TST: North Devon Journal - Looking Back, Devon

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Items from Peter Christie's 'Looking Back' Column

In the North Devon Journal (1951-1959)

Provided by Peter Christie

Extracts from past issues (1851-1987) of the Journal

6	3	1851	The North Devon Yeomanry Cavalry, a volunteer body made up of local farmers, meet in South Molton and carry out 'sword exercise' in the Square. A sermon is preached in Torrington by an American clergyman to raise funds for the erection of a church and hospital for the 'use of British Emigrants to the United States.'
13	3	1851	Barnardo Eagle and his daughter Georgiana put on a display of clairvoyance at Barnstaple Theatre. Mr.Goode, the 'American giant' then hypnotises volunteers. Edwin Bangham, glove manufacturer of Torrington, is publicly horsewhipped by Silas Snell a solicitor of the same place following an argument over a dog.
20	3	1851	Dennis Kingdon, a solicitor of Hatherleigh, is found guilty of bigamy but is merely fined 1/- (5p). James Chamings (17), Thomas Chamings (22) and Richard Guest (28) are acquitted of poaching at Weare Giffard.
27	3	1851	The sloop Dispatch sinks at Ilfracombe. The master and mate blame it on the ghostly presence of the late owner. At Yarnscombe a woman and her male companion are found drunk and acting 'in a most disgusting manner'. They are fined 25p with the alternative of sitting in the stocks for 6 hours.
3	4	1851	Dr.Law of the North Devon Infirmary at Barnstaple gets a young girl pregnant, there are calls for his sacking. Anne Seage and Grace Shapland of Molland desert their illegitimate children. They are arrested and sent to the House of Correction at South Molton.
10	4	1851	Rocks at Wildersmouth, Ilfracombe are blown up to provide stone for the new church then being built in the town. A fire destroys a large part of the shipbuilding yard at Chircombe in Northam.
17	4	1851	A Barnstaple councillor claims that the town is full of labourers forced to leave their own villages after their sub-standard houses have been demolished. Eight vessels leave Bideford for London, six carry culm and two have a cargo of locally made drainage pipes.
24	4	1851	At Ilfracombe on Easter Monday the annual custom of 'juveniles' taking 'an excursion upon the waters of the Bristol Channel' is followed. Anne Harris of Bishops Tawton charges her fellow villager Henry Hosking with being the father of her illegitimate child. The court orders him to pay 7 1/2p a week for the child's upkeep.
1	5	1851	A massive public meeting in Barnstaple denounces 'Papal Aggression' after the Pope appoints the first English Cardinal.
8	5	1851	Sarah Hughes an itinerant market seller 'well known to the police' is fined 5/- for being drunk and disorderly in Barnstaple at midnight. James Heale is arrested at Bristol for theft following the 'shrewdness, energy and activity' of the police in North Devon
15	5	1851	Harriet Bridgman is charged with assaulting Mary Ann Bale at Appledore Market. Samuel Buse of Fremington is ordered to pay 1/6 per week towards the upkeep of his illegitimate child borne by Jane Willis of Alverdiscott.
22	5	1851	Elizabeth Hazel is charged with keeping a brothel in Myrtle Place in Barnstaple. Richard Passmore dies aged 83 after being 'for many years master of the free school' at Braunton. Thomas Rowe of Hartland is jailed for 3 months for non payment of maintenance to Mary Nichol the mother of his child.
29	5	1851	Samuel Born of Marwood, a machine maker, takes his apprentice John Dyer to court on a charge of absenting himself illegally. Tristram Gent 'keeper of a vagrants' lodging-house' at Torrington is fined £1 for allowing customers to stay more than one night.
5	6	1851	Mary Ann Essery takes four women to court on a charge of using indecent language towards her in Barnstaple Fish Market. One is jailed for a week. A sheep belonging to John Welder of Arnold Farm, Georgenympton is killed and butchered by thieves who leave two shoulder joints behind.
12	6	1851	Braunton Revel is 'the most noted' for 'scenes of intemperance and riot'. It includes Devon wrestling and women racing for a gown. A letter bursts into flame when it is being stamped by a young woman in Bideford Post Office. The Postmaster General orders an inquiry. A cricket match between Torrington and Hatherleigh is announced 'which from the celebrity of the respective clubs excites an unusual degree of interest.'
19	6	1851	Mary Blake and Mary Shaddick of Bishopsnympton are jailed for 1 month each for abandoning their illegitimate children in the Workhouse. A man named Wood of Rackenford is charged as father of Mary Turner's child. He points out that she has had illegitimate children by 2 other men and on this basis the court dismisses her claim.
26	6	1851	The Collina, owned by Thomas Chanter, is wrecked at Crosspark near Bideford whilst carrying culm for South Wales.
3	7	1851	A 'mock' or spoof Mayor - the so-called 'Mayor of Derby' in Barnstaple parades through the town in his 'state chariot' which in reality is an old cart. James Popham (47) of Myrtle Place, Barnstaple the town scavenger (dustman) and a 'notorious tippler' dies after being treated by a quack doctor.
10	7	1851	John James a 13 year old of Barnstaple is gaoled for one month and whipped for scrumping apples. Jane Fewins 'an abandoned female' is fined 10/- for using obscene language to Robert Rendle, landlord of the North Country Inn in South Molton.
17	7	1851	At Torrington Julgus Prusk a Jewish peddler is gaoled for 3 months for trading without a licence. James Heal is transported to Australia for 10 years for the theft of some leather in Barnstaple.
24	7	1851	Richard Stoneman of North Molton applies to the local magistrates to cancel the indentures of his 17 year old apprentice as she is pregnant, They refuse. Mary Gould and Catherine Mock are fined 6d each for damaging fences at Braunton.
31	7	1851	Parkham holds its annual 'revel' - a drunken form of our modern-day village fetes. Mary Osmond charges William Slocomber of the Swan Inn, Holland Street, Barnstaple with making improper advances to her 15 year daughter who was William's servant.
7	8	1851	The inadequate safety of fencing around the old mine shafts at Combe Martion becomes the subject of a court case. Superintendant Aldham of the Barnstaple police is presented with 30 gold sovereigns for his good work in catching criminals.
14	8	1851	Barnstaple Town Council discuss the regilding of the statue of Queen Anne. A greengrocer in Mill Street, Bideford reckons his pig was 'overlooked by the Cock-street witches'. (Cock Street is later renamed Hart Street by squeamish Victorians).
21	8	1851	Thomas Marshall is charged with the theft of tools from the North Devon Pottery Company at Weare Giffard. W.F.Rock, the great Barnstaple philanthropist, writes in the Journal about The Great Exhibition then on in London.
28	8	1851	The Torrington Book Club marks its 66th anniversary with a celebration dinner for 30 at the Globe Hotel. The residents of Newington Street in Barnstaple complain of the overflowing cess pits in their area.
6	5	1852	E.M.White produces a model of the chair to be purchased for use in Bideford Town Hall. Susan Grant abandons her illegitimate child in a Barnstaple street - she is gaoled for one month.
13	5	1852	The New Barnstaple Market Bill is passed in Parliament - the first stage in constructing a new Pannier Market. A man has his leg broken in South Molton after a wheelbarrow race goes out of control.
20	5	1852	The Little Torrington revel which 'consisted of various rustic sports' including wrestling 'drew great numbers from the surrounding neighbourhood.' The Rev.Henry Luxmoore of Barnstaple preaches in favour of a new school in a hitherto neglected quarter of the town.' (Derby)
27	5	1852	The Barnstaple Mayor (and owner of the Journal) William Avery wins a court case over political bribery. Mr.Kay, brewer of Barnstaple, wins acclaim for the excellent quality of his beer.
3	6	1852	Mary Mitchell aged 15, an inmate of Barnstaple workhouse, is to be separated from other children 'lest she should corrupt them' as she is 'a most incorrigible girl.' Samuel Harding breaks a leg working in the Fremington clay pit of Samuel Crocker.
10	6	1852	At Ilfracombe 1100 sheep from Scotland are unloaded; they are to be sent to Exmoor for fattening. James Couch and Joseph Purchase are gaoled for a fortnight each in Barnstaple for being drunk and disorderly 'at a bad house in Green Lane.'
17	6	1852	The Mayor of Bideford John Maxwell speaks at the Open Day of the town's Grammar School where his 4 eldest sons have been educated 'with more to come'. An editorial in the Journal denounces the Mormons for being irreligious.
24	6	1852	An 'amateur band' from Torrington leads the annual procession of the Buckland Brewer Laudable Society - a self-help friendly society. W.Yeo buys the shipbuilding yard at Appledore for £1160. He announces plans to build a large dry dock there.
1	7	1852	Jane Friendship 'a girl of loose character' of Torrington is charged with assaulting a woman called Smale. She is fined 12p. Thomas Leach appears in Barnstaple Police Court charged with non-payment of a debt owed to the Barnstaple Loan Society; he is acquitted.
8	7	1852	The drains in Cock Street, Bideford are said to be in a bad state. A man called Nicholls falls down an open drain in Barnstaple outside the house of John Inch Knill who is about to become editor of the Journal.
15	7	1852	At Combe Martin 29 miners sue Mr.Forbes owner of the local mines for unpaid wages of between £2.10.0 and £18.17.6. The Bideford Town Crier goes around the town warning residents about rabid animals on the loose.
22	7	1852	Following the Parliamentary election for North Devon the Journal prints a poll book which lists the names of every voter and who they voted for - which allows corrupt politicians to check on those they bribed!
29	7	1852	The highlight of the Pilton Revel is a wrestling match attended by 'drunkeness, brawling, fighting and such results as usually attend these brutalizing exercises.' The main employer in South Molton, James Maunder a woollen manufacturer, dies aged 67.
5	8	1852	An effigy of a local adulterer is burnt at the stake by a mob in Derby, Barnstaple. A meeting is held at Hatherleigh to discuss the building of a railway between Bideford, Crediton and Plymouth.
12	8	1852	A woman named Lance tries to hang herself in Barnstaple following 'a fit of ungovernable rage into which she had worked herself while quarrelling with a neighbour.' A trial of an 8 year old boy in Barnstaple reveals that he worked in a local factory for 13 hours a day, six days a week.
19	8	1852	The annual sale of Liberal newspapers in Devon is put at 496,225, those of Tory ones 305,500, This is said to 'speak well for the intelligence of the county.' The sole Torrington policeman John Fussell resigns after 10 years in post as he is about to emigrate to Australia.
26	8	1852	Susan Grant, an inmate of the Barnstaple workhouse is gaoled for a day for disturbing the Sunday church service. A workman in the Bideford timber yard of Robert Taylor (on the site of Jolly's warehouse) drowns in the Torridge.
7	4	1853	When Mrs.Vickery of Westdown gives birth to triplets the parish decide to give her 20p a week from the rates to help bring the children up The book collection of the Bideford Literary and Scientific Institution is sold - thus leaving the town with no library.
14	4	1853	Barnstaple Town council discuss the building of a floating dock at Fremington to help navigation on the R.Taw. A Mutual Improvement Society is established in Appledore for the education of the working class.
21	4	1853	Pilton residents raise a petition to obtain lighting in the village to help with its policing. Mary Ann Handford is gaoled for 1 week in South Molton for the theft of 2 artificial flowers.
28	4	1853	A clairvoyant in Bideford announces that a ship carrying North Devonian emigrants to Australia has sunk - she is wrong. Removal of pebbles from the Pebble Ridge at Northam Burrows is said to be badly weakening it.
28	4	1853	William Chappell of Appledore is charged with destroying the new lifeboat house on Northam Burrows. Barnstaple Brewery announces it is to produce a new strong porter beer.
5	5	1853	John Lock, schoolmaster of Combe Martin threatens to kill the Rev.H.Toms rector of the village after he loses his job. The wife of William Smyth wheelwright of North Molton gives birth to their third albino child.
12	5	1853	A post-mortem on a pauper who died in Barnstaple Workhouse reveals he died from a 'lack of the necessaries of life.' Eliza Boatfield a Barnstaple prostitute 'with a wooden leg' is gaoled for 2 weeks for using obscene language in Joy Street.
19	5	1853	Henry Dunsford of Derby, Barnstaple enters a drinking contest and drinks himself to death.. It is suggested that convict labour be used to help land reclamation work along the banks of the River Taw.
26	5	1853	A man parades Ilfracombe with silver spoons in his hat - they are prizes for wrestling at the Ilfracombe Revel. Masons and seamstresses in Bideford go on strike for more money.
2	6	1853	A new sea wall is being built outside the Chapel of Ease in Appledore. The new cells beneath the clock tower in Ilfracombe are used for the first time when two drunks are placed there.
9	6	1853	Tenders are invited for the construction of the new Pannier Market in Barnstaple. Looting occurs in South Molton following a fire in the house of John Vernon baker.
16	6	1853	Tenders are invited for construction of the new Workhouse in Holsworthy. A University Scholarship Fund is established at Bideford Grammar School.
23	6	1853	Landcross Methodist chapel is closed by the Rolle estate which dislikes 'conventicles' or nonconformists. Barnstaple police force is now 4 strong, they are submitting daily reports of their activities to the council.
30	6	1853	A 'model farm' is to be built by the Duke of Bedford at South Dinnaton, Swimbridge at a cost of £4000. John Dunning has his leg amputated at the North Devon Infirmary whilst anaesthetised with chloroform.
7	7	1853	Houses at the end of Boutport Street,Barnstaple are demolished to make way for the new Pannier Market. A public meeting on Northam Burrows for agricultural labourers to air their grievances is said to have been a put up job by publicans hoping to sell beer.
14	7	1853	Policeman Yeo of Northam has to sue the parish for his unpaid wages. The new iron railway bridge at Bishops Tawton is progressing satisfactorily.
21	7	1853	Barnstaple Town Council discuss replacing their century old fire engines with new ones. P.C.Snell of Ilfracombe arrests a drunk who is imprisoned in a cell beneath the Town Clock.
28	7	1853	Demolition of a pub in Anchor Lane, Barnstaple reveals the floor is made of old gravestones. Richard Packer a runaway sailor is arrested in South Molton and sent back to his ship.
4	8	1853	The Appledore Mutual Improvement Society is reported to have 309 members. A house in High Street, Bideford is fitted with plate glass windows.
11	8	1853	A wet nurse at Braunton has been suckling children for 7 years. Shipwrights at Cove Yard, Ilfracombe strike for higher wages 'Acting under the influence of the wages epidemic.'
18	8	1853	The AGM of the N.Devon Infirmary in Barnstaple hears that 46 operations have now been carried out using chloroform.
25	8	1853	The first sod of the Bideford Extension Railway is cut. The licence of the Three Tuns in Barnstaple is withheld as the publican is often drunk.
1	9	1853	Most of the Journal is taken up by coverage of the newly published 'Barnstaple Bribery Commission' which has looked into election irregularities.
8	9	1853	A visitor to Ilfracombe writes to the Journal decrying the cruel treatment of donkeys in the resort. John March, Master of Barnstaple Workhouse, is assaulted by an inmate - he complains of numerous other attacks.
15	9	1853	Ilfracombe is said to be infested with 'cadgers' or beggars. Supt.Aldham of Barnstaple police applies for other jobs when the council reduce his wages by £20 a year.
22	9	1853	Charles Palmer is granted a licence for Barnstaple Theatre so long as he employs a special constable 'for the maintenance of order.' A letter to the Journal from Torrington details Thomas Fowler's ideas re decimal coinage
29	9	1853	A dwarf called Bartlett from Buckland Brewer appears at Barnstaple Fair. John Clarke a railway navvy is charged with theft of a horse at Burrington.
6	10	1853	Bideford Town council advertise for a new Police Superintendent at a salary of £80 p.a. 'without any perquisites.' Francis Harris, a quack doctor of Berrynarbor is gaoled for a month for inoculating people with smallpox.
13	10	1853	Mrs.Andrews, mistress of the Barnstaple National School, is dismissed for perjury to the Commission looking into election bribery charges. A letter to the Journal complains of corruption amongst the trustees of Hugh Squier's charity in South Molton.
20	10	1853	A Spiritualist meeting in Barnstaple sees tables turned over by the 'spirits'. John Dennis, imprisoned in Bideford gaol for counterfeiting, escapes via a knotted rope.
27	10	1853	The new lifeboat house at Appledore is completed. Bideford council condemn a house in Gunstone calling it 'a horrid place, and the people were as great a nuisance as the house.'
3	11	1853	Two Barnstaple boys are fined 2/- (10p) for playing games in the street on a Sunday. Two 'troupes of gipsies' camped on Langtree Common cheat local men and female glovemakers out of their earnings.
10	11	1853	Four 'gleaners' on Braunton Great Field are charged with theft. Burning tar barrels are rolled down Bideford High Street to celebrate November 5th.
17	11	1853	Dr.Budd is elected to Barnstaple council following his campaign to ban pig-keeping in the town's gardens and cellars. Appledore is said to be very insanitary having 120 'nuisances' in the village.
24	11	1853	The Journal prints a letter decrying the destruction of a spring said to have medical attributes at Anchor Wood, Barnstaple. Eliza Molland, a servant of Mariansleigh, sues her employers as she has been 'much neglected and ill treated by the family'.
1	12	1853	The town crier of Braunton announces a reward of £1 for catching vandals who destroyed the churchyard gatepost. A roller used on Torrington bowling green is pushed over the hill into the Rolle Canal - a reward of £5 is offered for information.
8	12	1853	The 'notorious' Henry Smyth of Landkey who has 5 'criminal sons' is gaoled for 9 months for stealing apples. An applicant for the job of Master of Barnstaple Workhouse is rejected for being a nonconformist.
15	12	1853	Elizabeth Harding of Berrynarbor is arrested for theft - 'she now bears some unpronounceable name having formed a matrimonial alliance with a black man.' In Bideford a man rides a 'Marshall's Propeller' (a form of bicycle) around the town - which 'will ultimately supersede horseflesh.'
22	12	1853	Two men working on the construction of the new railway station in Barnstaple are injured in an explosion. A 23' long beaked whale is washed up on Saunton Sands. It takes 4 men and 4 horses 2 days to cut it up and remove it.
29	12	1853	The Mayor of Barnstaple supplies a dinner of roast beef and plum pudding to inmates of the town prison. A new plough is invented by George Thomas 'a young smith' of Bishops Tawton.
29	12	1853	A Journal editorial asks that local postmen be given gifts as they only earn 7/- (35p) for a 7 day week. Thomas Pridham, a Bideford doctor, gives Christmas dinner to 50 poor people in his house.
5	1	1854	Dr.Clarke of Lynton is sued for malpractice after he uses his fingernails on a patient's tongue rather than scissors. A cold snap allows skating for 2 days on Northam Burrows.
12	1	1854	A riot in Bideford over high food prices ends when police arrest 3 ringleaders. The Ilfracombe Widows & Aged Persons' Bread Fund has given out 1500 6d loans since November 1853.
19	1	1854	Philip Gammon of Marwood tries to commit suicide in the Pottington lime kiln but is rescued. Cheap food is specially brought to Torrington to help the third of the population said to be 'paupers in all but name.'
26	1	1854	Two lectures on Mormonism are given in the Latter Day Saints Room in South Molton. Joshua Willis an itinerant umbrella seller from 'the odorous region of Green Lane' in Barnstaple is fined 5/- for drunkenness.
2	2	1854	Drunkeness amongst navvies building the North Devon Railway is said to be very common. Circulation of the North Devon Journal is put at 1160 per week.
9	2	1854	Dr.Budd of Barnstaple Town Council proposes that St.Peter's graveyard is closed as a health risk. Bideford buy new clothing for their 2 policemen who were 'shabby' compared to those of Torrington and Barnstaple.
16	2	1854	In Ilfracombe Sandy Lane is renamed Highfield Road. A pamphlet is published proposing the enclosure with hedges of the Valley of the Rocks in Lynton.
23	2	1854	Three young boys who steal lead from a roof in Barnstaple are gaoled and whipped. The contractor putting in Ilfracombe's drainage system brings his own men from Southampton as they work harder than locals.
2	3	1854	A colt owned by Henry Manning of Winstone Farm, Chittlehampton is stabbed and disembowelled by unknown assailants, Some 100 residents of Chulmleigh (one sixteenth of the population) are about to emigrate.
9	3	1854	The owner of the Derby lace factory in Barnstaple holds a dinner to celebrate the installation of a new engine. The crew of a French boat in Ilfracombe harbour collect snails to eat..
16	3	1854	James Lugg of Torrington dies aged 86 after being Town Crier for 66 years. Five shares in Barnstaple Theatre are sold 'with privilege of free admission' attached.
23	3	1854	An electric telegraph is opened alongside the new railway line between Barnstaple and Exeter. Following an escape prison cells in Bideford are lined with sheet iron.
30	3	1854	Fifteen people emigrate from Braunton to Canada and exacerbate a local shortage of workmen. A mineral spring is discovered next to Apps Brewery in Littleham.
6	4	1854	A new Congregational chapel is opened in Torrington Lane, Bideford. The Journal editor sues a Conservative councillor for abusing him.
13	4	1854	Five new bells for Pilton church are cast by John Taylor late of Buckland Brewer. Residents of Montpellier Terrace, Ilfracombe ask that drains to their houses be laid quickly.
20	4	1854	The Smith family of Bishops Tawton are said to be 'notorious for their idle and thievish propensities.' There are calls to provide a park in Bideford for 'gymnastic exercises.'
27	4	1854	Torrington town council are ordered to close the church, Wesleyan and Independent chapel graveyards by March 1855. William Yeo builds a foundry and new wharfs at Appledore.
4	5	1854	Antonia Phillipe a French dwarf vagrant is gaoled in Barnstaple for 2 weeks and ordered to get his hair cut. Thomas Shepherd of Bradworthy returns from Australia with 2 lbs of gold which he shows to Prince Albert.
11	5	1854	A new sea wall is being constructed at Instow using stone from Appledore. The fame of Weare Giffard for its strawberries is mentioned in the Journal.
18	5	1854	Effigies of a man and woman said to be carrying on an adulterous affair are burned at Derby in Barnstaple to show public anger. The congregation of Bideford church walks out in protest at 'High Church' prayers.
25	5	1854	The sexton of St.Peter's, Barnstaple is attacked for being drunk during church services. Elizabeth Clibbett an unmarried mother charges her 'faithless swain' with non payment of maintenance - he is gaoled for 2 months.
1	6	1854	Llewellyn Harvey of Torrington is charged with the murder of Mary Richards - he is hanged at Exeter. Crime is said to be low in Appledore even though they have suspended their policeman.
8	6	1854	A report on the Braunton Revel describes it as 'that disgraceful relic of our ancestors' folly.' The parish clerk of Mariansleigh publicly announces suspicions that a man who had deserted his wife has been murdered.
15	6	1854	Two Dolton musicians are fined following a fight over money collected following their appearance in a Torrington pub. Some 47 men apply to be the new Police Superintendent of Barnstaple.
22	6	1854	The Barnstaple church clock is reset to show 'London time.' A temperance meeting in Bideford attracts 1000 men.
29	6	1854	John Bowden of Chittlehampton absconds from South Molton workhouse for the 30th time. Thomas Soper a miner who gets drunk in Ilfracombe is locked up in the Clock Tower until sober.
6	7	1854	Fanny Gould of Newport in Barnstaple is the first woman to charge her husband with assault under a new Parliamentary Act. A new pumping engine is installed at Venn quarry in Landkey.
13	7	1854	The North Devon Railway between Exeter and Barnstaple is opened. Jane Willis an Ilfracombe thief flees to Cardiff but is captured there and sent back for trial.
20	7	1854	A teetotal meeting at Buckland Brewer attracts 800 people. A referendum in Bideford votes not to collect any rate money to support St.Mary's church.
27	7	1854	A woman called Greek of Little Shelfin in Ilfracombe is struck and killed by lightning. Bideford is said to be one of the three healthiest towns in Britain.
3	8	1854	Two 'abandoned females' called Harris and Babb are charged with mugging a sailor in Bideford. Tea and cakes are provided for prisoners in Barnstaple gaol to mark the opening of the local railway.
10	8	1854	A Cornish visitor to Bideford who is 'cured' of asthma is said to be a good advert for the town. There are 20 people in Barnstaple workhouse who have been abandoned there by their families.
17	8	1854	The two Bideford policemen carry out a house-to-house search for 'nuisances'. Robert Tamlyn who has been twice transported to Australia as a criminal appears in Barnstaple police court.
24	8	1854	Two vagrant orphan children aged 13 and 10 steal a horse at Berrynarbor. The Torrington town clock is moved forward by 16 minutes to match London time.
31	8	1854	The Wesleyan minister of Torrington publishes an account of the recent murder of Mary Richards of Langtree. John and Edward Petter open a new iron foundry at Rolle Quay in Barnstaple.
7	9	1854	The first ever 'excursion train' leaves Barnstaple for Bristol at 5.30 am. The Bideford Bridge Trust are pushing ahead with plans to widen the Long Bridge.
14	9	1854	A court case is held regarding ownership of instruments used by the Swimbridge church orchestra. Three people die of cholera during an outbreak in Appledore.
21	9	1854	The lessee of Barnstaple Theatre is ordered not to go on to midnight as departing crowds at that time have caused problems. Three female thieves in Barnstaple are described as 'poor, fagged, ragged, slovenly mortals...whose characters it seemed were as loose as their garments.'
28	9	1854	The Barnstaple Girls Blue Coat School teaches reading but not writing and arithmetic. Allotments on Torrington Commons are said to be in the hands of rich men rather than the poor.
5	10	1854	Six people die from cholera in Northam. A female burglar Elizabeth Stapledon is arrested in Torrington after houses in Mill Street are broken into.
12	10	1854	Benjamin Disraeli arrives in Bideford to stay with the local MP at Moreton House. Lists of local Crimean War casualties are posted up outside Bideford Town Hall.
19	10	1854	Eliza Bouchier is arrested for the murder of her twin babies at Fremington. Bideford is in the grip of an epidemic of cholera.
26	10	1854	It is announced that Barnstaple's new graveyard is to be in Vicarage Road. William Bryant who is both a saddler and postmaster of Newport in Barnstaple dies aged 66.
2	11	1854	George Eames of Barnstaple is fined 2/6 for using 'indecent gestures' towards P.c.Baker. Forty different models are submitted by architects for ways of widening Bideford Bridge.
9	11	1854	A Barnstaple wedding is held between two deaf and dumb people, their bridesmaid is also deaf and dumb. Five Appledore boys are serving on Royal Navy ships at the Crimean War.
16	11	1854	A bastardy case at Barnstaple reveals 'a deplorable state of immorality among the youth of the community.' Three Westleigh villagers are charged with stealing 130 sleepers from the North Devon Railway.
23	11	1854	The first burial occurs in Ilfracombe's new privately developed cemetery. The Rev.Charles Kingsley, who is staying in Bideford, preaches on behalf of the town's 'Provident Clothing Club'.
30	11	1854	Catherine Bradway a gipsy is charged with telling fortunes at Ilfracombe and is gaoled for 4 weeks. Bideford postal staff contribute a day's wages to help troops fighting the Crimean War.
7	12	1854	A 40 year old Ilfracombe widower with 6 children marries a 21 year old woman but is so drunk he can hardly sign the marriage register. Clovelly is said to be insanitary due to the fumes from the lime kiln at the bottom of the village street.
14	12	1854	Three gamekeepers at Bideford are shot in a fight with poachers. The Ilfracombe Clothing Club distribute warm clothes to the poor.
21	12	1854	A call for a return to mail coaches is made following a railway derailment at Crediton. Ilfracombe police are condemned for detaining two 'respectable young men.'
28	12	1854	The new Tory Mayor of Barnstaple John Harris is attacked by the Journal for his 'disgusting' speech on entering the office. Miss German is appointed schoolmistress at the South Molton workhouse.
4	1	1855	The new high wall around Torrington Cemetery is to cost £495. C.Pridham of Bideford, a medical student, is presented with 10 guineas for his help during a recent cholera outbreak in the town.
11	1	1855	Two members of the Taddiport Friendly Society come to blows over a disagreement about money. The Rev.Charles Kingsley is teaching Drawing at Bideford Mechanics Institute.
18	1	1855	David Davies, the contractor for building the Braunton marsh embankment, is summoned for non-payment of wages to his workmen. Robert and Mary Thorne are arrested in South Molton for passing counterfeit coin in the town.
25	1	1855	John Bolt of Yarnscombe is charged by his apprentice Mary Furse with beating her with a rope. Hitchcock & Co woollen manufacturers of South Molton win a Government contract to supply blankets to the Army in Crimea.
