June 1968
John Wood of Exmouth AC stretches into the tape to win the annual Quay Race at Appledore. Appledore’s Andy Cowlard, in the light strip, struggled neck and neck with Wood over the 265 yards but trailed by a tenth of a second. Third was John Robertson, of the Junior Leaders’ Regt.
Four feet eleven inches of ‘dynamite’ exploded down Appledore Quay evening to win the annual junior round-the-houses race. John Ireland, a 12 year old from Bude, flashed past a bewildered field to finish the two and a half mile hilly course in the mould of a sprinter. Second in the junior race was 15 year old Mike Weaver, of Bideford Methodist Youth Club, and third Ian Williams, of Capstone Hill Boys’ Club, Ilfracombe. Appledore Youth Sports Club dominated the team championship taking first and second places – S Everett, C Brown, R Barrett, K Edwards, E Cunningham and D Short.
Mr Peter Mills, MP, will officially open Appledore Playing Field. The chairman and members of Northam Urban Council and representatives of Appledore Shipbuilders Ltd, and local organisations will be among those attending. The two acre playing field is on part of ‘The Holt’ estate and has a parkland setting with a fine view of the river. Present facilities include a small size football pitch, a full size netball pitch, a sand pit, and adventure playground equipment. Other facilities will be added in due course. Provision of the playing field has been sponsored by Northam Urban Council but Appledore is to take over responsibility for it and a trust fund has been formed. Total cost so far has been nearly £4,000, over a quarter of this is being met by the Anderson bequest. Tomorrow’s opening will be followed by an old English fair with stalls, Maypole and country dancing, and ‘weighing the anchor’ among the attractions.
Mr Arthur Boyles explains why Appledore’s Carnival has been cancelled.
Craftsmen working on the Nonsuch, the replica of the vessel on which the fortunes of the Hudson Bay Company were founded, now being built in the Appledore yard of Messrs J Hinks and Son, will shortly receive a memento of their association with it. The managing director of the Company, over here from Canada, visited the yard last week, was extremely happy with what he found, and took away with him the names and addresses of all associated with the vessel. The Canadian Government are issuing a special stamp to commemorate the first voyage of the original Nonsuch to Canada 300 years ago on June 5th, and first day covers are to be sent to all at the yard. Work on the vessel is well up to schedule – launching date is August 26th. Mr Jack Whitehead, of the Isle of Wight, who, with an associate, is responsible for the ornate carving, which will be a feature of the vessel, has been at work since the end of October. Both have been at Appledore completing panels and figures and carving timbers already in position, but have now returned home to complete figures of mermaids and fish. The pair will return in July and will remain until the vessel is launched. Three local men whose ages total more than 200 years have come out of retirement to do a less spectacular, but even more important job – caulking. Cotton is commonly used in these days, but their material is white oakum, which calls for more skill. In charge is 75 years old Mr John Hammett, of Appledore. The others are Mr Walter Hamlyn, of Northam, and Mr Richard Montague, now of Fremington. Although no decision has been reached it is hoped that the vessel will be sailed to Canada.
A total of 97 marks out of 100 gained by Robert Lamey, of 7 Tomouth Road, Appledore, helped to win the Appledore Methodist Church the scripture examination shield for which Bideford and Torridge area Sunday Schools compete annually. Robert’s fellow pupils Jacqueline Sanders and Alan Heard had 91 per cent and 95 per cent respectively, and bonus points brought the total of their Sunday School to 97.66 per cent. Second was Alverdiscott Methodist (93.25 per cent) and third Caute Baptist, Shebbear (84.5 per cent).
Bideford’s Trades & Industry Exhibition will take place 17-22 June in the Sports Ground. About 11,500 attended. A light-hearted moment at the Exhibition as 20 year old Miss Barbara Grenney, of Barton Tors, Bideford, wearing a nightdress from a women’s wear stand, ‘caps it’ with a man’s deerstalker hat with the assistance of Mr Roy Dyer, of Bideford.
Did you buy a motor cycle from Godfrey Sampson?
Mr Sluman receives a letter from Mr Kingsley J Ireland in South Australia researching family history for John Cavenett and Eliza Sluman.
Seen before a training session are the swimming team from Bideford’s Stella Maris School. After winning the North Devon area title of the Catholic Schools’ Swimming Federation, they competed at the South West area finals at Charlton Park, Cheltenham. They finished third behind Bristol and Cheltenham. Local results included Elizabeth Adlington, Linda Locke, Helen Cooper, Joanne Payne, Marilyn Cuthill, Karen Locke, Jean Cooper, and Carol Booth.
