Time capsules and the Port Memorial.

Posted on 26/04/2015 by Tango Alpha

Saturday April 11th saw an interesting event on the Quay when the restored Port Memorial and Ornamental Gardens were re- opened by the Mayor following refurbishment.

Councillor David Howell had also organised a ceremony with the Sea Scouts to bury a time capsule containing items from local groups and organisations within the town, (including 4 years worth of Bideford Buzz on a memory stick.) The plan is that the capsule will be excavated in 30 years time and will give a snapshot of life in Bideford in 2015.

Councillor Peter Christie described the history of the Port Memorial, which commemorates how Bideford regained its port status in 1925 after losing it in 1882. This was echoed in an historical description by the Town Crier.

A rather wonderful terracotta mural has been designed and built by ceramicist Maggie Curtis, and this now forms part of the memorial. Maggie writes ;-

‘Being asked to make commemorative plaques for a public memorial is an honour, but daunting, especially when my knowledge of the history of Bideford Port was sketchy at best. However the research was fascinating; I found out why Harry Juniper called Peter’s Marland clay “pipe clay”, why, when on holiday in Portugal in 1967 at the Cascois’ Fiesta, the prize for the Greasy pole was a salt cod, and why there are so many Americans visiting the North Devon Maritime Museum in Appledore.

I decided to show Bideford’s mercantile shipping history by depicting two illustrated trade maps. Bideford’s shipbuilding industry played a crucial part in enabling Bideford’s merchants to trade, so I researched and found named Bideford-built ships throughout the history of both Tobacco and Salt Cod  and used them to represent the development of each trade and their subsidiary cargos.’

Interestingly Bideford has two other time capsules in place. Just at the entrance to Victoria Park is the Millennium Time Capsule, buried there in 2000. Another little book, ‘Secrets of Bideford’ (available at Bideford Library) describes the burying of art works in the fabric of the Quay when the flood defence scheme was completed.

Future generations of Bidefordians will have plenty of archive material to peruse!

RA.

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From Hungarian refugee to Glorious Devon bistro owner.

Posted on 23/02/2015 by Tango Alpha

It’s funny how Facebook opens up all sorts of windows and lets us see inside other people’s lives. The latest “7 facts that you may not know about me” has resulted in this article.

My mother, Julianna Ibolya Homolya, left Hungary with just me and one suitcase after the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. Mum was 24 years old and I was two. Neither of us spoke a word of English. After catching a train and walking for miles to a “safe” opening in the barbed wire fencing that was all around the border of Hungary and Austria, then spending a few nights in an Austrian farmer’s barn along with several others, we ended up initially in a refugee camp in Austria. Then we were allocated a space in England.

After reading this on Facebook, Rose Arno, Bideford Buzz’s Editor, responded by telling me that she clearly remembers, as a schoolchild, knitting woollen squares for blankets for Hungarian refugees. I can happily say that not only were we, as a family, grateful for one of those blankets and indeed had it for many years, but so were all the tenants of the house that we lived in when we finally arrived in the Midlands in 1958.

So how did I get to be living in glorious Devon? It has been my dream to live in Devon for almost thirty years, along with my other dream of owning a Bistro. It has been a long and eventful journey and I have made so many friends and hopefully introduced a tiny corner of Hungary to the Devon coastline. Imagine it started with the clothes on my back, a few changes of undies and a tenacious and brave young woman. Thanks, Mum.

Here is a classic Hungarian dish for you to try, which many of you will think is Goulash, but it is in fact Pörköltt. ‘Guylas leves’, translated to ‘Goulash’, is in fact a soup – Hungarians generally have a soup before every meal and Gulyas leves used to be eaten on the Plains by herdsman, made in huge tureens, much like the cowboys in America.

Take a look at my Facebook page – Nanna’s Kitchen, Combe Martin. You will see menus and opening hours and will be able to buy sachets of the herbs and spices needed to make this dish and others, in the right quantity and using Hungarian Paprika and Hungarian Marjoram. ENJOY!

Ildi McIndoe.

‘Pörköltt’ – Paprika Casserole.

(Serves four).

Ingredients

500 grams diced pork, from loin of pork.

1 tablespoon oil – sunflower, rapeseed, or vegetable.

1 large onion.

1 clove garlic.

1 tin chopped tomatoes.

1 large tablespoon of sweet Hungarian Paprika.

1 heaped teaspoon of Marjoram.

Salt and pepper.

Garnishes.

Small pot of sour cream

Finely chopped fresh parsley

A few thinly chopped sweet and sour gherkins.

Serve with chosen pasta shapes.