1	2	1855	P.c.Cole of Torrington breaks his leg in coach crash whilst on his way to arrest a counterfeiter at Chulmleigh. Samuel Cocking, a tramp, is arrested at Bideford for theft. He is said to be a 'Silent Creeper' thief.
8	2	1855	The Rev.Jerome Clapp of Appledore calls for a teetotal government to take power in Britain. A new promenade is being constructed in Ilfracombe on Runnacleave Meadows; it is to be called Western Parade.
15	2	1855	William James 'sometimes a faithful workman' at Braunton Lighthouse dies. A Torrington man fighting in the Crimea writes home to his parents and the Journal prints his letter.
22	2	1855	Three women in Barnstaple Workhouse are gaoled for 2 weeks after they break windows in the building. The prevalence of illegitimate children in North Devon is blamed on young people attending village 'revels' and getting drunk.
1	3	1855	The new Corn Market in Barnstaple opens, it has the Music Hall above it. Mr.Yeo of Appledore is constructing a new dry dock with associated store buildings.
8	3	1855	The newly elected Barnstaple MP Mr.Tite is stripped of his seat following allegations of corruption during his election. Henry Smith of Landkey, a poacher, is arrested. He apparently wishes to kill the Rev.John Russell.
15	3	1855	At a Tory election meeting the crowd call for 'Three groans for the North Devon Journal'. P.c.Snell arrests an Army deserter at Braunton after reading his description in the 'Hue and Cry' police magazine.
22	3	1855	An Ilfracombe horse thief, George Marchant is transported to Australia for 14 years. James Snell is sentenced to 6 years in gaol for shooting two gamekeepers at Bideford during a bungled poaching attempt.
29	3	1855	Two new rows of houses are to be built at Old Town, Bideford. They are named Langdon and Inkerman Place. Prostitutes visit George Houlford whilst he is in Torrington lock-up on charges of beating his wife.
5	4	1855	A 'stag hunt' is held in Torrington when 200 young men publicly shame a married man and a 'spruce young widow' he is having an affair with. Elizabeth Davis of Barnstaple throws 'corrosive liquid' over Ann Martin following an argument.
12	4	1855	Charles Kingsley publishes Westward Ho! and starts mass tourism in North Devon. A £2 reward is offered for information as to who pushed the Torrington bowling club's roller down the Castle Green hill.
19	4	1855	The weekly circulation of the Journal is said to be 1168. Edward Capern, Bideford's 'postman-poet' is to publish his poems in book form.
26	4	1855	In Torrington Mary Hobbs, politely described as 'a lady of the pave', is fined 25p for using obscene language. Miss Oxenham a Barnstaple pawnbroker is condemned for her part in allowing 'young pilferers to get rid of goods dishonestly obtained.'
3	5	1855	A letter writer from Bideford reckons that skittles, cards and bagatelle games are 'ruining' young men in the town. A lecture on teetotalism in Bratton Fleming sees 26 men 'signing the pledge'.
10	5	1855	Twelve specimens of iron ore from the Exmoor Iron Mines are sent to the Paris Universal Exhibition. The foundation stone of a new Bible Christian chapel is laid in Reform Street in Barnstaple.
17	5	1855	Desertion of wives by their husbands is said to be unusually common in Fremington. The herring fishing season at Clovelly is very poor owing to the prevailing cold weather.
24	5	1855	J.Hayman and H.Petter, joint owners of the Journal dissolve their partnership following political differences. Samuel Norman and his cart horse are badly injured when they fall into the Lee limekilns at Combe Martin.
31	5	1855	A new landlord of the Carpenter's Arms in the Derby area of Barnstaple vows not to allow any more 'orgies' to take place there. The congregation of Mormons existing in South Molton is attacked by the Journal editor
7	6	1855	A Tory councillor on Barnstaple town council unsuccessfully tries to reduce the town police force from 5 to 3 men. The Ilfracombe Revel is described as 'This remnant of the barbarism, folly and vice of former generations.'
14	6	1855	A new 6 bell ring is to be installed in St.Mary's church in Appledore. Grace Harris of Roborough abandons her 4 children following the death of her husband.
21	6	1855	A new Commercial Bank opens in Bideford - the eighth new shopfront in 6 years. Workmen at the North Devon Pottery works at Weare Gifford are praised for trying to save a boy who falls into the Torridge.
28	6	1855	Penhill in Fremington catches fire and the private West of England Assurance Company brigade attend. Two Braunton constables are fined £2 each for not dealing with 4 drunks at the Red Lion Inn.
5	7	1855	New illustrated papers are attacked as being 'pictorial food for children.' Mary Coombes of Swimbridge is charged with burying her dead illegitimate child in an orchard - but the case is dismissed.
12	7	1855	Two Weare Giffard men in Australia find the largest gold nugget ever recorded - and return to their home in triumph. Two warring factions of the St.Giles Female Friendly Society agree to bury their differences.
19	7	1855	Tristram Gent a Torrington lodging house keeper is fined 50p for allowing both sexes to sleep in the same room. John Chapman is arrested for drunkenly disturbing the service in the Barnstaple Baptist chapel.
26	7	1855	A Mormon preacher holds a public meeting in Barnstaple and is attacked for spreading the 'immoralities and blasphemies which compose the Mormon faith.' The poor who use Compass Hill in Ilfracombe for drying their washing are told not to do it any more.
2	8	1855	The potato crop on Braunton Great Field is devastated by disease. Some 200 allotments are being worked on Torrington Commons.
9	8	1855	A driver on the North Devon Railway is gaoled for 2 months for being drunk on duty. Some 250 members of the Hartland Men's Club have dinner at the New Inn in the village.
16	8	1855	Thomas Lee of Goodleigh refuses to pay his servant girl's wages after he finds her in a haystack with her soldier lover. Lord Clinton offers to supply trees to decorate the new Torrington cemetery.
23	8	1855	P.c.Cole of Torrington is attacked by a sheep stealer he tracks across country. A move to halve Bideford's two man police force in the name of economy is defeated.
30	8	1855	A public meeting in Ilfracombe discusses selling the town's old workhouse which was given to the parish several centuries before. The 'lift bridge' being built over Fremington Creek for the North Devon Railway nears completion.
6	9	1855	A tin hat used as a shop sign in Barnstaple is removed and placed on top of Queen Anne's statue in the town. The Torrington Book Club celebrates its 70th anniversary.
13	9	1855	Celebrations for the 'victory' at Sebastopol in the Crimean War are held throughout North Devon. Barnstaple town council appoint John Youings as a new policeman at 80p a week.
20	9	1855	James Smith is arrested for putting on an indecent show at Barnstaple Fair. Some 800 'country people' use the new railway between Barnstaple and Bideford to attend Barnstaple Fair.
27	9	1855	Corporal Corney writes home to his parents in Marwood from the battlefield of Sebastopol in the Crimea. E.White a Bideford builder purchases Durrant in Northam to build villas there.
4	10	1855	The wife of Alfred Bater the Barnstaple town crier gives birth to a son. A case concerning a dispute over allotments on Langtree Common is heard at Torrington.
11	10	1855	Balsdon, a lime burner of Westleigh, sues Mr.Gammon, a farmer of Instow, for £11.32 worth of lime he sold him. Appledore Independent Chapel opens after a long period of 'suspended animation'.
18	10	1855	Female stallholders choose their pitches in the new Barnstaple Pannier Market hall. Tree planting is suggested in St.Peter's churchyard, Barnstaple to absorb 'obnoxious gases arising from the overcharged burying ground.'
25	10	1855	William Williams of Heanton Punchardon is told to marry his pregnant girlfriend if he can't afford to pay an affiliation order of 8p a week. Captain Christie marries Miss Clevland of Tapeley in Instow.
1	11	1855	Two Ilfracombe fishermen are struck by lightning whilst fishing for herring. Both the new Barnstaple-Bideford railway and the Barnstaple Catholic church are opened.
8	11	1855	November 5th in Bideford is marked by the rolling of burning tar barrels down the High Street. William Thorne the constructor of the Barnstaple railway is declared bankrupt.
15	11	1855	A Torrington court case hears about the renting and selling of pews in Torrington church. A company is formed in Ilfracombe to build 'suburban villas'.
22	11	1855	H. and J.Walter open a studio in Cross Street, Barnstaple specialising in 'silhouettes' and photographs. Henry Ball dies at his daughter's in Mill Street, Bideford. Her house is described as a 'miserable den of wretchedness'.
29	11	1855	100 sets of 'Theatrical Wardrobe' are sold by James Leander the manager of Barnstaple Theatre. Miners and engineers from the Dowlais Iron Co. of South Wales arrive on Exmoor to search for minerals.
6	12	1855	'Dirty, idle, bad tempered wives' are blamed for alcoholism amongst their husbands by the editor of the Journal. John Bowden of Chittlehampton is gaoled for the thirty second time for crimes in the area.
13	12	1855	Corporal Goff from Littleham who is with the Royal Marines fighting the Russians in the Crimea writes home to his parents and the Journal prints the letter. South Molton Town Council give £50 to help set up a Mechanics Institute in the town.
20	12	1855	It is revealed that Joseph Morris, his wife, 7 children and a lodger all sleep in one bedroom of a cottage in Swimbridge. Eliza Guard of Huntshaw is given 1 month in gaol after she abandons her 3 children at Torrington Workhouse.
27	12	1855	There is a call for a policeman to be stationed at Appledore to prevent salmon poach- ing which is rife. A cart load of mistletoe from Tiverton is sold in Ilfracombe Market being the first time it has been seen in the town.
3	1	1856	John Westacott a Barnstaple shipbuilder alleges his apprentice Charles Hooper 'played the fiddle while his comrades danced through the streets.' At Torrington the Home Secretary refuses to re-open the old graveyard - whilst the Bishop of Exeter refuses to consecrate the new one.
10	1	1856	Bideford Mechanics Institute is said to be flourishing - Ilfracombe and South Molton ask for a copy of its rules. 25 members of the South Molton Mechanics Institute are elected to form its first committee.
17	1	1856	Westlake's Charity in Barnstaple distributes 200 cwts of coal to the poor. The Journal notes a case of illegitimacy adding 'Of course we cannot pollute our columns with the evidence.'
24	1	1856	The Mayor of Torrington reads the burial service over the first person to be buried in the new town cemetery as local clergy refuse to do it. The West Buckland Clothing Club presents gifts to the Rev.Brereton for all his help.
31	1	1856	The Barnstaple Brewery in Litchdon Street is sold. The Journal publishes an account of the 'Hunting of the Earl of Tyrone' at Combe Martin.
7	2	1856	There is a call to set up a Mechanics Institute in Chulmleigh. In Barnstaple a public meeting votes to establish a Soup Kitchen to help feed the poor.
14	2	1856	12 labourers apply to the 'emigration agent' at Torrington asking to move to the USA. The Bideford Ragged School has helped improve 'the morals of the children who attend.'
21	2	1856	Elizabeth & Jane Fry of Barnstaple assault Agnes Drake saying she had 'witch'd 'em lousy'. In South Molton Amelia Western alias the 'Great Western' is charged with theft at a local brothel.
28	2	1856	The Journal suggests that 'Christians' refuse postal deliveries on a Sunday. Ann Perrin (20) who has 2 bastards in Barnstaple Workhouse is described as 'a hard faced wretch belonging to the parish of Berrynarbor.'
6	3	1856	Huxtable & Toms of 6 High Street, Barnstaple are the only shop in town selling ready-made clothes for men. A young man named Mounce dies of overdrinking at Langtree.
13	3	1856	Dr.Britton dies in Barnstaple - he claims to have caught Nelson in his arms when he was shot at Trafalgar. Richard Coats severs his own leg with a pocket knife after being trapped by a rockfall in a Braunton quarry.
20	3	1856	Charles Chidley from Bideford is put in charge of the Rajah of Guikwas' army in India. Dinnaton Farm, Swimbridge is badly damaged by fire after the Chittlehampton fire engine takes 1 hours to arrive.
27	3	1856	Elizabeth Sanders a prostitute from High Bickington is arrested for being drunk and disorderly in Barnstaple. A would-be Barnstaple churchwarden, J.K.Marsh, is denounced by the Journal editor for being corrupt.
3	4	1856	An 1807 parish account book from Ilfracombe is said to record the purchase of a ducking stool for scolding women. Robert Gribble a Barnstaple ironmonger's apprentice runs off to join the Army.
10	4	1856	The Newton Tracey Friendly Society refuses to pay sickness benefit to William Woolacott as he was drunk when injured. Bideford Quay and properties in East-the-Water flood following high tides.
17	4	1856	Badger baiting is said to be taking place in a pub at the bottom of Pilton. Grace Harris of Winkleigh is gaoled for 2 weeks for deserting her child in Torrington Workhouse.
24	4	1856	Chittlehampton parishioners ask that P.c.William Ballard be dismissed for getting a local girl pregnant - he isn't. Illegal games of skittles are said to occur at the Ship Inn in Bideford.
1	5	1856	The Barnstaple Archaeologic Club is established and hears about Civil War fortifications at Ebberly Place. William Wood dies aged 72 - he is described as 'the crier' of Appledore.
8	5	1856	Bay View House in Northam, the residence of William Chappell is illuminated to celebrate the end of the Crimean War. Barnstaple Brewery is to re-open after a long closure.
15	5	1856	A human skeleton 8' 5" long is discovered on Lundy. 300 members of the Bishopsnympton Friendly Society process through the village to their AGM.
22	5	1856	A petition is being gathered to get paid policemen at Appledore. Bideford town council give £5 to P.c.Thomas Stevens as recompense for severe injuries he received whilst on duty.
29	5	1856	A team of divers is at work around Lundy salvaging goods from sunken vessels. The Church of England section of the new Barnstaple cemetery is consecrated.
5	6	1856	The Marwood Friendly Society march in procession with the Braunton Band at their head to mark their AGM. The Crediton Literary Institute visit Tapeley Park in Instow.
12	6	1856	In a South Molton bastardy case 'Several young men come forward, and unblushingly disclosed their own evil doing.' Hatherleigh stages celebrations to mark peace in the Crimean War.
19	6	1856	Thomas Lewis of Barnstaple wears his Waterloo medals around town as usual in this week to mark the anniversary of the battle. A meeting at Northam discusses how to strengthen the Westward Ho! pebble ridge.
26	6	1856	150 people sit down to a tea provided by the Bratton Fleming Teetotal Society. Keziah Shapland is gaoled for a week for breaking 30 panes of glass in South Molton Workhouse.
3	7	1856	3 new villas 'Henwick', 'Balmoral' and 'Paon Shun' are to be built at Hostle Park, Ilfracombe. John Bowden is gaoled for the 38th time for absconding from South Molton Workhouse.
10	7	1856	12 girls hold a picnic at the top of Buckland Brewer church tower. The AGM of the Torrington Association for the Protection of Property elects William Leverton of Beaford as chairman.
17	7	1856	John Westaway a hurdy-gurdy player is assaulted at a Friendly Society dinner at Buckland Brewer. Apps Brewery in Littleham announces that they will be giving their workers a half day holiday every Wednesday.
24	7	1856	The Great Meeting House in Bideford is being completely refurbished. The new Appledore Dry Dock built by W.Yeo opens.
31	7	1856	A Plymouth Royal Marines band plays at Tawstock fete. A series of lectures are held on Phrenology in Barnstaple - the Journal denounces them.
7	8	1856	A new brass band is set up by young South Molton tradesmen. At Braunton Gideon Bassett (80) marries a 40 year old widow - and is pelted with cabbage stalks by village youngsters.
14	8	1856	Jane Lewis is denounced as 'a thoroughgoing cadger' and gaoled for 1 week after begging in Barnstaple. Mrs.Trollope, a famous travel writer, visits Ilfracombe.
21	8	1856	An inquiry reveals that many of the 97 public allotments in Combe Martin have been illegally sold. Mr.Elworthy of Kingsland Farm, South Molton introduces the first reaping machine into the area.
28	8	1856	Effigies of an adulterous couple are publicly burnt in Pilton. Barnstaple Freemasons throw open their Lodge for the public to visit.
4	9	1856	Barnstaple Freehold Land Society buy 18 acres of building land 'skirting Anchor Wood.' The South Molton Cricket Club is established following a fete and display game at Castle Hill, Filleigh.
11	9	1856	Mr.Lamping, lighthouse keeper at Saunton Sands, finds a dead body washed up on the beach. The Ragged School at East-the-Water, Bideford has 84 pupils enrolled.
18	9	1856	Lewis Buck MP erects new almshouses at the top of Meddon Street, Bideford. Maria Friend of St.Giles, a married woman, is found in Torrington 'lying on her back, in a beastly state of intoxication.'
25	9	1856	Messrs Vinson of Bideford a tailoring firm introduce the first sewing machine into the town. The pantomime 'Whittington and his cat' is put on during Barnstaple Fair.
2	10	1856	The first 'Exmoor Mail' coach replaces the previous private postal arrangements on the Moor. The licence of the Bear Inn, Green Lane, Barnstaple is suspended as the pub is a 'resort of rogues, prostitutes and thieves.'
9	10	1856	The 15 year old Prince of Wales visits Ilfracombe incognito. A third of the working class in South Molton are said to never attend church.
17	10	1856	Thomas Scott, a sheep stealer, is caught at Northam following detective work. The Journal carries a fierce attack on the use of tobacco.
23	10	1856	A burial service at St.Mary Magdalene in Barnstaple sees the coffin floating in a flooded grave. Bideford Market is said to be in a dilapidated state.
30	10	1856	St.Peter's graveyard in Barnstaple is to be planted with bushes to beautify it. Robert Guard of Bishops Tawton absconds from Barnstaple Workhouse leaving his wife and 3 children.
6	11	1856	Robert Turner, clerk to the Rolle Canal Company, falls into the canal and dies later that day. A turnpike gate is cut in two and the nearby toll booth is burnt down at Winkleigh.
13	11	1856	Charles Harding the parish clerk and leader of the church orchestra at Kentisbury refuses to return his violin. A lecture on Australia is given in Torrington by John Row who emigrated there in 1842.
20	11	1856	A fire at Thomas Brannam's factory in North Walk, Barnstaple comes close to destroying the business. W.H.Braund, a bookseller of New York, returns to marry Anne Braund of Clawton Barton.
27	11	1856	A Barnstaple branch of a national Anti-Income Tax movement is set up. The newly formed South Molton Burial Board elect their first clerk.
4	12	1856	John Kelson, leader of the Mormon church in South Molton, charges 2 youths with disrupting his services. Bideford town council allow the congregation from Lavington chapel to use the Town Hall whilst their chapel is refurbished.
11	12	1856	Caroline Brent of Barnstaple charges Mary Burrell with spreading rumours that she has had an abortion. George Britton of Apps Brewery, Littleham breaks his leg in Bideford.
18	12	1856	Sgt.Chanter of Barnstaple police is given a reward of £10 for capturing a Horwood sheep thief who is transported to Australia. Eliza Bate has twins in Bideford Workhouse after her husband deserts her and marries another bigamously.
27	12	1856	The foundation stone of a new gatehouse at the North Devon Infirmary is laid. Mount Pleasant School, Bideford, run by Miss Harding, is to re-open on January 22nd 1857.
1	1	1857	The Journal prints a free 'Almanac' for 1857. A meeting to call for the abolition of income tax is advertised in Barnstaple Guildhall.
8	1	1857	Thorne's Brick and Tile Manufactory at Chapelton, Tawstock offers 150,000 cheap bricks for sale A 160' long wooden goods shed at the Bideford Railway Station collapses in a storm.
15	1	1857	Barnstaple policeman P.c.Youings retires with an illness that 'often follows as the penalty of sensuality.' The Rev.Richard Knill who was born in Braunton and served as a missionary in India and Russia dies. Some 14 million of his religious tracts were sold during his lifetime.
22	1	1857	In South Molton Amelia Western alias 'The Great Western' is fined 25p for being drunk and disorderly. Henry Young of Barnstaple builds a new more efficient steam engine.
29	1	1857	Seldon & Co. of Barnstaple offer the first products from their newly built clay tobacco pipe factory to the public. The Andrews Dole Dinner is held in Bideford as it has been for some 300 years previously.
5	2	1857	John Hebdue 'a mulatto' is arrested for stabbing Maria Copp in Torrington Lane, Bideford P.c.Snell of the Ilfracombe police force is made redundant as he is 'too old'.
12	2	1857	The Torrington Mutual Improvement Society has 62 members and 170 books in its library. Hartland shoemakers hold a meeting to increase prices by 20% owing to a rise in the cost of leather.
19	2	1857	Morals of young people in Combe Martin are said to be very poor. A fortune teller is arrested in Barnstaple 'which discloses a lamentable amount of ignorance and superstition' amongst servant girls.
26	2	1857	Chulmleigh residents call for a village policeman to fight a tide of crime amongst them William Yeo is to open a chain cable factory behind New Quay in Appledore.
5	3	1857	George Vickery a Mariansleigh dwarf is charged by Sarah Kingdon as the father of her illegitimate child. Bideford town council hear that 16 of the town's lamps have been broken by boys playing with balls.
12	3	1857	A court case heard in Bideford is over the erection of a new quay at Peppercombe in Alwington. A Barnstaple Tory councillor demands an end of sick pay to the town's police force.
19	3	1857	Uriah Gay a gipsy camped at Bishopsnympton is arrested for horse stealing. The South Molton Burial Board is to spend £600 on Barns Close to expand the town's cemetery.
26	3	1857	The 'Electric Telegraph' arrives in Barnstaple and connects North Devon to the rest of Britain. William Peters a boy of Derby, Barnstaple is fined 5p for throwing stones in the street.
2	4	1857	Catherine Harkness of Torrington is charged with begging and is gaoled for 2 months. John Scott a Barnstaple hawker is gaoled for 3 months for stealing clothes from a High Street shop.
9	4	1857	Frederick Maunder, Mayor of Barnstaple, has his woollen factory at Raleigh burnt down. Two lime kilns at Tapeley, Westleigh are to let - they have their own railway siding.
16	4	1857	Some 200 North Devonians travel by rail to Plymouth to embark on emigration ships. Mrs.Mary Hill dies at Ilfracombe aged 87 - 'who for many years performed the office of ladies' bather at Wildersmouth.'
23	4	1857	The Ilfracombe church has its floor concreted over to hide the smell from graves inside the building. The 1 year old son of the rector of Little Torrington, dressed as a Freemason, lays the foundation stone of the church that is being rebuilt.
30	4	1857	Two Mormons address a meeting in Bickington; the Journal calls them a 'vile set of impostors'. A Bideford man goes to sleep and when he wakes finds his leg has dropped off.
7	5	1857	E.Hopson of the Strand, Bideford sells a 'portable house erected for taking Photographic Likenesses.' A Barnstaple man called Forrester stalks Torrington Fair waving a gun and searching for his prostitute lover.
14	5	1857	Bideford town council agree to provide a letter box for the town's police force. Benjamin Lang is gaoled for 2 months for stealing cabbages from the Barnstaple Workhouse garden.
21	5	1857	Three year old George Houlford of Torrington is saved from drowning in the Rolle Canal. The AGM of the South Molton Widows' Annuitant Society hears it has 106 members with reserves of £3000.
28	5	1857	At Barnstaple 10 woolcombers go on trial for assaulting a 'blackleg' during a strike. R.Gould a Barnstaple architect is appointed to design the South Molton cemetery.
4	6	1857	3 men are injured by an explosion at Mr.Cox's stone quarry at Cleavehouses, Northam. The AGM of two Friendly Societies at North Molton is followed by 'fighting and quarrelling during the night.'
11	6	1857	Martha Capern of Barnstaple is described 'as a very noisy character, quite a pest to the neighbourhood.' The new church of Sts.Philip & James in Ilfracombe is consecrated.
18	6	1857	1000 people arrive at Bideford station to go to Northam Burrows. Mr.Morfill's Torrington Band accompany them. The first Clovelly herring caught this season is sold, as tradition dictates, to the Lord of the Manor.
25	6	1857	Elizabethan coins are found secreted in a roof at Hartland. The foundation stone is laid of 7 new almshouses at the top of Meddon Street in Bideford.
2	7	1857	Windows in the women's ward of Bideford workhouse have to be nailed up to stop Philip Squire of Alwington climbing in. John Miller, owner of the Derby Lace Factory in Barnstaple, grows a cucumber 2' long.
9	7	1857	Christopher Shapland's house at Frithelstock catches fire; the Torrington fire brigade attend. Members of the Landkey Friendly Society go to court to settle their differences.
16	7	1857	The foundation stone of a new Baptist Chapel is laid in Meeting Street, Appledore. The North Devon Building Society takes Kivell, a Langtree farmer, to court after he reneges on his mortgage.
23	7	1857	3 lime kilns at the North Devon Dock, Fremington Pill are put up for sale. After a watchman shoots 'scrumpers' at Rose Hill, Barnstaple local doctors are asked to report on any wounded patients.
30	7	1857	Walkers in Ilfracombe are 'not a little aggravated by the crinolinian expansion of the ladies' dresses.' Crops are plentiful in North Devon but harvesting will be difficult as so many labourers have emigrated.
6	8	1857	George Rooke of Parracombe is brought to the Barnstaple hospital after fracturing his leg in a wrestling match. William Hearn of New Street, Torrington assaults Elizabeth Penny after he accuses her of bewitching his pigs.
13	8	1857	Horse dung is put into a newly erected letter box in Boutport Street, Barnstaple. A poem by James Jenkins of Bideford is printed and the Journal notes 'We insert the above lines not for any merit they possess, but to encourage poetic aspirations.'
20	8	1857	Female swimmers at the Tunnels Beach, Ilfracombe only enter the sea water with a rope tied around their waist. The foundation stone is laid of the new market house at Holsworthy.
27	8	1857	The Capstone Parade in Ilfracombe is widened. Some £300 is subscribed at Bideford to build a new river bank walk between the town and Northam.
3	9	1857	Complaints are made that the graveyard around St.Mary's, Bideford is being desecrated by boys trampling over it. Fanny Allen of Torrington is fined £1 for using obscene language to Elizabeth Bridgway.
10	9	1857	A £25 share in the Barnstaple Theatre is sold - it allows for free admission to all productions. The Barton Farm, East-the-Water is hit by fire and its barns destroyed.
17	9	1857	Thomas Kelly landlord of the Shipwright's Arms in Barnstaple Square is ordered to remove a filthy pig stye at the back of his pub.
24	9	1857	In Old Town, Bideford there are 70 cases of fever amongst the poor. South Molton town council 'Beat the Bounds' of the borough - it takes 2 days.
1	10	1857	Ensign George Munro son of Lt.Col.Munro of Barnstaple dies in the Indian Mutiny. The 'biggest woman in the world' is on show at Barnstaple Fair.
8	10	1857	The foundation stone is laid for the Independent chapel in Castle Street, Torrington. South Molton discovers its 'parish map' is badly affected by damp.
15	10	1857	Miss Clevland of Tapeley in Westleigh marries W.Beach MP. A survey in Bideford reveals that 336 pigs are kept in the town.
22	10	1857	A 'flasher' is seen in the woods at Tawstock. Thomas Hamlyn of Bideford who works in the town's anthracite mine dies of tetanus aged 32.
5	11	1857	At Hatherleigh William Woolridge 'an idiot' is put in the stocks for 6 hours for being drunk. At Eastdown Henry Featherstone fails in an attempt to commit murder - and then commits suicide.
12	11	1857	At Ilfracombe a woman's crinoline collapses which causes 'uproarious merriment.' Edward Capern the postman poet of Bideford is awarded a civil list pension of £40 per annum.
19	11	1857	P.c.John Gore of Bratton Fleming is charged with drinking on duty and fighting. The community at East-the-Water, Bideford elect a 'Mock Mayor' to ridicule the real one.
26	11	1857	Mr.Brannam rebuilds his pottery in North Walk, Barnstaple (near today's Civic Centre). Isaac Kellaway, Sam Watkins and John Mitchell of Shebbear are charged with vandalism after a meeting of their Friendly Society.
29	11	1857	P.c.Henry Sweet of Braunton runs away with Susan Woollacott teacher at the village Infant School. The Independent Chapel, Appledore is reopened following the hurried departure of the minister over 'a serious moral offence.'
3	12	1857	Mrs.Elizabeth Thorold of Northam dies - she clothed 50 school children and restored the old workhouse as a school. A diving bell is used off Baggy Point to recover shipwrecked iron.
