Westward Ho! News

Oh no it's not!

9 February 1968

Bolton Wanderers

20 June1969

Above high water mark

25 July1916

Great production

10 January 1958

Mr Price - of Westward Ho!

29 January 1965

Won by Mr Martin - of Westward Ho!

2 November 1962

No difficulties

16 October 1953

The sea wins

1 March 1974

Not unusual

25 May 1956

A credit balance

4 May 1962

'Miss Rose of the Torridge'

19 September 1958

Mr and Mrs Braddick are hosts

14 August 1964

Women’s Institute’s 20th Birthday Celebrations

In March 1968, the Gazette reported Westward Ho!’s Women’s Institute’s

Follies Presents Pantomime at Kingsley Hall

For the 18th successive year, Westward Ho! Follies presents

Braddicks Amusements New Line of Go-Karts

1968 and Braddicks Amusements Ltd is developing a new line of battery

Letter to the Editor of Bideford Gazette in 1939

Mr Inkerman Rogers' research

Mr Yatman is told 'no'

The Pines, Atlantic Way

Westward Ho! Carnival

Mr Jim Martin, joint honorary organiser

Wedding - 1945

There was much interest in the wedding on January 30th at the High Street Methodist Church, Bideford

Between Beach Road and Avon Lane

1962

Oh no it's not!
9 February 1968

For the 18th consecutive year,

Westward Ho! Follies, a section of Westward Ho! Community Association, are presenting a pantomime at the Kingsley Hall.

This year's choice is Cinderella in three acts. Script, production and direction are again by Ada Powell.

Cast in order of appearance (some people in numerous roles): Phyl Stevens, Clare, Geraldine, Hillary, Janet, Julie, Julia, Rachael, Arthur Eagle, Ray Wilson, Sybil Thompson, Caroline Newell, Judy Sherbourne, Marion Owen, Doris Thisby, David Eveleigh, Grenville Thisby, Jackie Turner, Julia, Roger, Wendy and Julie, Geraldine, Janet, Rachael, Sybil.

Pianist is Doris Watts.

Dancers in the Fantasia and Fairies in the ballroom are members of Jackie Turner's dancing group. Scenery is by Kingsley Decorators.

Gazette February 9, 1968

The day they played soccer with Nat Lofthouse at Westward Ho!

Bolton Wanderers' manager Nat Lofthouse is on holiday at Westward Ho! this week.

Nat joined Bolton as a 15 year old the day after the outbreak of World War II. Twelve months later he made his first appearance with Bolton's first team. Since then he has played over 700 league games. In 1961 he became assistant trainer and was later appointed chief coach. Last August he took over as manager.

Nat is staying at the Atlanta Hotel, with his wife Alma and daughter Vivien.

In the photograph he enjoys a kick around with some young holidaymakers in the hotel grounds.

Gazette dated 20 June 1969

Mr Hobart Braddick

A claim which might involve expensive litigation would probably be abandoned.

The well-known saying

“Beyond the best there is a better” must have been foremost in the mind of Ada Powell when she first started putting the Westward Ho! Follies through their paces in October in preparation for their eighth annual pantomime “Sleeping Beauty” which is being presented at the Kingsley Hall, Westward Ho! all this week.

When she produced her first pantomime last year – Mother Goose’s Folly – audiences claimed it the best of the series they had seen to date. It may confidently be submitted that this year’s show is even better, judging by the reception given to it by enthusiastic audiences.

Continuity is a fault which sometimes tends to mar amateur productions such as this but Sleeping Beauty runs very smoothly and has been tightened up to a brisk show of about one and a half hours.

There are, naturally, pauses between scenes and acts but the audience is fully occupied listening to pianist Fred Verney, a former Church organist. The author of the show is Norah Gibbs who...

Westward Ho! pool owner’s discovery

Two 5.5 shells were dug up at Westward Ho! on Wednesday.