Method.

Finely dice onion and clove of garlic (or,for a better sauce, use a food processor or mini chopper to finely chop).

Heat the oil in a large frying pan ; add the onion and garlic and fry very gently, taking care not to overcook. It should stay translucent.

Keep it at a low heat for about ten minutes. When the onion and garlic have soaked up all the oil and are soft and golden, add the pork pieces and brown on all sides.

Add the Hungarian Paprika and Marjoram and just coat all the pork quickly. Add the tinned tomatoes and stir well to combine all the ingredients. Bring to the boil, add salt and pepper to taste.

Leave to simmer gently with a lid on for about thirty minutes. Take off the lid and test a piece of pork to see if the meat is cooked. If not, put the lid on and leave for another 10 minutes. Be patient, do not rush this point. You need the pork to fall apart when gently pressed.

If the sauce is too watery then remove the lid and cook gently until the sauce thickens to a coating sauce, as this will be served with pasta.

Serve with pasta that has a little bite, so that it still wants to soak up the sauce. Add the Pörköltt on top of the pasta and for a final authentic flourish add a tablespoon of sour cream on top and a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley.

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Training the Army Horse.

Posted on 26/01/2015 by Tango Alpha

(Whilst turning out old cassette tapes recently, I came across a recording in Devonshire dialect, made by my father, Percy Reed (1907 – 2001) of Northam, in 1985.

It told the tale of a childhood incident in which he was involved when his father was training a WW1 army horse.

I have since produced a 4-minute YouTube video which includes his recording, together with the script, for anyone who is interested! I have printed the script below.)

For the YouTube Video see: http://youtu.be/FOnb1HVOvV4

I’d like to take ee back a vew years jist arter the first world war and tell ee bout Varmer Tom and the army horse. Now Tom was a master hand wi horses, what ee didn knaw bout em wadn worth the tellin. If anybody in the village had ort wrung wi their horse they’d come rinning to Tom and you may depain if ee couldn put en right twas a waste of time zending ver the Vet. Aye, ee knawed all bout horses sure nuff.

Wull twas like this yer. Arder the war the army had to zell off a lot of horses wot theyd vinished wi and zo they had these horse zales up to Exeter and anybody that knawed Tom would ax en to go up and buy one for em. This zeemed to work out purty well, they could trist Tom to git the right horse for em and nort plaized Tom better than to hav a day off to Exeter.

Now the one I want to tell ee about was one ee bought for eself an Ive yerd tell ee had a vine ole caper gitting en on the train up to St Davids til Tom thought about whipping off es best jacket and put en awver the horses haid and backed en in the truck.

Ive erd zay that zome of these horse traders when they wanted to zell a broken down ole horse theyd given a veed of Vuz chaff avore the zale to liven en up. Wull this one didn need ort like that, more likely ee needed something to quieten en down, zo Varmer Tom thought e’d try en out in the chaffcutter. Zo ee hitched en up and led en round a vew times to git en in the way au’t. Now me en me brither (jist boy-like) stood watching this gwain on, zo Tom axed us to leyd the horse round whilst ee went up to the tallet to git a vew wads of straw.

I dont knaw what thatole horse hed done in the war but whativer twas it didn include gwain roun-in-roun in little circles and no zooner hed Tom turned ees back he reared up and bevore us knawed what hed appened the horse was flat on the ground all tangled up with the tackle. Zo Varmer told us two boys to kneel on es neck while ee tried to git en free.

Wull us was only a couple of tackers and ver all the good us done us mayht jist as well ev told us to kneel on a vuz bush. The ole horse wadn gwain to let a couple of whipper snappers like us keep en down and twadn very long avore hes haid come up vollowed by the rest awn, and us two boys landed in the … wull I wont tell ee what us landed in but us didn smell very sweet, jist about as sweet as Varmer Tom when ee hollered “why didn ee keep ees haid down like I told ee”. Howiver there wadn no damage done but I can tell ee twas the last time thicky horse went in the chaffcutter.

Cynthia Snowden.

For the YouTube Video see: http://youtu.be/FOnb1HVOvV4

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Freemasonry in Bideford.

Posted on 23/10/2014 by Tango Alpha

‘Buzz’ has been very fortunate to receive various donations from Bideford’s Freemasons. They are well known for their charitable work and many local organisations have benefited from their fund-raising.

I asked Peter Christie what he could tell us about the history of the Lodge.

The following information is taken from his book, ‘ More North Devon History,’ originally published in the North Devon Journal-Herald 23/5/1985.

