Reg and Hilda Pearce - Special Constable and Boiler-Man

Portrait and interview - 1991

Reg and Hilda Pearce have lived in their garden-less cottage near the North Street Car Park in Totnes for the last twenty-one years.  Reg was often to be seen in The Castle pub where he was well-liked and is still remembered.

On warm days, they sit in the doorway of their neighbour’s garage where locals and strangers stop to pass the time of day with them.  Reg enjoys this as he is never short of a story or two and loves the company of others.  Hilda will smile serenely but seldom joins in as she is hard of hearing.

Reg was born and brought up in Ashprington where he became a Special Constable, his main employment being as a boiler man with Staverton Builders.  After the death of his first wife, he met Hilda who had grown up in Stoke Gabriel.  She too had been widowed.

Update:  Reg was eighty-seven when he died suddenly and unexpectedly in January 1992 some five months after this photograph was taken.  Hilda was then ninety-three and subsequently vacated their cottage to live with her son Gordon Collings in Bridgetown, Totnes.  Like his stepfather, he too had worked for Staverton Builders.  Hilda died in September 1998.