Hartland

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.

When on Midsummer Day 1915,

Hartland Methodists officially opened their new church, the schools closed all day and the shops were shut in the afternoon. The celebrations included a luncheon which was attended by 400 people – although this was wartime.

When the jubilee is celebrated next Thursday June 24th, there will again be a luncheon and the number expected is 200. Guests invited include Sir Dennis and Lady Stucley and the Vicar of Hartland, the Rev Andrew Jones, a gesture which would, no doubt, have amazed those Bible Christians who, 149 years ago, began their work in Hartland and conducted services in the kitchen of Ford Farm.

June 1965

Hartland News

Traffic flow and Hartland Band

Officers elected for the Playing Fields Association - Messrs Heard, Fulford, Goaman, Cross, Pengilly, Middle, Burrow, Short, O'Donnell, Prouse and Burrow; Mesdames Conibear and Mugford.

Mr Heywood reports a credit balance at the annual meeting of Hartland Town Band, and Mr Way is to continue as band master.

Books for Lighthouse Staff at Hartland

Postal Service Available

Hartland Lighthouse, shown above, is one of the forty-five centres in the north-west part of Devon which is supplied with collections of books from the Torridge Regional Branch of the Devon County Library at Torrington. The Regional Librarian (Mr. P.A. Drake) is seen at the lighthouse as the fresh collection of books is delivered for the use of the lighthouse staff and their wives, who read more than 400 books during the past year.

Altogether people in the Torridge Regional area (including the town of Torrington) read about 101,000 books during the year just ended, and a greater percentage of non-fiction is included in this total than ever before.

Books are delivered to the library centres three times a year, where they are distributed by voluntary librarians to whom thanks are due for making the scheme possible in so scattered an area. More than 23,000 books are exchanged during the year with the village libraries, and 2,700 are exchanged with headquarters library at Exeter.

Much more use is being made of the postal service both at Torrington and in the villages and more than 200 requests for books through this service were made for readers and 42 were sent from the Torrington Library to other parts of the country. Some 930 people belong to the Torrington Town branch, and 2,360 to the village and school libraries in the regional area.

Gazette article dated 14 May 1954