A PICTURE puzzle from Joyce Kiff (née Bunclarke), of Newton Abbot, is the subject of this week’s dip into the past in the form of a school group somewhere in Newton Abbot but the exact location was not shown. Fortunately the picture was accompanied by a list of names, presumably written by a former owner of the photograph, writes Steve Harris.

A bit of detective work found that many of the girls named were indeed from the Newton Abbot area, the majority being born in the mid-1890s, which would date the picture around 1908-09.

A trace for one of the girls, Ida Cook, came up with an Ida Cook born 1896, possibly the daughter of former landlord of the Bell Inn at Kingsteignton, John Henry Cook. A check on another name on the list, in this case Ayliffe Frampton, revealed that she married a Lucius Vicary at Newton Abbot in 1919....

READ THE FULL STORY IN FRIDAY’S MID-DEVON ADVERTISER, JULY 20.