Feel free to send us any additional information…there are plenty of gaps to fill!

Credit must go to Joyce Heath and Jean Feloy for editing a lovely book detailing the project of making the quilted Parish Map that hangs in Landscove Victory Hall.

Some interesting details of a 1986 BBC Documentary on Landscove called Domesday Reloaded can be found here

A fascinating history of the Mitchmore family can be read below and contains many interesting references to Landscove.

Below is a document put together by Don and Julia Hayllor who farmed in Landscove for many years and have put together some recollections of their experiences – thank you!

The house was built on land owned by the Church Commissioners and with funds given by Miss Champernowne of Dartington Hall who also paid for the building of the church. The house and church were designed by the ecclesiastical architect, John Loughborough Pearson, who also designed Truro cathedral and the old cathedral in Brisbane, Australia. After it ceased to be a vicarage, it was bought by Mary and Edward Hyams. Edward Hyams was a very famous garden writer and plantsman of the 1950s and 1960s and was also an anarchist. This may be the only time Landscove has been home to an anarchist! He re-designed the garden and re-planted it and wrote a book about it called The Englishman’s Garden. After he and his wife divorced, the house had two other owners and the garden was rather neglected, though it did have a ride-on model train going round it at one time! Raymond Hubbard started restoring the garden when he took over in 1981 and the layout remains as Hyams designed it. Some of his planting is still here, including a Magnolia given to him by Agatha Christie.

Formerly part of the Sparkwell Manor at the time of the Domesday Survey (and not owned by the church), Beara is now a tiny hamlet of 6 properties dating back to the 17th century, some of which were built as properties for farm workers. The current agricultural buildings date from the 1960’s when Tom and Sandra Hext developed a respected pig farm. The set-up was so highly regarded in relation to advances in design and technology that they were visited by agricultural students from Plymouth. Most pig meat was sold to the Harris Meat Factory in Totnes and Tom and Sandra even featured in a 1986 BBC documentary called Domesday Reloaded. In 2010 the farmhouse was sold after Tom and Sandra built a new home nearby – their son still tends sheep who graze around the now-empty buildings of the pig farm.

An extract from a website dedicated to the Mitchmore family: “Fred Mitchmore and Rose Tucker went to live at Landscove in the parish of Staverton, where their only son, Stanley Douglas, was born in 1927, in a house named Memory Shop (named after the blacksmith’s shop situated opposite the signpost to Staverton and Totnes). In 1931, Fred, Rose and Stan moved into a newly-built council house diagonally opposite across the crossroads. Four houses were built on a field named Beara Park, with a further two built after the Second World War.  The area was known as Beara Park for several years, until it began to be known as Memory Cross, a name which survives to the present day.”

Memory Cross is the postcode border for Landscove and Staverton. The council houses referred to in the article above are situated in Landscove while the houses on the opposite side are still known as Hillcroft, Staverton (formerly the site of a successful cider orchard/business owned by the Hill family who lived at Barkingdon Manor at the time).

Formerly part of the Sparkwell Manor at the time of the Domesday Survey (and not owned by the church) Barkingdon is the only manor within the Parish to retain its manorial rights. Predating 1066, the manorhouse today (built 1874) stands very close to the original. An old stone font in the garden may well have come from the chapel of the orginal building. The Manor was gifted to the de Berkadone family by William the Conqueror and from which the name Barkingdon is though to derive. More recently, the plan for the beautiful quilted Parish Map was put together in a meeting at Barkingdon Manor on July 29th 1993.

The 18th century Wolston Green House used to be the village shop and post office run by Frank & Elizabeth Church who delivered groceries, milk and newspapers to the local villages. The shop first opened in the 1920s and was run by the Church family from 1948 until its closure in 2000 (only the small post box remains). In 2000 on the north-east side of the green four large properties were build on what was formerly known as Baker’s Orchard because there was once both an old bakery and an apple orchard. In the early 1970s seven new houses were build to the south-west of the green and into Pennywell Close.

An extract from a website dedicated to the Mitchmore family: “Edgar Jackman married Ethel Michelmore in 1931 at Staverton. Edgar’s father was the publican at The Live & Let Live Inn in Landscove. Edgar was an engineer, but later took over from his father as the publican of The Live & Let Live Inn. Edgar had a large workshop at the rear of the inn where he repaired the village bicycles in his spare time. Also, there was a fairly large piece of land behind the inn where he and his sister, Dora, grew tomatoes and cucumbers in large greenhouses and supplied them to the village. Ethel and Edgar lived at 5 Memory Cross; they had no children. Ethel died in 1937, having caught tuberculosis from her younger sister, Ada. She was buried at Landscove Church with one of the largest number of floral tributes ever seen there. Edgar died nearly 50 years later, in 1986; his ashes are interred at Landscove Church, close to the grave of his brother-in-law Fred.”

Formerly part of the ancient Sparkwell Manor at the time of the Domesday Survey (and not owned by the church) the name Blackler Barton was first recorded in 1219 and means ‘Black Alders’ (Barton meaning farm). The Wolston family owned Blackler for many years from the early middle-ages until the nineteenth century. The coat of arms shows a shield with six baskets of apples. In 1809 the hamlet was referred to as Blacklow on the Ordenance Survey map. In 1961 the Hayllor family bought Blackler Barton and farmed dairy and cereals. This was the largest farm (600 acres) in Landscove and included recreational riding stables for hunting and hacking (in 1986 there were 23 horses). The Hayllors and their eight children sold the farm and the dairy buildings were converted into four residences. The farm house is now a stunning B&B while Andy Hayllor now runs the successful Gullaford farm next door!

Known as Gidlaford in 1809 (as seen on an old Ordenance Survey map) Gullaford Farm is now an organic farm providing vegetables and grains to Riverford Farm for retail. The farm is run by Andrew Hayllor.

A collection of houses and cottages form the cluster of properties now known as Thornecroft.  The adjacent cottages were constructed for workers at the Penn Recca slate quarry in the early/middle of the nineteenth century and number 3 has been in the ownership of the Webber family since 1901 (the first owner perished in WWI and is recorded on Landscove war memorial). When the Webber’s bought the cottage in 1901 it was known as Pethick’s cottages but is now called the Angel and North Cottages. The main house, Thornecroft, was believed to have been built in 1820-30 as home to an important quarry employee (possibly the manager).  The slate mine was later closed in 1897. Years later Thornecroft was divided into two homes (Little Thornecroft and Thornecroft House). The stables were once part of Little Thornecroft and wooden stall posts are evident in the living room wall. Mounting steps can also be seen in the garden wall of Thornecroft House which until recently, was run as a B&B.