About two feet long, they were found by the owner of the Patio Swimming Pool, Mr Dennis Price, while digging up part of the concrete surround at the shallow end of the pool for new piping to be laid to a filter.

‘I saw what I thought was a piece of rusty piping sticking out’ said Mr Price. ‘Before I knew what the objects were I gave one of them a tremendous bang with a shovel’.

Police contacted an Army bomb disposal unit at Salisbury who came and blew up the shells on the beach yesterday.

Gazette article dated 29 January 1965

A good trip

To mark centenary year Northam Chamber of Commerce are paying for a grant of arms of the township, and to help raise funds they organised a draw, prizes given by members included free holidays in various types of accommodation at Westward Ho! in 1963 – centenary year.

Mr Martin, caravan site proprietor, was among those who offered a holiday, as was his personal friend and secretary of the Chamber, Mr W Latter, who owns a guest house.

More than 1,000 tickets were sold and the week’s holiday to be given by Mr Latter was won by - Mr Martin. And so it is that Mr Martin is now on the look out for a deserving couple, possibly old-age pensioners and preferably from an industrial area, who would appreciate a week’s free accommodation at ‘glorious Westward Ho!’ and who would otherwise, not have a holiday.

Incidentally Mr Martin also sold another winning ticket in the draw – to someone in Torrington.

Full Gazette article dated 2 November 1962

Delivering fish by boat to a waiting customer on Westward Ho! sands last Friday afternoon,

Capt J R Pile, ‘Commodore’ of Bideford’s fishing fleet, accomplished a feat that has probably not been performed within living memory, and certainly not in the month of October.

Mr Claude Wise of Westward Ho! had ordered some soles from Capt Pile and, having seen what conditions were the previous day, Capt Pile promised to deliver the fish personally at Westward Ho! When the Deera finished some way off Westward Ho! Capt Pile brought her in until she almost grounded in some six feet of water. He and Mr Vernon Boyle then transferred to a 14ft boat brought for the purpose – the Deera does not now carry a boat of her own on normal trips – and rowed ashore with the fish.

Although during that week of quiet weather, there had been little or no ground sea, the handling of an open boat in the surf is no sinecure but the trip was accomplished without difficulty. So often Westward Ho! is a lee shore which...

Where the beach ends and the cliffs begin under Kipling Tors at Westward Ho! a group of black bumps appear and disappear in the swell of the waves.

At certain states of the tide they could from a distance be mistaken for a group of seals at play. But closer inspection reveals them to be encrusted iron stanchions.

The stanchions are all that is left of a pier which when it was finished just over 100 years ago was the pride and joy of those who had hopes and plans for the development of Westward Ho! as a holiday resort.

Unlike most piers, this one had a very brief life – and not a particularly gay one.

Originally it was to have been 600 feet long but an autumn gale of 1871 snapped off a series of the cast iron pillars and only 150 feet were left intact. The first contractor departed and a Bideford iron works proprietor and engineer, Mr John Abbott, undertook the pier in a shortened form.

The idea, of course, was to get out to the deeper water so that the coasting pleasure steamers...

In a Westward Ho! Garden

Two heads are better than one and three are better still, thinks Mrs E G Fisher, of Manorville, Kingsley Road, Westward Ho! seen here with the three-headed tulip that sprang from a single bulb in her garden. The tulip is cerise coloured and the bulb was just planted and received no special attention. 'Like Topsy it just growed' said Mrs Fisher.

Mr Roger Cobley, of the Seymour Cobley bulb farm at Braunton told the Bideford and North Devon Gazette that a three-headed tulip was by no means a rarity, adding that he had seen one bulb produce as many as fourteen flower heads. 'It just means that it is a large and very strong growing bulb' he said.

Article dated 25 May 1956

Complaint

Kingsley Hall was sadly lacking in educational facilities, complained Mr W E Powell at the annual meeting of Westward Ho! Community Association held in the hall.

“A community association such as this should serve the whole population” he said, “The community centre should provide facilities for both the elderly and the young”.

