I have memories of more characters of Axminster, many of which will appear in further episodes of 'Moulding's Memories'. However, I will just mention one or two who come to mind, before I look at Families of Axminster.

JACK CHICK

I remember Jack Chick as the overlord of the dispensary at the Axminster Doctors' Surgery. Jack was a small dapper man and a chain smoker – but he certainly knew how to run the dispensary. He generally manned the counter and moved briskly around his domain, finding your prescription with little fuss.

I believe he lived in the Woodbury Lane area, where as a teenager I used to frequent the Woodbury Hall Socials at which I used to come into contact with John Chick, who was Jack's son.

I seem to remember that the Woodbury Hall Social dances were held on Friday nights, once a month. We would walk, or scrounge a lift, up to the Hunters Lodge pub, have a couple of light ales and get back to the hall - usually for the last waltz!

TOM VOWDEN

I first met Tom Vowden when he was an umpire at Axminster Cricket Club's matches at North Street. This was where I also came into contact with Tom's daughter Diana, who was scorer for the cricket club who I also knew from the Grammar School.

Tom was a senior male nurse at Box House Hospital and although he knew how to keep the Box House patients safe and supervised, he carried out his work with great humour and a heart of gold. The patients loved him.

Tom would be prominent at fetes and fund-raising activities for the hospital at St Mary's field and would keep things in order with his distinctive voice.

Tom's voice was well-used as an excellent singer, inherited by Di, who like her father, sang with the Axminster Operatic and Choral Societies.

I also recall that Tom Vowden used to wind the clock at Axminster Church and was a member of the RAOB, where I was also a member of Ye Brunenburg Lodge.

Tom always had a laugh and joke, but you never quite knew whether he was being serious.

LEONARD (JIM) GRINTER

Leonard James Grinter was the same age as my father and was born with a hair-lip and cleft-palate. He therefore had a considerable speech impediment, which in days gone by would sometimes be imitated by his contemporaries.

Leonard and Tim grew up together and went to the same primary school and therefore although Leonard was difficult to comprehend, my father could understand every word that he said.

Just like all youngsters in the 1920s, the children played football in the street. My father recounted a story of a kick-about during which the ball finished up smashing a large pane of glass in a window of the house, which was home to Leonard and Mrs Grinter! To avoid the wrath of Leonard's mother, the kids very soon scarpered up the street as fast as they could, including Leonard who led the stampede!

After leaving school, Leonard became an apprentice carpenter with R Moulding & Sons, our family firm. As war approached, my father went into the Air Force and Leonard was conscripted to the Army.

On one occasion, Leonard was detailed to attend a training exercise at Tamerton Foliot, near Plymouth, and caught the train to Plymouth via Exeter. On arriving at Plymouth, he needed to catch the branch line to Tamerton Foliot and needed to ask the guard on the station which platform he needed for Tamerton Foliot.

Now, if you have a hair-lip and cleft-palate, Tamerton Foliot is not the easiest name to pronounce – and even more difficult for someone else to understand. With his bad speech impediment, Leonard asked the guard "Which train for Tamerton Foliot"? The guard answered "Are you taking the p…"? Unknown to Leonard, the guard also had a hair-lip!

At work, Leonard was an excellent craftsman, but understandably had a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. Following my father's retirement, my wife Mary took over the management of the office and insisted that all employees should make every effort to fill in their time sheets properly.

Leonard's time sheet was not the best and so he was often told by Mary that she needed an accurate time sheet. He would inevitably storm out of the office, red-faced, muttering under his breath. Amongst his work-mates, he was overheard to say "Andrew's alright, but as for that b…..y Mary!"

Leonard enjoyed his pints of beer in the local pubs, where he played darts, skittles and the fruit machines. Away from work, he was always known as Jim or Jimmer. His mates would often irreverently imitate his speech and it is true to say, that although he died in 1994, his verbal expressions are still repeated to this day. Jimmer will always be with us!

KEN HANDBURY

Ken Handbury, the proprietor of the Red Lion, advertised himself as the "rudest landlord in the west" – and he was probably right.

