Eva to the family:

Dear Alec June Susan and Carol,

Many thanks for my pretty nylons also Alec’s letter & June’s card. I like the coloured tops of the nylons hadn’t seen any down here like it. I had a hat & dress, also eau de cologne & three cards.

We got back after a lovely weekend about 12.20 p.m. not a drop of rain all the time. We walked miles or so it seemed. Exmouth is improved very much & the holiday bungalow is a good one, they can sleep six people, 2 double beds and a put-u-up settee in the lounge which is a good size room. The dining room & kitchen are rather small but the bedrooms are nice & there is a bathroom & lavatory. They have company’s gas & electric & water laid on & a shop near which sells everything you can think of including milk & bread. It is 22 Shelly Road & there are 200 bungalows different sizes. The people on either side of them are permanent. You go from the end of Promenade through docks & over a swing bridge & the yacht club also put their boats there.

We found everything o.k. back here. Lydia and Joe are coming for a week end in July & when they visit Exmouth again after their last let which is in Sept. they want us to go with them again for a few days. They have let Bungalow for the winter from October & are booked all Aug. next year. They have honeysuckle & flowering plants all round & a few flowers. The beds have interior sprung mattresses & are very comfortable. All the incomers have to find is their food & gas & electric which run on meters. Somerholme is looking very nice & we went out Prescott to see Pat & Eric & the children. We also went to Chettiscombe to see Eileen & John. They have half of Bridge House belonging to Mrs Moore an old aristocrat & have a lovely garden with flowering shrubs & flowers all around & even a stream running through. When we were shopping in Rolle Street Exmouth Joe felt someone tap him & turned round it was Auntie Bessie*. She has got very thin but is lively enough but very deaf. You would not know Tiverton now, down over the bridge in Westend South [?] they have pulled down the houses & made the road three times as wide & going to pull down William St. which is beside the hospital turning into Barrington St. There has been a big fire in Fore St, Timothy White & Burtons burnt down, a funny business I think.

Well I hope the girls are enjoying the nice weather now, can imagine them playing in the garden in their shorts. You do not want to bother to bring bucket & spade down, we have Susan’s which I bought her last year & I will get another for Carol. Alec can borrow a pair of pyjamas & June a night dress if that helps with the packing. June has an old pair of green slippers here & Alec can borrow Dad’s.

Pat’s youngest is being christened next Sunday so we hear.

Well I think this is all for now & thanks very much again.

Lots of love to all

From

Mum & Dad.

*This was presumably Eva and Joe’s aunt, Bessie Fewings, who would have been about 73 at the time and who died five years later.