Transport

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.

Retired at the Hoops Inn

Famed years ago for its 40 mile a day route from Lynmouth, the ‘Lorna Doone’ stagecoach is now gracefully retired in the grounds of Hoops Inn, Horns Cross.

Mr Hugo Irwin, of Hoops, recently agreed to loan his coach to Westward Television and the coach, at least 60 years old, made the 62 mile journey on the back of a lorry.

Mr Irwin travelled with it and was interviewed on the ‘Look in for lunch’ recording screened on Bank Holiday Monday. The photograph shows the programme team: Pat Michael, Bruce Gordon, Neville Whiting and Jane Fyffe.

Gazette article dated 11 August 1961

3,000 Mile Trip Across Europe in 1937 Car

‘Esmerelda’ did not jib at highest mountain passes

A skilled mechanic might well boggle at the idea of taking a 1937 car for thousands of miles across Europe, but Miss D Knowles, of Orleigh Court, Buckland Brewer, whose mechanical knowledge is slight, has done just that.

And it was virtually a trouble-free journey although the car climbed considerable heights in the Alps and travelled along roads that, by comparison, made North Devon cart tracks resemble the A1.

Miss Knowles attributes her good fortune to local garage proprietor Mr L C Warmington. He and his staff scoured the county for an Austin 10 touring car and prepared it for the trip.

From door to door, ‘Esmerelda’ travelled 3,058 miles and for five of the six weeks Miss Knowles was on her own. From Bideford Miss Knowles drove to the New Forest to pick up her cousin, who was co-driver. Thereafter the route lay through Dover, across the Channel to Calais and on to Dunkirk, across the border to Brussels, then into Germany and to Aachen, where the camping site is in the middle of the city. The couple travelled on and up the Rhine Valley to Mainz and into the province of Wurtemburg.

There was a 30 mile drive around the mountains on unmetalled roads, with a cliff rising sheer on the one side and on the other a sheer drop. And Esmerelda, of course, is fitted with cable brakes. But it is she who is the heroine of the story.

She may have been jibbed on the quayside because she was tired of being laughed at. Said Miss Knowles, her whole journey was punctuated by hoots and laughter.

Gazette article dated 1 September 1961

Fears At Instow

Fears that the village will be cut in half,

with the linking up of the new Barnstaple by-pass road at Venn Cross along Anstey Way, are being expressed by residents of Instow.

They say that they are already having trouble in negotiating the road since the introduction of the 40mph speed limit, and the increasing number of heavy industrial vehicles using the road.

Instow Parish Council is to protest to the Ministry of the Environment, and ask that an alternative route, on the line of the old Barnstaple-Bideford road, should be considered.

Gazette article dated 26 January 1973