Saint Paul's Church, Landkey

Intriguing Image of Landkey from 1964

A recent chance encounter has led to an image featuring St Paul's Church, dating from 1964, coming to light.

Landkey resident, Mrs Sue Kitching,  was out walking with her grandchildren, on 10th August 2017, when a car drew up beside her and the occupants asked if she was local and if she had lived here for very long. When she answered yes to both questions, they explained that they had recently bought a house in South Devon and, on exploring the loft, came across a calendar dated 1964. One of the entries in the calendar, month of August was of Landkey Church and Landkey Town Bridge. They cut this page from the calendar and, as they were visiting Barnstaple that day, they drove around the village to find the church.

Mrs Kitchen lives next door to Bill and Bett Parker and, realising that the image and story might be of interest to other village residents, Bett suggested that it be added to the village (and church) websites.

Bett also passed on her knowledge that the house below the church was occupied by Mr and Mrs Mills with their daughters. Mr Mills was Churchwarden for many years and they left Landkey to live in Plymouth. The house was demolished in 1964 so this would have been one of the last images of it.

She also commented that the farm across the road was owned by Mr and Mrs Hill and their family, who later moved into a bungalow in Tanners Road. Apparently there used to be a blacksmith’s shop between the farm and the stream and, according to the late Dick Joy, when the stream was in flood the water would rise high enough to put the blacksmith’s fire out.

Bett wonders, as the couple who gave their neighbour the picture said they came from South Devon but didn’t say exactly where, whether house they purchased was once owned by Mr and Mrs Mills, hence the calendar being in the loft. However, as she says, "We’ll never, know will we?"

Coincidentally, Bill and Bett were married in St Paul's Church in 1964.

The image has been uploaded onto this site and may be viewed on this page.

Holiday-makers welcome!

Schools are now breaking up for the summer and it may be that you are planning a holiday in North Devon.

If so, you will be very welcome to join us for Anglican Christian worship at our parish church. You might like to know that, on the first Sunday in the month, we hold a Family Service which is structured with families and young children in mind.

On other Sundays, Holy Communion is usually offered or a service of Morning Prayer is held.

Feel free to get in touch with us via the "Contact Us" page on this website if you would like more information before attending a service or visiting our church.

Passchendaele - centenary

A century ago, World War One was still being fought, having started in 1914, and the anniversary of one of the deadliest battles of that war falls in the next few months. 

Between 31st July and 10th November 1917, the Third Battle of Ypres (better known as Passchendaele) was being fought. Led by General Sir Douglas Haig, Allied troops in Flanders were ordered into battle with the aim of reaching the Belgian coast to destroy German submarine bases there. German blockades using submarines were threatening to cripple the British war effort.

German troops had advance warning of the Allied offensive, though, as the flat terrain in that part of northern Belgium made stealth impossible and prior bombardments had failed to disable the enemy. In addition, rainfall, the heaviest in 30 years, which began shortly after battle commenced, turned the soil into a quagmire and made progress all but impossible.

On 16th August, battle resumed but to little effect and a stalemate persisted for another month. Further, largely futile, attacks were made until the village of Passchendaele was captured by the Allies on 6th November and General Haig called off the offensive, believing that he had achieved some success.

This success, though, had come at a terrible price as Passchendaele lay just 5 miles beyond the starting point on 31st July and the lives of 325000 Allied and 260000 German soldiers had been lost.