History is not history without hearing stories from people who were actually there. In this section, you can find what others had to say about there memories on the town during different periods. To send in your memories for others to read, please use the contact us section as we would love to hear from you. Also a very big thank you to all those who have sent us material to use on the History of Exmouth. 

 

W. Birkinshaw 

"Dear Exmouth

The open air swimming pool brought back happy memories, I learnt to swim with the school in 1938, and spent most Sunday afternoons there.  My most vivid memory was in August 1940 when in the boys' dressing room on hearing gun fire we all rushed out and watched a Mescherschmitt shoot down a Lysander right above our heads, during the war a bomb dropped in the empty pool and bounced over the road and exploded in the gardens.  The funniest event was in the summer of 1944 when an American pioneer regiment took over the pool one Sunday afternoon, and all the mixed nationalities were jumping from the diving boards (like a Giles cartoon) and most could not swim.

It was the war years I used the pool mostly, it was the only place to swim except the Exe at Mudbank Lane, for the whole seafront was covered in barbed wire and the beach mined.  Phil Harris was our idol, he was a powerful swimmer and represented Devon, the baby crabs around the ledge of the pool and the cold water is what I remembered well.  The terrible events that occurred especially the bombing at the parade of shops by 3 Mescherschmitts 109s and 3 Fokker Wolfs, I was at the top of Park Road and picked up two cannon shell cases which were still warm.  One Saturday I saw Eisenhower, Tedder and Bradley standing outside the Park Hotel watching American troops returning from Slapton Ley, Joe Louis gave a boxing display at Cranford rugby ground.  The American bombers returning late in the afternoons emitting smoke and the propellers swinging loosley, and all the different colour flares going up was a spectacle.  Dispite all the misery there was some comical events."