November 1973
Two local women among more than 100 sailing enthusiasts who compete at London’s Welsh Harp for the National Benzole and RYA ‘Helmswoman of the year’ championship. Miss Phyllis Babb, Marine Gardens, Bideford, and Miss Rona Bassett, Tadworthy Lane, Northam, are both members of the North Devon Yacht Club.
Nine members of Bideford Karate Club were successful at gradings held at Ilfracombe by Mr Harada (5th dan) of Japan. The youngest member, Russell Woodland, of Cross Street, Northam, gained a yellow belt. Among the successful candidates were two local policemen, Danny Bryant and Gerald Martin. Others successful were: K McConnville, M Turner, D Berry, S Maytum, E Gordon and P Wrighton. All are pupils of Mr Ken Symonds of Appledore.
The Kingpins, the Bideford and District Skittles League First Division team who play at Bideford Liberal Club, have won their way through to the finals of the Westcountry skittles championship jointly sponsored by Westward TV and Bensons and Hedges. Tomorrow they travel to Wincanton for the closing rounds of a competition which attracted a total of 512 teams from all parts of the South West and South Wales. Kingpins comprises of Keith Foley, Studley Shute, Cecil Harding, Tony Tucker, Steve Schiller, Ron Jewell, Charles Schiller and Kenny Hearn.
A concerted move to tidy up Irsha Street, one of the jewels of Appledore’s conservation area, looks like being frustrated by a minority of its inhabitants. For many years local people with every justification have campaigned for the narrow picturesque street to be properly surfaced and drained. The public utility companies agreed to cooperate with the Council in carrying out outstanding work and, more importantly, the South Western Electricity Board agreed to replace their unsightly overhead distribution lines with underground cable. And that is where the project has received a knock.
Seamen’s Mission chapel reopens at Appledore.
Golden silence at Appledore. You could have heard a pin drop at Appledore County Primary School. It was a schoolteacher’s dream as the children sat quietly with not even a sshh! to break the silence. The children were in fact helping to raise money – by their sponsored silence – towards the provision of a PE-games equipment hut for the school. The picture shows some of the infant classes during their half-hour session at lunch time. Others stayed after school for their turn. The event, staged under the watchful eye of Mr Roger Perkins, was acclaimed a great success. About £170 was raised.
It has been an anniversary year for the Pearson family, of Bideford. The golden wedding day of Mr and Mrs Arthur Pearson, of Inglewood, Fordlands Crescent, Raleigh, followed the celebration in August of their silver wedding anniversary by their daughter, Mrs Moira Fairchild, and her husband. There was a family celebration at the Royal Hotel when those present included Mr and Mrs Pearson’s son Brian, a Lloyds surveyor home on leave from Japan.
Traders on the Kynochs site at East-the-Water, have welcomed news that the railway bridge at Gas Lane is to be raised. “We are delighted that at long last negotiations have been successful” said Mr Ken Stacey, chairman of the Kynochs Industrial Owners’ and Industrial Tenants’ Association. The work will start when the necessary materials and equipment are available.
Bideford Cage Bird Society’s open show was a special triumph for the Welch family of Hillcrest Road, Bideford, who between them carried off a host of cups and rosettes. It was the youngest member of the family, Simon, who took the top award – the Channer trophy. Mrs Doreen Welch took a trophy and Mr G A Welch gained several rosettes.
Heston, 103 Abbotsham Road, Bideford, is for sale by auction.
Machinists needed at Toy Works Ltd. Apply to Mrs J Duncan.
Operators needed by Anglo-American Vulcanised Fibre Co, Delanco Works, Clovelly Road, Bideford.
Special prayers were read by schoolchildren at a ceremony in a field at Chanters Road, Bideford, to mark the start on the building of St Mary’s Church of England School which will replace the present 100 year old Church junior and Church infants schools. Mr Kenneth Dendle, who has been head of the Church junior school for the last six years and is head-designate of the new school, said it was a moment for which many people in Bideford had been waiting for so long. The total cost of the school is estimated at £164,620. The contract price for the building is £116,029 and it is due to be completed in December 1974. Contractors are Messrs A F Beer and Son.
