Hello all.
I spent along time trying to find out where Beedle's Terrace was in Exeter. My Great Grandfather Harold Hopkins and his siblings grew up there, and several other relations of his lived their too. Having never thought I would find it's location, I happened to spy an old street sign out the corner of my eye, whilst walking down the High Street in the city center. It read 'Rackclose Lane leading to Beedle's Terrace'. I was stunned!! I walked down cobbled Rackclose Lane where I expected to see at the end of it, a very old Terrace of houses. However, I was disappointed to see 1970s style apartments. I have actually seen them many times before, but I never knew that Beedle's Terrace stood there first. I knocked on somebodies door. A man greeted me and I asked 'Can you tell me where Beedl'es Terrace is?' (I asked that as I wanted to sound as if I causally needed directions). The man explained that the Terrace was a large old building, with a number of rooms inside, kind of like an old fashioned apartment complex. It was demolished in the early 70s.
Another house that was home to 3 generations of Hopkins including an all-grown-up and married-with-kids Harold Hopkins still stands. I have visited it on Exeter's historic Stepcote Hill. I even knocked on the door the other week and handed old photographs of the house, along with a select-few with my family in, to the current occupier.
My GG Grandfather Thomas John Hill's Butcher's Shop (No. 6, The Polygon) in Clapham is now a fashionable restaurant and also, my Great Aunt inhabits the house in which my Great Grandparnets Cecil and Winifred Hill lived in Exeter until their deaths in the 80s. At the moment, I'm living in the house in Pinhoe, Exeter, which my father and his siblings grew up in. My Nan moved them here from Canada in the 70s. A few years back my parents swapped homes with my Nan. My parents still live here about 4 months of the year, but I'm the only resident at the moment as they're always on holiday!!
Ryan.
