Every Friday I send out an email that features photos from the Rupert Leach Collection, snaps taken from the personal View-Master reels of View-Master’s Director of Photography in the 1940s and 50s. These never-before-published images show alternative shots of some commercial View-Master reels and some personal photos of Leach and his wife, Poppy.
This week’s reel takes us to “Clovelly + Brisharn,” I guess except that second place does not exist. And Clovelly is a fishing town in both the UK and Australia! So I had some digging to do.
For the sake of argument, I went with Clovelly in the UK. Rupert and Poppy were from the UK and a good many of the reels included in this lot were taken in the UK. Also, the official website of Clovelly convinced me I’m looking at at least *some* of the same places as in this reel. Once I started to dig in, I was relieved to be right (because I didn’t want to have start my research all over again).
Clovelly is a privately owned harbour village in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The settlement and surrounding land belongs to John Rous who inherited it from his mother in 1983. He belongs to the Hamlyn family who have managed the village since 1738.
The village, which is built into the wooded sea cliffs of the north Devon shore, has a steep pedestrianised cobbled main street with traditional architecture. Due to the gradients, donkeys (now mostly replaced with sledges) have been used to move goods and cargo from Clovelly Bay. Visitors to the village entering via the visitor centre are required to pay an entrance fee which covers parking, entrance to two museums, Clovelly Court gardens, and an audiovisual history guide. The village is a tourist destination and is host to an annual Lobster and Crab festival.
This is probably not in Clovelly but somewhere nearby. Compare this image with this one! This cottage appears to be typical of others in Devon, England, where this reel was photographed.
Getty Images has a more recent photo of this harbor.
Today, this is the Dartmouth Museum in Dartmouth, Devon. From Wikipedia:
Dartmouth Museum… displays and chronicles the history of the port of Dartmouth. It moved to its current location in the 1950s and is housed in a merchant's house which, in 1671, entertained Charles II and [was] where he held court during a storm [that] forced him to stay in the port.
The museum was refurbished during the winters of 2010 and 2011 and has a large collection of models of sailing ships, and of ships in bottles.
And the modern photo from Wiki Commons:
I can’t tell you how delighted I am that I found this! Anyway, we love a little history! Also, since Dartmouth is near Brixham, this adds to my theory that he wrote Brixham wrong on the label, maybe?
This reel, like so many, doesn’t feature anything overtly personal. However, when I looked at the commercial Clovelly reel (single reel No. 1045), I noticed it had a decidedly local flavor with lots of people featured in the photos. It was a neat departure from so many vacation reels that are just filled with landscapes. I wanted to share this little time capsule with you (and note that these shots may well have been taken by Rupert Leach, possibly on the same trip as illustrated above).
The Clovelly donkeys moved people and things around the very steep streets of the village for . This practice just stopped in 2023, and sleds are now used to move goods around. However, the donkeys are still a big deal and you can even visit them (you can see them in the video I link at the end of this post). The donkeys are also on Facebook, obviously.
Clovelly has been a fishing village forever.
And, to give you a sense of Clovelly today, here’s a fairly chill travel video I found helpful:
I have had a very long week at a work conference and I was *almost* too tired to pull this one off. But I’m glad I did. Learning about century-old fishing villages is a good way to relax after a long work trip!
If you made it this far you should smash that ❤️ button, so I know you’re out there and following along.
Thanks for reading, friends!
I so wish I had my many sets of reels from the 50’s and 60’s
Nicely researched, as always! At first glance, I thought the Dartmouth Museum was adjacent to a river, since the road was so wet. Also, VM photogs have seemingly always loved shots of boats.