On August the 8th, 1720, the Board of Excise ordered that ‘William Kimpton, Supernumerary in the Barnstaple Collection, being dead, as by Mr Jennings the Collectors letter of the 6th instant, Silas Hiscutt, instructed by order of the Board be Supernumerary, ‘the Collector of Sarum to give him notice’.   So Silas Hiscutt, the new recruit or ‘Supernumerary’ rode from Salisbury to Barnstaple all those years ago to begin a career that was to last for 37 years.

In February 1727, Silas married Elizabeth Whitefield of Northam whilst he was Officer of Excise, Bideford 2nd Out Ride.   But in July he was posted back to Barnstaple as Officer for Barnstaple 1st Out Ride. Here, the couple’s first child, Patience, was born, followed by a son, Silas, in 1730 and another daughter, Winifred, in 1731.   On August the 28th, 1732, he was ordered to take the place of Robert Johnson, Officer for Torrington 4th Out Ride, a position he maintained with only a few brief moves for the rest of his career.   The family lived at Abbots Bickington where eight more children were born, the last being Catherine, born May 20th 1750.   She eventually married James Paddon of Abbotsham. Their son, Midshipman Silas Hiscutt Paddon would see action on HM Cutter ‘Viper’ (see Bideford Buzz Nov 02, The Commander) receiving praise from Sir Edmund Pellew in a letter to Earl St Vincent.

In December 1756 Silas claimed ‘Charity’ from the Board of Excise, due to ill health, and this pension was granted him.   We shall never know whether his state of health was due to work or to other events. One year before, his son Silas married Jane Pincombe and then went to sea, not to return to start his family until the end of the Seven Years War in 1764. His parents saw his return and the start of his family but Elizabeth, dying in Bideford in 1768, never saw her grandson Silas who was born in Bideford in 1769.

The life of an Exercise Officer was lonely and dangerous.   Normally recruited outside the area where they worked, to prevent giving favour to friend or family, they were responsible for providing their own horse, for varying their routine, keeping records of nightly journeys, listening for rumours and watching for suspicious activity.   Local Dragoons could be called for help but this was often given grudgingly.    The pay was poor compensation for a job which could end in serious injury or death.   Silas died in Bideford in 1770, fifty years after his ride from Salisbury to Barnstaple.

A.H. Barnstaple

As many of you will know, Bideford was granted its Market Charter in 1272 and the present market building dates from 1884. The Market Hall which houses the Pannier Market was principally used for the sale of produce from local farms and market gardens until recent times. Now, however, although this is still the case, many other goods and services are available so we thought some information to keep you up-to-date with changes would be a good idea. Usually the Market Place and Butchers’ Row shops are open six days a week, the Pannier Market Cafe on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays while the Market itself is on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Of fresh produce available, Butchers’ Row boasts two butchers and suppliers of meat products and a fishmonger. The Pannier Market has a fruit and vegetable stall (Saturdays), vegetables and eggs, home baking and local cheeses, jams and pickles and the Country Markets Stall has a wide range of home baking and preserves. In addition, we hope to introduce a chill cabinet soon, which will augment the quantity and type of fresh food available.

Other goods and services throughout the market building include books, jewelery, toys, games, videos and DVDs, electrical goods, gas appliances, musical instruments and equipment, patchwork, sewing and knitwear, paintings, pottery, fossils and rocks, hairdressing, photography and crystals. Frank (who sells electrical accessories such as leads, batteries, digi-boxes, blank videos, tapes etc.) has just moved from the Pannier Market to a shop in Butchers Row so his products are now available daily. As there are a few shops and stalls unoccupied at the moment we’ll let you know what they will provide in due course.

250g soft butter
250g light muscavado sugar
4 eggs
250g self raising flour
250g raisins
250g sultanas
125 g glacé cherries, halved
1tsp mixed spice
1 tbsp brandy

Grease an 8″ tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.
Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl until well combined. Turn the mixture into the cake tin and level the top.
Bake in a pre heated oven at 140 centigrade for 1 hour, then cover with greaseproof paper and cook for a further 1 hour 15 minutes. The cake should be just firm to touch in the centre. Bake it in the middle of the oven. Good luck

Steve

Last week whilst  I was staying at my daughter’s  my grandson informed me it was ‘Children in Need’ day

If he wore something spotty to school.  and paid a pound,  he would be contributing.

At the time I was feeling slightly stressed in my grandparent role,  so I asked him if he might ask at school if they could have a ‘grannies in need’ day . His answer was to quote,  ‘he was the ‘lowest of the low’ at his new school,  wasn’t a form  captain or rep,  so had no authority. Still it seemed like a good idea to me.