In the sixties and seventies, the Red Lion was the drinking hole for Axminster Cricket Club. As soon as club members arrived at the end of the match before they even had a chance to order drinks, Ken would greet them with such comments as "another miserable defeat I suppose – and no doubt you scored a duck."

Ken and his wife Joan would have been a handsome couple in their day – and were often referred to as "the poor man's Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor". They fought like cat and dog – often in front of all their customers.

Ken was a high-ranking officer in the Air Force and despite his flaws, together with Joan, he ran a good pub – much enjoyed by the members of the cricket club and their opponents.

CECIL SANSOM

In previous editions of Moulding's Memories, I mentioned Sansom's wet fish shop and fish 'n' chip restaurant in South Street, famed for dear old Jack Sansom who. was still battering fish and frying chips at 100 years-old. Jack's sons were Ken and Cecil.

Cecil's passion was football and I am sure that he would have been delighted to see Axminster Town performing at a high level in their new surroundings at Tiger Way, off Chard Road.

But there was more to Cecil Sansom (or Sandy Sansom) than fish and football. In the war, he served in the parachute regiment and had an illustrious war-time career. He told an illuminating tale of a parachute drop in Greece where guns were blazing as they dropped over enemy lines. These sorties took place in pitch-black during the middle of the night.

Unfortunately for Cecil, as his parachute dropped, he came down, tangled up and hanging from trees. Guns were cracking off all around him and he couldn't see a thing. He daren't move as he may have either injured himself dropping from the tree, or been shot by the enemy. It seemed to Cecil that he had been there for hours, but eventually dawn started to break – and as that happened, he was able to see that he was hanging just two feet from the ground!

Whilst running the family business with his father and brother, Cecil also took a keen interest in the well-being of the community and served for many years as a Special Constable.

Cecil was a marvellous story teller and in later years he joined up with two other raconteurs, my father and Dennis White, for a weekly walk around the countryside of the Axe Valley. They always managed to take in a pint or two at a local hostelry on their travels. For many who saw them, they were nicknamed the "Last of the Summer Wine" – my father being the know-all "Foggy Dewhurst", Dennis was the sensible "Cleggy" and Cecil Sansom was a perfect "Compo"!

THE GILL FAMILY

The Gill family were renowned in Axminster for their bakery in Chard Street and Gill's Café in Trinity Square. The proprietor of the bakery in the 1950s was Sidney Owen Gill (S O Gill). He always seemed to be referred to as "S.O." As a child, I thought he was an oil magnate, as everyone called him ESSO.

There were five childen born to S O Gill and his wife Annie. They were William (Bill) Gill, Herbert Sidney Gill, Ernest (Ernie) Gill, Hilda Mary Gill (Mary) and John (Jack) Mullins Gill.

I tended to know members of the next generation down, although I must admit, I can't remember which child belonged to which member of the Gill family. (Perhaps readers of Moulding's Memories could help?)

I went to primary school with Eric Gill and I also knew Peter and Owen Gill, whose sister Frances received the MBE in 2012 for her outstanding work with elderly people suffering from Down's Syndrome and dementia. Sadly, Frances White MBE (nee Gill) passed away in 2016, when she was still running a "supported living" home in Wide Post Lane.

SO Gill established Gill's Café and the New Commercial and lived at Castle Mount, followed by Castle House. I seem to remember that Ernie Gill ran the bakery in Chard Street, as I recollect this slightly rotund character nearly always covered in a layer of white flour. Ernie also took a keen interest in the well-being of his home town and was a director of Axminster Carpets.

William (Bill) Gill was an artist of some note, specialising in still life and magnificent landscape views of Axminster, the Axe Valley and the coastline of West Dorset and East Devon. Gill's Café in Trinity Square was renowned for Bill Gill's countryside panoramas which adorned the walls of the restaurant.

The member of the Gill family I knew best was Jack Gill, a quiet, delightful man, who ran the cake shop and in later years, the sweet shop in the Square.

Jack was an excellent cricketer, a batsman as I recall and also played golf at Lyme Regis. He was still able to manage nine holes on the golf course when well into his nineties. I also remember Jack as a regular member of Axminster Operatic Society, playing leading roles when called upon.