“In 1843 the fourth lodge called ‘Benevolence’ was formed. Early members included the Town Clerk and the Mayor TB Chanter and this is the one that still remains today.

Its original home was in the Commercial Reading Room, an earlier forerunner of the town library. It moved from there to the Newfoundland hotel (now Mr Chips) thence to 9, Grenville street (now the Cafe Collective). From these premises the lodge moved to a hall in Bridgeland Street and finally secured its own rooms in October 1875 in the present day Masonic Hall in the same street. This was once the home of Thomas Stucley, a noted eccentric, and opposite the Conservative Club. (Home of Dr Ackland – see article ‘A Nineteenth-Century Bideford Doctor’).

The Victorian newspapers have various reports of this lodge – generally in January when new officers were installed and the annual banquet was held. For many years this was in the New Inn where ‘Brother Ascott’ was the host.

The lodge can look back at some 200 years of masonic history in Bideford – a very long period of connection with the town.”

(For the full story, read ‘More North Devon History’ by Peter Christie).

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A Nineteenth-Century Bideford Doctor.

Posted on 23/10/2014 by Tango Alpha

William Henry Ackland was born in Bideford in 1825 and was the son of a doctor. His father, also William Ackland, had been apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary in Bideford, but William Henry trained at University College Hospital in London. He lived at 23, Bridgeland Street, in the house which is now the Conservative Club, with his wife and seven children. Between 1851 and 1893 he built up a large practice, which stretched from Bradworthy and Clovelly to Instow and out to Lundy. He generally visited between 8 and 15 patients a day. When he went by sea to Lundy to treat a labourer working there, he sent his bills to Mr Heaven who then owned the island, and if he was seeing one of the lighthouse keepers the bill went to Trinity House. He also went as far as Eggesford. In order to visit the Earl of Portsmouth at Eggesford House the doctor caught the train from Bideford, was collected from Eggesford Station by carriage, saw his patients who might be members of the family (the Earl had 6 sons and 6 daughters) or servants, stayed the night and returned by train the next day. Other visits were made on horseback or in a horse-drawn brougham.

Charles Kingsley was a close friend and godfather to Dr Ackland’s eldest son, who was named Charles Kingsley Ackland. Like Kingsley, Dr Ackland was concerned for the health of the poorer people. He courted wealthy patients – and the fees he charged them seemed extraordinarily high in some cases – and he treated some poorer patients for little or nothing. Occasional bartering took place, for instance when treatment for the children of Bideford saddler Walter Chope was exchanged for a new saddle for Dr Ackland’s horse.

He obtained letters of recommendation from patients such as the Earl of Portsmouth and Henry Hamlyn-Fane of Clovelly and as a result obtained the position of Justice of the Peace and the first Medical Officer of Health for Bideford. In a letter to Mr Fane of Clovelly, the Earl of Portsmouth wrote,

‘Mr Dear Fane, I have written to the Chancellor on behalf of Dr Ackland and I have no doubt that Dr A will be a JP for Bideford. There cannot be a more fit and proper man. He is by far the most talented man in the town and of the highest attainments. He may not be as great a consumer of gin and water and port wine. Yrs Portsmouth.’ The Earl was known to be fond of his drink, while Dr Ackland was probably a teetotaller.

He attended the wealthy Mrs Elwes of Walland Carey at Buck’s Cross and seems to have persuaded her that funding was needed for medical attention for the poor of Buck’s Mills. He then provided their medical care and when Mrs Elwes died she left a sum of money, the interest on which allowed his visits to continue.

Naturally the middle classes of Bideford would have been impressed by these illustrious connections and would want him as their doctor. He used homeopathic remedies alongside conventional medicine. Homeopathy was fashionable at the time because it was used by the Royal Family, so this would also have increased his popularity. He was instrumental in setting up the Dispensary on Bideford Quay and the first isolation hospital on Alverdiscott Road.

There seemed to be a certain amount of rivalry between the doctors in Bideford, judging by accounts of disagreements in the local papers. Dr Ackland’s 1867 diary contained a reference to a visit to a woman in labour. He said she was ‘first seen by Dr Pridham, afterwards by Mr Turner, subsequently by self. I succeeded in turning the child after ineffectual attempts by Dr Pridham and Mr Turner.’

An elderly lady who remembered Dr Ackland claimed that she saw him meet his friend Charles Kingsley in the street and Kingsley asked him where he was going. The doctor waved his hands in a characteristic way and said airily ‘Oh, westward, ho!’ meaning Northam Burrows, as the village of that name did not then exist. Supposedly this gave the author the idea for the title of his book.