There seems to be a tendency now for grannies to shoulder an awful lot of the responsibility of caring for their grandchildren. My view is that I’ve done my bit bringing up two children with very little help from grandparents. Now is my time, so I’ll help if I’m absolutely needed,  but don’t intend to be permanently on call.

Last week was an exception My daughter was recovering from an operation  and the children needed to be taken to school, the dog needed to be walked, the hens fed, the cat kept in order  – you get the idea. I think  I was extremely useful, doing laundry, cleaning the house, shopping with a completely baffling list of items at the supermarket, ‘what are monster crisps ?’ -  ‘did you look all the way down the aisle grannie’?,  scouring the roads for the shop that sold chicken  pellets   creeping out in the dark  to the woodshed etc

In  between my daughter needed looking after, the grandchildren fought on return from school over computer games  and seemingly everything else, and my son-in – law vanished to tend to his huge self sufficiency empire of allotment, hens, bees and orchard. On return no comment was made on the tidiness of the house although he did apparently say ‘it looks as if the fairies have been in’  Ha Ha!

The final straw was the fracas between the dog and a small black sausage dog-     dog and hens escaped to the road; meanwhile with the kitchen door open  the cat helped himself to the  recently plucked pheasant.

And the good news?

I came  home for the weekend, but may have to return next week!

RA

Not only is the Barbastelle bat (Barbastella barbastellus ) one of Britain’s rarest bats, it is one of our rarest mammals with only a handful of colonies known in the UK and it is a National  Biodiversity Action Plan species. Barbastelle bats mainly live in ancient woodland all year round and roost in hollow trees, behind loose bark or among exposed tree roots and rarely use buildings. They are a hardy bat and can tolerate very cold temperatures. If the winters are severe, they often go to cave entrances. Life expectancy is 23 years. Mothers give birth to a single young in July or early August.

The rescued bat in the photograph, currently being cared for in Landcross, was found in Woolacombe. He is a juvenile and is very thin. He took a while to acquire a taste for mealworms and even now he only eats enough to keep him going till the next night and cannot fly for very long before he tires. In the wild, barbastelles fly many miles to their feeding grounds where they eat small moths, flies and beetles.

Janice Whittington

Kynoch’s Foreshore

This local Nature Reserve was officially opened by Councillor Jeremy Yabsley, chairman of Devon County Council and Councillor Andrew Eastman, Chairman of Torridge District Council on 21^st October 2011.  The 39 Ha reserve on the edge of Bideford includes both Kynoch’s Foreshore, which is owned or leased by TDC and also 1.6km of adjacent Tarka Trail, owned by DCC.  The opening event included short talks by local experts.  Mike Towns, from Devon Birds, talked about the importance of the Taw Torridge Estuary for birds particularly curlew and redshank and how the reserve is an important location for these birds at high tide.  Janice Whittington, local ecologist talked about the nearby bat roost of 500+ pipistrelle bats and how the reserve forms an essential feeding ground for both these and other bat species, particularly Daubenton’s bat.  Finally, Pete and Pip Jollands from the Hallsannery Centre went through the various plant species found on site, from Spartina at the edge of the mud through to Phragmites at the top of the site.  They also talked about the importance of the site for education.

The LNR contains the largest saltmarsh in Torridge and it is one of the most significant salt marshes for wildlife in the Taw Torridge Estuary.  Previously, because the reserve is above Bideford’s Old Bridge, it was outside the SSSI but designation as an LNR should help protect this important habitat for the future.

The reserve has a small Management Group that helps implement the management plan for the site.  Anyone who is interested in finding out more about the reserve should contact Tom Hynes, North Devon AONB and Biosphere Service, on Bideford 423655 (.By the way jetskis will not be allowed in the new reserve .)

I started mid September on an access course to higher education and thought I’d share with you what it’s like to be 41 and back at college. The first few days are chaos; no-one knows where they are meant to be, you sit through health and safety talk that instruct you on what to do in the event of  plague, pestilence and nuclear war. Then there are compliance issues and you find out what wont be tolerated (everything from knife crime to using the library chairs to race each other). Sadly week one is when I realised that I couldn’t function in the year 2011 without being BFF (best friends forever) with some sort of computer system. By week two I’d stopped looking like a stranger in a strange land and felt confident enough to find the 3^rd floor coffee shop,alone. Quite an achievement for a woman who has lived in Bideford for 41 years and still gets lost in Barnstaple.