10	12	1857	There is a call for a YMCA in Barnstaple to keep young men off the streets. Ilfracombe town clock has been stopped for many weeks following a dispute as to its upkeep.
17	12	1857	A major fire hits Southcott Barton in Westleigh. At South Molton Henry Matthews 'a youth steeped in villainy' is fined £5 for assaulting the police at a brothel in West Street.
24	12	1857	The lifeboat house on Braunton Burrows is rebuilt. Four teenage boys in Torrington are fined 50p each for pushing people off the town's pavements.
31	12	1857	Thomas Mortimer publishes 'A Social (not Socialist) Tract for the Times' in Barnstaple. Glove manufacturers in South Molton throw a party for their female employees to celebrate the end of short time working.
7	1	1858	William Hartnoll of Swimbridge is presented with a silver cup for opening Marsh Lime Quarry and creating jobs in the parish. Barnstaple Soup Kitchen opens and 85 gallons are distributed to the poor.
14	1	1858	A petition is circulated in the area to abolish the Devon County Constabulary. Plans are announced to build a floating dock at Paige's Pill in Fremington.
21	1	1858	A Mormon preacher holds forth on Ilfracombe Quay. The Journal publishes a long letter on the prevalence of drunkenness in Lynton.
28	1	1858	Betsy Peters a pauper is gaoled for 2 months for smashing 36 panes of glass in South Molton Workhouse. Some £376 is collected in Bideford to buy the marsh beyond the Pill for a Public Recreation Ground.
4	2	1858	A new Reading Room with 50 members is opened at Braunton. A Bideford branch of the Ballot Society is set up to campaign for secret votes at elections.
11	2	1858	The first burial in the new South Molton Cemetery takes place. Fifteen windows in Barnstaple's Wesleyan chapel are shot out by a vandal.
18	2	1858	Dr.T.Pridham of Bideford is presented with a silver fruit basket by the poor following his work to treat cholera in the town. Devon's Chief Constable cannot find any site in Holsworthy suitable for a new police station.
25	2	1858	Robert Dyer of Boode, Braunton sacks his servant for getting his 15 year old daughter pregnant. The Journal advertises for 'a trustworthy lad' to deliver copies in Barnstaple on Thursday afternoon.
4	3	1858	A boy carrying a 'girt catticking stick' assaults John Thorne of Barnstaple. Huntshaw Barton, occupied by the Fisher family, is attacked by an arsonist.
11	3	1858	Barnstaple council buys a stretcher 'for conveying drunken or refractory prisoners to the lock-up'. A 'Committee of Aggrieved Ratepayers' is set up in Bideford.
18	3	1858	John Backway the Bideford sexton dies aged 91 - he regularly cracked boy's heads if they talked in church. Reference is made to Mr.Tippett's 'grotto' at Cott near Barnstaple which took 20 years to build.
25	3	1858	Two old cannon are found off Northam Burrows and are removed to Glenburnie House. Francis Crang apprentice to Mr.Searle a Barnstaple printer is warned that he could be gaoled for absenting himself from work.
1	4	1858	The Rev.Heaven, owner of Lundy, petitions Parliament to build a new 'harbour of refuge' there. The Telegraph of Appledore is captured by pirates in the Red Sea.
8	4	1858	Two Appledore men are charged with illegally cutting seaweed from Instow beach. Mrs.Honey, printer of Bideford, publishes 'Hell the doom of sins and other poems' by the Rev.E.Telfer.
15	4	1858	Barnstaple Freemasons present an illuminated address to Henry Gibbs for rescuing 6 people from drowning. The Torrington Burial Board is at loggerheads with the Bishop of Exeter over the new borough cemetery.
22	4	1858	Gun batteries are to be erected on Lundy to guard the entrance to the Bristol Channel. P.c.Reardon of Fremington is found drunk on duty but as he is about to emigrate to Australia no action is taken.
29	4	1858	Margaret Cann of Barnstaple who has 'for many years been living a profligate life' is gaoled for theft. Filleigh School makes slow students wear a dunce's cap.
6	5	1858	Arthur Petter replaces his father as Postmaster of Barnstaple. Kentisbury allotment holders take the local Overseers of the Poor to court over disputed rents.
13	5	1858	The new Holsworthy Market Hall is opened. Charlacott, Tawstock occupied by Mr.Symons is totally gutted by fire.
20	5	1858	The possibility of running a regular steamship service between Fremington and Liverpool is explored. The Northam Shipwrights' Combined Club is dissolved after just 1 years.
27	5	1858	The Journal publishes a 'Second Edition' carrying a report of the Braunton Agricultural Association meeting. 300 Members of the Bishopsnympton Friendly Society march through the village on the day of their club's AGM.
3	6	1858	The Bratton Fleming Sick Club hold an AGM and 200 members attend. South Molton cemetery is consecrated; it is said to be 'the prettiest cemetery in the North of Devon.'
10	6	1858	Bideford town council is to employ 2 'Sunday constables'. Water penetration at Queen Anne's Walk in Barnstaple is said to be very bad.
17	6	1858	The first cargo of iron ore from the North Buckland mines is shipped to Wales from Braunton. A cricket club is formed in Bideford.
24	6	1858	The Ilfracombe Chronicle appears - the Journal calls it an example of 'The Toadstool Press'. William Yeo shipowner of Appledore is said to be 'the most extensive employer of seamen in Devon' - his work force numbers 400.
1	7	1858	William Brown accidentally shoots himself in the lodge of Tapeley Park at Instow. The Bideford Early Closing Movement denounces shops that do not close until midnight.
8	7	1858	John Lee owner of a toy factory at Bradiford sues 2 of his men for not working. John Davey of Weare Giffard marries - he discovered a huge nugget of gold in Australia.
15	7	1858	The foundation stone of Chittlehampton Wesleyan chapel is laid. Susan Glover of Clovelly is killed by a bolt of lightning.
22	7	1858	The foundation stone of Cross Street Church in Barnstaple is laid. A Torrington court case concerns 'sweepings on the Commons after Edmond's menagerie of wild beasts' had left.
29	7	1858	William Down alias 'Wicked Willie' of High Bickington is fined for cruelty to a horse. There is said to be a 'scarcity of lodging houses' for would be tourists at Northam.
5	8	1858	The Rev.W.Halliday publishes his 'Guide to Lynton. Calls are made for the police to tackle the 'intolerable stench' from pig styes in Appledore.
12	8	1858	William Nettleship and Sarah Hunt are charged with 'indecently exposing their persons' in Chulmleigh. The Queen allows George Stucley Buck of Bideford to drop the name Buck.
19	8	1858	Elizabeth Davey a brothel keeper of Boutport Street, Barnstaple is charged with buying 'dinner beer' at an illegal hour. A fire at Haxton, Bratton Fleming sees the building totally gutted.
26	8	1858	Plans to widen Bideford Bridge are accepted by the Bridge Trustees. T.Hearson of Barnstaple publishes 60 Stereoscopic views of North Devon.
2	9	1858	Parents who abused their child in Bideford fear that locals will 'toss' them in a blanket. William Hill and James Scott are gaoled for 2 weeks after exposing themselves on the banks of the Taw in Barnstaple.
9	9	1858	The 'Coloured Opera Troupe' appears at Barnstaple's Music Hall. South Molton's gasometer collapses and the town loses all its lights.
16	9	1858	A scarlet fever epidemic hits Fremington. A pleasure trip to Lundy from Ilfracombe is accompanied by a brass band.
23	9	1858	William Hill of Barnstaple is called 'that public pest' after once again being found drunk. The Howe Chapel at Torrington is opened.
30	9	1858	Barnstaple Burial Board opens the graveyard on Sundays even though they fear 'depredations' on the flower beds. Michael Burgess a 21 year old apprentice in Combe Martin runs away to join the Navy.
7	10	1858	There is said to be a 'lamentable ignorance and depravity' amongst Barnstaple workhouse inmates. The Rev.Russell of Swimbridge sues a parishioner over non-payment for his wife's burial service.
14	10	1858	A Lynton man runs away from his pregnant girlfriend - and joins the Devon police force. Richard Short and James Braund are charged with assaulting the police after Woolsery Revel.
21	10	1858	Silver and lead mines at Swimbridge are about to be reopened. A new pier costing £25,000 is to be built at Clovelly.
28	10	1858	The Rev.J.Brereton of West Buckland publishes his plan for a new 'farm and county school'. French fishing boats arrive in Ilfracombe and the crews hunt for snails to eat.
4	11	1858	A miner falls 60' down the shaft of Braunton's Beer Charter Barton copper mine. Lime and poplar trees are to be planted along the new river bank walk at Bideford.
11	11	1858	George Snow a 70 year old farmer of Ilfracombe is charged by his young servant Ann Lewis as the father of her child. Torrington marks November 5th by rolling burning tar barrels through the streets.
18	11	1858	Farmer Hole of Combe Martin imprisoned for poisoning a donkey has his gaol sentence cut by 2 years following local petitions in his favour.
25	11	1858	Ilfracombe fishermen catch such a large haul of herrings that their nets break and are washed up at Clovelly. Roger Lidstone of Plymouth advertises that he sends boxes of books to North Devon 'country subscribers' to his library.
2	12	1858	Sir James Williams of Clovelly alleges that Bible Christians in the village are disorderly. James Jenkins a shoemaker of Bideford dies - he often contributed poems to the Journal.
9	12	1858	Youths in Swimbridge are arrested for playing marbles on a Sunday. William Burgess who murdered his daughter on Exmoor is sent for trial.
16	12	1858	Bratton Fleming, Challacombe, High Bray, Loxhore, Shirwell, Stoke Rivers and Goodleigh all petition for the abolition of the Devon police force. A Bratton Fleming farmer goes to a 'white witch' to discover who an arsonist attacking him is.
23	12	1858	Barnstaple police force is said to insufficient in both number and discipline. Edward Capern the postman-poet of Bideford publishes his second book of poems.
30	12	1858	William Burgess the Exmoor child murdered is sentenced to death. Mary Huxtable a prostitute-thief 'is another precious specimen of our village morality; her mother belongs to Croyde, and is now in gaol to which her fallen daughter is bound.'
30	12	1858	James Ford is elected as the new House Surgeon to Barnstaple's North Devon Infirmary. Henry Fowles aged 7 dies after being kicked by a horse in Church Street, Braunton.
6	1	1859	A placard hung on the wall of Barnstaple's Derby lace factory charges Ellen Cawsey with 'an improper connection' with a man. P.c.Sprague of St.Giles is said to have 'too great a familiarity' with a married woman in the village.
13	1	1859	Bideford town council discuss the unsanitary state of the prison cells under the Guildhall. William Paddon of North Molton is gaoled for 4 years of 'penal servitude' for receiving £2 of stolen money.
20	1	1859	P.c.Moses Steer of Bickington is fined 6d for 'exceeding his duty' and using his truncheon excessively. Mr.Fursey opens a Newspaper Reading Room on Appledore Quay.
27	1	1859	Torrington churchyard has become 'the resort of persons of bad character' and is to be fenced. South Molton town council are to build a cottage for the sexton of the town's cemetery.
3	2	1859	Tenders are invited to build a new church at Bucks Mills. Seldon & Co. open a new clay pipe factory in Shute Lane, Barnstaple.
10	2	1859	Queen Anne's Walk in Barnstaple is to be rebuilt. The Bible Christians in Clovelly are given land to build a chapel on by Mr.Heard of Plymouth.
17	2	1859	The old Canal Tavern in Mill Street, Torrington catches fire. Bidefordians vote not to pay to help widen the town's Bridge.
24	2	1859	'Unruliness' amongst young people in Ilfracombe is said to be the worst in England. Harriet Jones of Barnstaple 'a member of a notorious family' is charged with stealing clothes.
3	3	1859	William Stone of the Royal Oak pub in Barnstaple is charged with 'permitting prostitutes to resort to his house.' William Crocker of Bideford builds an improved shooting punt.
10	3	1859	A culm and paint mine at Cleave, Bideford is advertised for letting. The Journal carries a long account of Lord Fortescue's 'Model Farm' at Castle Hill, Filleigh.
17	3	1859	William Hill of Barnstaple, a 'lazy and abandoned scoundrel', assaults Mary Davey 'chief of a low brothel' in Queen Street. Torrington town hall is said to be in danger of collapse.
24	3	1859	A letter is published attacking the female glovemakers of Torrington for their 'widespread immorality'. The Marshall family of Annery lime kilns lose 4 children to diphtheria owing to the unhealthiness of the site.
31	3	1859	The Barnstaple Board of Guardians is denounced for their callous attitude to workhouse paupers. Thomas Dilling of Beaford is heavily fined for 'indulging in the silly and dangerous practice of throwing lent shards' (broken pottery).
7	4	1859	Appledore is to be 'fortified' with cannons. A Combe Martin 'string band' play in Ilfracombe.
14	4	1859	The U.S. showman P.T.Barnum visits Barnstaple with a 'mermaid'. Challacombe parishioners allege crime has risen since a policeman was stationed in the village.
21	4	1859	All Barnstaple houses are to be numbered to help the postmen. A new church school is to be erected opposite Sts.Philip & James church in Ilfracombe.
28	4	1859	Henry Crocker of the Bideford Pottery is charged with assaulting his apprentice John Hoyle. New recruits to the South Molton Teetotal Society include 'many of the worst drunkards in town'.
5	5	1859	John Popham of Bishops Tawton is gaoled for 1 month for beating his wife with a cudgel. Torrington Fair consists of just 'Two shows and a shooting gallery.'
12	5	1859	John Patterson of Barnstaple dies of over excitement during a town council election. William Morrish alias 'Splodger' dies of burns after sleeping by a lime kiln at East-the-Water, Bideford.
19	5	1859	The Governor of Barnstaple Prison is so fat he gets stuck in a turnstile for hour. The South Molton Cricket Club is set up.
26	5	1859	A public meeting is held in Ilfracombe to form a Volunteer Rifle Corps. P.c.Hunt of Swimbridge is charged with assault whilst drunk.
2	6	1859	Barnstaple streets are decorated for the Bath and West Show being held in the town. A letter writer suggests the formation of a Rifle Corps in South Molton.
9	6	1859	A 'Police detective' arrests 2 pickpockets in Barnstaple Market. At Torrington the son of Fanny Shaddick conducts her burial service to 'no small astonishment' of those present.
16	6	1859	Sam Gribble aged 10 has his leg amputated in Barnstaple after falling onto the railway line. The vicar of Ilfracombe warns teenage girls 'against indulging that passion for trumpery finery so general among them.'
23	6	1859	Members of Weare Giffard Friendly Society begin drunkenly fighting after their AGM. A new school room is being built at Lee, Ilfracombe.
30	6	1859	Mr.Pridham's omnibus falls over Bideford Quay, luckily it is empty at the time. The High Bickington Female Friendly Society AGM sees 126 members march behind the Ebberly band.
7	7	1859	Howes & Cushing's 'Great United States Circus' appears at Bideford, Torrington, Holsworthy and Barnstaple. An Appledore boy is described as 'one of those amphibious little creatures who are so frequently seen like so many frogs on our beach on fine summer days.'
14	7	1859	Bideford Pill is to be drained for use as a 'place of public promenade and recreation'. The South Molton Mechanics' Institute Fete at Filleigh features 2 hot air balloons.
21	7	1859	Henry Leworthy is fined 5/- for 'flashing' in Bear Street, Barnstaple. Ann Bragg one of the 'North Devon Savages' is fined at Chulmleigh for assaulting a neighbour.
28	7	1859	John Nott of Chulmleigh is charged with tearing down Royal Marine recruiting posters in the village. A fire in a cottage in East Street, South Molton is extinguished by the 'engines' of the council and the Royal Exchange Insurance Co.
4	8	1859	Elizabeth Passmore of Barnstaple is fined 5/- for being 'habitually drunk'. A grey parrot flies into Ilfracombe from the Bristol Channel and is caught by a visitor.
11	8	1859	Bideford Turnpike Trust are to build a new toll house on the Buckland Road at the entrance to Yeo Vale Road. Mrs.Burgess, who runs a bathing machine for invalids at Instow, has it damaged by drunks.
18	8	1859	It is suggested that Instow Cricket Club also becomes a Volunteer Rifle Club as well. George Whitefield a Barnstaple painter assaults his wife and daughters for being 'immoral'.
25	8	1859	Jane Hammett is fined 5/- for disorderly conduct at Bratton Fleming Fair. Captain William Lasley of the Louisa Braginton of Appledore is charged with kidnapping sailors in Lancashire.
1	9	1859	Local builders agree to reduce their men's working day by hour - to just 10 hours. John Treweak, captain of the Swimbridge Lead Mine is sued by 3 men for non-payment of wages.
8	9	1859	Richard Dyer of Ilfracombe is fined 5/- for calling local police 'a bloody set of robbers'. A 'Travelling Theatre' in the Square, Barnstaple is said to be a 'noisy nuisance'.
15	9	1859	The new Bible Christian chapel at Clovelly Dyke is denounced by Sir James Williams the local squire. A mix-up over pies being cooked in a commercial oven in Appledore leads to a court case.
22	9	1859	At Ilfracombe public decency is outraged when 2 men swim into the 'ladies bathing cove' at the Tunnels. Three Barnstaple prostitutes, Elizabeth Gunn, Sarah Barrett and Ellen Dart are fined for being drunk and disorderly in Diamond Street.
29	9	1859	A Government Inspector recommends increasing Torrington's 1 man police force to '2 night and 1 day' policemen. William Irwin the 'imbecile brother' of Joseph of Metcombe, Marwood drowns after attending Barnstaple Fair.
6	10	1859	Stephen Beckley a 'genuine negro' speaks at an Ilfracombe Missionary meeting. The Journal adds an extra column to each page to give it 48 columns in total.
13	10	1859	Nanny Vaggers, a 'herbal doctress' to the poor of Ilfracombe, dies aged 101. The idea that the post of Appledore churchwarden should be in the hands of one person forever is challenged.
20	10	1859	Arthur Basset of Watermouth displays silver dug from the Berrynarber 'Mining Close'. A fire at a farm at Rowcliffe, Morthoe causes £200 worth of damage.
27	10	1859	Mr.Coles a Westdown farmer is arrested for walking naked through the countryside. Lavington Chapel in Bideford is opened.
3	11	1859	Work starts on widening the river bank between Bideford and Northam. Following a widespread snow melt on Exmoor Lynmouth is flooded.
10	11	1859	Mary Slewman of Ilfracombe assaults her sister Elizabeth Brooks who is 'deranged in her intellect'. John Pedlar is charged with theft of lime from the Heanton Punchardon lime kilns.
17	11	1859	Barnstaple postmen are given a new uniform - red coat, brass buttons, waterproof cape, leggings and a hat with a cockade. A Torrington man sues his fiancÃ©e for money she spent on furniture for their house.
24	11	1859	Mary Norman and Thomas Berry of Berrynarber feature in a bastardy case where 'The details were unusually disgusting, and, of course, are unfit for publication.' Lynton is urged to form a Rifle Corps.
1	12	1859	Richard White the customs officer of Barnstaple goes to Lundy to recover a large amount of wrecked cargo. A Volunteer Artillery Corps is to be set up in Appledore.
8	12	1859	Lucy Hunt and Eliza Keefft, mine workers at Westdown, are described as 'Amazons'. A lecturer at Ilfracombe 'was dead against the use of stays by females, as the cause of deformity, weakness and disease.'
15	12	1859	The New Inn, Parkham is rocked by the explosion of gunpowder which is sold there. South Molton Primitive Methodists buy 2 cottages in East Street to build a chapel on the site.
22	12	1859	An account of Braunton in the 1780s speaks of how 'the inhabitants generally lived in moral darkness.' Appledorians Philip Keen (79) and Miss M.Parsons (23) marry in Bideford workhouse.
29	12	1859	The Journal is selling 1250 copies per week. At Ilfracombe a 'stalker' Charles Blackmore is said to have 'an insane passion' for a Mrs.Davy.
7	3	1901	Barnstaple Town Council invite tenders to supply fodder for the Council's horses A Chittlehampton labouring man John Skinner breaks both his legs in a wrestling match at Cobbaton. In a parish council election at Braunton 23 people stand for 13 seats.
14	3	1901	C.Tucker, a tailor of Joy Street, Barnstaple, advertises a patented 'cycling skirt' for sale. At Dolton the Plymouth Brethren chapel is converted into two cottages.
21	3	1901	The Kindergarten school at Newport in Barnstaple offers lessons in Music, Dancing, Calisthenics and Drawing. Census enumerators begin to count the population of North Devon. The population in 1891 was 41,368. The new Market being built at Lynton is nearly completed.
28	3	1901	Three women who sell bread in Barnstaple Market are fined for selling light weight in their products. A new lych gate is erected at North Molton by A.Shapland in memory of his mother. At Bideford a branch of the Gasworkers' and Labourers' Union is started after a public meeting.
4	4	1901	The Walford Family's Entertainment show at the Music Hall in Barnstaple features 'Animated pictures by the latest Cinematograph' of the Boer War. The introduction of electric lighting into Ilfracombe is discussed by the council. One of the bequests in the will of C.Hole, Town Clerk of Bideford, is the silver salver presented to his grandfather for his help during the Clovelly fishing boat disaster of 1821.
11	4	1901	Miss Chichester of Loxhore announces that she will not allow hunting to take place over her land. Moses Smith 'a coloured man' and his wife Fanny are fined 2/6 for disorderly conduct in Barnstaple Market. Sarah Sayers a Bideford widow is fined £3 for telling fortunes at Bideford and Ilfracombe.
18	4	1901	Barnstaple Football Club is £190 in debt and a public subscription is opened to save them from bankruptcy. James Braund retires after an accident-free 40 years as a driver for the Devon and Somerset Railway. A jumble sale at Northam Schoolroom attracts a large crowd.
25	4	1901	Fred Wolleen of Barnstaple aged 8 is given 4 strokes of the birch for shoplifting. The Torrington Fire Brigade takes an hour to attend a fire at North Hams farmhouse in Dolton after being summoned by telegraph. F.Elliott a butcher of Barnstaple introduces a refrigerator into his shop.
2	5	1901	The premises of Bideford Liberal Club are sold for £531; the club moves across the road to the building they still use today. W.R.Foster of the Granville Hotel in Ilfracombe becomes editor of the Ilfracombe Chronicle - and continues as local correspondent for the Journal. The Armada cannon at Bideford are placed on cement carriages outside the Art School.
9	5	1901	Henry Grenney, a hairdresser of Barnstaple is fined 5/- for using indecent language to Elizabeth Isaac in Paiges Lane. Northam council buys 300 tons of pebbles from George Taylor, tenant of Northam Burrows; he gets them from Westward Ho! pebble ridge. Alexander Hume, a contributor to the Journal, is arrested in London as a lunatic and beggar.
16	5	1901	A new bowling green is opened at Ashleigh Road in Barnstaple. South Molton council petition the Postmaster General to lay a trunk telephone line to the town. Bideford Bridge Trust present a sun dial, a set of stocks, a bell and a clock to the town council.
23	5	1901	The first customers travel on the Bideford - Westward Ho! railway. There is no formal opening of the line. A Barnstaple subscriber to the new telephone system refuses to pay his bill on the grounds that he cannot yet phone Ilfracombe.
30	5	1901	Superintendant Eddy of the Barnstaple Police Force orders a bicycle for the use of his men. An illegitimate child of an Ilfracombe waitress dies aged 8 weeks from 'injudicious feeding'.
6	6	1901	Lynton Town Council debate whether to construct a pier at the resort. P.c.Smith of the Barnstaple Police is given a rise to £1.4.6 a week after 7 year's service. A heated exchange of letters takes place in the Journal on the subject of Socialism.
13	6	1901	Bideford Town Council decide to erect a plaque commemorating all the townsmen who fought in the Boer War. Lower Rookabeer Farm in Fremington is sold for £800. A start is made on building the Wildersdale estate at Ilfracombe.
20	6	1901	Miss Chichester of Arlington gives permission for a new rubbish dump at Woolacombe. The Census discloses a general decline in population throughout North Devon. A letter writer denounces 'noisy young hooligans who jostle and push each other against people old and young' in Rock Park, Barnstaple
27	6	1901	Barnstaple Town Council decide to ban 'perambulators' and smoking in the Pannier Market. A husband and wife from Roseash are sentenced to gaol with hard labour for 'shocking neglect' of their 7 children. The High Bickington Female Friendly Society hold their Club Day in the village.
4	7	1901	The Bideford Free Church Council asks the Town Council to prohibit 'proprietors of steam horses entering and leaving the town with their engines on a Sunday.' Lynmouth Urban District Council discuss the building of a pier in the resort.
11	7	1901	A masssive fire at Hartland church destroys the North Roof. Damage is put at £150. A 'smuggler's cave' is discovered beneath a cottage at Mars Hill at Lynmouth and a local centenarian recalls its use.
18	7	1901	The South Molton Board of Guardians raise the wages of the Workhouse Matron from £30 to £38 per year. A plaster chimneypiece dated 1657 is discovered during demolition of a house in Cross Street to prepare the site for a new main Post Office in Barnstaple.
25	7	1901	Ilfracombe is said to be full of visitors from the USA at this date. An intrepid motorcyclist travels from London to Barnstaple in just 11 hours (although he takes 2 hours for lunch!).
1	8	1901	At Ilfracombe the 'Velograph' gives visitors a taste of early cinema with films of 'Cinderella' and 'Joan of Arc'. Four boys are cautioned in Barnstaple after bathing in the nude in the River Taw.
8	8	1901	Thirteen local members of the Plymouth Brethren are publicly baptised in the River Taw at Barnstaple. The Appledore Wesleyan Chapel celebrates its 50th anniversary. The site was given to the congregation by Thomas Geen.
15	8	1901	A cricket match between mixed sex teams is held in Barnstaple with the men being given handicaps. The Barnstaple Town Crier 'calls' a 3 year old boy who was found wandering on his own in the town.
22	8	1901	William Burns, a travelling photographer, is fined 11/- for allowing his 2 horses to stray at North Molton. An inquest into the drunken death of Philip Honeyball in Bideford Workhouse wants to know how the 78 year old managed to obtain alcohol in the Workhouse.
29	8	1901	The first public telephone is opened in Barnstaple - it is inside the main post office. Fishermen in Appledore are said to be too poor to pay their rate demands.
1	5	1902	Two gypsies, William Orchard and Joseph Sanders, are fined 46p each for being drunk and disorderly at Winkleigh. At Georgenympton Revel locals play a game which involves prodding each other with sharpened sticks.
8	5	1902	A woman living in Mill Street, Torrington is charged with 'baby farming' in that she is being paid to look after three illegitimate children by their absent mothers. James Torrington of South Molton dies aged 101 in a Cardiff workhouse. 'He was formerly a follower of the Mormons who used to hold meetings in the town.'
15	5	1902	The Journal reports that Lord Portsmouth visits South Molton 'in his motor car - a coach without horses which travels smoothly and smartly.' The Chittlehampton Fire Brigade hold their annual dinner.
22	5	1902	Florrie Chapple of Derby, Barnstaple is fined 25p for being drunk and 'acting more like a savage than a human being.' The Appledore Town Band play at the Appledore Young Mens' Club fete.
29	5	1902	Coronation Street and King Edward Street in Barnstaple are in the process of construction and are named to record the new king's coming to the throne. Two boys are fined 25p each in Bideford 'for throwing stones at the ventilating shaft at the top of High Street.'
5	6	1902	A 'counterfeit clergyman' is arrested at Ilfracombe for passing dud cheques. One of the South Molton Volunteer riflemen is accidentally shot and killed while at the local rifle range.
12	6	1902	Celebrations for the ending of the Boer War are reported from every settlement in North Devon. A meeting of Combe Martin and Berrynarbor market gardeners is held to protest at new tolls at Ilfracombe Market.
19	6	1902	Two young thieves who stole money from the Lamb Inn in Bideford are each sentenced to 12 strokes of the birch. James Miller, headmaster of the Roman Catholic school in Barnstaple is charged with assaulting a student but the case is dismissed.
26	6	1902	All schoolchildren in Bideford are given medals by the Mayor to mark the coronation of King Edward VII. At Ilfracombe Sarah Galliver sues Charles Butler over a breach of promise of marriage. She wins but is only awarded £5 damages.
3	7	1902	The telephone line between Barnstaple and Tiverton is now complete but Ilfracombe is still not connected to the network. S.J.Bale & Co of Barnstaple are selling a 6 hp MMC car for £220.
