Concern about Pebble Ridge
18 March 1977
Not a new problem19 June 1964
Burrows 'Slum' Complaint To BBCA complaint has been lodged wit the B.B.C., Mr Alan Gardner, Clerk of the Northam Urban Council, revealed this week
Patriot And A German LoverSir - May I trespass on your kindness by inserting a few remarks in your valuable paper of a man who holds
High tide does damage31 January 1975
17 January 1975
TV Film Ignored Local EffortsIt was regrettable that the BBC had contacted neither Northam Urban Council nor the Burrows Committee before
Concern about Pebble Ridge18 March 1977
Such was the force of the waves
pounding in from the Atlantic in the recent gales that hundreds of sizeable pebbles were thrown high over Westward Ho! sea wall to carpet the promenade.
The slipway, too, has been damaged. A hold made part way down to the beach led to its temporary closure.
Meanwhile there is concern again about the Pebble Ridge, particularly the stretch from Sandymere to the coastguard hut. Burrows warden Mr Alisdair Barclay told the Gazette that measures taken there so far did not appear to have overcome the weakness and they had welcomed an opportunity to borrow a bulldozer to push the ridge into better shape at Sandymere. Farther round into the estuary, he reported, the coast near the RNDGC’s eighth green between the coastguard hut and Greysands had been scoured very badly and first aid repairs that had been carried out using wooden baulks were being undermined.
Gazette article dated 18 March 1977
Not a new problem19 June 1964
Grave warning about the condition of the Pebble Ridge
was given by Mr W Badcock at the annual meeting of the potwallopers of the Manor of Northam on Friday.
Closing the meeting, he told those present that they had paid a great deal of attention to the Burrows, but none to what preserved them.
Mr Badcock, a local trawler owner, said that the ridge appeared to be getting ‘thinner and thinner’. Even at the end of the war, Mr Badcock contended, it would have almost been possible to drive three double-deck buses across the top of the ridge. The matter was now serious.
Sunbathers blamed
A major cause of the trouble, said Mr D Hocking, was that people dug pits in the ridge and during winter tides, the holes had to be filled. “If you walk from Bucks Mills to Clovelly you walk over stones all the way” he added. There were thousands of tons fewer, retorted the Chairman. At Abbotsham the sea was now washing against the cliffs - from Peppercombe all the way up there were few pebbles. "In a year or...
Burrows 'Slum' Complaint To BBCA complaint has been lodged wit the B.B.C., Mr Alan Gardner, Clerk of the Northam Urban Council, revealed this week
Burrows 'Slum' Complaint To BBC - 13th November 1970
A complaint has been lodged wit the B.B.C., Mr Alan Gardner, Clerk of the Northam Urban Council, revealed this week following a protest from a woman ratepayer about the Burrows being described in a TV progamme as 'an over crowded slum.'
The programme "The Country We Are Making" in which the Duke of Edinburgh took part, went out on B.B.C.2 and dealt with countryside conservation. The Burrows were contrasted with a beautiful area in Scotland.
When the film of the Burrows was screened the narrator, Derek Johns, commented that without planning "Northam Burrows", a beauty spot and one of the loveliest places in Devon, turns into an overcrowded slum".
Patriot And A German LoverSir - May I trespass on your kindness by inserting a few remarks in your valuable paper of a man who holds
Patriot And A German Lover - 15th September 1914
Sir - May I trespass on your kindness by inserting a few remarks in your valuable paper of a man who holds a public position in a village not miles from Bideford re his sentiments and sympathies for the Germans. He has been airing his opinions rather freely in the village street lately and says he 'hopes the Germans will win and that the Kaiser will eat his dinner in London one day this week'. He has also been heard to say that if he saw the Germans coming in over a certain burrows he would not lift his voice in warning nor would he take up a rifle against them. Is it right, Mr Editior, for such a man to be at liberty and casting such sayings broadcast at a time like this when all our thoughts should be with our King and country and all who are fighting for a just cause.
PATRIOT
High tide does damage31 January 1975
The Pebble Ridge at Westward Ho! – the defence Northam Burrows has against the sea – was badly damaged by yesterday morning’s high tide.
The ridge, on which a £60,000 strengthening scheme is in progress, was flattened for much of its length and the Burrows extensively flooded.
The Burrows presented a desolate picture: the first and eighteenth fairways of the Royal North Devon Golf Club course were completely under water and there was extensive flooding on other parts of the Burrows where the sea had swept in over the flattened Ridge. The course was closed. ‘We can claim to be the only genuine sea-washed links in the country’ commented the RNDGC secretary, Mr John Linaker.
Under the scheme now in hand 40 additional groynes were being installed and this part of the work has now completed. ‘Unfortunately the damage occurred where the re-charging work had not been completed’ said Mr Barber.
Earlier in the week the emergency pumps installed on Bideford river bank were in action and...
17 January 1975
Tipping on the Northam Burrows should be completed by March 1977 it is being recommended to the North Devon Torridge Area Highways Committee in a report by the Devon County Engineer’s Department.
With the County Council’s promotion of the Burrows as a country park it was recognised that arrangements would have to be made to cease tipping, says the report.
Read more in the article dated 17 January 1975
TV Film Ignored Local EffortsIt was regrettable that the BBC had contacted neither Northam Urban Council nor the Burrows Committee before
TV Film Ignored Local Efforts - 18th December 1970
It was regrettable that the BBC had contacted neither Northam Urban Council nor the Burrows Committee before featuring the Burrows in a programme on BBC2 that gave a poor impression, Mr John Smith (chairman of the Highways and Amenities Committee) told the Council.