| |
|
| |
Recent Torquay photos taken by Janice and Spencer together November 2003
Recent London, Widecombe and Mansands photos taken by Janice
Please send in any more you may have of the original family properties
..............................................................................................................................................
It was lovely to drive around Torquay with my newly found cousins Spencer and Sue, we hadn't met up for over fifty years. They showed me all the family properties including the Hotel of their Grandfather Charles Childs. The photos were originally for Spencer's site, now transferred here. Sadly the initial enthusiasm & friendships have not survived - Spencer's decision, who influenced Sue and the rest of the Bird family.......
Claire and I went to Mansands and recalled our childhood memories as we explored the outside of the cottages and surrounding area.
Equally exciting was the meeting with Thalia in London and our tour around Westminster visiting all the Bird and Goldsmilth haunts, it was like re - living our grandparents' history. Janice
|
|
Spencer with his camera the day we took the photos |  |
|
Photo Janice Carrera
More photos of homes appreciated from those in the family who live in the Torquay area |
|
|
 | Harry Bird's Pastry and Confectionery shop
215 Vauxhall Bridge Road Westminster
In the 1902 Kelly's Directory he was described
as a Confectioner but he also sold tobacco and newspapers |
|
Photo taken by Janice and Thalia on their family history walk around Westminster
click to view walk
|
|
1914 Telephone Directory |  |
|
|
 | 'William' Bird Stationers & Newsagent
133 Praed Street Westminster in 1904
Harry was described as a
Master Stationer in Kelly's
as well as a Confectioner in Vauxhall Bridge Road |
|
| |
| |
Praed Street today |  |
|
| |
|
| |
| |
| |
 | Adyar today
Photo Janice |
|
1931 Telephone Directory |  |
|
Harry appeared as the proprietor of Adyar in the BT phone book from 1931 when his youngest daughter was around seven, then all through the war years until 1945. From 1946 until 1950 (the year of his death) he appeared at
Little Meadow. |
|
|
| |
| |
I remember making toffee on a gas ring with Thalia, Iris and Joy in the empty conservatory by the front door of Esdaile and setting it in large cockle shells.
The large mirror in the other conservatory at the back fell on mother cutting the front of one ankle. She was left with a bad scar and mother said no doctor was called for as far as I remember. Thalia
|
|
 | Esdaile today
Photo Janice |
|
|
Maidencombe House Hotel |  |
|
BT Telephone Directory |  |
|
| |
|
| | JOHN CALLCOTT HORSLEY, best known as the designer of the first Christmas card. In 1857, lived at Orestone Lodge, he painted a portrait of his famous brother in law, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. Brunel first came to Torquay in the course of his work as the chief engineer of the Great Western Railway. He then decided to take his wife there for a holiday and before long they were planning to make it their permanent home. He lived for a while at Watcombe Villa, and then moved to Portland Villa, (later called the Maidencombe House Hotel and since demolished).
The card shows the feeding and clothing of the poor on each side, and in the centre there is a happy family having a drink and enjoying Christmas festivities.
The words printed on the card were 'A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year To You' - so not a lot has changed since!
The card went down so well , that in 1843, some 1,000 of the cards were produced for commercial sale at a shilling each - making it the first recorded mass production Christmas card.
However, not everyone approved. Puritans objected to the picture showing people raising a glass to Christmas. But their objections were swept aside and the rest, as they say, is history!
|
|
| |
|
Maidencombe House today - Luxury Flats |  |
|
| | Maidencombe House is a prestigious Purpose Built Development of luxury APARTMENTS standing on the fringe of Torquay with beautiful communal gardens incorporating an ornamental pond and an outdoor heated swimming pool for all residents to enjoy.
( The swimming pool is the same as we remember when the Hotel was owned by our family , Lynne often took her children there to swim ) |
|
|
 | 102 Chatto Road
House rented by Harry Bird
for Thalia and Irving
Photo Spencer |
|
I remember Thalia being brought to our house at big Ideen after the road accident on the way to Exeter airport and her stretched out on the deep blue chaise longue in our front room looking very pale and barely conscious . As far as I remember there was no doctor called.
I remember visits to Chatto Road.Irving was rarely there. Chatto Road always seems very temporary to me not many personal things, it did not feel like a home. Harry picked up the pieces after the death. Thalia
|
|
|
Mansands Coastguard Cottages |  |
|
| |
A sailor Henry T Stephens on HMS Hercules at Greenock gives Mansands as his home in 1881.
|
|
| |
Harry's vegetable gardens |  |
|
View of the Boathouse |  |
|
The view today |  |
|
Homemade boat built in the boathouse |  |
|
| |
Janice and Claire at Mansands |  |
|
| |
|
Byrd Business 1981 |  |
|
| |
| |
|
| |
| |