The Bideford birthplace of 5,608 people closes its doors at the end of this month. Grenville nursing home in Meddon Street is to shut down. It is said that the few patients now delivered there can be accommodated at substantially lower cost in the modern maternity unit at Barnstaple. It was vastly different when the present matron, Mrs E M Meadows, as a war widow, became associated with the home in 1946. In that year, a ‘fantastic number’ of babies were born in the home, which had formerly been Bideford hospital. In one night in February 1947 midwife Miss Lilian S Fursey, who now lives in retirement at The Causeway, Bideford, delivered babies at 11pm, 1, 3 and 5am.
These could be the last of the many babies born at the Grenville nursing home. David Arthur, son of Mrs Sandra Johns, of 14 Highfield Place, with Lisa, daughter of Mrs Sandra Hooper, of 21 Atlantic Way, Westward Ho!
Lower Wrangworthy, Buckland Brewer, is to be sold.
Limekilns at Bucks Mills, which it is planned to incorporate in Bideford Rural Council’s sewerage scheme for the area, are in danger of falling into the sea, the council were told by their surveyor, Mr L J Dunn. He told Mr Jack Prince that the Coast Protection Act provided that the council could do the work and reclaim the cost from the owners – in this case the Walland Cary Estate. “The thing is so urgent you must do the work and argue afterwards” he added.
The battle of beauty spot Bucks Mills has taken a new turn. Local people who are fighting Bideford Rural Council’s plan to pour crude sewage into the sea there have asked Mr Peter Mills, MP, to lay the whole matter before the Ombudsman.
This oil painting of horses has been sent as a wedding present to Princess Anne by the artist, Mrs F Fran Sutton, of the Old Chapel, Bucks Mills. Mrs Sutton, perhaps better known in art circles as Sara, painted the picture in 1967 in the grounds of Ronan, Ascot, the home of the Hone Mrs Gascoigne.
Mrs S R Cope of Ohio, USA, wins a Wedgewood vase with a Clovelly view.
On average a driver a week ignores or fails to see the ‘entry prohibited’ sign at the top of Clovelly’s steep, cobbled High Street and takes his vehicle down, the parish council were told. The need for speed in dealing with the problem was stressed by Miss Sheila Ellis. She had raised the matter at her first council meeting four years ago, but cars had continued to drive down the street, the last one only three days before. The driver had had “the devil of a job” to get back up.
Lower Rosedown, Hartland, is for sale, on behalf of Mr L W and Miss I W Beer.
Beachcombing, a hobby of Mr R Reader, of Hartland, has just netted him 55p from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and, more rewarding, news of an experiment. On the beach at Mouth Mill he found a strange object that a label attached to it identified as a ‘sea bed drifter’. Following instruction, he sent it to the Ministry who have written that the drifter is part of an experiment to determine the nature and direction of currents. The drifter was released from a ship just off the coast of Watchet, Somerset, on June 6 1972, as one of a batch of 25. It has taken nearly 16 months to reach Hartland.
There had been 18 applicants for a vacant house at Hartland, Bideford Rural Council were told. Members were discussing a request from Torridge District Council that consideration should be given to the possibility of making houses available for officers transferring to that council. The number was not likely to be great but the clerk, Mr A J Blatchford, said that all dwellings now being built on three sites must go to older people.
Since its re-formation in 1960 Hartland Town Band has gone from strength to strength both in numbers and success. Under Mr Harry Dayman, who took over as bandmaster in 1968, the band this year achieved its most notable triumph. The band is now 30 strong, not counting the growing group of young members. The first Hartland band started with a practice session in Manor House Barn between 1860-70. After a lapse it was re-formed after the first World War and continued until 1939. In 1946 Harton Town Band came into being and ran for three years before it, too, was disbanded. Two of the members of this band were among 25 members who re-formed under Mr Gerald Thorne to lay the foundations of the present band.