William Ackland’s son, Charles Kingsley Ackland, also trained as a doctor and practised in the Strand until about 1930. Charles’s daughter Judith was an artist whose work is displayed in the Burton Art Gallery.

Liz Shakespeare.

Liz Shakespeare is the author of four books set in the Bideford area. Dr Ackland is one of the main characters in ‘The Turning of the Tide’. Photo courtesy of Wellcome Institute, London.

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Posted in Health, History | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Torridge Sealock.

Posted on 26/09/2014 by Tango Alpha

Torridge Sealock top gates.

Anyone who has been to the harbour at Bude will know the canal basin and sea lock where the Bude Canal meets the sea. Far fewer people are aware that just three miles up the Torridge from Bideford port is the Torridge sea lock, where the canal from Torrington opens into the tidal waters of the estuary. Strictly speaking such a lock should be called a tide lock, but in this case it was built by navvies and engineers who had just completed work on the Bude Sea Lock and so gave it the name of Sealock, which has stuck for nearly 200 years.

When the lock and the canal basin to which it gave access from the tideway were built, the whole area between Annery Kiln and the river was a hive of industrial activity including the lime kiln, pottery kilns, brick works and a major ship building yard. Despite being upstream of Bideford bridge, several sea-going ships were launched at the Sealock shipyard in the parish of Landcross, the largest being the Sedwell Jane, a brigantine of about 200 tons. Ships of this size were built up to gunwale level and then floated downstream of the Long Bridge for fitting of the superstructure.

By the end of the nineteenth century, with the canal being abandoned in favour of the railway and the old industries dying out, the sea lock fell into disrepair and virtually vanished into the landscape being filled with silt washed in by flood waters and overgrown with trees and bushes. It was rediscovered by new owners of the land in the 1970s, who started restoring the site and were instrumental in forming the Rolle Canal and Northern Devon Waterways Society in 2003, since when restoration has proceeded apace with the masonry repaired and a pair of upper lock gates now fully operational.

Chris Hassall.

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‘A Little Port’.

Posted on 25/09/2014 by Tango Alpha

As promised in last month’s Buzz here is the poem about Appledore written by George Douglas Warden (father of Audrey Jones of Bideford) , who was wounded and lost his sight in World War One.

(Contributed by Audrey’s daughter-in-law, Eleanor Jones).


‘A little port’.

In Appledore, the cobbled floor

of many a steep and narrow way

seems ready to leap across the quay

over the bar and out to sea,

dancing away with a thousand years

of Devon lore from Appledore.


Like a wandering child by love beguiled

a coaster hugs the maternal quay

her lullaby the sound afar of the lone low beat

of the harbour bar.

So old, this place that time it seems

is kept in store at Appledore.


Within a maze of weathered stays

of stocks and struts and stilted beams

a toy ship waits in a toy dry dock

for her overhaul and painted frock

they’re ‘broidering “Laura” on her breast

say the crew ashore in Appledore.


Old men tell tales of winter gales

clattering boots on cobbled ways

of daunting wave and doleful bell

when they launched the lifeboat into hell

of widows mourning measured by

the weeds they wore in Appledore.


But lazy days in summer haze

and idling on the quiet quay

put thought’s winter far behind

like migrant swallows outward bound.

So on this splendid tragedy, I’ll swell no more

in Appledore.

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Bideford Home Guard, 1943.

Posted on 29/06/2014 by Tango Alpha

Rear row – Ptes S Laird, P Cloke, WE Voden, CMS Gosling, Sgt. R Featherstone, Pte. TD Frayne, Cpl. GR Hill, Ptes FJ Clements, G Waldron, J Lock, Cpl. F Stacey, Pte R Raymont, Cpl. EJ Moyes.

Third row – L/Cpls. FD Miles, F Clarke, Cpl.RC Halbert, Cpl. R Day, Ptes C Kelly, W Weedon, J Oliver, Cpl H Mounce, Ptes SJ Short, AC Waldon, E Symonds, L Braund, A Tuplin, Cpl.A Huxtable,Cpl.F Rockey, Mr.E Brown.

Second row – Sgt. S Hawkins, Pte .R Cade, Sgt.R Northcote, Sgt.TR Harding, Major Cudmore, 2/ltd WH Pascoe, Lt. C Brough, Capt. JR Ellis, 2/Lt. H Sherbourne, Sgt. F Clarke,Sgt.JH Hillman, Sgt. L Short.

Front row – Ptes. R Webb, C Tryon, R Raymont, L/Cpl. ER Youngs, Ptes H Lee, WW Horn, M Vanstone, CW King, Cpl. SC Smalldon.

