Ilfracombe - Capstone Hill. And Damien Hirst.

$Ilfracombe - Capstone Hill. And Damien Hirst.$

            The Postcard

A postally unused Art Colour Series postcard that was published after June 1918 by Valentine & Sons Ltd. of Dundee and London. They state on the divided back of the card that the image is reproduced from an original water colour by Brian Gerald.

The card was printed in Great Britain.

The Victoria Pavilion

Note the glass pavilion on the right.

The Victoria Pavilion was designed by a local man, W. H. Gould, and completed in 1888.  It was built from glass and iron in the style of the great private conservatories and of the Crystal Palace which housed the Great Exhibition.

The Victoria Pavilion was demolished in the 1990's.

Ilfracombe

The novelist Frances Burney stayed in Ilfracombe in 1817. Her diary entries record early 19th-century life in Ilfracombe: a captured Spanish ship; two ships in distress in a storm; the visit of Thomas Bowdler; and her lucky escape after being cut off by the tide. 

A few years later in the 1820's, a set of four tunnels were hand-carved by Welsh miners to permit access to the beaches by horse-drawn carriage as well as on foot. Previously access was gained by climbing the cliffs, rounding the point by boat, swimming or at the lowest tides clambering around the rocks of the point. 

These tunnels led to a pair of tidal pools, which in accordance with Victorian morals, were used for segregated male and female bathing. Whereas women were constrained to a strict dress code covering up the whole body, men generally swam naked. The tunnels are still viewable, and are signposted as Tunnels Beaches.

In 1856 writer Mary Ann Evans (pen-name George Eliot) accompanied George Henry Lewes to Ilfracombe to gather materials for his work Seaside Studies published in 1858. 

In more recent times actor Peter Sellers lived in the town when his parents managed the Gaiety Theatre. He first stepped on the stage there, and reputedly played the drums. Another actor Terry Thomas visited the town frequently to stay with his sister, and in the same period, Joan and Jackie Collins were schooled here and boarded in the town. 

In the last two decades, the town has been home to many artists including Damien Hirst, and George Shaw, a runner up for the Turner Prize. 

There is an annual art festival when local artists open their homes for visitors to see their work, and up to 10 permanent art galleries. 

The town's first lifeboat was bought in 1828, but a permanent service was not available until the Royal National Lifeboat Institution built a lifeboat station at the bottom of Lantern Hill near the pier in 1866. The present station at Broad Street dates from 1996.

In 1911, the Irish nationalist Anna Catherine Parnell (sister of Charles Stewart Parnell) drowned at Ilfracombe, and is buried in the churchyard at Holy Trinity.

Miss Alice Frances Louisa Phillips (born on the 26th. January 1891 at 85 High Street, Ilfracombe) and her father Mr Escott Robert Phillips (born in 1869 in Cardiff) held 2nd. Class Ticket No. 2 on the Titanic, and set sail from Southampton on the 10th. April 1912 heading for New Brighton, Pennsylvania. Alice was rescued in boat 12, but her father was lost in the disaster.

The Great Fire of Ilfracombe

The Great Fire of Ilfracombe started on the night of the 28th. July 1896 in the basement of Mr. William Cole's ironmongery and furniture shop on the corner of Fore Street and Portland Street.

In total 35 houses and business premises were destroyed.  Later that year the local volunteer firemen who attended the fire were presented with medals and £2 each at a dinner in their honour at the Royal Clarence Hotel.

Since 1896 there have been at least 10 other major fires in Ilfracombe, the most recent occurring in April 2008.

Taken on: April 5, 2021

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