The retiring membership secretary, Mrs N Dale, commented that the association had done everything possible to persuade people to attend lectures held in the hall.

“We have 200 members in the association” remarked Mr A Eagle, caretaker of the hall, “It is a poor look-out when we get only 29% for this annual meeting. We must give people a good idea of what we are doing” he urged.

The president, Mr A C Feron, said that the exterior of the hall had been given a new look for the first time since 1949.

Successful inception of the Westward Ho! youth club was perhaps the most important achievement of the year, reported the chairman, Mr H A Gibbs. The club,...

Happy times at the community centre

‘Who is the fairest queen of all’ is what three visitors and Mr and Mrs R Lake had to decide at a ‘Miss Rose of the Torridge’ competition dance organised by the Westward Ho! Community Association at their hall on Friday.

Eligible for the title were Carnival Queens and their attendants from surrounding districts.

Miss Rosemary Hosegood, the 16 year old Westward Ho! Carnival Queen, won the title. She is a shop assistant.

Runners up were two Bideford Carnival Queen attendants – Miss Hazel Shute who lives at 18 Rockmount Terrace, and 20 year old Miss Margaret Hooper, a dressmaker, of Woodtown Cottage, Alverdiscott.

A motor scooter was won in a competition by Mr L Gilbert, of Glenburnie Road, and a bottle of sherry by Mr Michael Wadey, of Lime Grove.

A Bideford Gazette reporter who noted the gay, colourful dresses, and the pleasant character of the dance hall, was told by Mrs McHale, how much all were indebted to the voluntary helpers.

A leading spirit is...

£130 raised

The effect that industrial growth would have on the area and the need to be prepared for the changes it would bring were referred to by Mr Peter Mills (prospective candidate for the Torrington division) at a Conservative fete at Westward Ho!

The fete, held at Vicosa, the home of Mr and Mrs Leslie Braddick, and organised by Bideford town branch of the Divisional Conservative Association, realised about £130.

One of the attractions was a bathing belle competition. Winners were: Miss Annette Twitchen, Miss C Blackmore, Miss Joan Cox. A junior fancy dress competition was won by: Sally Dymond, Craig Chapman, Carolyn Hooper.

In charge of stalls and sideshows were: Mrs Broad, Mrs V Gilson, Mesdames De. Ryche, Bird, Lemon, Langdon, Lewis, Beaumont, P Lewis, Boyer, Hill; Messrs Taylor and Davis; Miss Carolyn Blackmore, the Misses Marlin, Mary Little and Christine Northcott; Messrs L Bramwell and M Blackmore; Mrs V Justice, Miss D Robinson; Mrs T P Keene, Mesdames Oke, Saunders,...

Women’s Institute’s 20th Birthday Celebrations - March 1968

In March 1968, the Gazette reported Westward Ho!’s Women’s Institute’s 20th birthday celebrations which were held in the Kingsley Hall. Seventy eight members and friends sat down to a 4-course dinner with guests of honour, Mr and Mrs Bob Mitchell. The cake, made by Mrs A Powell, was decorated with 20 red roses, one for each year.

Follies Presents Pantomime at Kingsley Hall - February 1968

For the 18th successive year, Westward Ho! Follies presents a pantomime at the Kingsley Hall. In 1968 it’s Cinderella, presented in three acts with Ada Powell scripting, producing and directing this colourful and entertaining show. Jackie Turner’s dancing group members are in the Fantasia and Fairies ballroom dance. Decoration is by Kingsley Decorators.

Braddicks Amusements New Line of Go-Karts - March 1968

1968 and Braddicks Amusements Ltd is developing a new line of battery operated go-karts. Mr Graham Braddick (top left) hopes that this enterprise, which he sees as backing Britain, may be exported. The assembly line is at East-the-Water.

