George Hampshire

George Hampshire

I was born and raised in London, started visiting friends in Newton Abbot in 1961, and married a Newton girl in 1966 after a two-year, long distant romance. We moved back to Newton Abbot in 2004, and I joined Newton Abbot Museum as a volunteer. Having worked as an Industrial Chemist at several large Paint/Chemical companies, it was a total culture change. Initially, I helped build displays but soon became interested in researching the Town’s history, specialising in its commercial background – shops, local businesses, and the development of the High-street. During Covid, I started a private FB group Newton Abbot Footnotes, with a growing collection of stories about everyday life in the Town over the last 200 years. I intend to add other stories with a new FB site, Newton Abbot Notables, with biographies of persons who became noteworthy in the Town for good and bad reasons.