25 years ago

January 29, 1998

An urgent plea has gone out to the people of the North Petherwin area to turn up at a public meeting next Monday in order to prevent the parish losing £28,400 of Millennium funding. The money is earmarked to go towards a £31,000 project to create a new playground behind North Petherwin Parish Hall.

A successful Crime Prevention Day was held at Lewdown Victory Hall on Saturday with WPC Sharon Newman, Sandra Calvert Devon and Cornwall National Neighbourhood Watch officer, Colin Harris, North West Devon Area Group co-ordinator and chairman of Lewdown Stowford Group, Roy Etheridge, West Devon Borough Council, Mike Youlden Crime Prevention Officer, and Jo Willers from Do It All DIY store in Tavistock.

A call for health officials to resign was loudly applauded on Monday night by outraged members of the community determined to stop the closure of Winsford Hospital.

Three local men were each awarded the National Blood Transfusion Service 50th donation certificate and tie pin, by Camelford Mayor Pearl Roberts, at the quarterly visit of the service to the town. They are Mr R Johnson of Davidstow, Andrew Paul of Delabole and Mr C P Button of St Tudy.

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40 years ago

January 29, 1983

A £25,000 scheme to provide night storage heating in senior citizens’ flats in Launceston is to go ahead despite complaints from some tenants that they are not needed.

St John Family — The Hardy family, of Blanchminster Road, Bude — father, mother and five children — all of whom are members of the Bude-Stratton Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade.

Bude Theatre Club’s 1982/82 committee met for their annual meeting recently, when they started planning for next year’s Summer Show. The club’s accounts are very healthy, and it is hoped to acquire a new headquarters in the near future. A recruiting drive will start soon to get more male members both on stage and behind the scenes.

Dr Arthur Munks, Divisional Surgeon of the Bude-Strattton St John Ambulance, received his 15 years long service medal from Area Staff Officer, M J Kemp.

Pandora Rose (19), of Crackington Haven, is among the contestants in the final of the Miss TSW competition which offers a £1,000 prize plus a holiday for two in Paris to the winner.

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50 years ago

January 26, 1973

A Holsworthy factory employing 30 people announced this week that it would be closing on February 2. The factory, Crays Electronics Ltd, was the first to be built on the town’s industrial estate.

The Mayoress (Mrs Joy Martin) helped 88-year-old Mrs Hetty Williams cut the cake at the annual Old People’s Party arranged by the WRVS in Launceston Town Hall.

Bude firemen were called to deal with a blaze at a public shelter on Summerleaze Beach. On arrival they found a French road walker preparing to spend the night in the shelter. To keep warm he had gathered driftwood from the shore which he had set alight in the shelter entrance.

The Rising Sun Inn near Altarnun could be classed as ‘unsafe’ for public use’ by Launceton Rural Council. The owner excavated a cellar under the dining room and a large area of the building had collapsed into this excavation, leaving certain other portions in a precarious state.

Mr A C Gabe of Haywards Heath, Sussex, (an old Delabolian) in a letter to the editor stated his support for Delabole Slate Quarry being opened up to the public as a tourist attraction.

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60 years ago

January 26, 1963

As we were able to announce in a stop press item in our latest edition last week, the popular BBC sound programme ‘Any Questions?’ is to be broadcast from Launceston Town Hall on Friday, February 15.

Praise for Dartmoor prisoners for their help in clearing blocked roads was forthcoming at a meeting of Tavistock Rural Council on Friday.

Mr Duncan Straughen, a member of the council for Princetown, said the prisoners had done valiant work in the village over the past weeks. Mr Straughen also singled out the village policeman, Constable Colin Evans, who had been extremely helpful and had worked long hours.

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70 years ago

January 31, 1953

The annual dinner of the Delabole Market Committee was held in the Wharncliffe Hotel, Tintagel, on Wednesday week, presided over by the chairman, Mr S Colwill.

Members of the Launceston and District Trades Council at their meeting on Saturday received with pleasure the report of the sub-committee (Messrs F A Paul, J T Stevens and W T Vinson) of the jumble sale recently held in aid of the local blind.

Mrs C Wroth and Mr T J Fry, the oldest lady and gentleman, assisted the Mayor of Launceston (Mr R L Hicks) in Launceston Town Hall last week.

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80 years ago

January 30, 1943

Broadwood Rural Council has made an official approach to Launceston bakers for the supply of pasties for rural workers, but has been unsuccessful, and has now dropped the project.

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90 years ago

February 4, 1933

Local residents presented ‘Babes in the Wood’ at Rilla Mill Women’s Institute last week in aid of Nursing Association Funds and the WI.

Pamela Truscott and Florence Hobbs played the Babes, and others in the cast included Hubert Truscott, Charlie Honey, Arthur Harrison, Phyllis Harrison and Roy Wilcox. The author and producer was A C Harrison.

A coasting steamer, the ‘Cambalu’, grounded on the rocks near Morwenstow (at Knapp, Welcombe) in thick fog on Monday. Rockets went unseen, but an SOS on the ship’s siren was heard at the Hartland coast watch and Padstow lifeboat took off the crew. Salvage will prove difficult.

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100 years ago

February 3, 1923

Put aside to pay for furniture, £75 belonging to newly-weds Mr and Mrs W Maunder was stolen from their house at Coad’s Green during Wednesday night. There have been several minor thefts in the neighbourhood recently but the thief was literally caught in the trap at one farm. Here the owner noticed signs of tampering with a door and fitted a rabbit trap just inside the latch opening. Blood on the door next morning and the widening of the hole by a knife showed that the trap was sprung successfully.

Trying to quieten, as a steam lorry passed, the leader of two horses he was driving with a wagon to Bude, Mr T Hill, aged 72, of Kitts, Stratton, was killed when the horse knocked him down and trampled on him.