Post by Dave on Jun 21, 2018 13:50:11 GMT
Town Quay To Hackney Hamlet Walk 21st June 2018
Maybe like me you have driven over the viaduct over the River Teign after leaving Newton Abbot and noticed old ruined buildings on the left hand side. I had always thought the building that stands out the most was probably just an old barn but how wrong was I.
Today I decided to walk from the Town Quay at Newton Abbot to the Passage House Inn and then take a tour around the Hackney Marshes. In the past I have cycled from the Quay to the back of Kingsteignton but never towards the Hackney Hamlet. After doing some research before the walk I soon discovered these old buildings (must be at least four in total) were once cottages that formed what was known as the Hackney Hamlet.
There is so much history to discover that is right on our doorsteps and things to learn about life here in olden days. This walk is very easy to do as it is flat all the way and was very enjoyable in the late morning sunshine.
I did managed to get inside two of the old cottages and soon discovered how small they must have been to live in. The walls are all still there and in one of them I found evidence that someone must have been sleeping in it sometime ago.
HACKNEY HAMLET HISTORY
Many lightermen used to live in cottages alongside the canal at the old Hackney Quay, which together with the Passage House Inn formed the hamlet of Hackney. Life at Hackney was hard as the cottages had few amenities. A well, located near the bridge that takes the railway across the marshes, served as the water supply. People who lived in the cottages near the inn fetched their water in a tin bath by boat, as it was easier than carrying it back along the footpath to their cottages!
As was customary in the days before the wireless, the canal folk provided their own amusement. At Whitsuntide, the time of the traditional ram roasting ceremony in the parish, which was held on Whit Tuesday, the people of Hackney extended the revelry by roasting another ram on Whit Wednesday. An annual event known as the Hackney Regatta was also held there that attracted local dignitaries and crowds from the village. Rowing races to Coombe Cellars and back, chasing a duck around the marshes, and pillow fights on a pole, were amongst the entertainment provided. A copy of the original Hackney Regatta Programme is on display at the Passage House Inn.
By the 1930s the families that lived at Hackney had long since vacated the cottages, which rapidly fell into disrepair. Of the little hamlet of Hackney only the pub remains. The ruins of the cottages and some of the original cellars can still be found, some masked by the overgrowth of vegetation. Stones from the old quay wall can be seen littering the bed of the Hackney channel at low tide