Jack Gill lived in Castle Mount and when our children were playing cricket in the rear garden of our house in Chard Street, tennis balls would disappear from the garden of Hanover House and end up in the well-tended garden of Castle Mount. They were always lobbed back over the wall by Jack Gill, as although the tennis balls accounted for one or two of Jack's prize dahlias, I believe he was pleased to see that our boys were growing up with a love of cricket.

I also remember a Mrs Gill (or would it have been Hilda Mary Gill?) living near us in Chard Street. She had hedgehogs in her garden and often invited our children to pop up the road to her rear garden where she regularly fed her hedgehogs. A lovely sight.

THE ENTICOTT FAMILY

During my lifetime, the Moulding family lived next door to the Enticott family in South Street for nearly 50 years. Soon after I was born, my grandparents lived next door – then my parents lived there, whilst I was a teenager and finally, Mary, Robert, Edward and I lived next door to the Enticotts up until 1993.

During that time, the Enticotts were greengrocers, founded in the 1880s and the Mouldings were builders, established in 1919. The Enticott residence and the Moulding residence were semi-detached and at one time in the past, there was just one dwelling on this site, which was confirmed when we were carrying out alterations in the 1980s and discovered a deep well which straddled the party wall between the two properties.

It was a shame, but we had to fill it in with concrete in order that we could proceed with the adaptations.

When I was a small child, my sister and I would visit my grandmother and always end up with sixpence to spend next door in Enticott's, who apart from fruit and veg, had a good array of sweets and chocolate.

In my time, the business of F W Enticott & Son was run by Fred Enticott and his wife, Lucy, who I always knew as Grandad and Granny Enticott. Fred was one of 13 children and a glance at the war memorial on the Minster Green reveals that there were three Enticotts who died in the First World War in 1916 and 1917. These deaths would probably have included brothers of Fred Enticott.

Mr and Mrs Enticott senior had three children – Sam, Gwen and Irene. Sam went into the Army and on leaving the services, he joined his mother and father in the greengrocery business. The Enticott's took a great pride in the appearance and presentation of their produce and every morning at about 6am, the family would stack up all the fruit and veg onto tiered wooden racks on the frontage of the shop for all to see and feel.

There always appeared to be a gang of ladies working in this busy shop; Mrs Enticott senior, Sam's wife Ethel and other family members including Sam's sister Gwen and Ethel's daughter Helen. Irene (who we always knew as Rene) would sometimes be there as well.

Eventually, Fred and Lucy retired to live in Purzebrook, which gave Sam, Ethel and family the opportunity to take up residence in South Street. Sam and Ethel were wonderful ambassadors for South Street, for Axminster and the greengrocery business. Sam was a small busy-bee of a man, whilst Ethel was lovely – calm, relaxed and everybody's friend.

Sam's sisters Gwen and Rene also settled in Axminster. Gwen married Ted Lambert, a painter and decorator, who ultimately carried out his trade at Axminster Carpets. Their eldest son, David was in the same class as me at primary school. He was very musical and went into the forces, where he played in the Royal Artillery Band.

John was a butcher who took over International Stores in Victoria Place. I played cricket with John at North Street for a number of years, where John was a more than useful bowler.

Rene married Frank Welch, who was in charge of the despatch department at Axminster Carpets. They had three daughters: twins Tina and Shirley, followed by Dawn. They all married local boys.

Tina married Mike Roberts, who I remember growing up in Foxhill. Shirley married Ken Parris and they lived for many years in Beavor Lane. Shirley is particularly well-known locally for her fantastic fund-raising achievements for the Flamingo Swimming Pool. Dawn married Alan Carter, another former Axminster cricketer.

Sam and Ethel had three children, Brian, Helen and Geoff, who all still live in Axminster. Their eldest son is Brian, who married Christine Booth, who was a fellow student with me at primary school. Brian worked at Axminster Carpets and ultimately retired as a self-employed painter and decorator. Brian is well-known at local horticultural shows for his prize fruit and "humongous" vegetables.

Helen married Robert Seward, whose father ran the post office at Smallridge. Robert trained as an engineer at Shands and then joined the Merchant Navy as a refrigeration engineer. This gave Robert the necessary skills to set up "Economy Freeze" in South Street, an extremely successful business, which provided frozen food products over a wide area of the Axe Valley and beyond.

