Clovelly

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.

Referring to Clovelly brings to mind that the fishermen have been experiencing a hard time of it.

Clovelly herrings – pride of the sea – have been very scarce, the fishermen have had poor earnings, and the price of butter in the Bideford market is going up smartly. The stranger is always at a loss to understand the connection between herrings and the price of butter, but the explanation volunteered is that a good supply of nutritious and savoury herrings keeps down the demand for butter for home consumption at a time when it is generally getting scarce, whilst if there is a shortness of herrings the demand and meagre supply coming together send the price of the produce of the cow up with a bound.

Clovelly fisherman have had but little luck for some seasons now, and the summer visitors have been more than ever welcome, but they must not give up home. Let them take heart by the experience of the South Cornish fishers. Owing to an inexplicable absence of the usual schools of pilchards, many of these men were reduced to the verge of starvation but last month the fish reappeared, and were caught to the value of £5,000 as compared with only £1,350 in the corresponding month of last year.

Gazette article dated 20 November 1906

Inconvenience At Clovelly

Magistrates’ hint to rural council

Need for the local authority to provide lavatory accommodation at the bottom of Clovelly village for the convenience of the hundreds of visitors who flocked down there in the summer was emphasises by the chairman of Bideford County Bench, Lieut-Col J C Bassett, on Tuesday.

Mr M W V Richards was making application to the court for the transfer of the licence of the Red Lion Hotel, Clovelly, from Mr Sidney Henry Gulliver to Mr Reginald Clarence Fry.

The lavatory accommodation at the hotel was quite adequate for the purposes of the licence, said the Chairman, but the point was that in the summer hundreds of visitors made use of that accommodation. If the local authority could take some action it would not only help the hotel but would be of considerable advantage to visitors.

The Magistrates approved the transfer.

Gazette article dated 20 October 1950

Alexander ‘The Great’

Malachi's Cove

Clovelly donkey Alexander has been having time off from normal duties to star in a film being made on location by a London based company. After a fortnight at Trebarwith Strand, Cornwall, the unit moved into Clovelly on Saturday to continue work on ‘Malachi’s Cove’ which deals with a girl’s friendship with a donkey. Alexander is here seen with ‘Bay’, the daughter of his owner, Mrs R Creighton-Balfour, of Clovelly.

The famous village still has about a dozen donkeys, which are more than picturesque. A couple are regularly employed in carrying to the top of the picturesque cobbled main street the empties from the New Inn.