Two local Ranger Guides who represented North Devon on a joint Ranger-Venture Scout cruise to Gibraltar, the Canary Islands and Lisbon have been unpacking their mental suitcases and sharing with those they left behind. Alyson Bowden of Lenwood Park, Bideford, and Sally Bellew, of Lower Guscott, Huntshaw, have written a colourful report. They tell of a crowded fortnight.
These children of Instow County Primary School watching the planting of some of the 150 trees given by one of the school managers, Mr W R Yeo, will have put their schooldays behind them by the time the conifers have grown to any appreciable size. The trees will not only enhance the appearance of the school playing field, but act as a welcome windbreak from the Atlantic storms.
Mr A R Mills wins the School Cup at Langtree autumn fair.
Mr Alan Smith, of Hele House, in Littleham, tells the Gazette of the remarkable first leg in the yacht, the Burton Cutter, jointly owned by him and Mr Leslie Williams, which was the first to reach Cape Town in the Whitbread round-the-world race. Later in the month it was reported that the ketch Burton Cutter was in Port Elizabeth for repairs. Reporting by radio telephone, Leslie Williams said everyone was safe but naturally despondent.
More than £60 was raised for St Swithun’s church, Littleham, as a result of a variety sale, tea and dance held at the parish hall. Stallholders were Mesdames A Mills, J Nicholls, W Johns, C Barber, J Ray, M Alvis, K Phelps, R Headon, H McDougall, Ansell and Miss A Badcock. Teas were by Mesdames J Devereux, C Lester, G Short, J Docking, J Bromhead, E Moore and R Brend. Competition winners were Mesdames E Nicholls, D Edwards, J Headon and Plum, Misses A Badcock and L Hockin. Door stewards were Messrs R Smale and J Devereux.
Lundy’s so rugged wall against officialdom crumbled with the news that residents on the island will soon pay income tax. Predictably, the reaction of the people on Lundy was one of dismay. Island agent, Mr John Grainger, said “It’s a sad day for Lundy but it is a fait accompli and it looks as though we shall have to grin and bear it.” To pay no income tax was one of the benefits enjoyed by the islanders. “There is some comfort to be gained, perhaps, by the thought that at least they can go on drinking in the island’s only pub, the Marisco Taavern, unhampered by the mainland restriction on licensing hours – and they don’t pay rates either.”
An open invitation to any priest or minister of any denomination to spend a few days on Lundy has been extended by the Vicar of Appledore, Rev Donald Peyton Jones, who is also priest in charge of the island. They can stay in the vestry in return for duties there. He says “We have an open altar at St Helena’s so the only condition is that there are no restrictions on anyone joining in our worship there. It is truly ecumenical – like a ship’s service when at sea.”
Little Paula Harding, of Westward Ho! took the opportunity at Northam Church Christmas fair to tell Father Christmas – Mr Gordon Johnson was substituting for him in this case – what presents she wanted this year. Among those looking on were Dawn Jaggard, Jeffrey Harding and Trevor Pyne.
Busily engaged on the most important commission of his life so far – a wedding present for Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips – is a young artist-craftsman, Mr John Ford, of Manor House Cottage, Diddywell, Northam. The commission is for a set of hand-engraved glasses and two matching decanters, all of Dartington glass made at Torrington. This will be the official gift from the British Equestrian Federation, commissioned by Col Sir Michael Ansell, of Pillhead House, Bideford. John was born at Torrington, and during a spell at Dartington Glass, developed his flair for diamond point engraving on glass. To mark the building and launching at Appledore of the Golden Hinde he engraved a limited series of goblets with this theme, and he made leaded lights.
