Reg’s days before Sandy Bay or trains

Littleham’s Reg Hill has just turned 100. This week we start a series of articles about his memories of life in the village. David Beasley reports

• THEN: Littleham village as it was when centenarian Reg Hill was growing up. He lived at 4 Brook Cottages.

• NOW: Photographer Simon Horn attempts to match the scene to today’s view. Ref: P2454-13-06SH

• ABOUT 1911 outside 4 Brook Cottages, Littleham. Mum Maud, dad Sam, sister Nelly and Reg.

CENTENARIAN Reg Hill is a veritable living history book – having lived in Littleham continuously since 1911 – and has seen many changes during his lifetime.

"When I was a boy, Littleham WAS Exmouth," he says. "Along with Withycombe, it was the centre of everything and the town you see now sprang from those two communities."

His parents, his younger brother and sister moved from Exton when he was just five years old, when they were among the first families to move into the first council houses in the area, the Tythe Cottages.

Growing up in a small Devon community at the turn of the last century meant that only the well-off had running water, but despite that Reg remembers bath time with fond memories. "We used to bathe in this huge tin bath and my mother put it in front of the hearth to keep warm," he says.

While many towns had electricity, life for many was akin to living in the dark ages. "During the winter, it got dark so early," said Reg. "We had to rely on candles and gas lanterns and we always looked forward to summer."

Naturally, without mains water, there was no toilet and Reg and his family had to use outdoor latrines. "Everyone in the village used to pour everything into the brook," he recalls.
Even the roads were little more than dirt tracks and, as horses and carts travelled through the village, clouds of dust hung in the air, covering everything.

"My boots were filthy all the time, just covered in dirt, so I used to wash them in the brook. Dad always used to give me a real hiding."

Sandy Bay was far from the holiday destination it is today, and Reg recalls that then the only way to the bay was via the cliffs, now Straight Point, by being lowered by rope and ensuring your feet found purchase on the footholds.

"Orcombe Point was also very different," he says. "I remember thousands of tons of sand transported from Exmouth in carts and dumped on Orcombe Point to make the beach."
However, some changes didn't last and, in his lifetime, Reg witnessed the East Budleigh to Exmouth railway line proposed, built, opened, used, closed and built over.

He always considered himself fortunate that his age meant that he avoided fighting in the Great War because he was too young and in the Second World War because he was too old. But he remembers that some of Littleham's residents weren't so lucky.

"I was always very fond of horses," says Reg. "But one day some of the Shire horses that ploughed the fields just disappeared. It turns out that they had been acquisitioned by the army to pull guns between the trenches.

"When they came back, they weren't the same. You could see the horses were disturbed and I even thought they were crying. They were shell shocked."

A great tradition in the village was farmer turned master cider maker Tom Marks and his annual brewing of his pungent scrumpy with an antiquated cider press.

"Straw and apples were all he used. We tried making our own cider and used to steal the apples from his orchard.

"When he caught us, he would always give all of us a good clip round the ear. But he used to make good cider. Even the pigs liked it. They would eat all the leftover fermented apples and you would see these huge pigs stumbling around drunk!"

Stealing apples wasn't the only nocturnal mischief Reg enjoyed and he chuckled as he recalls that he and his old school friend Les Franks, who started off as golf caddy at East Devon Golf Course before moving to Canada, used to make life hell for the village's gas lamp lighter.

"We used to follow him around and every time he turned around we hid. As soon as he had lit a lamp, we used to put it out. The poor fellow didn't know what was going on!"