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Holiday snaps !

Posted on 10/05/2014 by Tango Alpha

As the holiday season approaches many will consider buying a new camera. However, with the advent of the all encompassing mobile telephone is one necessary? A similarly priced camera readily captures snow scenes, beach scenes, portraits, the family cat or dog and photographs friends only when they are smiling, all in brilliant colour. Little instruction is considered necessary. How different a hundred years ago.


“A traveller wishing to take photographs of scenery must first decide on the size of glass plate he intends to employ, be they 4 ¾ x 3 ¼ or 8 ½ x 6 ½ inches, although one can more readily utilise 7 ½ x 5 inch. In those countries where porters are cheap the largest format is preferred. Glass plates weigh in the region of 3 pounds per dozen and one should take at least half a gross (seventy-six, approximately 20 pounds). One might use gelatine film but glass is much to be preferred and film is not recommended for hot and humid climates.

The camera itself should be of the bellows form constructed of the finest mahogany, particularly those made by Mr. Meagher of Southampton Row or Mr. Hare of Calthorpe Street. It should have a front capable of moving vertically and horizontally, with a swing back. For normal photographs one may dispense with a tripod, however they can be useful under certain circumstances and readily purchased for 25 shillings (£1.25p). An appropriate socket will be provided in the camera along with a spirit level to ensure correct vertical and horizontal alingement.


In the field it will be necessary to have plates previously loaded in double backed holders, i.e. two plates per holder. A black light-proof bag is a necessity in which plates may be transferred safely from their original light proof packaging into the slide holders.


For cameras using 7 ½ x 5 inch plates a 9 inch lens is recommended for most subjects, Messrs Dallmeyer, Ross or Zeiss lenses should be considered. All available from respectable dealers such as Messrs. Watson and Son of High Holborn, Mr. Morley of Upper Street or Hunter & Sands of Cranbourne Street. Gelatine sheets are made in various degrees of sensitivity but their cardboard boxes are insufficient protection against injury and damp. It is recommended to have each package of a dozen placed in fairly airtight light-proof wooden boxes; during construction screws are preferred to nails. After exposure Captain Abney recommends a cardboard frame be placed between each plate or film and placed in light wooden boxes prior to being packed in a tin box whereby the lid is soldered in place as protection against damp.


A reasonable expense would be a camera for 8 guineas (£8.40p), 12 double slides at a guinea each, three lens of varying focal length approximately 15 guineas (£15. 75p), tripod 25 shillings (£1.25p). Gelatine sheets at three shillings (75p) a dozen. Chemicals 15/- (75p). A notebook in which to record each exposure, thereby to ensure correct development times later, and a sturdy box or basket to contain the whole. Due to the flexible nature of a basket a basket is preferred. Total weight approximately 60 pounds.”


From Hints to Travellers Volume II (Eighth Edition) published by The Royal Geographical Society in 1901. Edited for the Council of the Royal Geographical Society by John Coles F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S. Late Instructor in Surveying and Practical Astronomy to the Royal Geographical Society.


Happy snapping everyone! Roger Sugar.

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Bideford Races, May 1928.

Posted on 01/05/2014 by Tango Alpha

This advertisement comes from the Bideford Gazette for 1928 currently housed at the Bideford Archive. The archive is run by volunteers, and you will find it is a mine of information on Torridge district; not just births, marriages and deaths, but also a record is being made of everything of interest in the world of local trades and professions, local government, agriculture, religious groups, sports clubs, streets and villages, and much more, including the Census records for family history research. There are photographs from the Bideford Gazette of sporting events, school and church celebrations, postcards of local village life and architecture. Source material comes mainly from the Bideford Gazette, from 1856 onwards, but they are sometimes able to provide information or documents of use to everyone. (Recently Buzz donated all its bound back copies from 2000 onwards).



Bideford Community Archive.


A recent addition to the Archive’s collection of local historical information, comes in the form of three accounts of the Archaeology of Westward Ho!’s prehistoric Kitchen Midden. It is appropriate to mention this just now, as the beach at Westward Ho! has been scoured of sand by the winter storms, and there is much of the original forest, peat and underlying blue clay exposed at low tide. The sand will return, of course, as it always does, but anyone interested in learning what was once down there, eight thousand years ago, might well care to peruse these documents.