Benefits of the purchase by Devon County Council of Northam Burrows will soon be felt if the council adopt a recommendation of their industry and tourism committee that £20,000 should be spent on a ‘tidy up and preservation’ operation. The council plan to turn the Burrows into a country park. Chief anxiety of some potwallopers is the effect the county’s takeover will have on what they regard as grazing rights. Others wonder whether next summer they will retain the privilege of being able to park their cars on the Burrows free of charge. Mr Thomas Barclay has been appointed the first Northam Burrows warden under Devon County Council.
Riverbank Cottage, Lower Cleave, Limers Lane, Northam, is for sale by auction.
At the age of 95 the death occurred of Miss C M Davis, of 5 Windmill Terrace, Northam, who in her 90th year published a history of her native Northam. For over 40 years she was assistant and later postmistress of Northam. She had taken an active part in the affairs of the local Chamber of Commerce and of many charitable and educational causes.
A balance of more than £2,000 was reported at the annual meeting of the Allardice Hall, Parkham.
To most people in Britain November 5 means Guy Fawkes night, but to the residents of Shebbear it has an even more unique and, if legend is to be believed, a more sinister meaning. Every year within living memory local bellringers have squared their shoulders on this night for the task of turning the Devil Stone, a boulder weighing more than a ton which lies near the village church. Not to turn it means bad luck. Where it came from is a mystery.
A Torrington teenager has won her way through to national finals of the world’s biggest hair colouring competition. Jennifer Slade, of High Street, Torrington, was placed third out of 60 in the Plymouth heat of the L’Oreal colour trophy competition which has a national entry of some 26,000. Her success brought her a £25 prize plus a diploma. Jennifer and her model, Collette Headon, of Northam, work in the Wynne Olley salon at Bideford.
Unigate Foods Ltd, Torrington, need dairy workers. Apply to the Assistant Manager, R C Beer.
Torrington Voluntary Silver Band can probably claim the title of the area’s most youthful band, with 16 of its 24 regular members still attending school. And it is believed to be the town’s first truly voluntary band, running its own affairs and not controlled by the town council. It came into being when in 1952 a small group of music lovers met in a South Street Torrington café, owned by Mr Jack White, who was to become its first chairman. Former Royal Marines bandsman Mr Herbert Oke, a member of the original ‘Karno band’ was one of the founder members.
One of the soldiers of the 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards chosen to be on duty at the wedding of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Philips was Lance-Corporal David Rash, whose parents Mr and Mrs Charles Rash, live at 42 Town Park, Torrington. David, a signaller-driver, joined the Army on leaving Torrington Secondary School.
Final details were expected to be settled for Torrington’s Town Crier, Mr Norman Dymond to spend a fortnight in Italy as a representative of the British Travel Association. Mr Dymond lives at 12 Calvesford, and he succeeded Mr Bert Waldron, who gained world wide fame as Torrington’s crier, just under three years ago. He said “If things work out and I get the chance to go out to Italy it will be marvellous.” At 38 he is one of the youngest town criers in the country.
Norwood, Great Torrington, is for sale.
Did you eat at The Captains Table in Westward Ho!
A £1 million residential development scheme for Westward Ho! hangs in the balance. Geocrest Properties Ltd, of Weybridge, want to build four blocks of flats similar to those at Torquay providing between 90 and 121 two and three bedroom homes to sell at about £11,000. But although, as managing director Mr Peter J Brien puts it, the planning authority ‘have been extremely helpful, cooperative and adventurous’ the problem is sewerage.
Woolsery concert’s capacity house.
Tender from Mr V Rendle of Appledore, £10,000 above yardstick.
A Department of the Environment inspector has turned down an appeal by a Woolsery man against refusal of planning permission for the erection of two houses with access near the village. The houses which Mr R W Hancock, of South View Farm, wished to erect would be outside the existing boundaries of the village and would form an undesirable extension into the open country. Although a vicarage had been built to the east of the site fairly recently, it was permitted on special grounds.