10	7	1902	A troupe of entertainers known as 'The White Coons' is appearing at the band Stand in Rock Park, Barnstaple. R.Pearse Chope publishes his 'Story of Hartland' which is printed in the parish by T.Burrow at the office of the Hartland Chronicle.
17	7	1902	An Italian ice cream man stabs a man in Barnstaple and is committed to the Assizes court for trial. Barnstaple labourers laying electric light cables strike for extra wages; blacklegs are employed to break the strike.
24	7	1902	At a meeting of the North Devon Polo Club in Fremington many cars and 'motor tricycles' turn up - they are 'becoming fairly numerous in North Devon.' A chickenpox epidemic in Hartland and Welcombe is said to have been spread by the distribution of religious tracts.
31	7	1902	The jury at Bideford Quarter Sessions complains about 'the speed of motor cars when passing through the town.' Viva Renard of Lynton is charged with telling fortunes by palmistry - the case is dismissed.
7	8	1902	Ilfracombe is described by the local Medical Officer of Health as 'the Mecca of honeymooning couples.' The vicar of Barnstaple attacks Sunday tennis, cricket and cycling saying 'A mismanaged Sunday often leads to a person's downfall.'
14	8	1902	Barnstaple Town Council borrow £21,600 from the Church Commissioners to fund the installation of electric lighting in the town. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, captains a cricket team playing at Instow.
21	8	1902	A French tourist has his car taken up by the Lynton Cliff Railway. E.Soares the local MP visits the collar factory of F.Cooper & Co in Bideford and is presented with a photo of the factory by a blind employee Miss Avery.
28	8	1902	Upcott near Torrington an Elizabethan manor house plus 372 acres of land is sold for £6500. A report on electric lighting in Lynton notes that there are now 1948 lamps in the town.
2	4	1903	The Ilfracombe Medical Officer of Health reports that 19 new houses were built in the town in 1902 and a new burial ground will soon be needed. It is noted that working class families in Lynton cannot find affordable property and will have to leave the area because of this.
9	4	1903	A commemorative tablet to those local men who fought in the Boer War is unveiled in South Molton Guildhall. Richmond House in Appledore is sold to Maj.Gen.Boyes of Abbotsham for £2500.
16	4	1903	No.3 Vicarage Lawn, Barnstaple is sold at auction for £259. A writ is served on Barnstaple Town council alleging wasteful spending of public money on electric lighting for the town.
23	4	1903	Rodsworthy farmhouse at Roseash is destroyed by fire. A new sanatorium is opened at Bicklighscombe, St.Brannock's in Ilfracombe at a cost of £4000.
30	4	1903	A local amateur 'Black and White Minstrels' group performs in Bideford Music Hall to raise funds for an 'engine' for the church organ. Sam Hopkins who for 21 years was the postman in Ashford is dismissed for ill health - without a pension.
7	5	1903	Allen Comerford a London solicitor charged with 'furious driving of a motor cycle' at Tawstock is fined £2. Geneva School, Bideford is opened. It is designed to hold 510 'infants' and 380 'girls'.
14	5	1903	At South Molton James Bouchier alias 'Klondyke' is gaoled for 14 days as a vagrant. William Vaughan owner of the largest glovemaking factory in Torrington dies.
21	5	1903	Thomas Pearce of the Borough Restaurant in High Street, Barnstaple instals an 'American soda fountain.' A horse is scared by a car at Heanton - this 'tends to bring the motor car into disrepute.'
28	5	1903	The first electric fridge in Barnstaple is installed by Fred Elliott a High Street butcher. Charles Smith a Swimbridge labourer is killed when he is run over by a threshing machine.
4	6	1903	The first woman doctor is appointed to the North Devon Infirmary - she is Miss M.Morriss from London. The Buckland Brewer Bible Christian chapel is opened.
11	6	1903	Henry Miller owner of the Derby lace factory in Barnstaple dies and leaves 25p to each of his 400 employees. A suggested new pier at Lynmouth is opposed by those with 'a dread of the tripper element.'
18	6	1903	A shop selling electric lights is to open in Barnstaple at the corner of Cross Street and Paige's Lane. A rumour that the United Services College at Westward Ho! is to leave the area is denied.
25	6	1903	Mr.Carnegie, the US philanthropist, offers £3000 to Ilfracombe council to help finance a library in the town. Mary Luscombe (24) of Braunton dies following an illegal abortion. No-one is arrested.
25	6	1903	The annual inspection of the Appledore Lads' Naval Brigade takes place at the Royal Naval Reserve Battery in the village. Devon County Ladies' Golf Club defeat the Gloucester Ladies' at Westward Ho! 'with great ease'.
2	7	1903	North Devon councillors describe speeding cars as 'an intolerable nuisance in their neighbourhood'. Braunton Fancy Fair includes 'Selections on Edison's Grand Concert Phonograph.'
9	7	1903	Ilfracombe Council accept an offer of £3000 from American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to build a library in the town. C.Youings of Barnstaple Town council is to sue the North Devon Herald for libel.
16	7	1903	33 Lime Grove, Bideford is sold for £220. An old tradition about 3 burials in a fortnight is discussed at Parracombe following the death of a 3 year old boy.
23	7	1903	A walking race is held at Croyde to publicise the resort. At South Molton Joseph Casanelli, a fish hawker, is fined 2/6 for leaving his horse and cart unattended.
30	7	1903	The 'Buffalo Bill' Show plays to huge audiences in Barnstaple. Bideford Town council discuss lighting the town with electricity.
6	8	1903	It is announced that the United Services College at Westward Ho! is to move. S.J.Bale & Co of Barnstaple advertise 'Motor Cars In stock - Instant Delivery.'
13	8	1903	It is reported that 14000 picture postcards were sent from Ilfracombe in the preceding week. The first shop in North Devon selling electric fittings opens at 4 Cross Street in Barnstaple.
20	8	1903	A 'Professor' De Vere is charged with reading peoples' palms at Ilfracombe. Albert Wakeham, a veteran of the Boer War, is arrested in Barnstaple for stealing a loaf due to hunger - magistrates organise a whip-round for him.
27	8	1903	Barnstaple Music Hall is to be lit with electricity. Tiles 'supposed to be Roman' are unearthed at St.Catherine's Tor, Hartland.
3	9	1903	Shapland & Petter in Barnstaple are to join the municipal electricity scheme and close their own generating plant. The annual 'sand building' competition is held at Woolacombe.
10	9	1903	A Ladies Walking Race from Ilfracombe to Croyde Bay attracts 24 entrants and is won by Beatrice Delbridge. 8000 pieces of Royal Barum Ware are exported to South Africa.
17	9	1903	Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway Company erect a large hall at Westward Ho! which includes a stage for concert parties. Litchardon Farm, Fremington is struck by lightning and much damaged by the subsequent fire.
24	9	1903	Sydney Harper & Co of Barnstaple and Bideford publish a series of coloured postcards showing local scenes. At The Beacon in Ilfracombe French nuns offer French language courses.
1	10	1903	Richard Bowden from Berrynarbor dies in New Zealand where he emigrated in the early 1850s. Sir George Newnes is to present a new Congregational chapel to Lynton.
8	10	1903	60 inmates of Bideford Workhouse are taken for the day to Westward Ho! where they are given tobacco, oranges and chocolate. Mr.Brewer a travelling showman is ordered out of the Square in South Molton - after 60 years of setting-up there.
15	10	1903	At a church bazaar in Barnstaple 'Motor Car Rides (weather permitting)' are offered. The foundation stone of the new Post Office at Torrington is laid.
22	10	1903	A skating rink is opened at the Alexandra Hall in Ilfracombe. A Fremington chauffeur is fined £6 after speeding at 25 mph at Instow and Tawstock.
29	10	1903	Five houses are burnt down in East Street, South Molton. Flooding at Bideford sees the collar factory and tannery at Westcombe under water.
5	11	1903	A licence is granted to C.Hannaford to stage plays in the Market House, Chulmleigh. The Bideford Volunteers are presented with a Maxim gun - it is to be housed in a small shed on the Quay.
12	11	1903	C.Brannam of Barnstaple wins a cup at the Crystal Palace birdshow. The Gt.Torrington Conservators begin a court case against local landowner Mr. Moore-Stevens.
19	11	1903	A Trades Exhibition at Barnstaple is lit by electricity. Matthew Fisher of Chulmleigh is fined 12/- (60p) for gambling at Hartland Fair.
26	11	1903	6 weeks old Fred Ovey of Barnstaple wins a 'Heaviest Baby Competition' - he weighs 13lbs 8ozs. Northam Council order that no pebbles are to be removed from the pebble ridge at Westward Ho!
3	12	1903	A talk is given in Barnstaple by C.Oliverreaux 'the coloured Abyssinian missionary'. Barnstaple and Ilfracombe are to be linked by 'a continuous day and night trunk telephone service'.
10	12	1903	The foundation stone of a new Bible Christian chapel is laid at Langtree. The Braunton lighthouse is connected by telephone to the coastguards at Appledore and Croyde.
17	12	1903	St.Peter's church in Ilfracombe is consecrated - it replaces the 'old iron church'. The widow of Thomas Garland is the last person buried at St.Mary Magdalene churchyard in Barnstaple which is now full.
23	12	1903	Some 158 consumers are now using electricity in Barnstaple. A local gipsy Henry Sanders is fined 1/- (5p) at Torrington for not being in control of his horse and cart.
31	12	1903	Fox, Fowler and Co re-open their bank in Cross Street, Barnstaple after rebuilding operations which lasted a year. Caleb Squire is elected the Worshipful Master of the Freemasonry Lodge in Bideford.
7	1	1904	Thomas Popham, a Barnstaple cattle drover, is gaoled for 4 months for stealing a dog. A fire in Well Street, Torrington, guts the workshop of builder H.Grant causing £100 worth of damage.
14	1	1904	The Chittlehampton Fire Brigade are treated to dinner by their secretary Stephen Howard. The South Molton Medical Officer of Health highlights cancer as the cause of many deaths in the town.
21	1	1904	A 'Coloured Abyssinian Missionary' gives a talk on 'The Martinique Horror' (a volcanic eruption) in Barnstaple. Ilfracombe Council accepts a £3000 gift from Mr.Carnegie to build a public library in the town.
28	1	1904	'Passive Resistance' to the payment of an education tax to support church schools is widespread amongst Bideford non-conformists. Barnstaple Town Council vote to install electric lights in the town's Music Hall.
4	2	1904	The new Post Office in Torrington is opened in a very low key ceremony. Dennis Bros. of Guildford win orders to build cars for the Russian Royal family - the brothers come originally from Huntshaw.
11	2	1904	The first steel ship to be built at Appledore is launched bearing the name Doris. Torrington fire engine committee purchase a 'jumping sheet' for £2.10.0.
18	2	1904	The Eastdown Amateur Negro Minstrels put on a show at Arlington. Coloured postcards of local views are on sale in Barnstaple at 12 for 9d.
25	2	1904	At Torrington Thomas Birch a gipsy is fined 10/- for being drunk and disorderly. Harper & Son of Barnstaple publish a new map of the North Devon Parliamentary constituency.
3	3	1904	George Parris who is employed by the North Devon Clay Co. accidentally dies unloading bricks at Torrington station. The Bideford Debating Society discuss the 'Yellow Peril' in very racist terms.
10	3	1904	Three houses in Chapel Street, Braunton are deemed unfit for human habitation. Pilton Social Club have a 'Phonograph Evening' and listen to 46 records.
17	3	1904	Mrs.Bassett of Watermouth Castle pays the outstanding debt on Umberleigh Reading Room. South Molton Town Council limit the speed of cars in the town to 10 mph.
24	3	1904	A lecture in Ilfracombe on 'Radium' is illustrated by the passing around of radioactive material in glass tubes. A labourer is fined 5/- for 'indecent language' at the funeral of 2 sailors in Georgeham churchyard.
31	3	1904	The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway AGM hears that 61,858 passengers were carried in 1903. 200 boys in Bideford petition the Mayor for a football field.
7	4	1904	Pilton House + 13 acres of land around it are sold for £4000. Two sons of the Emperor of Germany stay at the Ilfracombe Hotel.
14	4	1904	No.11 Oxford Park, Ilfracombe sells for £400. Northam council decry the removal of stones from Westward Ho! pebble ridge.
21	4	1904	High Bickington Telegraph Office sends 533 messages in a year. A 'fine marine road' from Saunton to Croyde opens.
28	4	1904	Madge Riley (18) of the 'Sporting Girl Touring Theatrical Co.' is arrested for theft in Ilfracombe. Thomas Furse dies aged 67 after working the crane at Fremington Quay for 30 years.
5	5	1904	'Animated Photographs' of the then current Russian-Japanese War are shown in Barnstaple. It is suggested that the newly empty United Services College at Westward Ho! is converted to a Teacher Training College.
12	5	1904	The Livonia sailing ship is wrecked at Lundy but all the crew are rescued. Lynton is to be advertised as a tourist resort using 'large lithographic posters'.
19	5	1904	Marwood church is reopened after a complete refurbishment. Thomas Jones an artist exhibits a painting of Appledore Watch Tower at the Royal Academy.
26	5	1904	Margaret Gregory is gaoled for 16 days for soliciting in Barnstaple's Rock Park. A new record is created when a car drives from Barnstaple to London in 14 hours 40 minutes 'without a mishap of any kind.'
2	6	1904	A new Liberal Club is opened in South Street, Torrington. Barnstaple police are supplied with helmets made of woven straw for Summer wear.
9	6	1904	Richmond Farm, Northam is badly damaged by fire. A cow owned by A.Jeffery of Blakewell Mills, Marwood gives birth to 'Siamese calves.'
16	6	1904	Fred Shaddick, a boy from the Derby area of Barnstaple, is taken to hospital after overeating ice cream. A decline in tourism nationally doesn't affect Ilfracombe owing to the number of honeymooners who go there.
23	6	1904	Arlington Friendly Societies meet and hold a Sports Festival. An Appledore barge owner finds a rock in the R.Torridge thought to contain gold.
30	6	1904	Pottery produced by the Fishley family in Fremington is on display at the St.Louis Exhibition in the USA. A ship arrives in Bideford from France carrying furniture for the newly established Catholic school in the town.
7	7	1904	The vicar of Holsworthy wins heavy damages in a slander case where it was alleged he had loose morals. The Bible Christian chapel in Molland is closed so the congregation hold services in the open air.
14	7	1904	Two cottages are burnt down at Pristacott, Tawstock owing to a shortage of water. The 108 members of the Kentisbury Death Club vote to wind up the society after 64 years.
21	7	1904	Northam Town Council ban the removal of any stones from Westward Ho! pebble ridge. The claims of Lundy Island as a 'Harbour of Refuge' for the Bristol Channel are strongly advanced.
28	7	1904	E.Foxcroft, headmaster of Black Torrington school dies of poison after telling the children 'he was bewitched by their parents.' Skeletons are found on the site of the new library and town hall extension in Bideford.
4	8	1904	The Kingsley Memorial Committee in Bideford choose Joseph Whitehead to sculpt the Kingsley statue. Parkham Female Friendly Society holds its AGM, it has 200 members.
11	8	1904	A memorial to Fred Willis killed in the Boer War is unveiled in Marwood church. During a discussion on cars in South Molton a councillor says he would like to 'blow all the blooming things up.'
18	8	1904	General Charles Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, visits Barnstaple, Bideford and Ilfracombe. The high infant mortality rate in Bideford is blamed on working mothers leaving their children 'improperly cared for.'
25	8	1904	New class rooms are opened at Combe Martin Baptist chapel. What is apparently the first ever jumble sale in North Devon is held at North Molton.
1	9	1904	A motor car catches fire at Mortehoe and is destroyed. Walter Pelly, police superintendent at South Molton becomes Deputy Governor of Portland Prison.
8	9	1904	Brannam's pottery is on show at Cumberland Arts & Crafts Exhibition. Clare Slocombe is fined for using bad language in Barnstaple after 'a gentleman gave her a smack in the face.'
15	9	1904	Ilfracombe Town Council decide to buy the pier and harbour from the company that own them. The South Molton & District Co-op holds its first Quarterly Meeting.
22	9	1904	A motorist is fined £5 for doing 25 mph in Ilfracombe. New village Reading Rooms are opened at Knowle.
29	9	1904	It is reckoned that mixed sea bathing is in demand at Ilfracombe. Endicott Farm in Kentisbeare is badly affected by fire.
6	10	1904	An epidemic of diphtheria hits Westleigh and is blamed on the disgusting state of the cottages in the village. A showman is fined for having a girl in a lion's cage during Barnstaple Fair.
13	10	1904	A new Bible Christian chapel opens at Langtree. The Barnstaple YMCA bazaar includes 'cinematograph and musical entertainments.'
20	10	1904	P.c.Pook leaves the Barnstaple borough police to become an RSPCA Inspector in London. Sydney Harper, a North Devon printer provides personalised Christmas cards at 2/6 per dozen.
27	10	1904	A fire at the Portobello Inn in Silver Street, Bideford destroys the stables. Claude Mellor a journalist living in Morthoe charges his wife with stealing his property.
3	11	1904	A Catholic group called 'The Lady of the Ford' is said to exist in Bideford. John Brinsmead who was born in Weare Giffard and left to become Britain's leading piano maker is profiled in the Journal.
10	11	1904	Blazing tar barrels are rolled through the streets of Combe Martin to celebrate November 5th. Liberals in Barnstaple purchase the old Post Office in Cross Street for new club rooms.
17	11	1904	A fire at Pristacott Farm, Tawstock destroys a barn. John Jones who served his apprenticeship with the Journal dies in London where he was publisher of the Star newspaper.
24	11	1904	Surveyors are at work planning a rail link between Bideford and Bude. Three tramps in Torrington Workhouse who refuse to work are sent to gaol for 3 months.
1	12	1904	A whale some 70' long is seen in Bideford Bay. The Barnstaple Soup Kitchen serves 550 quarts of soup to poor people in the town.
8	12	1904	George Judd the blind Journal agent in Beaford sprains his ankle on some ice. A Bideford town councillor William Martin gets drunk and arrives home with a crowd of 300 people following him.
15	12	1904	Vandals attempt to derail a train at Barnstaple by placing rocks and timber on the line. The wife of Alexander Duncan dies. Her husband owns the largest collar factory in Bideford.
22	12	1904	A case of bribery at a local election in Barnstaple comes to court. The rectory at Charles catches fire but it is brought under control.
29	12	1904	P.c.Flanagan retires after 26 years service at Berrynarbor and Ilfracombe. William Hanson who began the Belvoir Mission in Bideford dies aged 82.
5	1	1905	Clovelly Mariners' Union Society record a loss of £20 over the year due to 'considerable sickness' amongst members. Local shopkeepers complain that locals are buying mail order goods from London rather than from them.
12	1	1905	Middleton Cottage at Parracombe is burnt down. It is occupied by Tom Berry of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway. 40 boys from Bideford School form an 'anti cigarette brigade'.
19	1	1905	The Royal North Devon Golf Club at Westward Ho! give a supper to 200 caddy boys. Chief Constable Eddy and Inspector Edwards of the Barnstaple police force both resign.
26	1	1905	An exhibition of new electrical goods at Ilfracombe includes special furniture from Shapland and Petter. Charges are levied on gravel barges going to the Klondyke Bank in the River Torridge - many stay away in protest.
2	2	1905	It is noted that the Combe Martin silver mines have been flooded for some 40 years and are unworkable. A public meeting is called to discuss the proposed Bideford, Clovelly and Hartland Light Railway.
9	2	1905	Lynton stages a special presentation ceremony to Quarter Master Sergt.Palmer 'Hero of the Boer War'. Chief Constable Eddy of Barnstaple is charged with allowing his chimney to catch fire.
16	2	1905	An elector in Barnstaple is taken to court over bribery charges - they are dismissed. Barnstaple's new electric lighting is said to be the best in the UK.
23	2	1905	A lease is granted to Braunton parish council to exploit gravel on the foreshore. Sarah Ridge, nee Tucker dies aged 92 in Illinois - she emigrated from Brayford in 1851.
2	3	1905	An Ilfracombe woman writes to the Barnstaple Guardians of the Poor asking to adopt a girl 'if they had one to spare.' Edward Philbrick the owner of Apps Brewery in Littleham dies.
9	3	1905	The new Barnstaple Police Superintendent Sydney Eddy is given a going away gift by his workmates at Scotland Yard. A cinematograph show at Newport in Barnstaple ends in disaster when the film catches fire.
16	3	1905	Bideford town council claim the tolls from gravel dredged in the Taw and Torridge. The Gribble Inn Friendly Society is sued in Torrington for the payment of its members' burial fees.
23	3	1905	Twiss Brothers of Ilfracombe publish 'The Angler's Guide to Ilfracombe & District' by R.W.Vernon. Horace Babb crashes his car at Loxhore when a wheel breaks.
30	3	1905	P.c.Harris resigns from the Barnstaple Police after just one day's service. Three vipers over 7' long are killed at Parkham by T.Baker.
6	4	1905	Mrs.E.Fear, the nurse at Torrington Workhouse resigns after being forced to work 15 hours a day. John Morris of South Molton dies - he was one of 12 men who each put up £1000 to introduce the telephone into Britain.
13	4	1905	A dining car is added to the Waterloo-Barnstaple train. John Kellaway is killed whilst working in the Plaistow Quarry at Milltown, Marwood.
20	4	1905	The foundation stone of a new Wesleyan Sunday school is laid at Elmscott in Hartland. Robert Smallridge is awarded the contract to carry mail via the Appledore-Instow ferry.
27	4	1905	R.A.Colwill is appointed editor of the Ilfracombe Gazette. A car valued at £500 somersaults over Hobby Drive at Clovelly but no-one is injured.
4	5	1905	Two Appledore men, Thomas Randall and Fred Clarke are arrested by the Russian Navy whilst shipping rice to Japan. The last member of the Chittlehampton Female Club dies - in its heyday 12 members would follow a member's coffin carrying white rods.
11	5	1905	Edward Tattersill, late Mayor of Bideford dies - weeks after publicly attacking his fellow councillors. Robert Turner, for 40 years the bill poster of Barnstaple, sells his sites to the Barnstaple Bill Posting Company.
18	5	1905	The Automatic Machine Co. is given permission by Combe Martin parish council to place 4 machines in the Pleasure Ground. Archibald Jones, cycle dealer of Barnstaple, is fined £2 for driving his motorcycle dangerously at Instow.
25	5	1905	A woman is murdered at Hatherleigh and her killer then commits suicide. The greens at Ilfracombe Golf Club are given a complete overhaul.
1	6	1905	Pietro Mandola an Italian accordionist is ordered to leave Barnstaple after his playing in a public place annoys people. Bideford town council vote to buy Chudleigh Fort to save it from developers.
8	6	1905	The Barnstaple MP Mr.Soares speaks out in Parliament against 'The Motor Peril' on North Devon's roads. Bideford dustmen refuse to remove trade waste and one High Street shopkeeper burns his in front of his shop.
15	6	1905	South Molton Rural District Council restrict car speeds in their area to 12 mph. Camping in North Devon is becoming popular with 30 people erecting tents at Croyde.
22	6	1905	The Raleigh Guild of Wood Carvers visit Swimbridge church. A fire at Buzzacott House in Combe Martin occupied by Major General V.Pole completely destroys the stables.
29	6	1905	Shapland & Petter's employees go to Torquay on their annual outing. Margaret Hopkins of Barnstaple is sent to the Southern Counties' Inebriate Home at Lewes for 2 years for neglecting her children.
6	7	1905	Northam sets up a 12 man Volunteer Fire Brigade under Mr.Champion the council surveyor. The tide exposes a mass of coal on Croyde beach from a shipwreck 12 years before and a huge crowd gathers to collect it.
13	7	1905	John Loveridge a gipsy is fined for camping on Codden Hill and damaging the 'herbage'. A start is made on building Cock & Sons' new dock at Appledore.
20	7	1905	Many complaints are made in Ilfracombe that Welsh day trippers are drunk when they arrive. The North Devon Imperial Yeomanry hold their Summer camp at Westward Ho!
27	7	1905	The Master of the Cheriton Otter Hounds is charged with killing cats. The Parkham Male Friendly Society meets and are entertained by the Parkham Brass Band.
3	8	1905	Mabel Lock (17) is shot accidentally whilst picking mazzards at Landkey. Dr.Lane of Bideford is alleged to be overcharging patients who used his X-ray machine - a novelty in the town.
10	8	1905	Barnstaple Workhouse is said to have 19 lunatics amongst its inmates. The number of American tourists in North Devon is said to be very high.
17	8	1905	Croyde is said to be having an exceptional number of visitors this year. A new stained glass panel is put in place in Bideford Library.
24	8	1905	William Rockefeller the US multimillionaire travels around North Devon by car on a holiday. Two Instow ferrymen, Schiller and Rendle, are charged with fighting over passengers.
31	8	1905	The 40 strong Barnstaple branch of the new Independent Labour Party holds its initial meeting. H.W.Strong late editor of the Journal is appointed a regional editor of the Manchester Guardian.
7	9	1905	Cook and Galsworthy, shipbreakers of Appledore, buy the Hamadryad wooden warship - which escorted Napoleon to St.Helena. E.J.Peddar's stores in Lynmouth burn down - losses are put at £1000.
14	9	1905	Princesses Christian and Victoria visit Brannam's Barnstaple pottery and buy some Royal Barum Ware. The champion walker of Britain, G.H.Allen, walks 10 miles in 1 hour 25 minutes at Ilfracombe.
21	9	1905	A bolting horse leaps over Bideford Bridge but is unhurt. S.Harper publishes a postcard showing the opening of Barnstaple Fair - and sells 1700 in one day.
28	9	1905	Bideford cannot decide where to place the new Kingsley statue. Lynton is to be linked to the rapidly expanding telephone service.
5	10	1905	Mr.Symons, who runs the Queen Street collar factory in Barnstaple, is charged with employing underage girls. Appledore Carnival is held to raise funds for the Bideford Infirmary.
12	10	1905	A Ratepayers' Association is established in Ilfracombe to protest at high rate charges. An escaped bear is said to be on the loose in Braunton - the local MP and a magistrate hunt for it.
19	10	1905	Dr.Leon Vint brings his 'Bigograph' (a travelling cinema) to North Devon. Henry Griffey and Williams Shortridge are fined 82p for removing mussels from Bideford Bridge and thus endangering the structure.
26	10	1905	Mary Clark, a servant at the George Hotel in South Molton, is charged with concealing the birth and death of her illegitimate child. A fire badly damages the stables of J.Barnes a 'horse trainer' of East Street, South Molton.
2	11	1905	Robert Turner of Barnstaple is put on a police 'Blacklist' for being constantly drunk. Miss Heaven, sister to the Rev.Heaven who owns Lundy, dies on the island.
9	11	1905	Typhoid fever from 'sanitary defects' is rife in Barnstaple with 10 cases confirmed. Northam Burrows graziers and the Golf Club pay unemployed men 2p an hour to throw stones back on the Pebble Ridge.
16	11	1905	Barnstaple Music Hall is to be renamed the Albert Hall by the town council. Bideford town council vote not to renew the town's Theatre licence until safety works are carried out.
23	11	1905	200 women meet at Clovelly and agree to employ a District Nurse and midwife. Bideford's Victoria Park is given a present of plants from New Zealand.
30	11	1905	A destructive fire breaks out in a shop at the corner of Broad and Fore Street in Ilfracombe. Barnstaple town council agree to the demolition of old cottages in Holland Street.
7	12	1905	Brannam's receive the Royal Warranty from Princess Christian. A.Barnes bookseller of Barnstaple offers 'English made' Christmas cards.
14	12	1905	P.c.Mules of Georgeham dies aged 38 from a heart attack whilst on duty. H.G.McWhinnie follows his father by becoming editor of the North Devon Herald.
21	12	1905	General Channer who won a VC in India dies at Buckleigh, Westward Ho! The Chittlehampton Fire Brigade under Captain Vickery attend a fire at Heywood Farm.
28	12	1905	A storm damages the rock 'chair' on Lundy that features in Kingsley's Westward Ho! novel. The old Liberal Club in Litchdon Street, Barnstaple is to be reopened as a garage for the Imperial Hotel by C.Youings.
4	1	1906	P.c.Drake of the Barnstaple Police insults the Chief Constable, refuses to apologise - and resigns. North Devon clergy appeal for 'Purity' in the forthcoming Parliamentary election.