One detailed document is the Inkerman Rogers’ examination of the artefacts he found there – flints, hazel nuts, antlers, etc. Another is by an Australian gentleman named Mr. D.M. Churchill, from Monash University, Melbourne, and the third, made by the Department of the Environment with Nick Balaam and 2 colleagues in 1987, is a very thorough analysis of everything that was discovered by taking away a slice of the midden. Every part of it was examined with the latest technology – radio carbon dating, dendochronology (tree rings), and includes analysis of tree and flower pollen, types of tree, and flints and tools left behind by prehistoric man all those years ago.

DW


Donations are welcome, but a small charge is made for for photocopying, and postage is charged at the going rate. You are welcome to visit, free, every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 9.30 to 12.00. (Closed on Bank Holidays ) Tel : 01237 471714. First floor, Council Offices, Windmill Lane, Northam, Bideford.

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Memories of a Plymouth evacuee.

Posted on 27/03/2014 by Tango Alpha

With time on my hands, I have been trying to trace people who were part of my youth – over 70 years ago!


Knowing only her maiden name, and not having seen or heard of her since the end of WW2, I spent several hours on the Internet before coming up with a possible match. I then wrote to a ‘Mrs June Sims’ who, as a child, could have been evacuated to Appledore with her parents, and billeted with us, having lost their home during the Plymouth Blitz.


About a week later I received a letter from June – yes, I had found her! Below is what she had to say about her time in North Devon, which my sister Enid and I found fascinating.

Yours sincerely,

Cynthia Snowden – Northam.

..

Dear Mrs Snowden (Cynthia)

What a surprise your letter was – received the day after my 85th birthday. Yes I am the June Randle that was (now Sims). I remember Appledore well and your Mum, Dad and Enid with the blonde bob and you and your pigtails. Also remember the lovely smell of bread baking where your Dad worked, and Dulcie who lived in the big house opposite – we both caught the bus to Stella Maris Convent and often she brought me a lovely apple from her garden. Such Happy Memories and best school-days of my life (only 18 in class!!!), Greek dancing on the lawn. I was rather overwhelmed at first, having wanted to go to Edgehill College and being a Protestant – but the sisters were so kind and welcoming and, knowing we had been bombed out and lost our home in the Plymouth Blitz (being bombed every day and night – how did we stay alive?), they reduced my school fees!!! Also remember catching crabs on the quay with bacon rinds.


After 12 months my parents returned to Plymouth and I then lived with my dancing teacher and her parents Mr & Mrs Jordan who kept the New Inn at Instow.


Although worried about Mum and Dad going back to Plymouth, was well looked after and very happy, walking on the beach each day after school with Joan and the dog, gathering driftwood for the range – Mrs Jordan made the best chocolate sponge ever – I think the farmers visiting the pub helped her out with eggs etc. Also having stew with spaghetti and tomatoes to make it stretch I suppose, the things we remember. Mum also used to make pasties on a Tuesday and come and meet me and we used to go to the park and eat them. (Always hid my velour hat as we were not allowed to eat out of doors!!!)


(Followed by personal news.)


Sincerely, June.

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Floods – policy versus practicality.

Posted on 26/01/2014 by Tango Alpha

With flooding very much in the news last month this may be a good time to review the policy of the authorities on flood protection and the effect it is having on the vulnerable Northam Burrows. There are two major factors contributing to flood damage from the sea ; these are wave action caused by Atlantic storms and high tides augmented by low pressure weather systems.


Last year until December was a quiet one for tide and wave erosion as there were no exceptionally high tides and generally the storms we had did not happen to coincide with the highest of them, so damage to the pebble ridge and sand dunes was comparatively minor. Even so, there were press reports of erosion of the dunes fronting Northam Burrows and some exposure of buried waste materials in the vicinity of the closed municipal rubbish dump. Temporary repairs carried out on the tip the previous winter had consisted of spreading a geotextile membrane over the eroded edge and covering it with sand and stones to stabilise it. The first photograph was taken in February 2013 showing a strip of the repaired bank, and this survived through the year until the December storm, when parts of the covering material were washed away. The second photo was taken on January 4th 2014 just after the biggest storm, which combined with a 6.8 metre tide to carry breakers over the rock armour and wash away most of the temporary works, leaving swathes of black geotextile membrane blowing in the wind.


National policy is to leave the fate of most of the Burrows to natural forces, allowing sand dunes to wash away and reform in altered locations as they have for many centuries. Unfortunately that does not make allowance for the man-made developments we have allowed to take place on this basically unstable strip of sand, and so policy has had to be adjusted to provide artificial protection for our vulnerable assets; the degree of protection depending on current estimates of the importance, or financial value, of those assets. The three chief areas of concern are the activity and entertainment centres at the south end of the pebble ridge, the hazardous waste tip at the northern end of the Burrows, and the Golf Course in between – and at once we find problems in determining who bears the responsibility for protecting these assets from the sea, let alone how to achieve that protection.


