Schools

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.

Fears that the high price paid for half an acre of land near Bideford Grammar School may now prejudice the availability of playing field space for the town’s new comprehensive school were voiced yesterday by Mr Peter Fletcher, chairman of the governing body for Bideford’s secondary schools.

He has called a special meeting of the governors for next Wednesday to consider the situation.
At a public auction attended by about 50 people at Bideford on Tuesday, the half acre of land concerned, belonging to the Devon and Cornwall Police Authority, was sold after a five minute spell of bidding for £25,700 to Robeda Ltd, a firm of local builders.
Bideford school governors have made no secret of the fact that they would have liked the land to have been included in the playing field area for the comprehensive school and Mr Fletcher, making what he described afterwards as ‘a gesture against bureaucratic humbug’ opened the bidding with an offer of £2,000. He told auctioneer Mr Tim Malone, of Messrs J C Webber and Son, that he did so ‘in the name of future generations of Bideford schoolchildren’.
His bid of £2,000 was quickly followed by one of £10,000 and bidding increased to £16,000. It then went up to £24,000 and then by £500, £250 and finally twice by £100 before the land was knocked down to Mr Clifford Dark, managing director of Robeda.
The land has outline planning permission for three pairs of semi-detached houses and Mr Dark said that his firm hoped to start building early in the New Year.

The full article is dated 3 November 1972

School Governor Hits Out at Police Land Sale

Two governors of Bideford Grammar School said yesterday that they are prepared to put £1,000 each towards the possible purchase of just over half an acre of land which they say should be made available to the school for playing field space.

And if they can get sufficient support from other local people, they will be making a bid for the land at a public auction at Bideford next Tuesday.

One of the governors concerned, Mr Peter Fletcher, who is chairman of the governing body, told the Gazette ‘We don’t want the land ourselves – all we are trying to do is to buy time for the County Council to think again about what is a scandalous situation’.

The parcel of land concerned is sandwiched between the Love Lane allotments and the Moreton Park housing estate and is being offered for auction by the Devon and Cornwall police authority with outline permission for three pairs of semi-detached houses.

Plans have also been made to utilise the Love Lane allotments site, an area of just under three acres which is owned by the John Andrew Dole Trustees and which is now the subject of negotiations between them and the County Council for a long-term lease. Ald. Jack Fulford, secretary of the John Andrew Trustees, said they were anxious to do all they could to make sure that future pupils at the comprehensive school would have the playing field area they needed....