Mr Inkerman Rogers’ Researches - 1939

Letter to the Editor

Sir, The pebble ridge along the coast around the bay extends from Hartland Point to Northam Burrows. The banking up of the pebbles in the rocky coves and against the base of the cliffs, and also the travel of the material along the shore are due to tidal wave action. The travel of the shingle is confined to the beach, and it is never found drifting where the water is deep. Frequently the shore is denuded of shingle by wave action accompanied by heavy ground swell from the great Atlantic, while in other places the pebbles are heaped in huge banks deep and wide. As the force of the waves which beat against the cliff or sea-wall and cause destruction is governed by the depth of the water on the beach in front of them, it is obvious that the most effective means of protection is the
maintenance of the beach and the prevention of its denudation; and this has been attained, judging by the accumulation of pebbles in front of the...

Mr J H Yatman of Westward Ho! has lost an appeal to the Minister of Housing and Local Government against the refusal of Northam Urban Council to permit him to build two pairs of holiday bungalows at his home, ‘The Pines’, Atlantic Way.

The appeal was decided on the written representations of the parties and following a visit to the site by an officer of the Ministry.
The Minister points out that ‘The Pines’ is a large, old house, with an associated area of about six acres, on the south side of Atlantic Way. The main access to the property is up a steep, winding drive from an entrance gateway adjoining the main road, and visibility is restricted in each direction from the highway boundary.
Properties on each side of this section of Atlantic Way are residential in character, the Minister adds, although some may be used for holiday purposes. Farther north is a large area used as caravan sites. ‘Your reasons for wishing to carry out the proposed development are appreciated,’ he had told Mr...

Proud Moment!

Everything is set. Thousands of spectators are lining the mile long route. The Carnival Queen is on her throne, and the attendant Carnival tableaux and characters have been judged and marshalled ... the procession is about to begin!
Mr Jim Martin, joint hon. organiser for Westward Ho! Youth Club, kindly spares a moment for a snapshot. His gaily coloured straw boater is characteristic of the personal zest and lead he has given to the Westward Ho! Youth Cub section, and which helped to make the Carnival an outstanding success.

Bideford - Westward Ho! Wedding - 13th February 1945

L.A.C. David Lang and Miss Daphne Stevens

There was much interest in the wedding on January 30th at the High Street Methodist Church, Bideford, between L.A.C David Charles Blake Lang, R.A.F., eldest son of Mr F G and the late Mrs Lang, of 36 Old Town, Bideford, and Miss Daphne Grace Stevens, eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs J Stevens, of 2 Eastbourne Terrace, Westward Ho!
The Rev. T E Clarke officiated at the ceremony.
Mrs. Cox presided at the organ, the hymns sung being "The Voice that breathed o'er Eden" and "O Perfect Love".
The bride was given away by her brother, Mr F A B Stevens, was attired in a dress of white satin, with white satin shoes, and her head-dress was of white feathers with a veil. THe mother of the bride wore a red crepe dress, with a fur coat and brown accessories.
The duties of the best man were carried out by Mr Frank Babb, uncle.
The reception was held at the Methodist Church Primaary Hall, the honeymoon being...

Recommendation by the Housing and Public Health Committee that an application for variation of planning consent to permit permanent occupation of chalets at the Golden Bay Hotel, Westward Ho! for Mr D R Norris, would be recommended for refusal was rejected by Northam Urban Council.

1962 WHo new estate

Instead it was agreed that a sub-committee should inspect the chalets although the Rev A E Green pointed out that every member of the Council had been invited to do so. ‘If they are interested enough they can see them, and if they are not that is that’ he said.

When the committee recommended that an outline application for building sites at Avon Lane-Beach Road, Westward Ho! for Mr E C Poynter, be deferred for more details to be obtained, several members protested. A move by Mr V F Bowyer to get the matter discussed in private also failed. Such matters were normally discussed in committee, Mr Bowyer said ‘so that we can get our facts straight and safeguard ourselves and others’. The Surveyor, Mr H J Bishop,...

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