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 TED LETHABY

Born: Countisbury, Devon, 1925
Lived: Countisbury
Recording made: 2001
Length of recording: 2 hrs 25 mins

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Ted Lethaby's parents rented a cottage at Countisbury from the Hallidays. When he left school he worked at Wilsham Farm and then on the buses. He was on the Lynmouth-Minehead run at the time of the flood and helped ferry people to safety, driving a 100 mile detour to get from Lynmouth to Lynton.

Then he became the AA man, patrolling a patch from Lynmouth to Porlock in a motorbike and sidecar, and later a landrover. Repairs were carried out on the spot and if he needed a spare part he would go to the garage for it. Every day, twice a day, he stood by the phone box so his office could get in touch with him.

Now retired, he keeps an eye on the church and looks after Foreland lighthouse, where his wife was brought up. He says Exmoor was beautiful long before the National Park took over, it was his father and grandfather, and their forebears, who kept it so.