Mutters Head - One Mans View
MUTTERS HEAD – ONE MANS VIEW
BY J M GARDINER
As a lad of seven I was brought up in Sidmouth in the early 30’s. Days when gentlemen visitors with their wives, staying at the seafront hotels, took strolls along the promenade on warm summer evenings.
Gentlemen in their dinner jackets with cigars, ladies with long evening dresses taking in the air, both before and after dinner.
Days when the Duchess of Devonshire paddle steamer ran her bows up onto the foreshore, to drop and pick up passengers along the coastline. Until, sadly, she ended up like a beached whale stuck having dragged her mooring anchor unable to get off the beach with incoming swell and rough sea she broke up and finished her days sadly in pieces.
As a lad with lots of my local pals, mostly gone today, we helped pull up the herring drifters after slipping wooden weighs under the bows of boats hauled by capstans round and round, all hands to the windlass arms to park them safely high on the shore. Unloading herrings in to boxes to be sold and distributed to fishmongers far and wide. Our reward, a string of fresh fish.
Rowing fishing boats loaded with baited lobster pots to pick up and relay new pots on positions off Chitt Rocks and Ladram Bay and Chiselbury with a local fisherman sitting smugly puffing on his pipe shouting directions to the drop unconcerned of the sweat dripping from the brows of his two young oarsmen.
As a lad collecting seagulls eggs from nest sites under Peak Hill and even swinging on the end of a rope from High Peak, a basket tied to the waist unaware of the danger presenting itself. I now cringe in fear at the thought of what we did. Thus our knowledge of the coast was absolutely clear.
A number of years ago severe westerly storms struck along the coast removing all the shingle and severely damaging the seafront. Thus it came to pass, as I sat upon the seafront wall, I was joined by a couple of elderly visitors who sat next to me. I was asked if I lived locally and in conversation they were interested in the local history. Of the fact that Queen Victoria stayed here as a child, the Duke of Connaught had his summer retreat at Sidmouth.
Smuggling also was raised. I recorded that Dr Gerald Gibbons, our family doctor and also a local historian, had told me of things he had recorded from tales of Jack Rattenbury and his smuggling gang, who operated along the coast from Beer Village to Budleigh Salterton in cahoots with Mutters family at Ladram Bay, bringing smuggled goods ashore at safe points when the duty men were absent. Boats arriving, given the all clear signal by lanterns fitted with lengths of pipe attached, once pointed seaward the light was only visible from the end of the pipe in the direction it was pointed and by covering the end of the pipe with ones hand and exposing the number of flashes, seen by those approaching boats signalled either safety or danger. Muttersmoor so called because of the fear of locals caught on the Moor when contraband was being transported or buried in pits among the gorse for safety.
Having related these tales I also added that he told me, they do say, that Abe Mutters can be seen on misty nights as a ghost still looking out to sea watching for his boats. My story ended with being asked where is Ladram Boy? I pointed in the direction and turned my head to be greeted by the sight of the rock formation obviously caused by a section of the rock that had slipped into the sea, sculpting into a perfect smugglers head formation. I was greeted by crowds of passers by wanting to know, what we were looking at – I said this is Sidmouth’s answer to Americas Mount Rushmore, so I named it Mutters Head, the perfect sculpture of the head, beard, hair, ears, eyes and nose. Reporting it to the Sidmouth local newspaper a picture was published, but of poor quality alas, with my account and my picture. With great difficulty I recorded this with photographs in a series taken by me on my camcorder, my main idea was to get someone to get a clear picture of the head for posterity and possibly a painting of same before another storm wiped out what it had exposed.
A good few years later, in early April 2005 to be exact, my wife and I went in to the White Horse Café for a meal and coffee, we found that the café had been refurbished by the proprietor and new pictures adorned the walls. One in particular, a wonderful clear picture, showing Jacobs Ladder Beach and low and behold Ladram Bay – Picket Rocks – and a beautiful clear picture of the head I had been seeking. A number of customers asked what I was looking at – and were equally astonished by the clarity of the head. I was told by the café proprietor he had not noticed the head even though so clear. I was told that the photographer lived at the shop Puddleducks, just a few yards away, subsequently I met the photographer Mr Mike Parkin, who confessed having taken the photograph and had published a number of the photos he could not understand how he had missed seeing such a clear picture of Mutters Head in his photo.
Copyright J M Gardiner. Mutters Head One Mans View.
Copyright M L Parkin – Sidmouthwebsite – this article is copyright
including all photographic images and may not be copied or reproduced or
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the copyright owners J M Gardiner. Michael Leonard Parkin Sidmouth Website.
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POEM ‘THE CHANGING FACE OF SIDMOUTH’
a poem by John Meiklejohn Gardiner
When I was a young lad, with chums from my school
We carved wooden feather boats to sail on Ham Pool
Played on the beaches, hid under the boats
Kicked footballs with goal posts marked with piled coats
Hold on a moment – there’s something quite wrong!
The playing fields here but the boating pools gone.
Roller skate on the seafront, crawl up the storm drains
Splash in the puddles whenever it rained
Leap from the esplanade down on the stones
Never a thought that we might break our bones
Hold on a moment – there’s something quite wrong!
The beach is still here but the pebbles have gone.
In high summer holidays we’d help on Maers farm
Stacking the corn stooks or play in the barn
Go looking for lost balls on Sidmouths golf course
And round off the day riding Charlie Maers horse
Hold on a moment - there’s something quite wrong!
Their old cottage is still here but the working farms gone.
I recall starting work at the old Star Supplies Stores
With the 6th Airborne Division served in the last war
Served D-Day at Normandy with glider born troops
And marched many a mile in my old ammo boots
Hold on a moment - there’s something now wrong!
The Airborne Division’s with us but the gliders have gone
Some things have vanished but others remain
What we’ve lost on the swings is the roundabouts gain
Now in my seventies with a lifetime of dreams
I reflect on the past and what might have been
Hold on a moment – Let’s be of good cheer
Sid Valleys alive, Sidmouth’s still here.
Copyright J M Gardiner Copyright Photos/images – Sidmouth Website email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Our thanks to White Horse Café, Sidmouth – image in their premises