My subjects are Psychology and Sociology. Also thrown in are I.T (Boo!) Study Skills (essential) and English G.C.S.E equivalent. Reader, may I indulge myself in a rant? thanks. I have passed my blooming English exams at O level and C.S.E. I also have certificates from 3 years ago when I passed my N.V.Q 3 and took English tests. I applied for college, completed an English assessment and passed at level 2, but still I needed to take English again. Universities like recent qualifications so not only is it never too late to gain qualifications, it’s actually a better idea to pass your exams as near to starting a training or university course as possible. Anyway, rant over.

So how is it all going I hear you ask? No? You’re not asking? How rude! Well I’ll tell you anyway. Do you remember how it felt when you first fell in love? Go on, look at your partner and think back…got it? Wednesday can’t come round soon enough. Wednesday Thursday and Friday are college days, and when I walk through the massive automatic doors it feels like I’ve come home. College is my love. It’s not an “it’s complicated” relationship, it is true love. When I am apart from my love I miss it, I can’t stop thinking about it and I talk about it endlessly with uninterested strangers until they plead for mercy with their eyes and I stop. Everything about college inspires you to do better. The vast library is packed full of everything you need and smells glorious. Close your eyes now and you will be able to recall that school book smell. My tutors fascinate and are the right temperament to make me pay attention. I am easily annoyed and none of them annoy me to my great relief. I am especially entertained by my English teacher who I find to be lively, interesting and eloquent. To be around people who have a real passion and love for the subject they teach is both incredibly exciting and strangely calming. As a student I am a little unbearable. I am a real swot and a bit of a teacher’s pet. Psychology and Sociology suit me well and I’ve always had a real interest in both. Study skills gives you the tools you need to effectively study. Everything from writing essays to university application and taking notes during lectures is covered. So if you are thinking of becoming a mature student stop thinking and do it. What’s the worst that can happen? I have met some incredible people who I already adore and I am so proud of myself for finally manning up and doing it. As I am writing for a local publication I will take this opportunity to make some apologies. I apologise to my children for not listening to them over the years when they have patiently tried to teach me I.T, massive fail on my part. I also apologise to my best friends who have had to listen to me drone on about media bias, Functionalism and extraneous variables…oh and put up with me doing personality tests on them. Finally I need to say sorry to the lovely Quenchers customers who innocently pop in for a tasty can or bottle and find themselves subjected to questioning on Marxism, Feminism and Maslow… just to warn you all it’s Freud next, super ego anyone?

Tracey Branch. Dedicated to my best friend Laura with love.

Appledore Disasters

Appledore was thrown into a state of grief on hearing that the schooner Agnes was  lost and that Captain George Cawsey and his son  Alfred of Appledore were both drowned.  The Rival, sailed by Captain J. Lamey  of Appledore,  and the Cornflower, owned and sailed by Captain J Cox of Appledore  were also lost but the crews  were rescued.

Christmas Present

A quaint style bedroom  door knocker would make an acceptable present . We have a good selection Bishop of 16 Market Place,  Bideford .

A New Motor Car – A 20 Horse power ,  four cylinder,   five seated touring car for £170 completely equipped with hood, windscreen . speedometer , gas lamps, generator and three oil lamps -  this hardly seems possible , But our readers will find that the Ford motor car is offered by the Bideford Motor works at this low price.

15.10.2011 seen anchored off  Clovelly  all this day, having arrived previously on the 14.10.2011 the tanker Bro Gazelle 7515 tons, owners Bro Go BV & Erik Thun Netherlands ;she was outward bound from Cardiff .  The vessel was seen by Chris Tolley. She sailed on the Sunday  morning heading towards Milford Haven.

16.10.2011 at 10.37 hrs cargo vessel Erieborg 10750 tons d.w, owners Wagenborg Shipping B.V Netherlands, inward bound for Cardiff ; at 12.16 hrs cargo vessel Yong Xing 22309 tons d.w owners, Polish Ocean Lines Poland, inward bound for Newport; at 12.42 hrs vehicle carrier Undine 22616 tons d.w, owners Wallenius Wilhemsen Logistics Norway and Sweden, outward bound from Portbury, having sailed at 09.38 hrs ; at 18.31 hrs vehicle carrier Grande Scandinavia 18440 tons d.wm owners Grimaldi Line of Italy, inward bound for Portbury.

18.10.2011 at 15.30 hrs cargo vessel Pinnau 3686 tons d.wm,  owners Reederei Erwin Strahlmann of Germany,  inward  bound for Cardiff.