11	1	1906	Percy Balsdon of Weare Giffard gets drunk and crashes his horse and trap into an engine of the Bideford, Appledore and Westward Ho! railway on Bideford Quay. Harris and Hill of High Street, Barnstaple have 1500 phonograph records in stock.
18	1	1906	The Parracombe Fife Band consist of 14 boys taught by the village schoolmaster. Northam town council warn that the pebble ridge at Westward Ho! is visibly diminishing.
25	1	1906	Bideford town council vote not to let the Town Hall to a group staging an anti-Catholic meeting. Barnstaple Soup Kitchen opens and serves 550 quarts to the poor.
1	2	1906	In local council elections the Bratton Fleming ward sees 205 out of 206 electors cast their vote. Croyde residents elect a 'Mock Mayor.'
8	2	1906	Bideford Town Hall and Library are opened and the Kingsley statue is unveiled. A speaker in Lynton claims that many Dutch emigrants settled in the village a century before.
15	2	1906	James Dewdney the chief designer at Brannam's pottery dies aged 46. Three cottages at Lower Town, Westleigh are sold for £276.
22	2	1906	The Clovelly lifeboat turns out to save the ss Abril of Bilboa. A dead baby is found hidden under shrubbery at St.Petroc's in Ilfracombe.
1	3	1906	J.Pillman's butcher's shop in Hartland catches fire along with 2 adjoining cottages. William Cutcliffe dies in New Zealand aged 69 - he emigrated from Ashford some 40 years before.
8	3	1906	Bideford School Board discuss the continuing prevalence of Devon dialect in the town's schools. A South Molton servant girl upsets her employers and they have her taken to the Workhouse as a possible lunatic.
15	3	1906	The National Telephone Company is to connect Lynton to Barnstaple after obtaining 30 'definite subscribers'. Trees are planted on Bideford Quay in front of Alexandra House.
22	3	1906	J.Wilson of Ilfracombe is added to the town's 'Black List' of habitual drunkards. A white magic cure for whooping cough is being tried by many sufferers in Chittlehampton.
29	3	1906	The ss Devonia hits Bideford Bridge and is stuck until masonry is removed. R.Prideuax & Son of Bear Street, Barnstaple open a new motor car works.
5	4	1906	The Royal Naval Reserve Battery at Appledore is closed. The Derby Lace Factory in Barnstaple is to be lit by electricity.
12	4	1906	Horace Hutchinson a well-known Westward Ho! golfer suggests training dogs to replace caddy boys. The quill pen of Kingsley's statue in Bideford is broken off by young vandals.
19	4	1906	Jane Taylor the 66 year old midwife of West Down is said to be too old to do her job. A drinking trough for animals is placed in Barnstaple Square.
26	4	1906	Lundy is put up for sale by its owner the Rev.Hudson Heaven. A thatched cottage in West Appledore occupied by P.Hutchings catches fire but is saved.
3	5	1906	A hen belonging to Mr.Bosson of High Street, Combe Martin lays an egg 4.5" long and 3" circumference. The De Forrest Co. of USA are to establish a wireless telegraph station at Hartland Point.
10	5	1906	An Ilfracombe Roman Catholic priest is arrested on charges of being a homosexual. The Ilfracombe Hotel introduces mixed bathing - but gentlemen have to be accompanied by a lady.
17	5	1906	Old copper mines at North Molton are considered for re-opening as the price of copper ore rises. Thomas Birch a gipsy is fined 15p for allowing horses to stray on the highway at Combe Martin.
24	5	1906	At Barnstaple a one legged tramp James Vanstone is charged with fraudulently begging to buy a cork leg. Bale & Co. of Barnstaple have a new car 'that even a lady cyclist could operate.'
31	5	1906	HMS Montagu a new battleship goes ashore on Lundy. Twiss Brothers of Ilfracombe publish 6 postcards using paintings by E.Percival a local artist.
7	6	1906	Southcombes Bungalow CafÃ© opens at Woolacombe with seating for 200. Ilfracombe town council allow 'Professor' Smith to stage his Punch and Judy show on the beach and Parade.
14	6	1906	Lynton Old Club meet and display their silk banners bearing representations of the Valley of the Rocks. H.C.Watts' Brewery in Chittlehampton is auctioned off.
21	6	1906	The Bradworthy Rational Sick and Burial Society AGM and fete are held. The foundation stone is laid for the new Bible Christian chapel at Landkey.
28	6	1906	An earthquake hits North Devon and many people in Barnstaple 'rushed from their houses into the streets.' The Navy tries to refloat HMS Montagu from rocks off Lundy but are unsuccessful.
5	7	1906	A stained glass window to the memory of Richard Vicary is unveiled in Abbotsham church. A new racing gig the 'Elizabeth Florence' is launched by the Bideford Amateur Rowing Club.
12	7	1906	George Watkins, a Crimean War veteran and Past Master of the local Freemason's Lodge dies in Ilfracombe aged 70. E.B.Fishley of the Fremington Pottery is invited to exhibit at the New Zealand International Exhibition.
19	7	1906	In Bideford the Wilts and Dorset Bank are to move to new premises on the corner of Mill and High Street. Reference is made to the tradition that Sir Joshua Reynolds helped paint some of the portraits adorning the Barnstaple Guildhall walls.
26	7	1906	A woman who fosters 5 children from Barnstaple Workhouse is condemned for putting pepper in the mouth of a disobedient child. The new Croyde-Saunton road is to be opened.
2	8	1906	The 62nd AGM of the Parkham Female Friendly Society is held. Attempts to refloat HMS Montagu, stranded on rocks off Lundy, are abandoned.
9	8	1906	Ilfracombe has a record week for tourism - mixed bathing is introduced at the Tunnels Beach. Kate Daily alias Catherine Driscoll, a pedlar, dies from drink at Hoops Inn, Parkham.
16	8	1906	Lynmouth gets a new lifeboat which is named Prichard Frederick Gainer. Miss Anne Irwin of Ilfracombe, a bookseller and author of 2 poetry books dies aged 71.
23	8	1906	'Motor car tourists' are said to be numerous in North Devon. A new school is opened at Bratton Fleming.
30	8	1906	A.Barnes a printer of High Street, Barnstaple advertises he has 'new type' and 'new machinery'. A fire at Eastleigh Barton near Bideford is brought under control before too much damage is done.
6	9	1906	Mrs Mary Glover of Parkham becomes a centenarian - 'Some years ago she cut a third set of teeth.' Hartland is said to be full of tourists.
13	9	1906	A 'Clown's Cricket Match' is held in South Molton to raise funds for the local cricket team. Young couples in Instow complain they cannot obtain a cottage in the village and have to go to nearby towns to live.
20	9	1906	Thomas Brown of Barnstaple dies aged 76 - he built Cross Street Congregational chapel, Boutport Street Wesleyan chapel and Barnstaple prison. 70,000 tourists have arrived by train in Ilfracombe over July and August.
27	9	1906	Lundy Island is offered for sale at £25,000. John Metters, foreman at the South Molton Collar and Shirt factory, is badly injured whilst at work.
4	10	1906	A new wing is opened at Edgehill College in Bideford. Barnstaple town council buy metal plates bearing the borough arms for the uniforms of the town's fire brigade.
11	10	1906	A new Bible Christian chapel is opened at Ashreigney. A 5' long bottle nose shark is caught at Ilfracombe.
18	10	1906	Henry Griffey is fined 55p for removing mussels from the stirlings of Bideford Bridge. The Barnstaple Ratepayers' Association is set up to challenge the Conservatives and Liberals.
25	10	1906	A 'telephone room' is opened at Parracombe Post Office. Shipbuilding is flourishing at Appledore with many wooden barges being built for South Africa.
1	11	1906	William Turner of Derby, Barnstaple deserts his wife after a month of marriage. Ashleigh Road school in Barnstaple opens with 320 pupils.
8	11	1906	The National Telephone Company begin laying a line to Lynton. The Rev.Thomas Chope dies after serving 47 years in Hartland.
15	11	1906	Mrs.Jane Beer of Braunton reaches 100 - she recalls the death of her brother at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Schools open in Appledore after 3 months closure due to a measles epidemic.
22	11	1906	Captain Dark of Instow, mail carrier to Lundy, brings back 30 woodcocks shot on the island. 3 and 4 Tower Street, Bideford are sold for £305 the pair.
29	11	1906	Barnstaple's borough accountant John Jordan commits suicide. The foundation stone of Bucks Mills Methodist chapel is laid.
6	12	1906	Liddie Brown is murdered by her sweetheart Henry Ash in Barnstaple. A fire in Atherington destroys 2 cottages owned by Mr.Joslin of Langridge Ford.
13	12	1906	The Journal reports that it sold out 3 editions the previous week which carried news of a local murder. The Rev.A.Batson of Wimbledon denies he is buying Lundy for £19,000.
20	12	1906	A new 2 mile long road from Croyde to Woolacombe is built by Miss Chichester. Northam town council discuss the serious erosion of Westward Ho! pebble ridge.
28	12	1906	110 paupers sit down to a Christmas dinner and a 'coffee supper' in Bideford Workhouse. William Toms of Corser Street, Barnstaple is fined 12p for using obscene language in public.
3	1	1907	At Clovelly a landslip sees 100 tons of rubble fall onto the road leading to the Quay. A.Moon of the Independent Labour Party lectures on Socialism at Braunton.
10	1	1907	The empty United Services College at Westward Ho! is sold for redevelopment into flats. The first gravestone to use red granite is erected in Barnstaple cemetery.
17	1	1907	Sixteen freemasons in Lynton form a new lodge. In Torrington a fire breaks out at G.Copp's printing shop in South Street and is extinguished by the town fire brigade.
24	1	1907	Mr.Raby 'the celebrated bone setter' visits Ilfracombe and treats 20 people. Rumours abound that old iron mines in North Devon are to be reopened.
31	1	1907	The Barnstaple Ratepayers Association hold their first meeting. A hayrick at Southcott Barton, Westleigh burns down - arson is suspected.
7	2	1907	An Abbotsham laundress is committed to the Assizes on a charge of murdering her illegitimate child. Harris & Hill of High Street, Barnstaple construct the 'Taw Vale' bicycle at their works.
14	2	1907	Robert Lamble stabs and shoots 2 women at Halwill. Messrs.Vasey of London buys the wreck of HMS Montagu on Lundy for £4600.
21	2	1907	The North Devon Imperial Yeomanry exchange their black uniforms for new Lovat green ones. W.Keyte of Westward Ho! dies aged 83 - he charged the Russians at Balaclava during the Crimean War.
28	2	1907	A 'Clarion Van' visits Barnstaple to spread the message of Socialism. W.H.Smith's book stall at Barnstaple railway station holds a sale.
7	3	1907	George Mustow dies in Barnstaple after many years singing in the streets whilst accompanying himself on a banjo. An inquiry into the charities in Instow hears evidence of Instow 'potwallopers' and their rights over local marshes.
14	3	1907	Lynton & Barnstaple Railway carries 63,045 passengers over a 6 month period. It is rumoured that the Bideford, Westward Ho! railway is to be extended to Appledore.
21	3	1907	Appledore shipwrights are hired to repair the pier at Weston-super-Mare following storm damage. A 'flasher' is arrested at South Molton but dismissed for want of evidence.
28	3	1907	Barnstaple town council forbid confetti and 'teasers' at Barnstaple Fair. Oakleigh Park in Barnstaple is named.
4	4	1907	Dan Glover 'the prophet of Exmoor' publishes a book called 'The Simple Faith'. At Bideford 'the usual three hours service' is held in St.Mary's to mark Good Friday.
11	4	1907	Instow residents experience rain that is blue-black in colour. Members of an Ilfracombe evening class exhibit 60 specimens of their woodcarving.
18	4	1907	A site is purchased at Ilfracombe for a new Post Office. At Bideford the foundation stone of a new Catholic church costing £300 is laid.
25	4	1907	A farmer from near Ilfracombe visits the 'Exeter white witch' to get a curse on his horses lifted. Henry Petter dies aged 80 - he was at one time owner of the Journal and partner with Mr.Shapland in the furniture factory.
2	5	1907	Shelly's Cottage at Lynmouth is destroyed by fire. A new village reading room is being constructed at Landkey.
9	5	1907	The 82 year old Rev.Heaven returns to Lundy, which he owns, after spending the Winter at Chudleigh. An appeal is made for funds to build a new Bible Christian chapel in Yarnscombe.
16	5	1907	Southcombe & Sons of Ilfracombe open the Bungalow CafÃ© at Woolacombe. S.J.Bale & Co open the Barnstaple Motor Works in the Square.
23	5	1907	The Journal is delivered by car to Ilfracombe in just 25 minutes. The Combe Martin Friendly Society stage their 56th Club Walk through the village.
30	5	1907	Barnstaple town council decide to buy 2 typewriters for their staff. The Braunton members of the North Devon Hussars are photographed by Mr.Britton a local photographer.
6	6	1907	A new Wesleyan chapel is opened at Bucks Mills. James Berry, Britain's official hangman for 10 years, speaks against the death penalty at Ilfracombe.
13	6	1907	A letter writer complains about the sale of Sunday papers as desecrating the Sabbath. The laundry at Torrington workhouse is said to be very poor.
20	6	1907	Dan Glover forms the 'Guild of God's Messengers' at Lynton. The Royal Hotel in Bideford is sold for £9000.
27	6	1907	Mr.Darch wins the tender to build a new Bible Christian chapel at Yarnscombe for £399. Frank Slade of Bishops Tawton finds a 6d dated 1568 in his garden.
4	7	1907	Colonel Charles Munro dies at Westward Ho! aged 74 - his novelist son Hector is known to us as 'Saki'. Fred Bennett of Derby, Barnstaple 'a lazy man addicted to drink' is taken to court for neglecting his children.
11	7	1907	The Journal office is closed for one day to allow all the staff to go on an outing. Mary Stevens a 32 wife of a Barnstaple pub landlord commits suicide by drinking carbolic acid.
18	7	1907	The daughter of the headmaster of Swimbridge school gives birth to an illegitimate child and buries it in secret. Erosion at Westward Ho! is blamed on blasting of rock to build the pier in 1874.
25	7	1907	A new wing is to be added to the Ursuline Convent at Bideford. Raleigh Cabinet Works in Barnstaple is to be run on electricity
1	8	1907	A telephone is installed at Braunton between two doctor's houses. Mrs.James Steer of Bucks Mills dies aged 85 - she was 'an excellent nurse'.
8	8	1907	A group of Turkish hawkers begin fighting each other in Green Lane, Barnstaple. A 'Limerick Competition' is staged in Ilfracombe.
15	8	1907	Saunton Sands Hotel opens under its new manager A.V.Youings. The Medical Officer of Health for N.Devon reports 'Lectures on child rearing have been tried but only the better class woman attends them.'
22	8	1907	Father Ignatius denounces 'Living Statuary' (nude shows) in Ilfracombe. Twelve bathing machines are placed below Lynton Esplanade.
29	8	1907	Silver is discovered at Landkey and mining is to start. An American and his chauffeur are victims of a car crash at Lynton.
5	9	1907	Felice Ritonton an Italian street musician is fined 25p for annoying the public in Ilfracombe. The inmates of Torrington Workhouse are taken out on a day visit to Westward Ho!
12	9	1907	W.J.Sheppard a chemist of Boutport Street, Barnstaple puts a display of colour photography in his shop window. The Lynton Cliff Railway is to be enlarged to take larger motor cars.
19	9	1907	A 4' x 3' 6" sunfish is caught in the Torridge estuary off Greysands. Lucy Greenwood a Barnstaple widow is charged with abandoning her 3 children to become a prostitute.
26	9	1907	Devon County Council discuss banning cars from streets in Appledore. Mary Lake of the 'Old Prison' in Marwood dies aged 62.
3	10	1907	The Mayor of Barnstaple gives a dinner to 450 local OAPs. John Sanders of Pottington dies aged 56 - his family have been local bargemen for over a century.
10	10	1907	Sixty sewing machinists go on strike at the Strand Collar factory in Bideford. W.Wigram presents new premises to the Landkey Social Club.
17	10	1907	William Moore is fined 25p for using obscene language in Reform Street, Barnstaple. Captain William Nicholls a sea captain of Ilfracombe retires after 70 years at sea.
24	10	1907	The Travelling Dairy School holds classes at the Vicarage Barn in Yarnscombe. Bideford town council present J.Metherall with a silver cradle to mark the birth of his child during his mayoralty.
31	10	1907	The wreck of HMS Montagu at Lundy has its back broken during a storm. A fire at T.Harding's fish shop in High Street, Ilfracombe is promptly extinguished.
7	11	1907	The Journal publishes a letter from the Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial. November 5 goes off very quietly throughout North Devon.
14	11	1907	The Rev.G.Alexander crashes his motorcycle at Stoke Rivers. An affiliation case brought by a 14 year old girl in Barnstaple is dismissed as she looked 16 and so deceived the man involved.
21	11	1907	Trinity House is to erect a new 30' high 'light' on Saunton Sands to help navigation. Louisa Burch a gipsy is fined 12p for driving her caravan on the wrong side of the road at South Molton.
28	11	1907	The Barnstaple borough police force costs £761 for one year. The Ebenezer Chapel in Vicarage Street, Barnstaple is replaced by 3 cottages - the graveyard is not disturbed.
5	12	1907	Ilfracombe's Volunteer Artillery men are to get a new 4.7" gun to be placed at Hillsborough. Navvies building the new railway at Appledore discover a human skull at the rear of the Rising Sun pub.
12	12	1907	Mrs.Garrard of Bideford publishes a story in the Christmas edition of the 'Strand' magazine. Mr & Mrs Edwin Holland of The Buildings, Chittlehamholt celebrate their Golden Anniversary.
19	12	1907	Two Ilfracombe councillors are disqualified from sitting on the council for 'insider' dealing. The 'Miss Hunt' schooner is wrecked at Hartland and its crew drown.
26	12	1907	W.Wood of Bear Street, Barnstaple a photographer instals electric light so he can take photographs at any time. Newlands Park, Landkey in the occupation of E.Jones, catches fire.
26	12	1907	The Journal carries news of 2 articles by Barumite Bruce Cummings - later to write 'Diary of a Disappointed Man'. C.H.Brannam of Barnstaple is elected a member of the Royal Society of Arts.
2	1	1908	After finishing the Christmas Day delivery Barnstaple Post Office staff parade the town singing carols. Christopher Trevisick dies at Barnstaple aged 74. Florence Nightingale was present when his frost bitten toes were removed in the Crimea.
9	1	1908	James Mason one time editor of the 'Girl's Own Paper' dies aged 61 in Beacon Cottage, West Hill, Braunton. Ilfracombe council take on unemployed men to break stones for road mending.
16	1	1908	'Talking Pictures by the aid of the Gaumont Chronophone' are shown at Barnstaple's Albert Hall. Electric lighting is to be introduced at Woolacombe.
23	1	1908	Mr & Mrs Stanger of Barnstaple are appointed North Devon's first Probation Officers. Letters from Chittlehampton emigrants to the USA complain of a financial crisis there.
30	1	1908	Parracombe church is struck by lightning. At Hartland the s.s.Huddersfield is wrecked during a storm.
6	2	1908	A telephone call box is opened at Lynton station. A 70' long whale carcass washes up at Hartland - it is thought to be the one that struck an Atlantic liner the week before.
13	2	1908	Long haired 'Members of the House of David' preach in the open air at Barnstaple. A letter from Clovelly finally arrives at Ilfracombe after 27 years.
20	2	1908	S.J.Bale & Co exhibit a 45 h.p. Daimler car complete with electric light and 'speaking tubes' at Barnstaple. Eliza Short agrees to 'sign the pledge' after being found drunk in Meddon Street, Bideford.
27	2	1908	The telegraph cable to Lundy is broken - and the last vestiges of HMS Montague which was wrecked on the island disappear in a storm.
5	3	1908	Barnstaple town council purchase gowns for the aldermen. P.c.Wyatt the 'senior constable' at Bideford moves to St.Giles.
12	3	1908	Anonymous postcards bearing libellous messages are sent to many people in Barnstaple. A move to erect a statue of Mark Rolle in Torrington is vetoed by his family.
19	3	1908	A whale carcass at Hartland has yielded 80 gallons of oil. The North Devon Infirmary is supplied with hoses and other fire fighting equipment.
26	3	1908	A Mauser rifle and bandolier taken from a Boer by Captain Stucley is presented to Bideford Museum. 5000 people listen to a speech given by the Rt.Hon.Austen Chamberlain in Barnstaple Pannier Market.
2	4	1908	The new railway station at Appledore is nearly finished. Barnstaple Volunteers enrol en masse into the new Territorial Army at midnight to become the first such body in Britain.
9	4	1908	Joseph Beckalick, who lived in a chimney at Woolsery for many years, dies. A sailor's funeral at Ilfracombe is interrupted when all the mourners rush to launch the lifeboat.
16	4	1908	The 'Man in the iron mask' who is walking around the world for a bet comes to Barnstaple. The Devon and Somerset Badger Club kill 35 badgers.
23	4	1908	Roads at Mortehoe are said to be impassable with mud. The Freedom of the Borough of Bideford is presented to Andrew Carnegie in a casket made of oak from the old market building.
30	4	1908	Rosa Knill (14) of Derby, Barnstaple charges William Harding (18) as father of her child. A letter is published in the Journal re 'Roadhogs' at Yelland.
7	5	1908	Charlotte Courtney who was 'Sextoness' at Landkey church for 40 years dies aged 86. Two houses are sold in Vernons Lane, Appledore for £55 and £56.
14	5	1908	John Webber of South Molton writes in the Journal in support of Esperanto. M.Willcocks publishes 'A Man of Genius' - it is set in Bradworthy, Buckland Brewer and Appledore.
21	5	1908	Barnstaple police catch a thief after sending his fingerprints to Scotland Yard for identification. John Ridd is charged with arson after the flour mills at Landkey burn down.
28	5	1908	The Fox Inn at Loxhore burns down. John Holt of Kenwith Castle, Abbotsham goes bankrupt owing money to five moneylenders.
4	6	1908	Superintendent George Bond of South Molton police retires - he was the officer who arrested 'Babbacombe' Lee - 'the man they couldn't hang'. Dolton Male and Female Friendly Societies stage their Club Walk - Kingsnympton Brass Band accompany them.
11	6	1908	Sam Beer a GWR driver dies in a major train crash at Filleigh Station. A six car garage is built at the Lyn Valley Hotel, Lynmouth.
18	6	1908	David Barrett of Westleigh dies - he was the coachman to the King for 40 years and never had an accident. Two tourists in Ilfracombe send some Devon cream home as a novel birthday gift.
25	6	1908	The Dutch Doll Performing Company is hired to stage shows at Westward Ho! Railway station. A public meeting at Braunton decides the village is not ready for electric lighting.
2	7	1908	Joseph Bissett of Vinegar Hill, Bideford is found 'sitting on a step near his house hacking at his throat with a razor.' Local women are said not to be willing to do farm work any more.
9	7	1908	Diana Lodge, High Bullen is gutted by fire. Richard Birks of London is fined £2 for speeding in his motor car through Fremington.
16	7	1908	Khaki uniforms arrive in Barnstaple for the 6th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. 1500 people attend a 'gramophone concert' in Barnstaple Market - but noisy children spoil the event.
23	7	1908	George Jenkins of Bradiford, Barnstaple is described as a 'worthless, drunken, idle person' - he hasn't worked for 17 years. A cow with TB is buried in lime in Bideford's Public Pleasure Park.
30	7	1908	Barnstaple Rural District Council supports anmotion against 'the grave and increasing evils caused by motor traffic in the ditrict.' Earl Fortescue dismantles his family's grave vault at Filleigh church and buries the 28 coffins it contains.
6	8	1908	The foundation stone of Torrington's new hospital is laid. Appledore householders are asked to give up their Quay rights to allow the council to extend the Quay by 30-40'.
13	8	1908	Saunton beach and rocks are covered in whitebait - locals fill baskets full of them. Bideford Museum is formally opened by its curator Inkerman Rogers.
20	8	1908	The Rev.Sowerbutts of St.Mary Magdalene, Barnstaple forms a patrol of Boy Scouts. Ilfracombe has 30,000 tourists staying in the town.
27	8	1908	Winston Churchill is to marry Clementine Hozier who is often in Bideford visiting her aunt Lady Whyte in Bridgeland Street. Alverdiscott churchyard is extended through the generosity of R.Preston-Whyte, Lord of the Manor.
3	9	1908	It is suggested that Barnstaple police are given canes to chastise juvenile offenders. Bideford Swimming Club has 60 entries for its river races.
10	9	1908	A train is derailed at Appledore station - it takes a day to replace. The Victoria Boarding House at Mortehoe is destroyed by fire.
17	9	1908	Braunton council vote to provide a playground for children - to stop them playing in the churchyard. The Motor Union of GB & Ireland sends 3 guineas to improve the coast road at Croyde.
24	9	1908	Barnstaple Fair features the novelty of 'hoopla' stalls. The newly formed Bideford Athletic Harriers Club stages a race to Hallsannery and back.
1	10	1908	The Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore railway loses £622 over its first 6 months of full operation. A drowned sailor is buried in the 'Sailor's Plot' of Northam churchyard - 1000 people attend.
8	10	1908	On a visit to Merton G.Lambert a Liberal member of the government is stoned by local Tories. Barnstaple Boy Scouts parade in their uniform of grey sweaters.
15	10	1908	The Combe Martin Institute opens - it offers billiards and reading rooms to men. F.Elliott butcher of High Street, Barnstaple advertises his shop as having 'The Only Cold Storage in North Devon.'
22	10	1908	L.Baron of the Barnstaple Art Pottery wins a gold medal at the Franco-British Exhibition in London. John Pillman of Tosberry Farm, Hartland dies after drinking 1 pints of gin at a sitting.
29	10	1908	The foundation stone of the Lee Catholic Convent and school is laid. A public meeting is held in Braunton to establish a troop of Boy Scouts in the village.
5	11	1908	Lady Acland & Countess Fortescue join the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League. William Mitchell is fined 37p after taking mussels from the buttresses of Bideford Bridge.
12	11	1908	Richard Webber who emigrated to the USA from Chulmleigh in 1873 dies worth £1.4 million. Gramophones are 'becoming very popular in North Devon.'
19	11	1908	The Journal publishes a letter advocating a 'fruitarian' diet. At the burial of a Salvation Army member in Barnstaple 76 uniformed mourners attend, each wearing a white arm band.
26	11	1908	Herman Bicknell of Knapp House, Northam is declared bankrupt - and his wife leaves him. A Ladies' Hockey Club is formed in Ilfracombe.
3	12	1908	Workers at Cooper and Co.'s Strand Collar Works in Bideford present their forewoman with a lamp. A 'Doll Exhibition' is held in Landkey to raise money for the local Cottage Garden Society.
10	12	1908	Brannam's Pottery introduces its new 'agate' ware in time for Christmas. A jumble sale at Fremington in the Bickington schoolroom raises £14.57 for the village Clothing and Coal Clubs.
17	12	1908	The chimneys on the roof of the Public benefit Boot Co. in the High Street, Bideford collapse in a gale. St.Mary Magdalene's church in Barnstaple is lit by electricity for the first time.
24	12	1908	The magazine of Chaloner's School, Braunton publishes a letter re the school scout troop from Baden-Powell. Lord Clinton gives his Chittlehampton workers tickets they can exchange for meat at local butchers.
31	12	1908	The Lynton-Barnstaple railway is blocked by snow between Parracombe and Blackmoor. Miss Anne Kenney a leading Suffragette speaks at the Runnacleave Hall in Ilfracombe.
7	1	1909	The new lessees of Lundy Island are to breed pheasants rather than cattle. Miss Adele Pankhurst leads a debate in Ilfracombe on 'votes for women' and loses the resolution by 115 to 114 votes.
14	1	1909	20 men are engaged in replacing the wooden sleepers on the Lynton Cliff Railway with steel ones. Woolacombe is to try public lighting using 'petrol safety gas'.
21	1	1909	Some 100 Westward Ho! golf caddy boys are treated to a dinner. Richard Taylor of South Molton is fined 10/- for being drunk in charge of a wagon and horses at Filleigh.
28	1	1909	A 'Hunger March' of unemployed men arrives in Barnstaple with banners reading 'Right to Work'. Thomas Andrews a conductor on the Lynton Cliff Railway mysteriously drowns in the railway's water tank.
4	2	1909	Bideford town council hire the unemployed at 15p per day to 'pitch' the river bank. The Valley of the Rocks at Lynton is surveyed for a scheme to lay out a 9 hole golf course.
