‘I plead guilty, although it was no fault of mine’ wrote John Colwill, of Ford Farm, Hartland, when he was summoned before Bideford Magistrates on Tuesday for allowing seven yearling cattle to stray on the Hartland-Baxworthy Cross road on January 30th.

Police Constable Richards told the Bench the cattle were straying a mile from Colwill’s farm. Defendant’s son had said the cattle had been in the orchard and had admitted there was no fence at the top of the road bank. Witness added that he found a path of some standing down over the bank to the road.
In a

A larch pole, six feet long, was carried into Torrington County Magistrates Court. Pleading ‘guilty’ to the larceny of the pole, Barnabas Box, of The Village, Langtree, was fined 10s with £1 4s 10d costs.

Police Inspector H Burrows explained that the owner’s (Mr Vanstone’s) property adjoined the defendant’s garden. On January 28th the larch pole was in the yard with other timber. A Mr William Johns saw defendant standing in his garden path. With a four-pronged dung fork he was putting the pole over the hedge into his own garden. Mr Johns reported the matter, and on going back

Bideford Top For Crime?

For a town of its size Bideford has one of the worst crime rates in the country, Woman Police Sergeant Rowe, of Barnstaple, told Bideford WI. She talked about her job as juvenile liaison officer and told how the police in conjunction with the Social Services deal with problem families and runaways and work to combat juvenile delinquency. Mrs Beaumont thanked her.

Mrs Poore reported on the inaugural meeting of a proposed Bideford Amenity Society.

The competition – decorated birthday cake – was won by Mrs Peake, with Mrs Leigh and Mrs Davies second and third. But as

‘Nothing To Do With Me’

For driving an agricultural tractor with thresher attached without lights at Landcross on December 18th, Merlin Glover, of Ebber Down, Frithelstock, was fined £1 by Bideford County Magistrates.

Police Inspector E H Turner said he overtook the tractor at 5.20pm on December 18th, forty-four minutes after lighting up time. There was a considerable amount of traffic on the road and the night was dark. When asked why he was driving without lights, Glover said ‘It’s nothing to do with me, you had better ask the boss.’

Glover told the magistrates the lights had failed to

Chasing Bideford Shop Intruder

Answering a call, Detective-Constable E J Tamplin went to the shop owned by Miss F Hicks. Someone was heard making escape through the building and into the garden and Detective-Constable Tamplin jumped from the bathroom window at the rear of the building to the ground, but the intruder managed to escape.

Police Inspector W Bond said "We are hoping that inquiries will lead to the matter being satisfactorily settled."

Full article dated 21 February 1958

When a police officer stopped Gerald Braund

driving a tractor through Parkham village and asked him to produce his driving licence, he replied “I haven’t got one but I would like to learn to drive as soon as I know if I am being kept on in this job or not.”

Braund was told by the Chairman of the Bench, Mr R B Blackmore, “We do not want to jeopardise your work so we have decided not to disqualify you as we could have done or perhaps we should have done.”

He was fined £7.

Full article dated 16 May

Chips paper on pavement

Three times he had asked a fairground attendant to pick up a fish and chips bag the man had thrown onto the pavement in Allhalland Street and each time the request was refused,
Police Constable G Thrupp told Bideford magistrates on Tuesday.

Before the court was Hugh Henny, whose address was given as c/o F Whitelegg's, The Fairground, Bideford, who pleaded 'guilty' to depositing litter on the highway in contravention of a Borough bye-law.

Henny, who told the magistrates he had nothing to say, was fined £2 with the alternative of 14 days' imprisonment. He said