Pannier Market ‘does not justify expense on rates’ Mr Roger Chope told members of Bideford Chamber of Commerce. He said he was satisfied with the Town Council’s decision to charge £50 a day to people wishing to conduct dispersal sales there, but there was still the question of the Saturday and Tuesday lets. ‘I resent subsidising competitors’ he added. Answering the secretary, Mr Donald Moyse, he agreed that tolls had been increased, but only enough to cover expenses with a little over. Here was a public building in a prime position ‘eating its head off.’ It was a waste of a valuable piece of town property for the market no longer fulfilled its original purpose, which was merely to provide stalls for people who brought in fresh produce from the countryside. Mr R J Cleverdon pointed out that in many towns street markets provided 100 per cent more challenges to traders. And Mr Jeremy Ferguson warned that the Council could sell it to a multiple store. A retailing organisation ‘going full steam’ with people passing up and down the street six days a week would be preferable, said Mr Chope. Agriculture was a tremendous industry, said Mr Cleverdon, and if country people did not come her they would go elsewhere. There had been controversary about the cattle market, he recalled, and asked ‘Does Bideford want to push all this out?’
Did you buy a Wimpey Home at the Meadow Park Estate, Clovelly Road, Bideford?
Household furniture is for sale by public auction – ‘Corners’, 13 Glenfield Road, Bideford.
Mr R D Cooper is to retire as head postmaster in Bideford and the new postmaster will be his deputy, Mr C J King.
Attendance figures for members of Bideford Rural Council show that in the last civic year five members put in 100 per cent attendance at full council meetings. Four more only missed once and four more only twice. Attendance at committee meetings, too, was very good, with one member, Mr Les Elstone, returning a full 100 per cent attendance for all council and committee meetings.
Mr and Mrs Scoynes of 22 Sentry Corner, Bideford, celebrate their golden wedding.
In the printed list at Edgehill College prize day the names of recipients of two awards were not given but were left to be announced at the ceremony. The awards were for deportment, also recognising attention to personal appearance and general smartness. The recipients were Lynda Beer, seen with the Yeo Cup for juniors, and Erica Smith with the Margaret Cup for seniors.
Two more trophies of Bideford Racing Pigeon Club have been won by Appledore schoolboy Ken Lloyd with two other trophies going to Keith Foley.
Motor trials experts beware – a promising newcomer from Bideford has appeared on the scene. At the wheel of his standard Hillman Imp, and taking part in his first trials event, 18 year old Geoff Giddy gave the aces a jolt at the recent Holsworthy and District Motor Club trials. Geoff, son of Mr and Mrs Ivor Giddy, of Bideford Carpet Service, High Street, had John Holcombe, of 80 Abbotsham Road, as his compulsory passenger.
By direction of Mr H T J Gill, The Beeches, Buckland Brewer, is for sale. In a later article, the property was sold by private treaty at a higher figure than £10,500.
The funeral of retired headmaster and ex-Grenadier Guardsman Mr Reginald Kearsley Hesketh, aged 75, of 87 High Street, Clovelly, took place at Clovelly Parish Church.
A copy of the by-laws on street trading in Clovelly is to be posted on the Parish Council’s notice board. The decision to publicise the by-laws in this way was taken at a public meeting called to sound local opinion about the presence of street photographers who use tame monkeys to attract custom. Three local members of the County Council – Sir Dennis Stucley, Mr Stanley Brimacombe and Mr Paul Minet – all told the parish councillors and members of the public attending that they could prosecute the photographers if they infringed either of two by-laws. The meeting was told that Clovelly could not reasonably expect any new by-laws to be passed to deal solely with street photographers. Mr C H England pointed out that the maximum penalty had now risen from £5 to £20. A large number of people were strongly opposed to street photographers, claimed the Rector of Clovelly, Rev R O H Eppingstone.
Sunday School anniversary at Frithelstock.
Mr Arthur George, chairman of Hartland Parish Council, attacked Bideford Rural Council for what he alleged was their failure to ensure the establishment of light industry in Hartland and to provide the locality with more council houses.
Summerwell Farm, Hartland, is for sale.
Mrs Gwenda Prichard, wife of a lighthouse keeper at Hartland Point, gives birth to twins.
Instow’s ‘chaotic’ traffic.
The cremation service of Mr Albion Harman, the joint owner of Lundy, was held at the North Devon Crematorium, Barnstaple. Rev R C Dixon officiated. The ashes were taken to Lundy on the P and A Campbell steamer Westward Ho! for interment.
Miss Margaret Gilbert, elder daughter of Mr and Mrs W J Gilbert, of Knowle, Monkleigh, has satisfied her yearning to visit America by taking a job with a Long Island family, She will fly out next month to look after their three children. “I could never afford to go for a holiday and this is the next best thing,” she told the Gazette. At Monkleigh she has been involved in all worth while activities and has been a prominent member of the Buckland Brewer YFC. She hopes to contact clubs in the States, but holiday travel could be a little confined.
Court Line Ltd of which Appledore Shipbuilders Ltd is a subsidiary, is proposing to purchase on a share exchange basis 36,000 £1 Ordinary shares of Durrant House Hotel Ltd, Northam. This is revealed by the chairman, the Hon W S Philipps, in the annual report. These shares, together with 10,000 already held by a subsidiary, represent the entire issued share capital of Durrant House. That company and its wholly-owned subsidiary own the freeholds of two hotels, Durrant House, Northam, and the Seagate Hotel at Appledore. Durrant House Hotel, opened in 1966, had subsequently been enlarged and improved, while the Seagate Hotel was only opened for accommodation at the end of June 1967. The shareholders of Durrant House include: Mr James Venus, Mrs Venus, Mr J W Chapman, Mr John Young, Mrs Young, Mr Victor Malcolm, Mrs Brenda Ball, Vice-Admiral Sir Peveril William-Powlett, and Lady Barbara William-Powlett.
