Westward Ho!

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.

Second thoughts at Northam?

Residents of Westward Ho! had written objecting about one-way traffic in the village, the Highways and Amenities Committee reported to Northam Urban Council. They had asked that the proposal be dropped and that restricted parking should apply in Nelson Road. The committee, however, recommended the Council to adhere to their previous decision.
Mr W J V Lamey, who submitted the report, declined to move the recommendation. “I do not agree with it” he said. The Clark (Mr A Gardner) said he was expecting further information and he therefore suggested that the recommendation should be referred back. That would mean about two months’ delay and the summer would be here, said Mr V F Bowyer, suggesting discussion in private session.
The committee’s proposal is that traffic should circulate around the centre of Westward Ho! – westwards along Atlantic Way from the Kingsley Stores and east along Nelson Road to the Kingsley Stores.
Organiser of the petition, which has been signed by 120 people, is Mr F C Twose, who has a garage in Nelson Road, and the protest is backed by every trader in the road.
Gazette article dated 18 January 1963

Panto Time At Westward Ho!

It’s pantomime time tomorrow at Westward Ho!

Latest in a long line of productions presented each year by the Westward Ho! Follies is ‘Dick Whittington’.
Although the production largely follows the traditional story, produced Mrs Ada Powell has written in some interesting extras.
In the pictures are Cathy Sales, Lesley Pugh, Julie Lamey, Elizabeth Meadows, Hanna Wrey, Linda and Caroline Eastman, Jackie Clements and Julie Hodgkins, Bill Thisby, Roger Beale and Des Pugh.
The full Gazette article is 4 January 1974

Westward Ho! Boy Off To Australia

Following in the steps of his elder brother Rodney, 17 year old Peter Jenkins, of Clonbur, Avon Lane, Westward Ho! sails for Australia in the Otranto on Tuesday under the ‘Big Brother Movement’.

Peter was born in Barnstaple and then the family moved to Kent before returning to North Devon to live at Westward Ho1 eight years ago. After leaving Bideford Secondary Modern School, Peter went on to the North Devon Technical College at Barnstaple where he studied agricultural engineering, which he hopes to apply to his work in Australia.

His brother who went to Australia at the age of 16 four years ago under the same scheme is now sheep farming at Concord, outside Sydney, and he has ‘sold’ Australia to his brother and mother who hopes to go out to join the boys next year.

Gazette article dated 10 December 1954