Featured Articles

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.

Northam children organise sale

While they were showing their sympathy in a very practical way for the families of the stricken village of Aberfan, the children of Northam Voluntary Primary School were also exercising their organising abilities and arithmetic at a sale of toys, comics and books they organised last week.

The juniors held their sale on the Thursday raising over £10 and the infants held their sale on the Friday, raising over £4. This was added to the £10 raised the previous week by the school’s harvest sale, and thus £25 was sent to the Aberfan Disaster Fund.

Members of the staff only exercised general supervision and help, otherwise the events were entirely in the hands of the children. ‘They did the pricing and selling and within a very short time everything was sold,’ the headmaster (Mr G. Harrison) told the Gazette.

Gazette article 4 November 1966

Hartland Abbey outdoor staff 60 years ago

Old photograph at Hartland Abbey

A fascinating piece of social history is this picture taken, it is believed, shortly after the turn of the century outside Hartland Abbey. It shows estate employees – mostly or all outdoor staff – holding where possible tools of their trade. There are gardeners, game keeper, carpenter, woodsman and, with his watch chain across his ample chest, the foreman.

Something of a mystery figure is the elegant young man reclining on the left of the picture, possibly a footman. One suggestion is that he was a member of the Stucley family.

The print is from a plate found among the effects of the late Mr Cory Burrow, who was editor, reporter, compositor, printer and publisher of the now-defunct Hartland Chronicle.

Gazette article 30 September 1966

‘Little Big Ben’

New facts about Bideford’s clock

Apart from the generous response of local subscribers to the appeal to modernise and re-start St Mary’s Church clock, there has been a response from another direction. Mr T.R. Robinson, technical journalist , writer, and broadcaster on ‘Tower Clocks’ has made a visit of inspection.

The Bideford clock, he describes, as a fine example of a form of construction first adopted for the great Westminster clock, indeed a ‘little Big Ben’. The clock was made by Messrs Gillett and Johnston, of Croydon and is characteristic of many hundreds of their clocks. Mr Robinson believes with complete overhaul, repairs and proper maintenance the clock should be capable of serving the town for much longer in the future than it had in the past.

Gazette article 8 July 1966