Robin's Court, Upton Pyne, near Exeter, Devon

Initially a house was requisitioned for the Devon Scout Section near Ivybridge overlooking the moor, as recorded by Captain Edmundson. Possibly this was "Slade", the house owned by Captain Falcon in Cornwood which was the location for a number of photos of the Devon Patrols.

It is known that subsequently the men were billeted in the outbuildings at Robins Court, Upton Pyne and the camp in Thorverton, near Exeter. Cyril Wellington of Plympton Patrol recorded a trip there in May 1942 in his diary.

Upton Pyne local, Jim Swain recalls the following;
I was born in Upton Pyne at 3 Robins Court and at one period in my early childhood, we came back to live in the same house. This was at the time of Dunkirk. There were sheds around where we lived and at that time we had some soldiers billeted in these sheds with their cook house and we had one of these men sleeping in our house. We kids went to Upton Pyne School and in the summer holidays we went down to Pyne’s Woods to pick up acorns for pig food. There were men from Dunkirk digging in the nearby Laurels. Of course at that time we kids did not know just what they were up to. These soldiers also came from a camp in Thorverton. I’ve now found out from a friend it was a special place where a specialist Home Guard unit would be based. If the Germans were to invade there job would be to hassle the invading force.

The sheds and a barn were on the right of the current drive, creating a courtyard with a garden behind and an orchard opposite. The sheds and barn have now been removed and replaced with more modern housing.