An illustrated talk on Tuesday 1st October 2024, at 7 pm for 7.30 pm at Salcombe Rugby Club, Camperdown Road, Salcombe, TQ8 8AX. Everyone welcome, members free, £5 non-members. Bar open.

2025 Calendar – On Sale Now!

Our 2025 Calendar is On Sale Now for £9.99. Printed on high quality glossy paper, every month features beautiful large images of Salcombe. An ideal present for anyone who loves Salcombe. For sale at Ashby’s of Salcombe, Bonningtons Salcombe, Salcombe Information Centre, Salcombe Maritime Museum and at the Spar on Loring Road. Also available to buy online.

With special thanks to our sponsors: Luscombe May, Fred Inch and the Claire Louise, Salcombe Maritime Museum, The Kings Arms Salcombe, Bowers Wines & Spirits Salcombe, The Salcombe Coffee Company, Salcombe Information Centre, The Winking Prawn Beach Cafe & BBQ, Marchand Petit, Maha-Bharat Indian Restaurant Kingsbridge and Cafe Asia Kingsbridge.

History Society Photo Albums
As well as our extensive online collection of historic images of Salcombe, its landscape and villages around Salcombe which may be accessed via our website, the Society has a fine selection of photos on display in its photo albums which you can view at Salcombe Maritime Museum and at events where the Society has a stand, such as the South Hams Vintage Rally and Crabfest. These photos may be purchased, A3 size at £8 plus £4 P&P and A4 size at £4 plus £3 P&P. Contact us to find out more.

The Man under the Radar

There will be a presentation about Jack Nissenthall, “The Man under the Radar”, and his biography by his daughter Linda Nissen Samuels on Thursday 26th September 2024, at 2 pm at The Cottage Hotel, Hope Cove, TQ7 3HJ. To attend the presentation please call The Cottage Hotel on 01548 561555 to book your place.

In November 1941, Jack requisitioned The Cottage Hotel in Hope Cove as a billet for personnel at the Bolt Head radar station. He was a RAF electronics and radar expert who played a key role in Operation Jubilee, the Dieppe Raid, which took place on 19th August 1942.

Jack’s mission was to enter Pourville radar station and obtain vital intelligence on the new Nazi Freya radar system. He was escorted by 11 servicemen from the South Saskatchewan Regiment, whose orders were to protect him – but if he was in danger of being captured – to kill him. Jack’s technical expertise was such that he could not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Nazis.

Pourville radar station was strongly defended and the unit could not fight their way in, so Jack crawled to the rear of the station under fierce enemy fire. There, he cut all its telephone wires, forcing the crew inside to communicate via radio transmissions which were then intercepted by Allied listening posts on the south coast of Britain. As the mission ended, only Jack and one other servicemen from his small unit were able to return safely.

As a result of Jack Nissenthall’s actions – and the bravery and sacrifice of the men who accompanied him – the Allies gained vital intelligence about the type, density and location of Nazi radar installations along the Channel coast. Allied commanders were persuaded that developing rated jamming countermeasures was critical to the Allied war effort. Jack helped develop this technology after the Dieppe Raid.

Salcombe’s Grandest Properties: Marine Hotel and Cliff House

Marine Hotel (formerly Ringrone and now Salcombe Harbour Hotel)
A quirk of inheritance brought a noble Irish family to Salcombe. John de Courcy, whose widowed mother lived here, inherited the title of Baron Kingsale about 1834. Six years later he built a villa on a site south of The Grange and closer to the sea. It can be seen in an early photograph of the Marine Hotel in James Fairweather’s Salcombe and Neighbourhood, a two-storeyed Georgian ‘box’ with four sash windows in both storeys. This builder also made terraces below the house. Baron Kingsale and two of his sons rest in an imposing tomb in Malborough churchyard; but the sons did not inherit Ringrone and the house was enlarged into the hotel.

Anne Born, The History of Kingsbridge and Salcombe, Orchard Publications, 2002, republished 2019, page 161

In 1887, a hotel company, owned by the Earl of Devon, and managed by Major Bennett of Woodcot purchased, and set about converting, the former home of Baron Kingsale into the Marine Hotel, which opened in June 1889.

Cliff House

Between The Grange and Ringrone House another building existed before 1774, Cliff House. In its gardens rose the first giant aloe in Salcombe. A later resident, Mrs Prideaux, terraced the gardens on the seaward side of Cliff Road, reached then as at Woodville across a bridge. After her death a Londoner named Heriot pulled down this house and built the present red-brick version, which houses the Yacht Club, Salcombe Library, and keeps ground-floor rooms for use by dramatic societies, dances or the organisers of jumble sales.

Anne Born, The History of Kingsbridge and Salcombe, Orchard Publications, 2002, republished 2019, page 162

In the early 1900’s Andrew McIlwraith – a retired shipping magnate – purchased the recently-built Cliff House for his daughter, in the hope of luring her down from London. His plan failed and he decided instead to place the building in Trust, to help provide a permanent home for the Salcombe Yacht Club, of which he was a founder member. He allocated other rooms in the building for the use of the people of Salcombe. https://www.cliffhousesalcombe.com/heritage/

Roger Barrett, 2024

Contact Us
The Society welcomes information, images, documents, and questions about Salcombe’s history. Please contact us at info@salcombehistorysociety.co.uk.