A study was carried out last year on how to protect the waste tip, at least for a few years, and a proposal is to bring in a lot of rock armour, similar to that already deployed for many years part way around, and back it up with scientifically graded pebbles like the pebble ridge itself. That just needs the approval of the appropriate authorities for the expenditure. There is always the possibility that the sea may break through permanently across the far end of the golf course and leave the tip as an island, but that is further into the future and will have to be tackled if or when it becomes imminent. The dunes that once separated the 8th Tee from the sea have already gone, (third photograph) but a considerable expanse of large pebbles has accumulated there, suggesting a (faint?) possibility that it may naturally develop into a further extension of the true pebble ridge, although that may be just for optimists !


There is a lot of work to be done on Northam Burrows in the coming year, and a lot of decision making for whoever is prepared to take responsibility. Meanwhile, there are a couple of spring tides forecast for the first week of March that will equal the highest of this winter, so let’s hope they don’t coincide with Atlantic storms this time. After that there’s a break until 10th September when, at 7:40pm., 6.9 metres is forecast which is higher than any since 2010 – could be a nice evening for a walk on the Burrows.


Chris Hassall.

(For an article on “Floods & Saltmarshes” from last year’s Buzz, link here).

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More about the Bridge Trust.

Posted on 26/01/2014 by Tango Alpha

Having talked about how the Trust came to be set up and its involvement with property in the town I will now discuss the very wide range of things the Trust has funded.

 

Trustees have always been interested in education, having set up a Commercial School in 1762 and paying the teacher’s salary of £12.50 per year. This taught useful subjects to ready young Bidefordians for a merchant’s life – it continuing until well into the nineteenth century. In 1823 the Church of England set up a ‘National’ School in Old Town on the site now occupied by the Fire Station – with the Trust paying the teacher’s salary of £35 per year.

 

Some 15 years later local nonconformists established the ‘British’ School in Higher Gunstone (the building is still there) and the Trust, in a wonderful example of non-sectarianism, paid the £35 per annum salary of the school’s teacher. In 1844 an infant school was built at the top of Honestone Street (today’s Angling Club) and the Trust became a generous benefactor to this – as it did when the School of Art on the Quay was built in 1896.

 

When the new Bideford College first became a solid project I, as chairman of the Trust, was approached by the College head Veronica Matthews wondering whether we would like to ‘buy some computers’ for the new school. Veronica is an ex-tutee of mine (so is Katie Hopkins but the less I say about her the better I think!) and I was glad that the Trust gave £1/2 million (its largest ever grant) to the scheme.

 

Today any student living within the parish of Bideford is automatically eligible for £400 worth of book grants if they enter higher education. We also offer bursaries of £500 per annum and even ‘hardship grants’ to all students in the area. We also fund youngsters going on school trips where teachers wish us to help students from poorer backgrounds.

 

The Trust also gives backing to a lot of the local sports clubs including rowing, football and rugby – and in the 1720s we even set up a ‘Bowling Green’ somewhere near the top of High Street – which for me always conjures up a picture of errant bowls rolling down the hill to the river!

 

One group has always been high up on our list of those we help – the poor. In the eighteenth century we gave £12 annually to help the poor of Bideford, as well as one-off payments such as giving £20 in 1766 to buy food and sell it at subsidised prices to the poor ‘at this time of dearness of Corn’. In 1831 there was very high unemployment in the town and the Trust put aside two acres of land in Northdown Lane (as it then was) for use as allotments – the first established in Bideford. Again in 1797 William Richards ‘a poor Aged Man’ was given 3 guineas (£3.15) ‘to buy him a Horse to carry Coals in lieu of his Horse which lately broke his Thigh.’ Today we still deal with cases passed on to us by Social Services and various other charities.

 

The Trust regularly helps with medical issues having put funds towards hospital minibuses, the ‘Chestnut Appeal’, electric wheelchairs and specialist medical equipment for our local hospital. Back in 1787 (and on two other occasions) we even paid for the town’s poor to be inoculated against smallpox – and paid for one poor individual to be treated for his mental illness at ‘Bedlam’ hospital on London.

 

Other funding has been directed to fire fighting – in the 1770s we bought the town’s first fire engine – really a large pump, and also its second in 1803 when the town council refused to spend the money. More recently we paid for the new toilets in Victoria Park, the Queen’s Jubilee fountains on the Quay and helped fund the Jubilee Square scheme.

