Bruce Porter’s memories of the local bobby checking up on Nazi spies in The Traveller’s Rest has brought to light some memories of life in Quantocks for another reader – as she born there.

Jackie wrote in about the other place of refreshment at Merridge high up in the hills above Bridgwater and Taunton: Pines Café. She said: “Interesting to see the Porter family in the Mercury this week. I knew them very well as I was born in the Pines Café!”

It was back in the 1940s that Jackie’s family had the café where they offered cups of tea and brown bread cheese sandwiches to the intrepid travellers who managed to ascent Buncombe Hill on their bicycles or in their 933cc two door Ford Anglias if petrol coupons permitted.

Jackie continued: “Back in 1949 mum looked after the tea shop, I remember the tables and chairs set out on the lawn in front of the café. There was no mains water, it all came from a huge collecting tank in the garden; no electricity either – we must have had a generator for the house but I was no doubt banned from that bit of machinery.

“On the side of the road we had were petrol pumps that were operated by hand, and mum also ran a taxi service from the Pines. Dad farmed land at Spaxton, going there each day to look after the animals, but he did keep some calves in the shed (to the left as you face the Pines) and I used to love sitting with them. I do remember the day, though, when I let a calf look at my new, lacy handkerchief, instead of looking, the animal grabbed it, chewed it up and I never saw it again!”

The family also kept and bred Great Dane hounds which Jackie used to ride on like a jump jockey. Although the café now has running water and electricity the layout inside said Jackie hasn’t changed that much since the 1940s. She said: “There are less trees now and, of course, the petrol pumps are no longer there. I remember the night my sister screamed the house down when she found a mouse in her bedroom – but that’s sisters.”

The Quantocks run from the west of Bridgwater near Spaxton and Nether Stowey to the sea at Kilve and rise to 1,261 ft at Wills Neck from where you can see Wales, Glastonbury Tor and even The Globe Inn at North Petherton on a clear day. Incredibly people have lived on the hills for more than 10,000 years although Pines Café was a fairly new addition to the area in comparison.

Have you cycled up Buncombe Hill to Pines Café? Do you have memories of the area? Email you words and pictures to harry.mottram@nqsw.co.uk