Weare Giffard

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.

Summer Sunday School to be held on Thursday evenings

The enterprising Rector of Weare Giffard (the Rev J M Lucas) is to try an experiment to overcome the drop in Sunday School attendance during the summer months – by transferring the school to Thursday evenings.

He tells of the plan in the current Hartland Deanery Magazine, pointing out that Sunday afternoons in the summer ‘are a chance for families to go out together, and who would say that is a bad thing?’ He continues: ‘Each Thursday during the summer at 6.15pm the church bells will ring and a short service and lesson will be held for the children…At about 6.45 any boy or girl who like to do so can come over to the Rectory Gardens for games and other activities. This is not bait to catch them for ‘Thursday School’, because they can come and play games whether they have been to church first or whether they have not’.

The Rector also asks: ‘But what about worship in Church on Sunday?’ He says: ‘The answer is that we hope that the children will come to Church at 9.15 each Sunday morning, for at least part of the service’.

Mr Lucas records that the Sunday School worked well from Christmas to Easter ‘thanks to the help that was forthcoming from many people’.

Gazette article dated 13 May 1960

Greeted By Weare Giffard ‘Civic Party’ Young German Guests at Social

Twenty three young Germans were the guests of honour at a Weare Giffard social evening held at the Parish Hall in aid of the Church Restoration Fund.

There were members of a party from Uelzen, Lower Saxony, visiting North Devon under an exchange scheme, and had earlier been entertained to tea at Landcross by Mrs Glover and her sister, Mrs Jones.

After the visitors had been welcomed by the Rector, the Rev J M Lucas, ‘Miss Weare Giffard’ (Jean Moore) presented two bouquets, one to the leader of the German party and one to Miss Elsie Gartside, the North Devon Youth Organiser. Both bouquets had been specially made by Mrs Williams.

Three kilted bagpipe players, Mr J Granger, and his two sons, led the way, followed by the ‘Town Crier’, Mr N Nethaway, the ‘Beadle’ and ‘Mace Bearer’, Messrs A Nickels and F Gordon. Then came a car containing ‘The Mayor’, Mr H Busby, ‘Miss Weare Giffard, and the ‘Town Clerk’, Mr D Glover, followed by another car in which sat the Mayor’s Chaplain, Mr J Smart) and the ‘Deputy Mayor’, Mr F Martin. Other ‘Councillors’ were: Mr and Mrs A Tanton and Mrs L Smaldon. A party of Guides and Brownies also took part.

A capacity crowd enjoyed a full evening’s entertainment in the Hall. Guest artistes were Mr R Fiddy and Miss Jean Hannaford. MC for square dancing was Mr Peter Williams.Refreshments were served by members of the Ladies’ Parochial Church Council and the Mothers’ Union. Doorkeepers were Messrs D Rookes and Pollitt, and Mr D Glover was at the piano. Costumes for the ‘civic’ procession were loaned by Mr Arthur Pridham. Floral decorations, taken from the Church Harvest Festival flowers, were arranged by Mrs E Beer and Mrs E Stevens.

Bideford officially welcomed the 23 young German visitors on Thursday when the Deputy Mayor (Mrs W M Cox) greeted them at the Burton Art Gallery. They began the afternoon with a visit to the Art School, where the principal, Mr J Patterson, showed them round. This was followed by a visit to the Burton Art Gallery where a pottery exhibition, part of the Devon Festival, was in progress. Mr M Leach spoke about the exhibits. Bideford Rotary Club provided tea for the guests, after which the visitors presented the Deputy Mayor with a book about their home town.

To complete the ‘Bideford Day’ the party attended a social at St Mary’s Club, in the evening, organised by the Bideford Youth Committee.

The full Gazette article is dated 3 October 1958

Weare Giffard Hall Sold For £11,300

Clovelly family joint purchasers

The 15th-century Manor House of Weare Giffard Hall with 3½ acres of land and half a mile of fishing in the River Torridge was sold by public auction on Friday for £11,300.

Joint purchasers were Miss E Mullins, of Ealing, London, and Mr and Mrs Maurice Dickinson, of the Post Office, High Street, Clovelly. Miss Mullins is Mrs Dickinson’s aunt. Mr Dickinson, now in his seventh year as sub-postmaster at Clovelly, is a New Zealander who previously served nine years in the Army. He said after the auction that they had no plans to make the Hall into anything but a family home. He would be commuting between there and Clovelly, and had previously done the same when they lived in Bideford at Glenburnie. Asked about the ghost of 13th century Knight which is reputed to walk at midnight from the Hall to the nearby Parish Church, Mr Dickinson said ‘I am very keen to meet the ghost’.

Weare Giffard Hall, scheduled as being of special historic interest, was built on the site of an old Saxon manor house in about the middle of the 15th century. It is typically Elizabethan in design and is linked principally with the Fortescue family. Other families who have known the Hall include the Courtenays and the Chichesters. The Great Hall is the showpiece of the building, its 15th century hammer-beam roof being smaller but similar to those in Westminster Hall and Hampton Court. At some time after the Civili War the Hall fell into a state of neglect, and for some time it was used as a farm house with the Great Hall as a potato store, until restoration work was carried out by the Hon George Fortescue.

Weare Giffard Hall was one of eight properties and parcels of land offered for sale by public auction at Durrant House Hotel, Northam, by Messrs John Lewington and Company, of Bideford. Another lot, three building sites at Nilgala, Raleigh, Bideford, was sold prior to auction. Sold for £2,050 was 3.47 acres of building land at Weare Giffard with about half a mile of fishing . Purchaser was Mr S J Davey, of Leek, Staffs. Solicitors in the sale of the Hall and the above-mentioned land were Messrs Seldon, Ward and Nuttall, Bideford. Other properties were unsold at auction. A corner shop property, No 12 Meddon Street, Bideford, was withdrawn at £1,500; business premises with living accommodation, No 15-15a Fore Street, Northam, withdrawn at £2,000; corner site property known as Court, The Square, Sheepwash, withdrawn at £1,000; shop and living accommodation at Nos 2, 3 and 4, The Quay, Bideford, withdrawn at £6,000; commercial premises known as Farmer’s Wharf, Barnstaple Street, Bideford, no bid; 4.30 acres of pasture land near Halfpenny Bridge, Weare Giffard, with some fishing rights withdrawn at £250.