Mystery

Christmas Eve at the Front

An interesting letter has just been received by Mrs Packer, of Broadclyst, from her husband, Corpl Packer of A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, who is serving with the Expeditionary Force in Northern France. In the course of a letter he describes a remarkable incident which occurred on Christmas Eve between the British and German trenches.

Rummaging around at Torrington, schoolboy Bryn Williams and his friends came across a bottle that intrigued them

although it was broken at the neck. Not only was the glass extremely thick, but embossed on the bottle was ‘Rogers, Excelsior Works, Appledore.’

Bryn was the more interested because his father, Emlyn, is headmaster of Appledore County Primary School. Mr Williams could tell his son that the bottle was of a type used for ‘pop’ – in the days when it was a fizzy drink and nothing to do with music – and that the pressure of the gas sealed in the contents by pressing a glass marble against a rubber ring.

But he knew nothing of the makers and inquiries, even from someone who has lived in the township for over 70 years, produced no real information. All that seems to be known is that a man called Rogers once had a chemist’s shop in Bude Street – and I am told chemists were known to manufacture mineral water many years ago.

Gazette article dated 13 May 1977

Flying Saucer report from Westward Ho!

Acrobatics and speed

Looking out of his window at about 3.30pm on Friday, November 3rd, Major B W Haswell, 6 Fosketh Terrace, Westward Ho! saw what he believes was a ‘flying saucer’.

“It was the glint of the sun on the disc that first caught my eyes” he said. “It was spherical and a bright aluminium in colour. After performing some acrobatics against a background of clouds, it went off at an awful lick towards Chivenor.”

News of a strange object being seen in the sky at Paignton has been supplemented by similar reports from North Devon, Collumpton, Lympstone and Exeter.

Mr J Stewart, South Bank, Woollacombe, a 70 year old pensioner, who has worked in aircraft factories in two world wars, says that at 10.50 on that Monday night he saw an object travelling from the direction of the north end of Lundy and coming ashore at terrific speed.

The full Gazette article is dated 11 November 1950

That UFO

It was seen by others too!

The sighting of an unidentified flying object over the area on Christmas Eve exclusively reported in last week’s Gazette has been confirmed by a number of readers who have added fascinating details.

Mrs Arthur Pridham, of Chircombe, Bideford, was loading her car outside her home around 9pm when she saw what she described to her husband as “a funny light in the sky” over Westleigh. He as ill and confined to his bed on the opposite side of the house, but told his wife “it must be a flare.”

“I still looked in amazement,” Mrs Pridham told the Gazette. “It was a great big orange ball, quite round with a bluish-tinged circle shading to purple at the edge. I thought ‘the moon is never over there’ and turned to find it where I expected it to be.”

When she again looked at the object which was definitely solid, it had taken on an elongated shape, but it still had a bluish tinge around ti. The next time she came out of the house the object had disappeared, but she saw a flare go up and then sparks falling. Fiver minutes later helicopters appeared on the scene.

Schoolgirl Rae Gray, of Kentweare, New Road, Bideford, said that about 9pm she was walking to Old Ford House when she saw “a round object, orange in colour with a ray of light behind it, which seemed to be descending towards Bideford along the same path as the Torridge.” It disappeared behind the buildings of North Devon Farmers Ltd.

Rae added that about a month previously her mother was closing a bedroom window at about 11pm when she saw a similar object travelling in the same direction but “at a terrific speed.”

The mystery is deepened by a report from Mrs Beatrice Curtice, of 48a Meddon Street, Bideford, that she was watching television while sitting near the undraped window at about 8.45pm when the small enclosed yard at the rear of the house was suddenly illuminated. “I thought the outside light had been switched on, but then realised the illumination was orange” she said. Looking through the window she saw that the light was coming from an object “like an orange only much larger” moving slowly over the rooftops towards East-the-Water. She called her grandson., 15 year old Jeremy Williams. Both agree that the object made no sound.

Mr G Hewitt, of 14 Myrtle Grove, Bideford, has been prompted to reveal that a week previously when riding his motor-cycle towards Bideford he saw on the approach to Instow “a bright glowing orange object” rise almost vertically from the ground on the hillside near the navigational light. “As it rose it appeared to drop three or four elongated blobs of the same orange light” he said. “It shot off horizontally to the right and disappeared suddently as thought it had been switched off.”

Unprompted, he shared with Mrs Muriel Cobley, who first reported the UFO, the strong feeling that there was no danger and that the object ‘wanted to be seen.’

Most of the observers have contacted Mr Harold Cobley of the British Flying Saucer Bureau whose home is at Bideford since the Gazette’s report.

Gazette article dated 6 January 1978