11	2	1909	Henry Shapland, founder of the Barnstaple cabinet works, dies in Ilfracombe aged 85. The foundation stone for a new church tower at Beaford is laid.
18	2	1909	A medical inspection in Barnstaple reveals 80% of local children have 'carious teeth'. Joshua King of the Portobello Inn, Bideford is fined £1 for selling watered milk.
25	2	1909	Work starts on a new post office at Ilfracombe costing £8500. The British Animated Pictures Co. from Bristol puts on a show of 'living pictures' at Barnstaple.
4	3	1909	Countess Fortescue refuses to support 'Votes for Women' as 'women have shown how totally unfit they are to take such heavy responsibilities on themselves.'
11	3	1909	The unemployed are hired to throw stones back on to the pebble ridge at Westward Ho! The 'telephone call cabinet' at Barnstaple railway station is removed as it doesn't pay.
18	3	1909	Land at Ashleigh and Oakleigh Road, Barnstaple is sold to build 'good class villa and terrace houses'. Lynton Ladies' Hockey Club play Ilfracombe Ladies in the Valley of the Rocks. Lynton win.
25	3	1909	A white tailed eagle is shot near South Molton and is to be stuffed. W.H.Smith open a bookstall at Braunton Railway station.
1	4	1909	The Braunton Company of the Territorial Army stage a recruiting march - and gain 2 recruits. The coastguard buildings on Lundy are completed.
8	4	1909	A newly built house at 3 Waterloo Terrace, Bideford is auctioned for £188. A meeting in Ilfracombe is warned that Germany could 'jump the country' in 1915.
15	4	1909	A 'Socialist', Archie Moon, gives a 2 hour speech at Braunton's Cross Tree. Torrington Cemetery receives its first cremation in the form of the ashes of Mrs.Noble wife of a local Congregational Minister.
22	4	1909	Granite blocks, painted white, are positioned on Lundy to guide coastguards in foggy weather. A cow runs amok in Dornat's Mineral Water factory in Tuly Street, Barnstaple.
29	4	1909	Rose Budd, a nurse in Bideford, commits suicide by drinking carbolic acid. Lionel Martin becomes the first car driver to conquer Beggar's Roost at Barbrook in Lynton.
6	5	1909	On May Day children in Appledore 'paraded the streets with Maypoles'. A fire in the Torrington Mill Street cider works of W.Sandford destroys the building and 3 cottages opposite.
13	5	1909	Albert Mackie of Derby, Barnstaple is sent to a Reformatory for 3 years for stealing 2 knives. A canvas of Braunton inhabitants shows many would like electric lighting.
20	5	1909	Sepscott Farm, Shirwell is completely destroyed by fire. Barnstaple town council decide 'The motor car has come to stay' and is to use water carts to tackle dust on the roads.
27	5	1909	H.Macmahon of Marwood wins a 'walking match' staged at Chulmleigh. An air ship is seen over Ilfracombe carrying a powerful searchlight with a 'brilliant light of a reddish tint.'
3	6	1909	Bertie Vanstone is arrested whilst naked at Bratton Fleming. He is charged as a 'wandering lunatic'. Prime Minister Asquith visits Clovelly and is hounded by local Suffragettes.
10	6	1909	The Instow Miniature Rifle Club Hall is opened by A.L.Christie. 40 Barnstaple Baden Powell Scouts camp by Braunton lighthouse.
17	6	1909	The skeletons of what are thought to be Civil War soldiers are unearthed at the Gas Works, East-the-Water, Bideford. 30 cattle landed on Lundy stampede across the island.
24	6	1909	The parcelled up body of a dead baby is found at Chapelton Station. Bideford town council try to impose a speed limit of 6 mph on cars entering the town.
1	7	1909	West Garland Farm, Chulmleigh is sold for £1015 to F.Letheren. Edmund Cornish (14) is charged with attacking Ada Colwill at Hartland with a hay fork.
8	7	1909	At Beaford 84 year old thatcher Sam Parkhouse drowns in a well. Water from a 'medicinal fountain' in Watersmeet Valley at Lynton is marketed under the name Lynrock Water.
15	7	1909	Northam Manor Court tries to stop visitors throwing stones from the Pebble Ridge onto the Burrows. The old clock tower on top of a house on Appledore Quay is removed.
22	7	1909	A runaway car at Parracombe nearly kills 2 painters working at the Fox & Goose pub. Sydney Harper of Barnstaple installs plate glass windows in his shop - they are broken the same day.
29	7	1909	W.J.Brannam, son of the owner of the Royal Barum Pottery, comes top in a national Pottery course. John Powe of Lynton commits suicide by nearly severing his own head with a razor.
5	8	1909	William Orchard a gipsy is fined for ill treating a horse at Landkey. Fights break out amongst 1000 people attending an Anti-Budget meeting on Bideford Quay.
12	8	1909	Ilfracombe has 30,000 visitors staying there. Whole families of tourists are camping in tents at Saunton.
19	8	1909	Two labourers are charged with the theft of mazzards at Swimbridge. The Barnstaple-South Molton telephone line in inaugurated by the Mayors of the 2 towns speaking to each other.
26	8	1909	Police Sergeant Parnell is killed in a motor bus crash at Sutcombe. Bideford Swimming Club open a new pontoon in the Torridge named 'Pride of the Torridge'
2	9	1909	Lord Clinton's estates in Winkleigh are sold. Iron mining is to start at Blue Gate, Exmoor with the ore being brought by traction engine to South Molton station.
9	9	1909	Horace Stevens a railway 'kitchen boy' is accidentally killed by a train at Torrington. Barnstaple's Albert Hall is decorated as a Japanese village for an Industrial Exhibition.
16	9	1909	A group of Russian sailors desert their ship in Bideford and locals protect them. A 10' 6" x 8' 6" poster of Lantern Hill, Ilfracombe is on display at Paddington station to encourage tourism.
23	9	1909	The new Convent for Poor Clares at Lynton is nearly complete, it will house 19 nuns. An Italian organ grinder is fined for obstructing the road in Ilfracombe.
30	9	1909	Susan Mountjoy of Bideford is charged with murdering her infant child. The Journal attacks the local Tory Parliamentary candidate for buying a French car.
7	10	1909	There is a call to floor Barnstaple's Pannier Market with wooden blocks to create a roller skating rink. Court Hall, North Molton is lit by electricity for the first time.
14	10	1909	Torrington Literary Society is established - it is to hold lectures in the Howe Chapel schoolroom. 'Humorous and Dramatic Animated Pictures' are put on at Barnstaple's Theatre Royal.
21	10	1909	Thomas Ruddle head of Shebbear College for 47 years dies aged 70. Two Bideford lunatics escape from the Devon County Asylum but are quickly recaptured.
28	10	1909	A Barnstaple shop stocks 'Edison's new Business Phonograph' - for business men dictating letters to secretaries. Granite is provided for tramps to break at Barnstaple workhouse - it persuades many not to enter.
4	11	1909	Number 4 Irsha Street, Appledore is sold for £55. A troop of Boy Scouts is formed at Lynton.
11	11	1909	Braunton parish council votes to have electric lighting in the village by just 1 vote. Barnstaple youths dress up as clowns and a bear for November 5th celebrations.
18	11	1909	A travelling cinema in Barnstaple shows a film on 'The Aerial Warfare of the Future'. Northam council discuss improvements to the Marine Parade in Appledore.
25	11	1909	Barnstaple roller skating rink has 16 musicians playing to accompany the skaters. Torrington town council introduce a £5 fine to stop people spitting in the streets.
2	12	1909	At Combe Martin a new drill hall is being built in the centre of the village. Lynton proposes holding a 'Lorna Doone' pageant in the Valley of the Rocks.
9	12	1909	The Thistlemor steamer is wrecked at Westward Ho! with the loss of 21 lives. Joseph Casinelli a Barnstaple hawker is fined for the 22nd time for disorderly conduct.
16	12	1909	Plans are announced to build a roller skating rink in Appledore. Electricity is installed in the Derby lace factory in Barnstaple.
23	12	1909	Tory 'rowdies' attack the Barnstaple Liberal Club and assault the caretaker, they are fined £2 each. Harris and Hill of High Street, Barnstaple have 2000 gramophone records on sale.
30	12	1909	Two stowaways on a ship from South Wales to Melbourne are discovered and landed on Lundy. The Mayor of Barnstaple gives 720 poor children a Christmas dinner in the Pannier Market.
8	3	1951	A 1936 Norton motorcycle is advertised for sale at £65 by Ron Lake at his Bideford showrooms. Corporal David Paterson of Barnstaple dies of wounds received fighting the Chinese in the Korean War then raging. Ilfracombe Town Council protest to the town's magistrates over their decision to allow films to be shown on Sundays from 2.30 pm instead of 7.30 pm.
15	3	1951	Moths invade the police house at Woolacombe and eat police uniforms. Royal Blue Coaches offer day trips to the Festival of Britain in London. The 6 week old Waring triplets born in Bideford are 'dedicated' at a Salvation Army service.
21	3	1951	Slot machines and other rubbish are dumped at Velator Quay, Braunton endangering the movement of boats. A spokesman for the Barnstaple Electors' Association reckons 'adult education was merely a means of providing women with a social evening.' A man's worsted suit at Hepworths in Barnstaple costs £9.9.0
29	3	1951	The rector of High Bickington warns that 'milk-and-water religion would not save Christianity from the onslaught of atheistic Communism.' The Appledore built Swiftsure enters service as the new Instow-Appledore ferry under F.Johns whose family have been running the ferry for a century.
5	4	1951	A public inquiry is held into plans by the Army to take over large parts of Braunton Burrows, Saunton and Instow beaches and Crowe Point for 'military training'. A local dairy owner advertises for an 'Experienced Driver/Roundsgirl' saying that they 'can earn £4 per week'.
12	4	1951	The Government orders Barnstaple Town Council to prune spending on the rebuilding of the Albert Hall which is set to go above £15,000. The Ilfracombe Peace Committee send a petition to Whitehall calling on Britain to enter peace negotiations to end the Korean War - and to oppose all steps towards German rearmament.
19	4	1951	Allegations of favouritism over the allocation of council houses in Appledore are made by disappointed applicants. John Frayne of Pilton Street is reckoned to be the oldest cabinet maker still working in the UK - he is 91. Bideford Town councillors are ordered to wear white shirts, black ties and white gloves when wearing their ceremonial robes.
26	4	1951	North Devon County Councillors denounce the wage rise given to the County Treasurer which raises his wages to £40 per week. Barnstaple Town Council vote to prohibit Sunday games at Pottington Road Sports Ground. Raymond Baxter of the BBC broadcasts 'live' from Instow beach during landing exercises by the Royal Engineers.
3	5	1951	Parents from the West Country Inn area in Hartland protest at their 5 year olds having to travel 32 miles to school. The Bray Valley Soft Drinks Company instal new machinery at their works at Clapworthy Mill, South Molton. Flower displays in Barnstaple Square and Rock Park are badly vandalised - the Mayor appeals for names of the perpetrators.
10	5	1951	E.J.Slee, former chairman of Braunton Parish Council opens the village's war memorial gardens. Some 400 food parcels from Australia arrive at the Barnstaple Boys Secondary Modern School - enough for every teacher and pupil. South Molton Town Council reckon their public toilets look like 'a battleground' owing to 'wanton and senseless damage by some members of the public.'
17	5	1951	The long disued swimming pool at Appledore, closed after a polio outbreak in 1949 is said to have become 'a repository for dead cats and old corsets.' Ilfracombe Council decide not to display posters advertising the Festival of Britain as it might draw tourists away from the town. Vivian Moon, secretary of the Braunton Skittles League warns that 'In this modern age entertainment and sport were becoming mass produced.' People need to make an effort themselves he reckons.
24	5	1951	Six women walk into a meeting of the Bideford Chamber of Commerce and complain about 5 o'clock closing of shops, lunch hour closing, 'cats that slept on counters' and 'nylons that were sold under the counter.' Tourists to North Devon were reckoned to be 'more of a nuisance than anything else' at an Ilfracombe Planning Inquiry. Sunday meetings of the North Devon Motor Club at Fremington are denounced by the local vicar as 'a desecration of the Sabbath'.
31	5	1951	Northam and Westward Ho! Chamber of Commerce note sadly that 'naughty' postcards are the biggest sellers by far. A new bowling green is opened at Instow; it is a gift to the parish from the tennis club. The vicar of Chittlehampton praises village football clubs for 'providing something of interest in village life.'
7	6	1951	The widow of a Parachute Regiment soldier complains when Ilfracombe Council gives their deckchair attendants red berets to wear whilst on duty. A meteor of blue-green colour explodes 400 yards from three men at West Harracott. The Codden Hill Tea Gardens and Cafe offer 'Good food cleanly served' to customers.
14	6	1951	South Molton Chamber of Commerce holds an Olde English Fayre Week which includes a bonfire and community singing. North Devon Grocers' Association write to the Government seeking a 5% increase in profit margins on all goods still controlled by the Ministry of Food. The chairman of Braunton parish council gives his casting vote to a motion allowing the swings in the Recreation Ground to be unlocked on a Sunday.
21	6	1951	Combe Martin holds a Festival of Britain Pageant tracing the history of the village which is described as 'the finest post-war production of its kind in North Devon.' Two women's football teams are 'flourishing' in North Devon - but there are no women's cricket teams.
28	6	1951	The Gaiety Cinema in Appledore is said to need improvements to its fire precautions costing £500. It will stay closed until they are done. A new bridge is planned to cross the River Taw at Coney Gut in Barnstaple with its approach road set to cut Rock Park in two. Conditions in Bideford Cemetery were a 'disgrace' with shoulder high grass in some places.
5	7	1951	Plans for the new Barnstaple Bridge are unveiled. The approach road runs straight through Rock Park. At Ilfracombe's Victoria Pavilion a show called 'Gay Stars' is put on. It promises 'a constellation of Laughter, Rhythm and Song.'
12	7	1951	The price of the North Devon Journal rises from 2d to 3d owing to rises in the cost of newsprint. Mortehoe Parish Council launch an appeal for subscriptions towards clearing oil from Woolacombe beach.
19	7	1951	Complaints are made after minced rabbit bones are served up in school lunches at Bideford. Figures for North Devon show that 56 men are unemployed in Ilfracombe, 39 in Bideford, 5 in South Molton and 104 in Barnstaple.
26	7	1951	Because Brayford still has no electricity supply villagers have to bring their own lamps and lanterns to the annual Carnival dance. A wild goat is rescued at Castle Rock, Lynton after being stranded on a ledge for a month.
2	8	1951	Three 35 ton boilers arrive by rail to be put in the new Yelland power station. Instow Parish Council are to ask the Army to fill in 'pits' left by their vehicles on Instow beach after two local children nearly drown in one.
9	8	1951	The Enid of Braunton, a 70 ton ketch, is being prepared for a round-the-world voyage by 32 year old C.Stevenson. Some 190 people are on the waiting list for new council houses in Braunton.
16	8	1951	Barnstaple and District Skittles League finally bow to 2 years of pressure and allow women to play. After many years a male version of the Ilfracombe Waitresses Race is staged - H.Gear wins.
23	8	1951	North Devon butchers run out of meat - which is still rationed - owing to increased demands from holidaymakers in the area. A Marwood man was said to have sung hymns whilst smashing up his Barnstaple prison cell after being arrested for being drunk.
30	8	1951	Chester Crocker, a councillor from Barnstable, Massachusetts attends Barnstaple Fair Ceremony and is advised by the Mayor to 'Go easy on the spiced ale.' Four 'Small Dwelling Houses' each with 2 bedrooms are for sale in Barnstaple at £500 the lot 'or near offer'.
1	5	1952	Captain Percy Browne dreams of treasure buried at Buckland Filleigh in 1643 - and buys a metal detector to search for it. Devon Womens' Institute meeting in Barnstaple resolve to petition the government to make more sugar available on ration to allow them to produce more jam.
8	5	1952	Torrington town council are told that it is no longer necessary to report births of illegitimate children who 'might grow up to be responsible citizens and might even become councillors.' An Appledore man, James Murray, is killed in an accident whilst helping to build Yelland power station.
15	5	1952	A Vampire jet from RAF Chivenor crashes on to Woolacombe Sands and slides 500 yards. The pilot escapes injury but is shocked. The reformation of the 4th Devon Home Guard Battalion begins at the TA Centre in Barnstaple with the enrolment of the first 50 members.
22	5	1952	People on a council house waiting list in Northam 'who made themselves a nuisance' are said to get tenancies before those 'who kept quiet.' E.Partridge of Chulmleigh, chairman of auctioneers Hannaford, Ward & Southcombe Ltd. completes 68 years' service with the firm.
29	5	1952	Genny James 24 year old champion swimmer gives up her attempt to swim to Lundy from Bull Point after covering 5 of the 16.5 miles due to cramp. A crackdown on people listening to radios without a licence reveals 195 sets are now in cars in North Devon.
5	6	1952	Arlington Court is opened to the public by the National Trust for the first time. Learie Constantine the West Indian cricketer is bowled for a duck when he plays at Ilfracombe against Lynton.
12	6	1952	A Vampire jet from RAF Chivenor crashes at Putsborough - the pilot is killed. Some 70 members of the Chawleigh friendly society go on their annual 'walk' through the village behind the Hatherleigh Town Band.
19	6	1952	A court case in Ilfracombe about the Elizabeth Smith Trust for Widows hears that Mrs.Smith who died in 1902 had 26 children by 3 husbands. Muddiford Young Men's Club buy Ilfracombe Pier Dance Hall for £80. It has to be removed within 28 days.
26	6	1952	The congregation of St.Peter's. Barnstaple is split over arguments about 'the alleged introduction of ritualistic practises' by the Rev.P.Godfrey. Bathers at Rapparee beach, Ilfracombe are to be allowed to change on the beach rather than in the 6 'bathing tents' provided.
3	7	1952	A rally of young wives in Barnstaple consider the 3 main problems with children are 'Swearing, Cinemas, Sex'. The Alice Horwood School in Church Lane, Barnstaple is sold to Percy Brend by the church for conversion to a cafe.
10	7	1952	Devon County Council are to spend £900 straightening out the sharp bend on the road by Heanton Court. Bus fares rise in North Devon, a return from Bideford to Barnstaple is to cost 10p and from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe 15p.
17	7	1952	The Queen Mother on a private holiday at Rackenford Manor attends service in the village church. A new village hall costing £4500 is opened at Croyde after 6 years of fund raising.
24	7	1952	The North Devon Jazz Club founded in Bideford and now in Barnstaple attracts 150 'jitterbugs' to its weekly meetings. The Rector of Withypool and a 15 year old boy drown at Instow after being caught in an ebb tide.
31	7	1952	Council tenants in North Devon are to be charged £1.05 if they erect a TV aerial. Jeremy Thorpe is selected as the prospective Liberal candidate for North Devon.
7	8	1952	The vicar of Westleigh reckons that digging graves in the churchyard is so difficult that they should consider blasting. Torrington councillors ask that 'over elaborate' new housing on the edge of town be cut back in favour of spending in the town centre which is 'becoming a slum.'
14	8	1952	Ilfracombe town council is to introduce a grading system for hotels and boarding houses following complaints from tourists. Some 30 waitresses take part in the annual race at Ilfracombe which is won by Rose McHugh of the Albermarle Hotel.
21	8	1952	The Lynmouth flood disaster occurs, 42 houses are destroyed, 72 are left unsafe and 22 people are killed. The Queen expresses her 'deepest sympathy' to local residents.
28	8	1952	Chief of the Imperial General Staff Field Marshal Sir Wiliam Slim visits Lynmouth to see Army units at work after the flood. The President of France sends a personal donation of £100 to the Flood Appeal Fund.
23	3	1953	Barnstaple Town Council announce plans to present every baby born in the town on Coronation Day with a silver spoon. A legal case over rights of way across Woolacombe beach ends without any real progress.
1	4	1953	An air firing range off of Ilfracombe is sanctioned by the Government - against local opposition. North Devon Jazz Club's membership is now at 337 and subscriptions bring in £132 per year.
9	4	1953	North Devon plays host to its first party political conference when 850 Liberals travel to Ilfracombe. Fishermen working in the River Taw at Bear Pool haul up the engine of an aircraft that crashed there some years before.
16	4	1953	Bideford Manor Court is asked to ban cycling on the riverbank near the Kingsley statue. North Molton Cricket Club decide to fine members 6d each if they score a duck during a match.
30	4	1953	Miss Harriet Fulford becomes the first female Freeman of Bideford. A collection in Chittlehampton raises £153 towards celebrations to mark the Coronation.
7	5	1953	The fountain in the Square at Barnstaple, which hasn't worked for 40 years, is refurbished to mark the Coronation. The War Office gives £1500 to Northam Burrows Committee to pay for removing barbed wire and repairing drains.
14	5	1953	Goodleigh parish council demand that some new council houses be built in the village. The John Gay Players present the comedy 'The Gay Bachelor' in the Foresters' Hall in Barnstaple.
21	5	1953	A Vampire jet fighter from Chivenor crashes into the sea off Ringcliff Bay in the Bristol Channel. The new Head Gardener at Ilfracombe is paid £420 p.a. - this is said to be too low.
28	5	1953	Chittlehampton residents are said to prefer water from the well in the village square to mains water for making tea. Two local butchers P.Brend and C.Ellis are to open a caravan site at Braunton on disused military land.
4	6	1953	New Buildings in Barnstaple wins the Coronation prize for best decorated street - even the tarmac is painted. 400 schoolchildren at Combe Martin are given strawberries and cream to mark the Coronation.
6	6	1953	Vera Hardy marries in Barnstaple wearing a lace veil first worn by her great great grandmother in 1819. Ilfracombe Salvation Army are condemned for amplifying religious services in High Street and annoying passers' by.
11	6	1953	The Pilton Old People's Hostel is extended when an adjoining brewery and wash house are converted to accommodation. Derek Wright of Bideford is charged with trying to murder his ex-wife and her new husband.
18	6	1953	23000 tons of coal is to be discharged at Ilfracombe for use in the town's gas works. It is suggested that a new sugar beet factory at Braunton costing £2 million would help local farmers and reduce unemployment.
25	6	1953	The Lundy ferry the mv Lerina is beached at Cleave, Northam following its retirement from service. A petition is collected against a new caravan site in Golf Links Road, Westward Ho!
25	6	1953	Ilfracombe hoteliers reckon this Summer season to be the worst experienced since the war. Closure of the old cycle track in Victoria Park Bideford leads to people cycling all over the park.
2	7	1953	The tub race part of Taddiport Revel attracts 9 competitors including two girls. Barnstaple teenagers are told to 'find something good to do on Sundays' as the Town Council continues to ban Sunday cinema opening.
9	7	1953	The first North Devon Zebra crossing complete with belisha beacons is erected in Ilfracombe. Welsh tourists are said to be avoiding Ilfracombe as it is 'too sober, too prudish and too sophisticated.'
16	7	1953	Cleave Farm at Alsweare and an adjoining cottage and barn are destroyed by fire. Fremington parish council order the locking up of childrens' swings every evening to stop 'indecent happenings' around them.
23	7	1953	The actor who plays Dan Archer in the BBC programme 'The Archers' attends South Molton Church Fete and signs autographs all afternoon. A new Fordson Major tractor is selling for £536 at Taw Garages in Barnstaple.
30	7	1953	Bideford Town Council ban cycling in Victoria Park - and receive a petition of 160 names opposing their decision. A modern 3 bedroomed 'semi-bungalow' is for sale in Mortehoe at £2850.
13	8	1953	An outbreak of foot and mouth disease is confirmed at East Arson Farm, Ashreigney. Walt Disney's new film 'Peter Pan' is showing at the Gaumont in Barnstaple.
20	8	1953	The street collection held during Ilfracombe Carnival raises a record £275. At Appledore Carnival 2 of the 'Queen's' attendants fall off a lorry when it breaks sharply.
27	8	1953	A new lifeboat at Ilfracombe is named the 'Robert & Phemia Brown.' It is claimed that deckchairs owned by Ilfracombe Town Council are constantly being lost to the sea as visitors can't be bothered to return them.
3	9	1953	Combe Martin Amazons, the village women's football team, are to buy a new set of jerseys. £500 is spent on clearing Westleigh church of death watch beetle.
10	9	1953	Four babies born in Barnstaple on Coronation Day are presented with silver spoons by the Mayor. Electricians working on the construction of Yelland Power Station stage a strike for extra money.
17	9	1953	Northam Council ban people from sleeping overnight in their beach huts. An annexe has to be erected at Bishops Tawton Church Rooms to hold overflow entries for the horticultural show.
24	9	1953	The Barnstaple Angling Trust stock a 2 acre lake at Swimbridge for the use of its members. After a storm the Journal prints the headline 'Small tidal wave floods Ilfracombe cafes.'
1	10	1953	For the first time in North Devon a 3-D film, 'Metroscopix', is shown at the Ilfracombe Embassy cinema. A car is left hanging over the High Wall at Sticklepath Hill in Barnstaple following an accident when reversing.
8	10	1953	Police begin to investigate why some 40 dogs have been poisoned in East-the-Water, Bideford since the war. Torrington Council employ a 'sentry' to patrol new playing fields in the town following allegations of indecency and vandalism.
15	10	1953	Barnstaple's professional repertory company The John Gay Players closes down due to poor support and competition from television. At West Buckland School Speech Day pupils are told that 'tyrannical aspects of discipline' have now been relaxed.
22	10	1953	Monty Cawsey of Bideford who had been a PoW in Korea for 2 years returns home to a hero's welcome. A 4 bedroomed house at Lynton is for sale at £2200.
29	10	1953	South Molton council tenants are to be consulted as to whether they want bathrooms installed or not. The first coal ship discharges its cargo at Yelland Quay Power Station.
5	11	1953	A move to increase car parking charges at Lynton from 6d to 1/- (5p) is denounced as 'an absolute imposition.' Police visit schools in Northam trying to find who stole 50 sticks of gelignite from a local quarry.
12	11	1953	Combe Martin council decide to build only 1 of 3 proposed bus shelters - to test demand in the village. Fremington parish council asks that dustmen should be instructed to collect items such as old bike wheels.
19	11	1953	It is announced that 'Commercial Television is unlikely to reach North Devon for some years.' The new primary school at Forches Estate, Barnstaple is nearing completion.
26	11	1953	The Exmoor Archers challenge the South Molton Rifle Club to a shooting contest. HMS Broadley is launched from Blackmore's shipbuilding yard in Bideford.
3	12	1953	Bideford Town Council discuss demolishing toilets on the Quay and replacing them with a weighbridge. Sand dunes at Saunton 'devastated' by troop training during the war are planted with marram grass to stabilise them.
10	12	1953	A sewerage system is to be built at Taddiport after locals demand reconsideration of a previous refusal. Sunnyside at Bideford is said to be permanently covered in coal dust from a nearby coal dump.
17	12	1953	Famous bandleader Ted Heath plays in the Queen's Hall in Barnstaple. Tickets cost 8/6 (43p) each and 800 attend. Mussels collected in the River Taw are condemned for being poisonous.
23	12	1953	Georgeham parish council lay out a new graveyard for the village at a cost of around £3500. Esme Preston presents her 24th annual production 'The Sleeping Beauty' at the Queen's Hall in Barnstaple.
31	12	1953	15 swimmers including 4 'young women' plunge into the sea at Ilfracombe on Christmas morning. At Bideford Hospital 3 doctors carve turkeys for the patients' Christmas dinner.
7	1	1954	The manager of the NALGO holiday camp at Croyde is gaoled for 9 months for falsifying accounts. Bideford Trades Council condemn 'horrible' and 'degrading' modern films being shown in the town.
14	1	1954	The Blackpool Hoteliers Association book 140 beds in Ilfracombe for their annual conference. A suggested by-pass for Combe Martin is denounced as being 'disastrous' for the village.
21	1	1954	The outfall of a new sewer at Woolacombe is badly damaged by wave action. A Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker 'Wave Victor' burns out of control off Bull Point but her crew are all saved.
28	1	1954	A battle between Bideford and Northam councils over the water supply at Abbotsham is described as 'undignified'. South Molton council for the first time are to build bungalows for old people.
4	2	1954	The worst 'freeze' for 7 years sees Barnstaple Church Primary School closed following a burst pipe. A 17 year old Braunton boy is banned from attending local dances for a year following a fight.
