, kingswear cemetery, Kingswear History Remembered, kingswear saw mills, mr roberts on November 20, 2011| 1 Comment »

Mr Roberts’ Sawmills was just inside the gate to the Higher Hoodown Lane – opposite the cemetery on the left-hand side. It consisted of an oil engine, which used to go “putt putt putt” and a belt drive to a circular saw, which may have been some 5 feet in circumference. The timber being cut into planks was from quite large trees; they were put onto a moving platform running on little rollers, which moved towards the saw blade. The trees in the wood were then grown as a crop, and when they neared the end of their lifecycles were used, not left to rot.

There were piles of sawdust all over the place. These were collected by butchers and other shopkeepers in the days of spit and sawdust (!) and the sawdust sometimes flowed out into the road. I can remember in the war, when I was in the rescue party, Brian Bovey’s father got us to dig a tunnel under the sawdust, shoring it with bits of planking. Mr Roberts was also in the Civil Defence.

The Saw Mill ended its life in the 1960s when it was run by Brian Goss of Dartmouth, an old school mate of mine, and ex member of the Military Police. He used to sell logs round the district and lost the top of some fingers as the result of his work at the Sawmills.  After we built our house and moved into “Creekside”, he gave us a present – a sign carved in chestnut wood saying “Creekside”.

(Noted compiled by Reg & Sheila Little 2003)

Kingswear History Remembered