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.

Trawler Goliath went ashore at Hartland Point

Two French seamen, ship’s engineer Francoise Lautrant and deck hand Christian Stephan, lost their lives when the trawler ‘Goliath’ went ashore south of Hartland Point on 17 March.

Nothing was known of the tragedy until four of the survivors who had scrambled barefoot up the cliffs, arrived at farms up to a mile away. Two awakened Mr Stanley Gifford and his family at Southole. Mr Gifford and his two sons Colin and Kenneth, went in search of the wreck. The ‘Goliath’ had ploughed through a reef of rocks about 100 yards offshore. A hole had been torn in her port side. Driven in by the sea, she had stopped on her starboard side near the base of the 500 ft. high Sandor Cliffs. The other two survivors arrived at Elmscott Farm, surprising Mr John Goaman and workman Mr Lew Rowe. The alarm was raised and the Coastguards, unaware of the wreck, called the Clovelly lifeboat but neither she, nor the R.A.F. rescue helicopter could do anything, the helicopter being defeated by wind conditions.

Bideford inquest on French trawlermen opens

Since the above picture was taken soon after the tragedy, the trawler, battered by the seas and swept almost to the base of the cliff, has begun to disintegrate.

Gazette article dated 21 March 1969

Shipbuilding hobby at Hartland

Building models for 40 years

Mr Thomas John Henwood, of No. 2 Northgate, Hartland, has been answering a call of the sea for more than 40 years and has still kept his feet firmly on the ground.

He was 17 when he made his first model boat, his subject the ill-fated Titanic and he has since devoted most of his spare time during the winter months to his fascinating hobby.

Cunarders have always had a special appeal and because of intricate detail, each occupies him for about three years. After the Titanic came the Mauretania, the Lusitania, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth seen with him in the picture. This winter he has begun his latest work, the Queen Elizabeth II.

The models are made entirely by hand, Mr Henwood boasts that he has never used a power tool, some of his tools being 100 years old.

Gazette article dated 28 March 1969

Record player of 80 years ago

A phonograph has been offered by an Instow man to Bideford Museum. Mr Charles Martin of Bridge Lane, Instow, was given the phonograph over 50 years ago by his uncle Mr John Martin who bought it in Australia in the early 1890s.

In the photograph Mr Martin is seen playing the phonograph at his home. The cylindrical objects in the case are records made of a hard wax-like substance. For playing they are placed on to a rolling pin cylinder and the needle fitted in the groove on the recording makes its way along as it plays.

Gazette article dated 11 April 1969