Once a Biographer part 3 - Bickleigh Vale, the original namesake

 

This image comes from a postcard printed in the UK circa 1910. The caption reads: Picturesque Devon, Bickleigh Vale, Nr Plymouth. When Edna Walling chose the name for her envisioned self-made village (though it was just two dwellings at the time, Sonning and The Barn) I think she was remembering a beloved place from childhood, called Bickleigh Vale. The reverse of the UK postcard declares: 'Bickleigh Vale is a favourite resort with the inhabitants of Plymouth, from which it is only situated a very short distance. If there is one season in the year in which the Vale is more picturesque than in another it is in the spring, when the delicate foliage of the ash still retains its freshness, and the earth beneath is literally carpeted with a brilliant growth of bluebells and anemones.' I reckon they are silver birch in that picture, one of Edna's oft used trees in her landscape designs. 

Edna Walling spent her childhood in Plymouth, and each Sunday, she and her father would take the steam train north towards Dartmoor for their Sunday walk. That short trip would pass by Bickleigh Vale - a place that still retains its beauty today - though you need to turn a blind eye to the suburban ugliness not so far away. There are other places called 'Bickleigh' in Devon, but I’m certain that it is this magical Vale that Edna was recalling when she named her village. I think the essence of this place, along with the curvaceous Devonian landscape that led up to Dartmoor with its stony outcrops ('tors'), streams and dry stone walls was a key influence on what became Edna Walling's landscaping vision. 

When I wrote The Unusual Life of Edna Walling I deduced, rather than knew for certain, that I had found the correct location for the inspiration for the naming of Edna's new village. But I did not know for sure. It niggled at me. Some years after publication, I came across the above postcard on the internet - and I knew I'd found good evidence.

And just recently, I discovered an article about Bickleigh Vale in the Dartmoor Magazine (Issue 101 Winter 2010). Penned by David Pitcher, it reads in part: ‘The woods and streams of Bickleigh Vale, to the north of Plymouth, have been a source of renewal and inspiration for over 200 years … There is a swathe of woodland to the north of Plymouth that stretches from the banks of the Tamar, through Tamerton Foliot, Bickleigh, into Shaugh Prior, and up to the Dewerstone on the edge of the moor [Dartmoor]. Despite the modern housing estates of Whitleigh and Southway this woodland still remains continuous, and the part from the village of Bickleigh to Shaugh Prior is known as Bickleigh Vale. As Plymouth expanded in the 18th century, Bickleigh Vale became known to the city dwellers as a place of rural retreat, a source of inspiration for artists and lovers of nature, as it remains today.’

And to add fuel to my namesake certainty, when I studied a Devon map with a magnifying glass recently, I discovered this: to the north of Shaugh Prior is Dewerstone Wood, and near this wood is a very small place called Goodameavy. Good-a-meavy was the official name for The Barn, the second dwelling built by Edna and her close friend Blanche that formed the nucleus of Bickleigh Vale Village in Mooroolbark, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.  

I may be the only one who is interested in this stuff, but I still get a thrill when I find a new, yet old, snippet of biographical information about Edna Walling! 

The pc image is a painting by G H Jenkins. Postcard sourced from https://archive.org/details/nby_LL7992/page/n3

The River Plym running through Bickleigh Vale, Devon, UK. 2011.

The railway line that Edna and her father travelled on from Plymouth to Dartmoor is now a popular cycling and walking path.