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.

Where the beach ends and the cliffs begin under Kipling Tors at Westward Ho! a group of black bumps appear and disappear in the swell of the waves.

At certain states of the tide they could from a distance be mistaken for a group of seals at play. But closer inspection reveals them to be encrusted iron stanchions.

The stanchions are all that is left of a pier which when it was finished just over 100 years ago was the pride and joy of those who had hopes and plans for the development of Westward Ho! as a holiday resort.

Unlike most piers, this one had a very brief life – and not a particularly gay one.

Originally it was to have been 600 feet long but an autumn gale of 1871 snapped off a series of the cast iron pillars and only 150 feet were left intact. The first contractor departed and a Bideford iron works proprietor and engineer, Mr John Abbott, undertook the pier in a shortened form.

The idea, of course, was to get out to the deeper water so that the coasting pleasure steamers bringing holidaymakers could come right into Westward Ho!

The enterprise never really had time to prove it was the hoped-for success. The sea was declared the winner and the pier was declared dangerous and unsightly. Demolition work then started.

The full Gazette article is dated 1 March 1974.

Three-headed Tulip

In a Westward Ho! Garden

Two heads are better than one and three are better still, thinks Mrs E G Fisher, of Manorville, Kingsley Road, Westward Ho! seen here with the three-headed tulip that sprang from a single bulb in her garden. The tulip is cerise coloured and the bulb was just planted and received no special attention. 'Like Topsy it just growed' said Mrs Fisher.

Mr Roger Cobley, of the Seymour Cobley bulb farm at Braunton told the Bideford and North Devon Gazette that a three-headed tulip was by no means a rarity, adding that he had seen one bulb produce as many as fourteen flower heads. 'It just means that it is a large and very strong growing bulb' he said.

Article dated 25 May 1956

Kingsley Hall Not Doing Its Job

Complaint

Kingsley Hall was sadly lacking in educational facilities, complained Mr W E Powell at the annual meeting of Westward Ho! Community Association held in the hall.

“A community association such as this should serve the whole population” he said, “The community centre should provide facilities for both the elderly and the young”.

The retiring membership secretary, Mrs N Dale, commented that the association had done everything possible to persuade people to attend lectures held in the hall.

“We have 200 members in the association” remarked Mr A Eagle, caretaker of the hall, “It is a poor look-out when we get only 29% for this annual meeting. We must give people a good idea of what we are doing” he urged.

The president, Mr A C Feron, said that the exterior of the hall had been given a new look for the first time since 1949.

Successful inception of the Westward Ho! youth club was perhaps the most important achievement of the year, reported the chairman, Mr H A Gibbs. The club, began under the leadership of Mr Jeff Lawrence, who was succeeded by Mr R Clark.

Concerning the ban on stiletto heels, Mr Gibbs explained "The association went to great expense to supply a really good floor, one of the best in North Devon, and it is most disheartening to see it being ruined by these nail-like heels. We trust the fashion will be short-lived but in the meantime we do appeal to women to have some consideration and to refrain from wearing shoes which cause so much serious damage."

The treasurer, Mr Eric Westoby, reported a credit balance.

Officers elected: Mr A C Feron, Mrs D Hudson, Mrs A E Powell.

The full Gazette article is dated 4 May 1962