle's Dream
(After a visit with Thalia 1998)
Glebeland, Combinteignhead

From the lane we climbed the five-bar gate then down
Around the hairpin bend and past the clapped-out Rover
Mothballed, "for the better times ahead". Then on through
The high grass and nettles to the row of shacks, intact
After twenty years. But nature was closing in.

The farthest shack, his den, stands by the power-pole
That, later in his tenure, brought him light and warmth,
And made his oil utilities redundant. Yet the Primus stove
And its old kettle, a relic even in his time, was still there,
Despite the bedsit-Belling and the electric kettle.
Primus tea was fun, a reminder of his times on the moor.

On the shelf a row of blackened saucepans, plates
And tin cups, now the homes and traps for spiders and beetles.
And more poignant yet, the chair, his chair, though decrepit
And threadbare, looking strangely special against the others
In this den-womb; his basking corner of Devon.

The vision that brought you here was not fulfilled;
the market garden was never fully planted out. Too many chats
with us avidly chasing a piece of your dream as,
seated on the plank supported by plant pots, we took our turns.
to bask in the sun and watch your time drift away,
like the steam from our mugs of tea.

Maurice Bird

Norman's wedding 1963

Norman's wedding 1963
Norman and Helen with from left
Iris Lilian Dorothy May (mother) Dorothy Feodora (Helen's sister) witness at the wedding and Thora

Gladys Helen 1969

Gladys Helen 1969

Widecombe Cross

Widecombe Cross

Helen at the pool Little Meadow

Helen at the pool Little Meadow

With Dorothy Bate (sister in law) seated left

With Dorothy Bate (sister in law) seated left
group

Christmas 1975

Christmas 1975