And then we come to Alan Geoffrey Enticott, known by everyone as Geoff, who is remarkable for his achievements in Axminster. After leaving school, Geoff worked for the Water Board for two years, but became bored with the Board and handed in his notice. It was therefore inevitable that Geoff would join Sam and Ethel in the family greengrocery business, where he remained for well more than twenty years.

Following many happy years with the business, Geoff's mother and father ran into difficult times with their health. Sam developed cancer and Ethel had a severe stroke which limited her mobility. When Sam passed away Geoff soldiered on, running the firm for a while, until he decided to close the business and move to Church Street Cottages with Ethel, who despite her stroke, lived with Geoff until she died aged 84.

Nothing's took much trouble for Geoff

This situation heralded the second phase of Geoff's working life. Sam Enticott had previously served on the Guildhall Management Committee and when careaker Terry Reed went on holiday, Sam had suggested that Geoff might be prepared to stand-in. This suited Geoff and he enjoyed the work.

Eventually Terry Reed wished to retire, Geoff stood in again, applied for the job and has been there ever since. In fact, Geoff has been the resident caretaker for Axminster Guildhall for nearly 30 years.

Virtually every organisation which hires the Guildhall would agree that nothing is too much trouble for Geoff, always going beyond the call of duty to assist those who are hiring one of the best halls in Devon.

However, the Guildhall is just one string to Geoff Enticott's bow. He is a stalwart of Axminster Carnival, secretary of Axminster Town Cricket Club, secretary of Cloakham Lawn Sports Centre and organiser of the Guildhall Bingo sessions.

Geoff has been on the Carnival Committee for over 50 years and for most of that time he has managed the procession. In his early days on the committee, he was asked by Frank Rowe if he would like to join the Procession Committee. Geoff responded by asking who else was on it? "Me" replied Frank – in other words, it was going to be up to Geoff to run the procession!

The planning for the carnival procession takes months – invitations to competitors, sorting out the applications, arranging the order of the procession, marking out the route, ordering the prize certificates and trophies, collaborating and communicating with the police, etc.

For more than 40 years, this has been down to Geoff Enticott. It is a meticulous operation – making sure that the right tableaux are in the right place. I assisted Geoff for at least 20 years, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

In one particular year, the committee had forgotten to apply for the road closure for the procession. PANIC!! However, Geoff was good friends with PC Mike Townsend, our local policeman, and the problem was soon resolved.

The carnival can only be carried out with fund-raising behind the scenes. For many years Geoff Enticott, Peter Perryman and Jackie Lack ran weekly bingo sessions in the Guildhall, for the benefit of Axminster Carnival. More recently Geoff has been assisted by Marion Margetts, Nicky Powell and Ron Jones.

Geoff played cricket for Axminster 2nd XI and was a tidy spin bowler. He was encouraged to join the committee at an early age and acquired the relatively relaxed role of assistant secretary. However, the secretary was Dicky Bird, a medium paced bowler for the 1st XI who in an early season game at Kilmington, ran in to bowl as first change.

Tragically, at the end of his run-up, poor Dicky collapsed and died. Geoff thereafter assumed the role of secretary to Axminster Town Cricket Club, a position he has held for 50 years.

In 1986, Axminster Cricket Club made the decision to relocate to Cloakham Lawns and to develop facilities at the Chard Road site for a range of sports. Those members of the cricket club committee who precipitated the move were Philip Spong, Les Haynes, Geoff Enticott and myself. Cloakham Lawn Sports Centre needed a secretary and who would we turn to – none less than Geoff Enticott. "The Little Man" has been our most efficient secretary for 35 years.

In the year 2018, for Geoff's magnificent contribution to the community of Axminster, he received the Citizen of the Year Award. I believe his prize was a sum of money which he could donate to a charity. No doubt this was an extremely appropriate award for such a public spirited person. A pity it wasn't a crate full of chocolate, as my dear friend Geoff is an extreme CHOCOHOLIC!

The Moulding Family and the family business in the next edition of 'Moulding's Memories'...

Characters of Axminster - Part I

Characters of Axminster - Part III