11	2	1954	A 4 day hunt for a goat with a broken leg in the Valley of the Rocks at Lynton ends with its humane shooting. Bideford decides not to provide 4 grass tennis courts in Victoria Park as the cost (£350) is too high.
18	2	1954	An Instow based soldier is gaoled for 2 years for the manslaughter of Christian Housley in a road accident at Fremington. Newly built old peoples' homes at Pilton are said to be too dear for pensioners to rent.
25	2	1954	The extended market day opening of pubs in Torrington is revoked after police complaints. Messrs.P.K.Harris of Appledore win an order to build 5 'tugs of revolutionary design.'
4	3	1954	Boy rowers who smoke are denounced by the captain of the Bideford Amateur Athletic Club. Mrs.E.Hartley wins the annual Combe Martin pancake race.
11	3	1954	Instow parish council are to buy the N.Devon Tennis Club's sports ground in Lane End. There is said to be an absence of light industry in Ilfracombe and thus 'No future for pupils leaving school.'
18	3	1954	Ethel Hopkins of Ilfracombe dies aged 68 - when young she appeared in many silent films made in Hollywood. Plans by Bideford Town Council to spend £500 on providing a Mayor's Parlour are abandoned.
25	3	1954	A 50' portion of the Cove Wall at Ilfracombe's inner harbour collapses unexpectedly. Exhibitions of weaponry are held in North Devon to attract men to join the Home Guard.
1	4	1954	Parracombe is to revive its 'Village Revel' last held around 1870. A new 12" TV is on sale at Bernard Smith's in Barnstaple for £68.
8	4	1954	Messrs.P.K.Harris build a new minesweeper for the Royal Navy faster than any other shipyard in Britain. Full time taxi drivers in Ilfracombe protest at part time Summer drivers who 'ruin our livelihood.'
14	4	1954	The new Territorial Army Centre in Barnstaple is opened. It is announced that paddle steamers will once again visit Bideford - the first since 1924.
22	4	1954	The Barnstaple Sea Cadet Corps training ship 'Valiant' is found to be riddled with dry rot. Walter Paddon a Dolton footballer breaks his jaw in a match but goes on to score two goals.
29	4	1954	A plan to construct a sugar beet factory at Bideford is not to go ahead. A party of 26 pupils from Torrington Secondary Modern School visit Paris at a cost of £18 each.
6	5	1954	The Archdeacon of Barnstaple reckons the creation of the H bomb can be 'attributed to man's wickedness'. The former curate of Tawstock is ordered to resign by the Bishop following 'brawling' at church meetings.
13	5	1954	10 year old Wendy Smalldon becomes the 400th Torrington May Fair Queen. Local residents petition against Yelland power station which is said to be creating clouds of dust and smoke.
20	5	1954	Road improvements to the 'death trap' at Heanton Court corner are to cost £9000. Hartland parents are angry that their children are not allowed to attend N.Devon Technical College.
27	5	1954	Barnstaple YMCA reluctantly agree to sell their High Street property due to financial problems. A cave with tunnels radiating from it is found on Codden Hill.
3	6	1954	The recent introduction of 'No Parking' in Ilfracombe High Street worries traders who fear loss of business. Field Marshal Earl Alexander takes the salute at a march past of the British Legion in Barnstaple.
10	6	1954	Chawleigh Friendly Society takes its 85th annual 'walk' through the village. Two outbreaks of myxomatosis amongst rabbits in North Devon are confirmed.
17	6	1954	Members of Fremington parish council are accused of 'mumbling' so badly the public cannot understand them. The collapse of an old sewer in Parracombe sees raw sewage flowing down the main street for a week.
24	6	1954	200 attend a residents' meeting at Croyde to protest against plans to site caravans on the Burrows. An American pilot in a Sabre jet is the first to break the sound barrier over North Devon.
1	7	1954	Barnstaple is plagued by flies coming from the new refuse tip at Seven Brethren Bank. Sir Winston Churchill is said to be considering holding the annual Conservative Party Conference in Barnstaple.
8	7	1954	A female football match in Bideford sees Joyce Tucker playing for both sides in different halves to make up numbers. Six tub baths take part in the Taddiport Tub Race which Raymond Short wins for the 3rd time.
15	7	1954	The Bishop of Exeter rehallows the shrine of St.Urith at Chittlehampton. The new primary school at Forches Estate in Barnstaple is opened.
22	7	1954	Lord Reith, former BBC Director General, is the speaker at Shebbear College Open Day. An application by 6 traders in Lynton to open their shops on a Sunday is rejected by Devon County Council.
29	7	1954	Walter May is given permission to re-open an old slaughterhouse at 34 Boutport Street in Barnstaple. Four local Mayors and their councils attend a Barnstaple church service to mark the opening of the Devon Festival of Arts.
5	8	1954	The recent derationing of meat is the main theme of Chulmleigh Carnival procession. The cost of clearing wartime barbed wire on Northam Burrows is put at £200.
12	8	1954	A full petrol tanker crashes at Umberleigh but luckily does not explode. Sir William Williams of Pilton is banned from driving for 3 years after being found drunk at the wheel.
19	8	1954	Conditions at the Tyrrel Hospital in Ilfracombe are said to be 'pandemonium and chaotic'. Female patients in the North Devon Infirmary, Barnstaple are given permission to smoke cigarettes and pipes in bed.
26	8	1954	Hundreds of rabbits who have died from myxomatosis are buried in lime filled pits at South Molton. A plague of wasps hits Combe Martin and many children are stung on the beach.
2	9	1954	Student nurses at the North Devon Infirmary react angrily to complaints that they do nothing in their spare time 'but go dancing.' Local farmers hire National Servicemen to help get in the harvest.
9	9	1954	Jon Pertwee and Alma Cogan top the bill at an Ilfracombe Variety Show. Barnstaple spends £30,000 on reconstructing the town's cattle market.
16	9	1954	Teddy Boys are alleged to have beaten up four boys at Barnstaple Fair. Northam town council ask for more groynes to be built to 'save the pebble ridge' at Westward Ho!
23	9	1954	Some 10,000 people visit Chivenor RAF station for its Battle of Britain 'at home' day. Three boys who vandalised a fishing hut at Torrington are 'given a hiding' by their fathers.
30	9	1954	North Devon farmers record their worst corn harvest for 80 years owing to poor weather. A message from the Queen is sent to Torrington to celebrate its 400th anniversary as a borough.
7	10	1954	All wells in Westleigh are said to be 'badly contaminated' and are to be closed. Non-Catholic children are banned from attending Stella Maris Convent school in Bideford.
14	10	1954	38 local branches of the Agricultural Workers Union demand an increase in their members' basic wage of £6 per week. Bideford magistrates announce they are determined to 'stamp out crime by spivs, hooligans and Teddy boys.'
21	10	1954	A new village hall at Meddon which cost £1360 to build is opened. South Molton gas works is to close under rationalisation plans.
28	10	1954	Twelve women are attending evening classes in carpentry at Hartland. The Ministry of Transport announce they favour the widening of Barnstaple Long Bridge over the building of a new one.
4	11	1954	A bottle containing a message from a man in Kentucky, USA is found washed up on Saunton Sands. Ilfracombe council approve a changeover from gas to electricity in its street lights.
11	11	1954	A proposal to allow 16 year olds to join Combe Martin Womens Institute is defeated. The old Lundy supply boat m.v.Livonia fails to attract any bids at auction.
18	11	1954	Dr.Dubery of Chittlehampton is gaoled for 3 years after trying to blackmail one of his patients. A tramp described as 'a nuisance and a pest' to Berrynarbor residents is gaoled for a month.
25	11	1954	Northam council asks beach hut owners to 'standardise' their buildings so that they all match. A new skittle alley is built at the village hall in Abbotsham by local skittlers.
2	12	1954	A French fishing boat with a crew of 16 'clog wearing sailors' seeks shelter at Bideford during a storm. Fullabrook Farm, West Down is badly damaged by an 80 mph whirlwind.
9	12	1954	Bideford publicans say their customers are buying less beer as they are spending their money on new televisions. 25 trees are to be removed from Torrington cemetery to make more room for burials.
16	12	1954	Bideford Secondary Modern School is described by headmaster J.Down as being 'really desperately overcrowded.' Taw mussels could be eaten if Fremington and Appledore are provided with sewage purification plants it is claimed.
23	12	1954	Only one stallholder attends Torrington's Christmas Market. Lynton town council stop the removal of sand from Blacklands beach to safeguard the coast.
30	12	1954	A plan to site caravans at the Tennis Courts in Instow could lead to the village becoming 'a miniature Blackpool' it is claimed. Eight bodies are washed ashore in North Devon following massive gales some weeks before.
6	1	1955	The Mayor of Bideford distributes fifty 2 lb loaves of bread to 'deserving people' under the terms of John Andrews' 1605 will. George Lamey, coxswain of the Clovelly lifeboat, is presented with the thanks of the RNLI on vellum for the 3rd time.
13	1	1955	Ilfracombe Carnival was 'hated like poison' by some traders in the town and one offers £50 if it is not held. The last horse drawn plough in use in Georgeham is taken to the parish church for the annual Plough Service.
20	1	1955	A 3 bedroomed detached bungalow in Parracombe is for sale at £1150. The 30th annual supper of the Burrington Comrades' Club is held.
27	1	1955	A Georgeham resident who applied for a council house in 1947 is still on the waiting list. Bideford town council are told 'to be more progressive' in solving seasonal unemployment in the town.
3	2	1955	St.Mary's church in Bishopsnympton is found to be infested with death watch beetle. A council workman is injured following a mysterious explosion at Fremington parish rubbish dump.
10	2	1955	A plan to build a car park out into the River Torridge by Tanton's Hotel in Bideford is examined by the town council. The Mayor of Torrington J.Lang believes 'cremation would be made compulsory within the next 25 or 30 years.'
17	2	1955	Alice Willes pays £200 to settle a libel case after she calls Braddick's holiday camp at Westward Ho! a 'low class slum.' Albion Harman owner of Lundy announces he is to 'spruce up' the island but this would not be 'commercialisation in its nasty sense.'
24	2	1955	Cheap imports from China are threatening the Torrington glovemaking industry. C.Trevisick proprietor of Ilfracombe Zoo is mauled by one of his own lions.
3	3	1955	The artist Reg Lloyd moves to Bideford and converts a house on the Strand to a studio. West Buckland is told it will have to wait another 2-3 years to get mains water.
10	3	1955	Lundy Island issues a new commemorative series of 14 stamps. The 200 year old turret clock in The Square at South Molton stops following the resignation of the winder W.J.Lock.
17	3	1955	300 people in Appledore sign a petition against a rise in bus fares by the Southern National bus company. Bideford shopkeepers are criticised by the council for not decorating their premises during Regatta Week.
24	3	1955	Twelve year old Brian Copp of Torrington is seriously injured after being blown along for 70 yards during a huge storm. Barnstaple magistrates refuse to allow local cinemas to open on Good Friday.
31	3	1955	The Journal carries news on its front page for the first time in 131 years. Combe Martin's two council employees cost £671 per annum - and are thought to be too dear.
6	4	1955	Florence Lake is to be the first ever female Mayor of Torrington. North Devon Cine Club plan to make a film based around a 1929 Austin 7.
14	4	1955	Ilfracombe Pier sees the arrival of almost 1000 trippers aboard White Funnel Pleasure Steamers. 27 Richmond Street, Barnstaple, a 3 bedroomed end terrace house, is for sale at £600. Kipling College at Westward Ho! is given a new lease of life when a financial rescue package is put together. David Goodwin of High Bickington wins a Design Council award for his 'perch seat' which is being used at Heathrow and Gatwick.
21	4	1955	Yelland Power Station is officially opened by Earl Fortescue. Lapford village hall is almost entirely destroyed by fire.
28	4	1955	A proposal to build a new bridge over the River Taw by Rock Park in Barnstaple is opposed by the town council. 'Milk tablets' introduced to replace free milk in Bradworthy schools are thrown away by the children.
5	5	1955	William Moore has been attending Woolsery Methodist Sunday School anniversaries for 90 years. Special concessionary rates of £3.25 a week are offered by hotels in Ilfracombe to attract 850 pensioners.
12	5	1955	The first parish council election to be held in Landkey for 46 years sees an 86% turnout. The 'Gorgeous Dinah Dee and her All-Girl's Orchestra' and 'the sensational Pocket size Sugar Joan Williams' appear at Queen's Hall, Barnstaple
19	5	1955	The 'early tourism season' at Ilfracombe is ruined when a general election is announced and people decide to stay home and vote. The sewage system at Marwood is described by the local W.I. as 'a living disgrace.'
26	5	1955	Saunton Sands is to be 're-combed' for mines following the discovery of 5 over the last week. Building materials are flown to Lundy to be used in repairs to the island's damaged church.
2	6	1955	Barnstaple's new £25,000 cattle market is opened by the Minister of Agriculture Mr.Heathcoat Amory. The foundation stone of St.Paul's church is laid at Sticklepath in Barnstaple.
9	6	1955	'Supersonic bangs' from aircraft are said to have given 2 people heart attacks in North Devon. Combe Martin strawberry growers decide to send their fruit by road rather than rail as it is cheaper.
16	6	1955	A family of five living in one room in Ilfracombe are refused a council house. The Devon Festival of Arts sees the Amadeus String Quartet playing at the Palace Theatre in Bideford.
23	6	1955	South Molton Chamber of Commerce take a solicitor's advice as to the legality of 'No Parking' signs in the town. The local Medical Officer of Health warns of an outbreak of 'television eye' amongst Devon schoolchildren.
30	6	1955	Barnstaple town council oppose the introduction of equal pay for women by 15 votes to 6. A local inquiry is held into plans to turn Watermouth Castle into a holiday centre and caravan park.
7	7	1955	A mink farm is opened in Northam with sixty animals. An Ilfracombe vicar complains of posters advertising a locally staged play 'The Respectable Prostitute.'
14	7	1955	Holiday makers at Croyde help local farmers bring in a bumper hay crop. A plan to build a cable car from Larkstone Beach to Hillsborough in Ilfracombe is denounced as a 'damp squib.'
21	7	1955	Lack of public support sees a loss of £3000 on the summer season at the Queen's Hall Theatre in Barnstaple. Rival petitions for and against children's swings at Woolacombe are presented to the local council.
28	7	1955	93 houses in Bideford and 301 in Barnstaple are identified as slums requiring demolition. Clive Dunn and Ronnie Corbett appear in a variety show at Ilfracombe's Victoria Pavilion.
4	8	1955	Tourists to Combe Martin complain when the annual carnival causes a 2 hour traffic jam in the village. Lynton council buy the old Lynmouth school for £500 and plan to turn it into 2 cottages.
11	8	1955	A newly formed Barnstaple female football team plays the Combe Martin Amazons to raise funds for the male club. The 150 strong Bideford Townswomen's Guild threaten to boycott any greengrocer or butcher not displaying price tickets.
18	8	1955	The Lord of Northam Manor refuses to provide toilets on Northam Burrows as 'there were no means of drainage.' 'Special precautions' are put in place along the North Devon coast to catch IRA men intent on attacking local service camps.
25	8	1955	The new Catholic church in Chulmleigh is blessed by the Bishop of Plymouth. The Lundy aeroplane ferry is forced to land at sea after its engine cuts out - passengers are transferred to a passing Danish ship.
1	9	1955	The very hot weather leads to warnings that restrictions on water supplies will have to be introduced in N.Devon. A 20 room business premise in Barnstaple High Street is for sale at £4000.
8	9	1955	Nine local men in Ilfracombe launch a 'crusade' to keep the town 'in the forefront of seaside resorts.' The cliffs at Welcombe Mouth are said to be covered with 'hideous dumps of tins, cans and glass.'
15	9	1955	Barnstaple Fair bans striptease shows and nude photograph displays following pressure from local churches. Bideford's wartime market restaurant is suggested as a new public hall for the town.
22	9	1955	William Anderson wills a hall in Vernon's Lane to the people of Appledore. A record 11,000 people attend RAF Chivenor's 'At Home' air display.
29	9	1955	The BBC make a radio programme recording a voyage of the Kathleen and May from Appledore to Cork. New road widening plans in Barnstaple will solve the town's traffic problems it is claimed.
6	10	1955	'Wanton damage' to the locks of public toilets in Torrington costs the council £3.87 in just 2 months. N.Devon Conservative party demand action against 'known Communists.'
13	10	1955	The Reverend J.Lucas of Weare Giffard is given a new £500 car as a gift from his parishioners. Braunton is facing a major problem from cow dung littering its streets - and the council cannot find a new street sweeper.
20	10	1955	Ilfracombe is said to be the only town in England not allowing Sunday opening of shops in the 'season'. The head of Edgehill College in Bideford denounces children's comics containing 'crude and vivid pictures of gruesome details and episodes ... of violence and brutality.'
27	10	1955	The jewellery shop of Hill & Sons in Joy Street, Barnstaple is attacked by a smash and grab raiders on a bicycle who steals stock worth £150. James Patterson, principal of Bideford School of Art, calls for a pool for model boat enthusiasts.
3	11	1955	Churches in Barnstaple refuse to co-operate in staging their Christmas services. An Instow woman is gaoled for two days after admitting bigamy.
10	11	1955	Ilfracombe Town Band refuse to take part in the town's Remembrance Day parade as they feel 'ignored.' East Down Manor house is stripped by thieves of half a ton of lead in one night.
17	11	1955	A smash and grab raid on Thomas & Son's jeweller's shop in Bideford's Mill Street sees thieves escape with £500 worth of goods. A Combe Martin electrician announces a plan to erect a communal TV aerial to serve the whole village.
24	11	1955	The South Molton area is hit by an inexplicable 'big bang' like an earthquake. Folk dancing is fostered in Bideford as 'a counter to television.'
1	12	1955	Barnstaple Methodists condemn under age drinking and Communism. Two Woolacombe men wade into the sea and catch 600 mullet at one time using nets.
8	12	1955	Ilfracombe town council drop plans to construct a tree and bush maze at Bicclescombe Park. Barnstaple Football Club approach Don Revie to manage them - but cannot afford his £30,000 fee.
15	12	1955	N.Devon teachers are to check on the level of violence of films showing in Saturday morning cinema clubs. Barnstaple ratepayers vote by 430 to 223 to allow cinemas to open on Sundays.
22	12	1955	Vibrations from passing lorries lead to the imminent collapse of a cottage at Swimbridge. An underground cavern is discovered by workmen repairing a sea wall opposite the Instow Yacht Club.
29	12	1955	Barnstaple Market stallholders sell out by 11 a.m. due to the Christmas rush. A visitor to Berrynarbor reports seeing a UFO over the village on Boxing Day.
5	1	1956	Housewives in the Chanters Lane area of Bideford have to wear 'gumboots' when hanging up washing owing to flooding being so common. Litchdon Street in Barnstaple is made one way to solve traffic problems in The Square.
12	1	1956	Ilfracombe town council are to borrow £16,900 to modernise the Alexandra Theatre. A drunken 77 year old tramp falls over Bideford Quay and dies from a broken neck.
19	1	1956	Barnstaple town council is urged to close the footpath from Bickington to Anchor Woods used by courting couples. Plans are announced to build a miniature railway along part of the old route of the Bideford-Westward Ho! rail line.
26	1	1956	Plans are announced to move Barnstaple bus station from the Strand to North Walk to 'stop traffic jams.' Ilfracombe instals electric lights along part of High Street and Wilder Road.
2	2	1956	North Devon Cine Club plan to make a film showing the town being attacked by 'a monster menace from outer space.' 3' long stalactites are found in an old well at Stoke Rivers.
9	2	1956	An Ilfracombe councillor condemns moves to light the town's toilets as a 'howling disgrace'. Braunton people are said to be too apathetic to put on a carnival when only 6 turn up to a planning meeting.
16	2	1956	West Indian girls are to come to the N.Devon Infirmary in Barnstaple to train as nurses. Barnstaple Rural District Council reject plans by W.Blackmore & Sons to build a shipbuilding yard at Southcott lime kiln, Westleigh.
23	2	1956	Two Combe Martin girls aged 11 and 13 arrested for theft are given a 2 year long 9 pm curfew. Local mothers are said to be disgusted that their sons have to leave the area to gain jobs.
1	3	1956	A football game between Appledore and Clovelly is abandoned when 10 Appledore players walk off in solidarity with one of their players who had been sent off. Hollerday House, Lynton, once home of Sir George Newnes, is demolished.
8	3	1956	A Bideford councillor attacks a salary increase for the town librarian of 3/- to 3/3 per hour. The wreck of The Fairy Queen reappears at Saunton when waves wash away sand from the remaining timbers.
15	3	1956	Jack Evans, Lundy lighthouse keeper, marries the island's gardener Dorothy Caldwell. 140 First World War veterans from the 1/6th Devons, plus 2 Boer War veterans, attend the annual regimental dinner in Barnstaple.
22	3	1956	10 year old Robert Cann of Appledore is the youngest ever recipient of an RNLI bravery award - given for saving 2 boys from drowning. A new Ford Popular car costs £275 at Taw Garages in Barnstaple.
28	3	1956	The Barnstaple Junction rail station catches fire but it is extinguished before too much damage is done. A flu epidemic is blamed for stopping a predicted influx of old age pensioner tourist in Ilfracombe.
5	4	1956	Gorse fires threaten both Lee Abbey at Lynton and Spreacombe Wood in Braunton but are extinguished in time. 'Pin up' Sabrina visits Ilfracombe and is mobbed by a crowd asking for her autograph.
12	4	1956	A Hawker Hunter jet from RAF Chivenor crashes into the R.Taw and the pilot is killed John Christie of Tapeley Park gives land to extend Instow church yard.
19	4	1956	South Molton Womens Institute are ignoring an order from national HQ not to have prayers at meetings. Whiteland Engineering Ltd. open a mechanical engineering factory at East-the-Water, Bideford employing 25.
26	4	1956	A Bideford man is fined £2 for using 'foul language' on the Quay. Small attendances at the Barnstaple Electors' Association are blamed on television.
3	5	1956	Ilfracombe council sends out a letter notifying tenants of a rent increase which is described as 'cold blooded.' Shopkeepers in Bideford ask that the Pannier Market be turned into a car park.
10	5	1956	The Queen visits Barnstaple and 5000 children pack the Pannier Market waving flags and singing the National Anthem. 93 year old Mrs.L.Richards of Barnstaple sees a member of the Royal Family for the first time.
17	5	1956	Private patients are banned from having X rays taken at local NHS hospitals. 600,000 bees belonging to F.J.Moore are auctioned at Kingsnympton.
24	5	1956	Residents at Bishopsnympton are banned from using hosepipes owing to a water shortage. The Victoria Pavilion in Ilfracombe features the 'Delightfully Costumed' show 'Gay Parade.'
31	5	1956	Princess Alexandra visits South Molton and stays at Castle Hill. Jantzens are to open a factory in Barnstaple employing 250 'girls' making swimsuits.
7	6	1956	The War Office is asked to guarantee the safety of Saunton Sands after two WWII mines are discovered there. R.L.Knight Ltd. Show their film of 'The Royal Visit to Barnstaple' in the Queen's Hall.
14	6	1956	Barnstaple town council announce they are to demolish 670 'slum' houses in the town. Rumours that 'a well organised call girl racket' exists in Bideford are officially denied by the police.
21	6	1956	Bideford bans parking in Mill Street and Allhalland Street. A move to provide free parking at Appledore's Churchfield car park is defeated.
28	6	1956	The first crematorium planned for North Devon is held up by Government restrictions on borrowing by local councils. The Carnival Queen's party at Wear Giffard is hit by measles.
5	7	1956	Forches, Yeo Vale and the Barbican areas of Barnstaple are flooded following a cloudburst. Michael Leach establishes a 'handicraft pottery' at Yelland.
12	7	1956	A 1932 Standard 9 car is for sale in Prixford for £20. Fremington parish churchyard is said to be reaching capacity.
19	7	1956	The water supply in Georgeham and Braunton is said to be 'abominable' and to contain sewage. A detached 3 bedroom bungalow with 2 acres of land near Ilfracombe is for sale at £1850.
26	7	1956	Chulmleigh Secondary Modern School is so overcrowded the Headmaster's study is used for medical inspections. Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan visits Barnstaple to speak at a Conservative rally.
2	8	1956	An 80 mph gale hits North Devon and destroys nearly all the beach huts at Saunton. Brigadier D.Anstey, the local Civil Defence officer, says the Russians are a 'rough lot' who could bomb North Devon.
9	8	1956	So many tourists come to North Devon that many have to sleep in their cars or on the beaches. The Watermouth estate at Berrynarber opens to the public.
16	8	1956	A new film 'High Flight' is partly shot on location at RAF Chivenor. Residents of Eastbourne Terrace, Westward Ho! Are so fed up with playing host to courting couples they suggest changing the name to 'Lovers Lane'.
23	8	1956	A goods train is derailed near Swimbridge station after its brakes fail. An Army amphibious vehicle crashes into the Appledore lifeboat Violet Armstrong and badly damages it.
30	8	1956	Counterfeit 2/- and 2/6 pieces appear in Ilfracombe shops. Plans are announced to build a new church at Sentry Corner in Bideford to serve the new estates there.
6	9	1956	The Under 18 crew of the Bideford Athletic Club is disbanded following 'indiscipline' at regattas. A 60' long whale is washed ashore near Brandy Cove, Ilfracombe.
13	9	1956	The Square in Barnstaple is inundated with ants - both the flying and ground based type. A self-binder is taken apart and transported from Hartland to Lundy where it is re-assembled for use.
20	9	1956	Showmen running Barnstaple Fair ban all rock and roll music saying 'We do not believe in the rubbish.' A new automatic telephone exchange with 150 lines opens in Fremington.
27	9	1956	Bideford council announce plans to demolish slum houses at Vinegar Hill. Teddy boys and rock and roll are described as 'the curse of the country' by Cllr.J.Andrews of Barnstaple Rural District Council.
4	10	1956	The Ring O'Bells pub at Winkleigh is the prize in a national newspaper competition. A bailey bridge erected at Barbrook Mill following the Lynmouth flood disaster is finally removed.
11	10	1956	Morthoe council abandons a meeting when their building is stoned by youths. A Chivenor based Vampire jet crashes at Filleigh and the pilot dies.
18	10	1956	The crowd at the Barnstaple Swimming Club annual prize presentation and dance chant 'Rock, rock, rock' demanding the band play rock and roll. A plan to build 28 houses at Limers Lane, Northam is turned down.
25	10	1956	Braunton Marshes are said to have a 'serious infestation' of rabbits. Devon County Council discuss whether to build a new secondary school at Hartland.
1	11	1956	Braunton Scouts' new HQ is officially opened. Two Nigerian students attend North Devon Technical College to do A-levels before entering a medical school.
8	11	1956	Premium Bonds go on sale and some £6000 worth are sold in 3 days in North Devon. A 19 year old Bideford commando is killed when British troops invade Egypt during the 'Suez Crisis.'
15	11	1956	Following the Russian invasion of Hungary huge amounts of relief clothing are collected in North Devon for refugees. A new village hall is being built in Wear Giffard at a cost of £3000.
22	11	1956	The South Molton police station in South Street catches fire but is saved by the local fire brigade. Sister Dominic, head of Bideford's Stella Maris School warns her pupils 'not to become too sophisticated'.
29	11	1956	A shortage of steel sees 30 Appledore shipbuilders laid off by Messrs.P.K.Harris. A petition against closure of the village school is signed by virtually every villager in Heanton Punchardon.
6	12	1956	Bideford town council bans Sunday cricket on the basis it interferes with religion. Two new blocks of housing are built at RAF Chivenor to replace WW2 billets.
13	12	1956	Woolaways submit plans to build 300 houses at Raleigh Park in Barnstaple. Combe Martin parish council are to erect 144 yards of fencing at Cobblers Park to stop children falling over the cliff.
20	12	1956	An Ilfracombe man abandons 2 of his children at the local council office in a protest at not being given a council house. Appledore slipway is said to be badly in need of repair.
28	12	1956	Boots shop in High Street, Barnstaple is badly damaged by fire. Eight boats sink at their moorings in Appledore during a Christmas Day gale.
3	1	1957	Rock & roll music is played at the Torridge Junior Festival Society's New Year Party at Bideford. Petrol rationing lowers attendance at the Lynton New Year's Eve Dance.
10	1	1957	Bideford town council vote to allow Sunday cricket in Victoria Park. Arlington church authorities sell a 1532 alms dish for £5000.
