Memories of Kingskerswell 1983 beating bounds walk

By Kezia

As told to Kezia Bovey by her mum Katrina Bovey

The idea of beating the bound walk is to reach every boundary of Kingskerswell where it meets with each neighbouring town or Village. When you arrive at the boundary point you have a card stamped and meet members of the council from the next village or town. One person is chosen to be bumped against the boundary stone as is tradition, the walk then carries on to the next boundary point.

On the 9th of July 1983 it was scorching hot day. We set off at around 9am at the new school site we walked along the field behind Bushmead avenue down through the to Allar vale quarry. Here we met the council members from Newton Abbot.

I walked with my mum and brother, he was 11 and I was 7, it seemed as if we were going to walk forever. We made our way from one boundary to the other stopping for rest breaks along the way.

I started out with bundles of energy and eager for the adventure. By the time we reached Stoneycombe I was being to flag behind about four miles into the walk over different types of terrain hampered by extreme heat.

We stopped by the quarry at Stoneycombe for a drink. At the old weighbridge one of my brothers friends put his head through a broken glass window cutting his chin so he needed to go to hospital, so that was the end of his and his mum’s walk. The rest of us carried on with the walk, stopping for a picnic lunch in a field opposite the Bickly mill inn. Some of the grown ups went to the pub for a pint and had to be retrieved when it was time to carry on.

We walked many more miles before finally stopping to meet representatives from Coffinswell and then back up over Coffinswell lane to the school site and the finish point.

We felt very tired but proud of our achievements. The evening made the whole days walk worth while as we all gathered in the playing field for a BBQ and country dancing.

We were presented with certificates and medals to celebrate our achievements and we partied until past eleven pm and after a long day I was amazed that we had the energy to carry on.

I completed the beating the bound walk again in the 1990’s when I was an adult but my fondest memories are of the 1983 jaunt, when as a 7 year old it seemed an exciting if exhausting adventure.