People

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.

Ten year old Sara Hodder

of Knowle, 111 Atlantic Way, Westward Ho! has become only the third youngster in North Devon to receive the top award in the Devon County Library Service’s good readers’ circle – a leather shield with her name inscribed in gold.

Of the three she is the second to come from the Bideford area. Katherine Wood of Bideford was the first to attain the award in October, a year after the scheme began.

The award is made to children scoring 1,000 points in the scheme, which aims to help children with their reading by awarding points varying from six to 12 for each fiction book read, the number of points depending on the difficulty of the book chosen.

On returning each book the children are given a short test on its contents by library staff.

Daughter of Torridge District Council’s chief planning and development officer, Mr Tony Hodder, and his wife Ann, Sara is a member of Northam library. She is also a member of the Beehive Club, which meets at Bideford library, and it was at this club’s Christmas party that the presentation of the award took place.

Our picture shows, Sara’s mother, Mrs Ann Hodder; Bideford librarian Mr Roger Dale; Northam librarian Mrs Joy Cooper; and at the front the Hodder children – Rachel, Michael, Sara and Christopher.

Gazette article dated 6 January 1978

Finding Family and Travels

Search Locates A Cousin

The search by Mrs Pamela Smith, of Rostrevor, South Australia, for other descendants of her great grandfather, Thomas Judd, of St Giles-in-the-Wood, has succeeded. It has turned up another cousin.

He is Mr Derek J Hambly, of Judd Farm, Pyworthy, but, remarkably, the Judd after whom the farm was named had nothing to do with this family.

Mr Hambly has written to Mr Gordon Judd, of Westward Ho! whom Mrs Smith contacted in the first place, saying that he is the great-great-great grandson of Patience and Peter Judd, parents of Thomas and Frederick who, with their wives, sisters Caroline and Christina Nethaway, and an unmarried brother, William Judd, emigrated to Australia in 1857.

What was not known by Mrs Smith, suggests Mr Hambly, was that another marriage took place between the families. Ann Judd, sister of the three brothers, married at St Giles-in-the Wood on February 4, 1857, Henry, the brother of Caroline and Christina, two brothers and a sister having married two sisters and a brother.

Henry and Ann Nethaway lived at Dogaport, Langtree, the old Nethaway Farm, and had two children, Henry Ezekiel and Mary Ann. Henry was Mr Hambly’s great grandfather.

He adds that he has done some research on the Nethaway family tree and, with the help of a cousin in Canada, has traced it back to a marriage in 1709. And he explains that although the Judd ancestors were on his mother’s side of the family the farm that is his home was from his father’s side.

From Torrington to New Zealand – and Reverse

On their way this week to the other side of the world were a Torrington doctor and his family. Due soon to make the trip in the reverse direction is a New Zealand doctor and his family.

The ‘swop’ of jobs, which will last six months, is between Dr Ben Armstrong, his wife Gillian and their three sons, of Torrington, and Dr David Robins, his wife Catherine and their three children, who live on New Zealand’s North Island.

The two doctors met at Oxford and were later house doctors together at Truro. The idea of exchanging practices, their houses and even their cars appealed to both of them.

Dr Robins, who is due to arrive in North Devon on Monday week, will join three other doctors at Torrington in a practice based at the town’s health centre. Dr Armstrong will work in a group of six in an urban practice. They will revert to their own jobs in July.

Bound For Cambridge

An exhibition to Clare College, Cambridge, has been gained by Siobhan Fallon, of Sylvantor, Beech Road, Westward Ho! a student at North Devon College.

Aged 17, she is the younger daughter and third of six children of Mr James Fallon, a master at Edgehill College, Bideford, and Mrs Teresa Fallon, a nurse at the Health Centre.

Siobhan will spend this year studying for additional GCE A-levels and intends then to work on the Continent for a year before going to Cambridge to read English. She is keenly interested in journalism. Her sister is now studying at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Gazette article dated 6 January 1978

Births

30 December 1960

Garnsey: On December 23rd,1960, at ‘Crofton’ North View Avenue, Bideford, to John and Jennifer, God’s gift of a son (Stephen John).
Harrison: On December 25th 1960, at Gravesend and North Kent Hospital, to Monica (nee Cook) and Cyril, a daughter.
Hillman: On December 29th 1960, at the Grenville Nursing Home, to Sheila (nee Granger) and Trevor, a son (Stephen Andrew).
Marshall: On December 26th, 1960 at 16 Hyfield Place, Bideford, to Sylvia (nee Sanders) and Bill, a daughter (Sandra).
Money: On December 24th 1960, at 1 Oxman’s Cottages, Westleigh, to Heather (nee Martin) and John, a daughter (Jacqueline Fay), sister for Alan. Grateful thanks to all concerned.
Pascoe: At the North Devon Infirmary, Barnstaple, to Doreen (nee Elsey) and Martyn, a boy, 10lbs 4oz.