 

Finally we have had a long tradition of paying for apprenticeship indentures and the tools needed by these young people. Today such traditional apprenticeships have gone and so we now fund ‘Business Start-Ups’ where people on low incomes or who are unemployed and who wish to start in business are given a two part grant of £5000 to help them on their way. This scheme has been running for 16 years now and although not every one has been successful many people are now running their own business and employing others.

 

You may have been surprised at what the Trust does – certainly, without its benign presence in the town, Bideford and its surrounding area would be by far the poorer. If you wish to know more about the Trust and its history there is a small booklet entitled ‘The Long Bridge of Bideford through the centuries’ available from Walter Henry’s in High Street or the Burton Art Gallery and museum.

Peter Christie

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About the Bridge Trust.

Posted on 29/11/2013 by Tango Alpha

As promised, and following on from my introduction to the Bridge Trust, I will discuss some of the history of the body. No-one knows when the Trust was set up but it must have been soon after the Bridge was built – so possibly at the end of the thirteenth century. Over the years rich Bidefordians have left property ‘to the Bridge’ (the last occasion was only two years ago!) to honour their native town and the Trust itself has been an active purchaser of property making it the largest local landlord (apart from Tarka Housing).

We have the Trust’s accounts from the end of the seventeenth century and the minutes from 1764. At this date there were some fifteen trustees, most of them being merchants or gentry, though some clergymen also served. I have transcribed, typed and indexed the minutes and copies are available in the North Devon Record Office. They detail the two main aspects of the Trust’s work – management of property and charitable spending.

The former was, of course, centred on the Bridge itself and the minutes reveal many occasions when quite large sums of money were laid out in repairs, whilst on other occasions warnings about possible damage were issued. In 1791, for example, the trustees wrote to a local merchant complaining about his cart that was so highly laden ‘as they think will injure the said Bridge’. Weight limits are nothing new.

In 1802 there is a note that ‘Some malicious persons have repeatedly thrown down the Coping Stones of the Bridge’ and so the trustees hired two men to act as ‘watchmen’. They even spent some money on a ‘Centry Box’ to house them. In 1808 the Trust carried out work on nine arches at a cost of £50 per arch, whilst a year later they discussed installing a drawbridge at the East end of the Bridge. This never occurred : in 1826 they erected oil lamps on the Bridge, but these were soon vandalised and in 1835 were replaced with gas lamps after the trustees allowed the new Bideford Gas Company to install gas pipes across the Bridge. The largest spending came when the old medieval structure was widened in 1864 and again in 1925 – to such an extent that it is difficult to picture what the old Bridge looked like.

In addition to this spending on the Bridge the trustees developed Bridgeland Street from the 1690s and extended the Quay up to their new development. They also built the original Bridge Buildings in 1758 which housed the town hall and the Grammar School. In 1761 they even purchased the Fox & Goose pub on the Quay (where Grenville House now stands) and gave it to the town as the Mayor’s ‘Mansion House’ – even if they later took it back!

In the 1880s they provided the town’s first custom-built post office in the High Street (now Ladbroke’s) and in 1882 spent £4,500 on building the new Bridge Buildings. Over the years 1890-1920 the Trust constructed the houses in Victoria Gardens, Marland Terrace and the top of Honestone Street.

In the twentieth century the two world wars interrupted this work, but in the 1990s the Trust refurbished the old Post Office, the Bakehouse in Queen Street, Friendship House opposite the Market as well as shops in High Street, Mill Street and Bridgeland Street. A proud record and one which shows how much the built environment in the town has depended on the Trust and its deep pockets.

In the next article I will look at what the Trust has funded in Bideford.

Peter Christie.

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Coronation Day, 1953.

Posted on 30/10/2013 by Tango Alpha

Photos from Owen Vaggers.

In the paper edition of November’s “Buzz”, we published this –

Two photographs of the Coronation Day, 1953, which took place at the bottom of Pitt Hill, Appledore . I cannot remember all the the names of the persons in the photographs, but I am sure some of your readers can.

Picture 1: The two lads at the bottom of the picture are Left to Right :- Michael Eastwood and Billy Edwards. On the other side of the table L. to R. Alan Popham, ? , Phillip Scilly, Owen Vaggers, John Scilly, ?, ? Hargreaves (Visiting ) and ?

Picture 2: The two girls at the bottom of the picture are L. to R. Geraldine Prouse and Alice Vaggers. On the other side of the table L. to R. ?, ?, Gillian Eastwood, Alan Popham, ?, Phillip Scilly, Owen Vaggers, ?, ? Hargreaves (Visiting).

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