19.10.2011 at 13.25 cargo vessel Scot Ranger 3167 tons d.w, owners Scotline Ltd UK, inward bound for Newport.

20.10.2011 at 13,29 cargo vessel Rhein 4155 tons d.w, owners Scheper Rheintrader  Germany, inward bound for Newport.

22.10.2011 at 11.05 hrs vehicle carrier Autosun 6670 tons d.w. owners UECC Unipessoal Ltd Funchal  Madeira, inward bound for Portbury; at 13.20 hrs container vessel Elevation 6449 tons d.w, owners Elevation Shipping BV Netherlands, inward bound for Portbury.

23.10.2011 at 13.00 hrs vehicle carrier Viking Drive 10817 tons d.w, owners Gramcar Shipping HK Ltd Singapore, inward bound for Portbury.

28.10.2011 at 08.25 hrs bulk carrier Ocean Confidence 175000 tons d.w, owners Ocean Confidence Maritime inc Hong Kong China, outward bound from Port Talbot,

30.10.11 at 15.40 hrs cargo vessel Pernille 3492 tons d.w owners Interscan Schiffahrts GMBH Germany, outward bound from Cardiff.at 15.15 hrs cargo vessel Wolthusen 6918 tons d.w,  owners W. Bockstiegel Reederei GHMB & Co KG Germany, inward bound for Avonmouth ; this vessel was seen whilst I was at Ilfracombe and would have been crossing the bay about 90 minutes beforehand.

1.11.2011 at 0815 hrs cargo vessel Belina 6918 tons d.w, owners Peter Dohle Schiffahrts KG Germany, outward bound from Portbury, having sailed at 02.16 hrs ; at 10.28 hrs cargo vessel Hunteborg 6100 tons d.w, owners Wagenborg Shipping BV Netherlands, inward bound for Swansea.

6.11.2011 at  17.00 hrs project vessel Abis Belfast 3800 tons d.w, owners Abis Shipping BV Netherlands,  inward bound for Sharpness.

10.11.2011 at 13.40 hrs vehicle carrier Grande Europe 18461 tons d.w, owners Grimaldi Line of Italy,  inward bound for Portbury.

12.11.2011 at 11.33 hrs vehicle carrier Autosun 6670 tons d.w. owners UECC  Unipessoal Ltd Funchal  Maderia. outward bound from Portbury having sailed at 07.35 hrs.

Ship          Registered       From     To        arrived   Sailed    Crew   Cargo

Flag /Owners                                                               Loaded

Baltiyskiy 202 Valletta          Cork   Wismar  19.10.   25.10  Russian 2620 tons

Built 1994        Malta                                                                             Timber

Russian

This is the largest amount of timber load since shipments started in May

There is a shipment due to load about 23/24 November on the Valentin Pikul.

As this is my last report for 2011 may I take this opportunity to wish all readers of the Shipping News,  a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,  and thanks for your kind comments about the page.

Regards Norman

Does that sound just a touch melodramatic? Maybe. I recently spent a week  at a conference in Kent listening to talks by experts, from farmers, to lecturers and scientists, all speaking with one voice : we live on an exquisitely beautiful planet; at present, our way of life is damaging it and, if we continue as we are, then the earth will fast become an inhospitable place to live in.

The oil, on which our present lifestyle depends, is not an infinite resource – and we’re behaving as if it is! What’s more, used excessively, as at present, it is perhaps the main culprit in the changing pattern of our climate.

A ‘transition town’ is committed to finding ways to move away from (to make a transition from) this dependence on oil and to exploit wind,  wave and solar power to provide for our energy needs;  the idea is also to use our imagination and creative ability to find ways of living which make fewer demands on energy in general: using more food that’s produced locally and not transported great distances, growing our own food where that’s feasible – you get the idea?

Some of us have become sufficiently concerned about these issues to set up   the Bideford Sustainability Group (BSG for short!).

And, yes, it does sometimes seem like an overwhelming, daunting task. However, the momentum is  growing; there are almost 200 such communities in the UK as I write this and increasing rapidly.

We’re strengthened by the conviction that the changes we feel ourselves called upon to make are ones our community needs to make for our own well-being. The rat-race we’re caught up in doesn’t, we believe, lead to happiness or contentment.  Working together as a community, we feel sure, gives a sense of purpose and belonging which is so often lacking, and will lead to a much more fulfilling way of life. Will you come and join us? Without that impetus from within the community, very little can be achieved – but together we can move mountains! If you would like your name added to our mailing list, contact Jane Williamson1237422577       janeshiptonwilliams@lineone.net

Jacqui Poole