Sir Geoffrey recalls, “There was a sense of panic in the air every time my parents prepared for the trip to our summer residence. It was like a house move.” He and Louisa remember how they caught the steam train at Paddington direct to Kingswear, where they crossed the River Dart by ferry to the Dartmouth train station where a little man with round glasses, adorned in the traditional ticket master clothing, stamped their tickets. “It was the only train station in the country which had no trains arriving or departing from it!”. The family was then driven from Dartmouth to Blackpool Sands. The trip would take the best part of a day and would be a real adventure.

When Louisa a toddler the family moved to reside permanently at Blackpool House. Louisa reminisces how, as little children, they were often left to their own devices and played happily on the beach, entertaining themselves crabbing, fishing and, when accompanied, on boats. They ‘lived on a diet of fish and winkles’.

The beach was opened up to the public and enterprising, hardworking Anne Newman opened ‘The Venus Tea Hut’, a small wooden hut selling tea and ice creams from neighbour Mr Mesney. Shortly afterwards, Anne started selling home grown vegetables, homemade marmalade and knitted bobble hats from a second hand summerhouse.