Bideford

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.

A Bideford milkman who left his van on a hill to make a delivery in Westcombe heard the handbrake release and saw the vehicle moving backwards, the local magistrates were told last week.

Terance George Frederick Cox, 69 Clovelly Road, was said to have made a statement that had tried to get into the van to stop it, but was prevented from doing so by the slippery road service. The runaway van, said Police Sergt Honeywill, crashed into the doors of a garage, damaging them and a vehicle in the garage. A Ministry vehicle examiner found that the brakes were efficient on the road, but that a pawl on the handbrake mechanism was worn. When the brake was fully applied the handbrake released itself.

For using the vehicle with defective brakes Cox was fined £2 and the owners of the van – Bideford Dairies Ltd – were similarly fined for the same offence. Mr P J Evans, managing director of the dairy, said there had been no complaint about the brake and apparently there had been no similar occurrence previously. The vehicles were regularly serviced but it would be difficult to detect such a fault. The manufacturers had now altered this type of brake.

Gazette article dated 5 April 1963

CSM Bullimore Off Duty

Actor William Hartnell, star of ITV’s ‘The Army Game’ programme as CSM Bullimore, met friends in Bideford over the weekend.

Mr Hartnell is seen with Mr Arthur Braunton, a well-known local hairdresser, and Mrs Mel Moore, wife of the licensee of the Swan, Mill Street.

Mr Hartnell, who comes from South Devon, and now lives in Sussex, has an aunt, Mrs Bessie Andrew, living at 4 Torridge Mount, Bideford. He stayed at Portledge Hotel.This part of North Devon is one of his favourite holiday haunts and he has been here on several occasions. Beside his TV work he is, of course, well known on the stage. Appearance in the four year run of ‘Seagulls over Sorento’ is particularly well remembered.

21.4.1961 William Hartnell1

Full Gazette article is dated 21 April 1961

Farewell New Street!

Bulldozers move into New Street, Bideford, which has been made a clearance area.

Despite its name, this narrow street of character, between High Street and Lower Gunstone, was one of the oldest parts of the town.
It is said that John Strange, the hero of the plague visitation of Bideford in 1645-46, owned property there.

Gazette article dated 3 March 1972