Hawthornden (now Eastleigh Residential & Nursing Home)
The Gardener’s Cottage – No. 83 East Street, South Molton
Researched and written for South Molton Archive by Shirley Bray
Mr. Frederick Charles Linscott moved from Broadmoor near Drewsteignton to South Molton in 1932 to work as a gardener to Mr. and Mrs. Riccard of Hawthornden, East Street – Mr. Riccard was a Solicitor in the town.
Hawthornden had a large garden at the rear, which ran down from the house and continued at the bottom of the gardens of the adjoining cottages until it joined with the gardener’s cottage at No. 83 East Street. It included a large vegetable garden.
When Mr. Linscott, his wife Agnes and two sons, Jack (b. 1921) and Len (b. 1925) moved into the cottage in 1932 it had three bedrooms, a sitting room, kitchen/diner with and old range plus a scullery with a sink. There was an outside washroom and an outside toilet.
Jack Linscott began work at the International Stores in 1935 at the age of 14 and he remembers the nearby Tannery bell ringing at 7am this acted as an alarm clock and his mother would shout up the stairs “the Tannery bell’s ringing, its time to get up for work”.
When Mr. Riccard died (c. 1934/5) Mrs. Riccard offered to sell Mr. Linscott the gardener’s
cottage together with the vegetable garden. Mr. Linscott accepted the offer and
bought the property for about £400-
In 1946 an extension was built to the cottage, which included a bedroom, bathroom and downstairs sitting room. After his demob from the RAF in 1946, Jack brought his bride (Davina Mackie) to live with his parents at the cottage and their eldest daughter Maureen was born there.
Mr. Frederick Linscott sold the cottage in 1955 for approximately £3,000 to Arthur Sage who continued to work the garden and sell his homegrown vegetables at the door until his death c. 1990s.
Mr. Jack Linscott gave the above information to Shirley Bray in January 2002.