Nineteen year old Jim Long, of Northam, a member of the Royal North Devon Golf Club finished in second place two strokes behind the winner, in the amateur golf championship of the South-West Counties.
Shebbear’ CP School’s swimming pool was opened by Mr J B Morris.
On Tuesday night, “Time, gentlemen, please” the call that has rung through the Buckingham Arms at Taddiport for considerably more than 100 years, was heard for the last time. Owners of the inn, Whitbreads, have sold it and the licence is to be surrendered. But the purchaser is no stranger. He is Mr Jim Horrell, landlord of the Buckingham Arms for the past 12 years. And the pub will be the farmhouse for the smallholding on which it is situated. Mr and Mrs Horrell, however, are to continue in the licensing trade. Last January they moved into Torrington to take over the Hunters Inn. For them life should be less complicated. While they were at the Buckingham Arms rarely did a year pass when they did not fight a losing battle with flood waters of the Torridge, which flows past the door. But they were never daunted and almost as soon as the river retreated the house was spick and span and it was ‘business as usual’.
Torrington is on the point of losing what is probably a unique distinction – its police station in the churchyard.
Priestacott Farm, Torrington, is for sale.
Torritonians Mr and Mrs Percy Copp, who celebrated their diamond wedding last week, have spent all their lives in the town except for the period that Mr Copp was away during World War 1. Their active minds and bodies are a first-class advertisement for the healthiness of the locality. The couple, whose home is at 76 Calf Street, Torrington, were married at St Michael’s Church in 1908. Mr Copp, now 83, left the local school when he was 11 to work on a farm. On the outbreak of war he joined the Dorset Regiment. Following Armistice he returned to work with the Rural Council as a contractor. Officially he retired at the age of 66, but he still devotes a great deal of time to pig farming. This necessitates cycling to his fields several times a day. Mrs Copp, now 79, is equally active. She was Miss Mary Jones and after leaving school worked in a local glove factory. All six of their family – Messrs Harold, George and Reg Copp and Mrs Marjorie Popham, Olivia Newcombe and Winnie Oke, continue to live in Torrington. There are 16 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. Visitors on the great day, which was celebrated by a family party, included the Mayor and Mayoress – Mr and Mrs W S Hutchings – and the Vicar, Rev P G Harrison, and Mrs Harrison.
The Torrington depot of Unigate Ltd is creating new records for milk production.
Torrington’s first donkey derby.
Mrs May Vanstone and Mrs Nella Smale share a prize at bingo at the Torrington Cinema Social and Bingo Club.
Following a short service at St Michael’s Parish Church, a new town hall clock, presented in memory of the late Mr Robert Maxwell Boyer, was dedicated at Torrington by the Vicar, Rev P G Harrison. The clock has been given to the town by Mrs Boyer, whose husband was a former Mayor of Torrington and served on the Town Council and other local bodies for many years. Representatives of the Council including the Mayor, Cllr W S Hutchings, and representatives of many local organisations attended the service and dedication ceremony in Torrington Square. Torrington Voluntary Silver Band were also present.
On behalf of Mrs D M Blackmore (deceased), no. 7 Eastbourne Terrace, Westward Ho! is for sale.
The annual Summer Fair of Holy Trinity Church, Westward Ho! got the better of the lashing rain that prevented it from being held in the Church grounds. The stalls were moved indoors, to the adjoining Church Room, and from then on it was the money that rained. A record £102 5s was raised – and with a good humour that provided its own sunshine as the photograph shows. The fair was followed in the evening by a thanksgiving service at which the preacher was the Archdeacon of Barnstaple, Ven. A F Ward.
Cutting the cake on Friday evening as part of the celebrations by members of the Royal North Devon Golf Club ladies’ section and their guests of the 100th anniversary of the founding at Westward Ho! of a golf club for women. In the photograph are: Miss W M Fulford, Mrs H N Fulford, Miss B S Martin, Miss J Bruce, Mrs R Yewdall, Mrs S Creasy, Miss O Williams, Mrs J Mason, Mrs A A Smalley, Mrs M Sillem, Mrs P S Sparling, and Miss J Taylor. On Saturday prizes were presented by Miss Olwyn Williams, former president of the Ladies’ Golf Association and on Sunday by Mrs A A Smalley, president of the Royal North Devon ladies’ section. Owing to illness Mrs D McBeth, former England international, was unable to attend and present prizes.
Mrs Harriett Snell, Higher Venn Farm, Woolsery, was moved to Honee Bun rabbit farm for safety when a fire broke out. Higher Venn is farmed by Mr Brian Crocker, and his brother-in-law saw smoke coming from an outbuilding. Mr Dick Dunn works at Honee Bun farm.