17	1	1957	Over 1000 people are unemployed in North Devon - the 'gravest slump since the thirties.' Council houses in Kingsnympton and Braunton reserved for Hungarian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion stand empty.
24	1	1957	A Clovelly-Torrington football match is stopped after Clovelly supporters threaten Torrington fans. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Peter Thorneycroft speaks to local Tories in the Queen's Hall, Barnstaple.
31	1	1957	Messrs Woolaways apply to build 390 bungalows at Raleigh Park, Pilton but the council decide to save the site for a new hospital. The Palace Cinema, Bideford is showing 'Shake, Rattle and Rock' which stars Fats Domino.
7	2	1957	Messrs Blackmore & Sons announce plans to build a new shipyard at Southcott in Westleigh. In Braunton a search is made at Crow Point to discover the site of the medieval chapel of St.Anne.
14	2	1957	Ilfracombe Carnival has so few volunteer helpers that it is in danger of fading away. T.Coward shows his colour film of 'Bird Life on Lundy' to the Bideford Camera Club.
21	2	1957	Hundreds of timber planks wash ashore at Croyde and Saunton and local farmers salvage them using tractors. The newly built Hartland Magnetic Observatory begins operating.
28	2	1957	1500 Bideford people sign a petition asking that old age pensions be raised to £3 a week. Barnstaple Conservatives say they are 'all for teenagers and rock-n-roll.'
7	3	1957	Witheridge churchgoers protest at an ice cream van that regularly disrupts services with its horn. A British Legion dinner at High Bickington is warned about the 'selfishness' and lust for power' of Communists.
14	3	1957	South Molton town council reject plans to close 9 of the town's 19 public footpaths. North Devon police cars are to be fitted with wireless sets.
21	3	1957	300 men at Bideford and Appledore shipyards go on strike to raise their wages of £8.50 a week. W.Mortimer of Chulmleigh introduces an automated feather plucking machine in his poultry factory.
28	3	1957	Allegations of corruption in Barnstaple are made; the town that 'a little circle of people which should be broken up by the police.' Lightning destroys a flag staff on top of Winkleigh church.
4	4	1957	Countess Fortescue resigns as head of the local RSPCA following anti-hunt protests. Barnstaple students hoist the Russian flag over Barnstaple Grammar School on their Rag Day.
11	4	1957	Bideford Scouts give up their traditional hats in favour of berets. Rumours sweep Braunton that RAF Chivenor is to close.
17	4	1957	At Combe Martin strawberry growers are hit by very sharp frosts. A Sticklepath man, fed up with flies from the nearby rubbish dump, sends 4 'filled' fly papers to the Minister of Health.
24	4	1957	200 South Molton residents petition their MP to stop further nuclear bomb testing. Three seventeenth century thatched cottages at Chivenor are demolished as 'slums'.
2	5	1957	Plans are announced to widen the Barnstaple Long Bridge. Ilfracombe's first post war Trades Fair and Exhibition is to be opened by Yana 'the television singer'.
9	5	1957	300 female glovemakers at Torrington and Bideford are either unemployed or on short time. In Bideford 19 people are arrested following a police raid on an illegal betting shop in High Street.
16	5	1957	It is announced that ITV's commercial television is likely to be available in North Devon by Christmas. TV cameras are to film a time trial between a sheep shearer and a human barber at the New Inn, Muddiford.
23	5	1957	Children are picnicking and frying food on open fires at Fremington rubbish dump. Phantom horses are said to be haunting Landkey churchyard.
30	5	1957	New fangled 'frozen food' is hitting Combe Martin's market gardening industry. The new Barnstaple Teenage Club is to have 'instruction in make up, hair styling and dress sense.'
6	6	1957	The League of Empire Loyalists disrupt a speech in Barnstaple by Jo Grimond, leader of the Liberal Party. The Cresta Milk Bar, Braunton announces it can supply a 'Mobile Milk Bar' to fetes.
13	6	1957	Sir Dennis Stucley applies for permission to pull down Hartland Abbey as the rates are too high. Mortuaries at Clovelly, Horns Cross and Hartland are to be closed.
20	6	1957	A prankster puts soap flakes in the fountain at Runnymede Gardens, Ilfracombe. The Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group with Nancy Whiskey play at the Queen's Hall, Barnstaple.
27	6	1957	A man and a girl catch polio at Ilfracombe. A new bungalow on the Orchard estate at Yelland costs £2125.
4	7	1957	A golden cigar shaped UFO is seen over Ilfracombe travelling towards South Wales. North Devon Cine Club make a comedy film in Barnstaple using 8 cameras.
11	7	1957	An out-of-control coach crashes into a tailor's shop in High Street, Ilfracombe and a man is killed. 'Young men and women were dancing in the nude on the slipway and singing loudly' following a dance at Westward Ho!
18	7	1957	An Ilfracombe hotelier warns 'Teddy Boys' and 'Youthful Spivs' to stay away from local dances. The Journal opens its new office buildings in Barnstaple High Street.
25	7	1957	Watermouth Castle is to be converted into a 'major tourist attraction'. A play put on at the Queen's Hall in Barnstaple is described as 'a dismal piece of ranting'.
1	8	1957	The glove factory of Dent Allcroft & Co at Newport, Barnstaple closes with the loss of 40 jobs. Bideford town council is to demolish 'slums' in Higher Gunstone, Honestone Street and Bull Hill.
8	8	1957	A new sewage works at Instow is held up by the discovery of quicksand at the site. At Appledore Horace Ford warns that locals will throw 'No Parking' signs in the Torridge due to a lack of parking spaces.
15	8	1957	ITV programmes are picked up at Bideford due to 'freak reception'. Braunton people complain that 'cows are fouling local pavements'.
22	8	1957	Two Barnstaple shops have their safes 'blown' with gelignite by thieves over one weekend. Police will keep 'strict watch' over a new juke box at the Coach House Inn at Ilfracombe.
29	8	1957	'Siamese twin budgerigars' are born at Swimbridge; their owner separates them using scissors. Potato growers on Braunton Great Field 'dump' their crop owing to low prices.
5	9	1957	Torrington town council are accused of holding too many meetings in secret. South Molton councillors discuss putting a giant TV aerial on the town hall to obtain better reception for local people.
12	9	1957	An assistant lighthouse keeper on Lundy is arrested for assaulting his workmate. A 'knife throwing' craze springs up among teenagers at South Molton.
19	9	1957	The committee of the Bideford OAP Association resign over 'differences' aired at a 300 strong meeting in the Town Hall. Foot and mouth is confirmed at Lynton and a 'standstill order' is put in place over Exmoor.
26	9	1957	A massive storm destroys part of the quay wall at Appledore and causes a cliff fall at Lantern Hill, Ilfracombe. Asian flu hits 225 of the 390 pupils at the Barnstaple Girls' Grammar School.
3	10	1957	Over 800 'suggestive' postcards seized by Ilfracombe police are ordered to be destroyed. Some 1000 flint implements are discovered on Lundy.
10	10	1957	No-one knows who owns Tawstock's village pump sited at Holywell School. Hele school with just 12 pupils is described as 'the most expensive school in Devon' and is to be closed.
17	10	1957	Observers at Barnstaple, Combe Martin and Ilfracombe see newly launched Russian 'sputniks' with the naked eye. New premises of Taw Garage in Barnstaple are opened by TV personality Eamonn Andrews.
24	10	1957	Five local GPO engineers are rescued after being marooned on Lundy for a week. Two cows at Clovelly, recently purchased from Cumberland, have their milk condemned as 'atomic' following an accident at Windscale nuclear power station.
31	10	1957	An old cemetery at Garden Court, Barnstaple is to be levelled with bones 'cremated and scattered'. A new half-crown is put under the foundation stone of Braunton's new Catholic church.
7	11	1957	44 pupils travel daily on a 26 seat bus taking them from Welcombe to Hartland. A large gap appears in the pebble ridge at Westward Ho! by the sixth tee of the golf course.
14	11	1957	The Gaumont cinema at Ilfracombe which was built in 1921 closes as the town is 'as dead as a dodo.' In the FA Cup Bideford play Yeovil and earn £257 in gate fees.
21	11	1957	A Barnstaple woman finds a stick of gelignite in some coal she is about to light. Ilfracombe's own skiffle group 'The Rockets' give their first public performance.
28	11	1957	A new Ford Popular is for sale in Barnstaple at £443.17.0. Holsworthy Carnival has 30 floats many of them on the theme of 'Space Travel'.
5	12	1957	A deer shoot in the Lyn Valley is foiled by a group of 'vigilantes' who draw the animals away. West Anstey councillors explore the idea of sinking a well to overcome water shortages.
12	12	1957	South Molton town council are trying to find out where 12 Chippendale chairs and some silver plate they own have gone. Bottles of 1947 vintage port are on sale at Snell's in Ilfracombe at £1.25 each.
19	12	1957	Gravestones at Bideford's Old Town cemetery are repositioned to create a children's playground. The Milky Way CafÃ© in Barnstaple loses its juke box licence after it is used on Sundays.
24	12	1957	Locals wait to catch a sight of the 'White Lady' ghost at Abbey Lodge, Pilton. Holsworthy church tower is said to be in imminent danger of collapse due to rusted ironwork.
31	12	1957	The 19 patients in Hawley Hospital, Barnstaple can now listen to their own hospital radio. An advert for motor mechanics in North Devon offers 23p an hour 'for right man.'
2	1	1958	Barnstaple is to get an early form of cable TV - it will cost householders £6 a year. Bideford church clock fails to strike at midnight on New Year's Eve.
9	1	1958	Fremington Vicarage is burnt down but police save all the vicar's pets. Ilfracombe is to experiment with TV advertising to attract extra visitors.
16	1	1958	Barnstaple School of Art buildings are so bad they are described as 'Fagin's Scullery'. Hele Primary School in Ilfracombe is permanently closed one day before the 17 pupils are due back from holiday.
23	1	1958	Sir William Williams of Upcott House near Barnstaple is challenged to a duel using riding crops by the brother of a woman he insults. New 2 bedroom bungalows on the Home Farm Estate at Fremington are on sale at £1650.
30	1	1958	Radio star Wilfred Pickles visits Bideford and stages his 'Have a Go' show from the Church Institute. 1000 gloveworkers in North Devon have their application for a wage rise rejected by their employers.
6	2	1958	Braunton is warned that it faces a 'risk of disease' unless it builds a new sewage works. Ilfracombe clergymen issue leaflets warning people about 'propaganda' from attendees at a 3 day conference of Jehova's Witnesses in the town.
13	2	1958	Oswald Browning, head teacher at Barnstaple Boys' Bluecoat Primary School, condemns modern teaching methods. Combe Martin parish council ban the local WI from holding a Fun Fair in the village.
20	2	1958	Shipowners throughout the world are considering laying up spare ships in the River Torridge following a trade recession. Littleham school managers start a fight to keep their school open.
27	2	1958	Old mines at North Molton are searched for traces of uranium. A number of houses in Azes Lane and Hardaway Head, Barnstaple are scheduled for demolition as slums.
6	3	1958	Parish councillors at Lynmouth reject plans to turn the Pavilion into a slot machine entertainment centre. The head of Braunton's basket factory says the craft is dying as youngsters are not interested in learning it.
13	3	1958	It is suggested that local clay could be used to start a porcelain industry in Bideford. The old thatched bandstand in Rock Park, Barnstaple is demolished after being attacked by dearth watch beetle.
20	3	1958	The Barnstaple Co-op Society opens a supermarket at 50 High Street, Barnstaple. South Molton Scouts plant 2 acres of pine at Higher Wompford on land they use for camping.
27	3	1958	Georgeham residents allege there is discrimination over who is buried in the old and new parish churchyards. The Forestry Commission's plan to plant 1000 acres of trees on Exmoor is opposed by local councils.
2	4	1958	Mark Bonham-Carter wins the Torrington by-election for the Liberals with a majority of 219. Farmers are said to have illegally removed 'ancient stone circles' from the Valley of the Rocks at Lynton.
9	4	1958	Instow Army camp is put on alert after possible IRA men halt outside it. Free parking is introduced into Bideford - but local traders fill all the spaces with their vehicles.
17	4	1958	Ilfracombe Development Organisation is to build a new boating pool on the sea front. A meeting in Bideford's Pannier Market votes by 401 to 179 to allow films to be shown in the town on Sundays.
24	4	1958	The BBC announces plans to film this year's Torrington May Fair. An application by Ilfracombe cafÃ© owner Anthony Boni to install a juke box is refused.
1	5	1958	Barnstaple based Devon Concrete Works Ltd wins the contract to supply concrete to build Hinkley Point nuclear power station. TV and radio stars Cliff Michelmore and his wife Jean Metcalfe holiday at Hunter's Inn.
8	5	1958	The Plaza Cinema at Braunton introduces bingo sessions 'in an effort to regain audiences captured by television'. The Queen Mother visits Lundy - the first ever Royal visitor.
15	5	1958	A Bideford town council election is decided by the toss of a coin when 2 candidates both get 1195 votes. Combe Martin's main street 'is worse than the neglected entrance to a farm' according to a local councillor.
22	5	1958	Soot from Yelland power station is covering local washing lines and crops. North Devon Scouts put on a Jubilee Review but refuse to have any 'skiffle or rock-'n-roll' in the show.
29	5	1958	Belmont Boy's School in Bickington becomes a limited company. South Molton British Legion Whitsun Fete features a knobbly knees context and a demonstration from the town's 'Rock-n-Roll Club'.
5	6	1958	Plans are announced to establish a 'national holiday camp for teenagers' in Ilfracombe Hartland parish council ask that white lines be painted in the town square to mark parking places.
12	6	1958	TV star Johnny Morris opens the Bideford Traders' Jubilee Exhibition. A Hunter jet fighter from Chivenor crashes on to Braunton Marshes and its pilot is killed.
19	6	1958	Lord Fortescue and his wife die within 4 days of each other. High Bickington parish council vote to erect 7 electric lights in the village to help parking.
26	6	1958	Appledore Market is said to be infested with rats. Rock and roll dances are banned from Abbotsham village hall owing to the fragile state of the building.
3	7	1958	Plans to revive life drama at Barnstaple's Queen's Hall are approved by the town council. A 3 storied house in Northam is for sale at £1000 'or near offer'.
10	7	1958	An 18 year old nurse is mauled by a bear at Ilfracombe Zoo. The old railway bridge at Nuttaberry, Bideford is demolished and a new one erected.
17	7	1958	Some 1300 'cartoon postcards' are seized from a Westward Ho! shop as obscene. Litter on Instow beach is said to be worse than ever before with discarded paper forking 'balls of mud'.
24	7	1958	The launch of a tug, the Hazelgarth at Appledore Shipyard needs 2 bottles of champagne as it gets stuck the first time. The International Festival of Folk Dancing held in Barnstaple is a 'cultural and financial success'.
31	7	1958	Twelve men are taken on by a new business making salmon 'flies' in Bideford. Local MP James Lindsey opens Chulmleigh Fair but his speech is drowned out by the South Molton Town Band.
7	8	1958	August Bank Holiday in North Devon sees the sun shining for just 6 minutes. Causeway Cottages in Burrington are badly damaged by fire.
14	8	1958	Torrington skiffle group the Matadors are to appear on BBC TV whilst playing at Iddesleigh. Allotments in South Molton are going to 'rack and ruin' as few are willing to take them on.
21	8	1958	A freak storm at Combe Martin sees the main street under 3' of water. For the second year running Herbert Waldron of Torrington becomes the UK's Champion Town Crier.
28	8	1958	Hartland Carnival has 2 'Queens' owing to a mix-up over counting of votes. 'Carry on Sergeant', the 'New Comedy Hit' is showing at the Palace Cinema in Bideford.
4	9	1958	'Ripper' the kestrel mascot of the Fremington Royal Army Service Corps goes a.w.o.l. Ilfracombe council is warned that people are leaving the town owing to its 'lack of culture'.
11	9	1958	A petition from Yelland residents complain about 'smoke and choking fumes' from the local power station. Clovelly parish council consider there are too many street collections happening in the village.
18	9	1958	Swansea trawlers operating in Bideford Bay are said to have 'fished it bare'. A Woolacombe man is so incensed at cars parking near his house he scratches 'No parking' on the bonnet of one.
25	9	1958	Rumours circulate in Bideford that there is to be a nuclear power station at Gammaton. Declining demand for mosquito nets sees 40 men laid off from the Derby lace factory in Barnstaple.
2	10	1958	Charles Dart dies aged 75 after being Mayor of Barnstaple 11 times. A man and his wife die when their car plunges over Bideford Quay.
9	10	1958	West Appledore is said to be in danger of being washed away owing to gravel digging in the estuary. A 3 bedroomed house at West Hill, Braunton is for sale at £2500.
16	10	1958	Woolacombe parish council asks for an extra policeman to combat 'rowdyism' in the village. Bideford councillors are worried that new factories in the town will lead to a shortage of labour.
23	10	1958	Work on supplying Middle Marwood with mains water starts. Ilfracombe Ratepayers Association urge the council to publicise the town as a 'honeymooners' paradise'.
30	10	1958	'Brighter Barum Enterprises' is set up to make Barnstaple less boring for young people. Northam Rock-n-Roll Club closes amid allegations of underage drinking.
6	11	1958	A group of Lundy ponies are brought to Bideford to be sold. A new junior school is officially opened in Coronation Road, Bideford for 240 pupils.
13	11	1958	An Ilfracombe Town footballer who has been banned from playing sets up his own 'breakaway' team. A 4' long turtle is caught by a man walking along Saunton beach.
20	11	1958	The 3 acre Salt Dean camp site at Combe Martin is sold for £5500. The chair of Barnstaple Savings Committee reckons 'Modern teenagers were paid over-large wages and did not know what to do with the money.'
27	11	1958	An Appledore widow gases herself through fear that 'mythical knaves were watching her.' A new St.John Ambulance Association HQ is opened at Combe Martin after 30 years of fundraising.
4	12	1958	A railway engine is derailed at Barnstaple station. Ilfracombe's Hermitage Junior School is described as 'like something out of Dickens'.
11	12	1958	Barnstaple Hospital visitors are to be allowed in 7 days a week. Clovelly postwoman Mary Stevens is to retire after 40 years of deliveries.
18	12	1958	Six morning trains in North Devon are to be axed following falls in usage. Appledore fishermen shun attempts to start a local mussel industry.
23	12	1958	An ex-Nazi pilot is one of 2 divers repairing Ilfracombe pier. Bideford Cattle Market is to move from Honestone Street to a site on the river bank.
30	12	1958	Harry Juniper, a Bideford potter, makes a pitcher commemorating Bert Waldron of Torrington - Champion Town Crier of Britain. The Mock family celebrate 80 years of working at Fremington railway station.
1	1	1959	Cary Grant visits a pantomime in Barnstaple's Regal Theatre in a 'strictly private' visit Appledore Shipyard under P.K.Harris has 'never been busier' having '19 jobs on the go'.
8	1	1959	Bideford Bridge Trust offers a High Street property to Marks & Spencer but they decline the opportunity. The Rev.James West of Pilton attacks Harry Belafonte's song 'Mary's Boy Child' as 'mush'.
15	1	1959	Barnstaple Rural Council appoints a new foreman of works at £620 per year. Instow School applies to have electricity to replace its oil lamps.
22	1	1959	Vandals steal a century old Bible from Ilfracombe's Score Cemetery. North Devon Technical College holds an exhibition to persuade more girls to study science.
29	1	1959	The new GPO maritime radio station at Mullacott Cross is opened. A new maple wood dance floor is installed at the Kingsley Hall in Westward Ho!
5	2	1959	The launch of a tug commissioned by the Polish government from P.K.Harris' Appledore shipyard is filmed by the BBC. Workers at the Bideford factory of Sudbury's Gloves go on strike for higher pay.
12	2	1959	An 80' high chimney at an old glove factory in Torrington's Calf Street is demolished. Brigadier Christopher Peto, ex-MP for North Devon opens Tawstock's new £3500 village Hall.
19	2	1959	Pippacott Farm, Marwood is reduced to a 'charred shell' by a huge fire. Blue Lights Hall in Appledore is bequeathed to the village by W.Anderson.
26	2	1959	Sir Bourchier Wrey of Tawstock is banned from driving for a year after being caught drunk at the wheel. Teddy boys are banned from Pilton church.
5	3	1959	The swimming pool in Barnstaple's Rock Park is said to 'leak like a sieve.' Ilfracombe's Hermitage School is said to be 'like something out of Dickens.'
12	3	1959	Ilfracombe's 'Carnival Prince' contest is abandoned as boys think it is 'sissyish'. 'King Creole' starring Elvis Presley is showing at Barnstaple's Gaumont cinema.
19	3	1959	Instow is suggested as the best site for the new North Devon crematorium. Victor Silvester and his Ballroom Orchestra play at the Queen's Hall, Barnstaple.
26	3	1959	South Molton town council oppose any plans to build a by-pass around the town. Annery House at Monkleigh is demolished.
2	4	1959	The new dual carriageway being built between Braunton and Barnstaple is criticised as a waste of money. A move is made to resuscitate the dormant Harton Town Band at Hartland.
9	4	1959	Shooting on Northam Burrows is banned following complaints from golfers. Torrington town council is said to be 'feudal' in the way it chooses its Mayor.
16	4	1959	A third car has its windscreen mysteriously shattered along the Westleigh Straight. Three Woolacombe Boy Scouts are marooned on Lundy by high seas.
23	4	1959	The Gaiety Cinema in Appledore is sold amidst hopes it will reopen following a 6 month closure. Local supplies of polio vaccine are exhausted following as huge 'rush' of young people wanting to be vaccinated.
30	4	1959	A Conservative meeting at Northam is disrupted by 'local Liberal boys.' The Ilfracombe chief librarian attempts 'to encourage a better quality reading standard' amongst her customers.
7	5	1959	A possible air link between 'industrial Lancashire' and Chivenor is examined. The Festiniog Railway Society buys an old carriage used on the Barnstaple-Lynton railway.
14	5	1959	An aircraft using specialist equipment searches for uranium on Exmoor. Combe Martin parish council start work on converting the local British Legion Hall into a village hall.
21	5	1959	A Barnstaple milkman finds 1000 'empties' in the flat of an elderly man. Young people in Hatherleigh are accused of 'monopolising' 2 phone boxes in the village.
28	5	1959	The annual inspection of the local Air Training Corps at RAF Chivenor sees 20 cadets faint in the heat. 'Rock-a-bye Daddy' with Jerry Lewis is showing at South Molton's Savoy Cinema.
4	6	1959	Two new factories in Barnstaple, Jantzen's and Hobart's, announce major expansions. Torrington complains about smells 'wafting over the town' from the local sewage works.
11	6	1959	Slum clearance orders for 200 houses are announced for Derby in Barnstaple. The decline in the puffin population of Lundy is blamed on oil pollution.
18	6	1959	Three Bishops Tawton men build a 19' cabin cruiser on the River Taw. Cox's Garage in Newport, Barnstaple has a 1949 Bradford Estate car for sale at £80.
25	6	1959	Because Journal printers are on strike the newspaper consists of 3 pages of duplicated typescript. Plans to combine Ilfracombe Grammar and Secondary Schools are opposed by parents.
2	7	1959	A missing 2 year old Brayford girl is found on Exmoor after a huge police search. Thousands of starlings nest in woods at Filleigh and badly damage the trees.
9	7	1959	Five Barnstaple children are taken to court for dropping a bicycle on the local rail track. 'Some like it hot' is being shown at Barnstaple's Gaumont Cinema.
16	7	1959	Some 10,000 acres of the Fortescue Estates in North Devon are put up for sale. North Devon Water Board announce restrictions on the use of water hoses owing to a local drought.
23	7	1959	Two tourists drown in the surf at Croyde. A new 'fancy cardboard' factory opens in Bideford and employs 14 girls.
30	7	1959	A heat wave sees some of the worst ever traffic jams on local roads. A member of a tank landing craft moored at Zeta Berth, Instow dies in an explosion.
7	8	1959	An inquiry is demanded when no pupils at Lynton Church Primary School pass the 11+ examination. Connecting Newton Tracey to mains sewage is to cost £12,250.
14	8	1959	A 50 year old grandmother wins the Ilfracombe 'Bathing Belle' title but controversially is asked not to take part in the Carnival. A Chivenor based Hunter jet crashes at Milton Damerel.
20	8	1959	Ilfracombe council offers £9500 to buy the Torrs Walk. Half of the land taken to build Winkleigh Aerodrome is returned to its owners.
27	8	1959	West Stowford farmhouse, Chittlehamholt is badly damaged by fire. Woolaway & Sons win permission to build 160 bungalows on 5 fields near Shorelands Road, Barnstaple.
3	9	1959	Members of North Devon CND are described by an Ilfracombe councillor as 'cranks'. Owners of the Espresso Snack Bar in Boutport Street, Barnstaple are fined £6 over noise from their juke box.
10	9	1959	Female 'undies' are hoisted up a Lynmouth flagpole by tourists. Chimneys at Yelland power station are to be heightened by 50' to alleviate dust and soot nuisances.
17	9	1959	Water supplies in Bideford are cut between 11 pm and 6 am owing to drought conditions. Abandoned Second World War ammunition explodes during a huge gorse fire at Woolacombe.
24	9	1959	The Battle of Britain Day at Chivenor attracts 11,000 visitors, The Langtree School Beekeepers' Club produce 65 lbs of honey.
1	10	1959	Ilfracombe is to join its Grammar and Secondary schools into a single comprehensive. Some houses in Torridge Street, Bideford are to be cleared as 'slums'.
8	10	1959	'Evil smells' at Ilfracombe are blamed on the Hele gas works. Jeremy Thorpe becomes North Devon's MP by just 362 votes.
15	10	1959	Dawfield Hospital is renamed Holsworthy Hospital to sever 'an undesirable link with the poor law days'. Northam Church School is listed for closure.
22	10	1959	Timber is to be exported from Appledore for the first time in many years. The latest American 'craze', go-kart racing, is set to arrive in North Devon.
29	10	1959	The hamlet of Leary Bottom near Filleigh shrinks to just 2 inhabitants. Cliff Richard appears at Barnstaple's Queen's Hall and enthrals the audience as 'a competent exponent of the pelvic wiggle'.
5	11	1959	A fire at Toatley Farm, Chawleigh burns for 10 hours and destroys 2 buildings. A new £20,000 assembly hall is opened at the Stella Maris Convent in Bideford.
12	11	1959	72 books seized from F.Hill a Barnstaple bookseller are judged obscene and destroyed. Una Beardon and Brenda Squance become joint Queens of Winkleigh Carnival.
19	11	1959	The corpse of a 21' long whale washes up at Spekes Mill near Hartland. The headmaster of Bideford Grammar School says homework is 'an excellent training for the right use of leisure time.'
26	11	1959	Barnstaple, South Molton and Ilfracombe Co-operative Societies are to merge. It is suggested that the site of Ilfracombe's gas works should become a 'heli-port'.
3	12	1959	A 2 hour musical play by Bideford couple David and Eileen Smith is filmed for ITV. A 5 bedroomed house overlooking Woolacombe Bay is on sale at £3250.
10	12	1959	Moves to include Lundy within Devon county are strongly opposed. A 13 year Torrington boy is sent to an 'Approved School' for terrorising his parents.
17	12	1959	Robert Lemon chief reporter on the Journal retires after 56 years in the job - aged 70. Northam council are to buy private houses to help rehouse tenants of converted wartime buildings at Burrows Way.
24	12	1959	A fully furnished flat in Ilfracombe with 'lovely views' is to let at £3.15 a week. North Devon Technical College expands its Sticklepath site and closes its Pilton premises.
31	12	1959	Thomas Burton who gave an Art Gallery to Bideford dies aged 84. 89 year old W.Jewell rides in the Boxing Day meet of the Torrington Farmers' Hunt.
4	3	1976	A detached bungalow in Braunton with two bedrooms is priced at £13,250. The BBC assures the Journal that it is not discriminating against local people who can only get TV programmes in Welsh. A petition is organised against the building of the Londonderry estate in Bideford.
11	3	1976	Plans by Church trustees to demolish Lavington Chapel in Bridgeland Street, Bideford are defeated. Tony Speller, prospective Tory candidate for North Devon, calls for a 'tightening of the law against dirty books and films.'
18	3	1976	Norman Scott appears at Exeter Crown Court and claims he lived with Jeremy Thorpe, MP for North Devon and leader of the Liberal Party, from 1959 to 1960. Ilfracombe School announces a trip to Israel following earlier visits to 'Red China' and India. It is said that a caravan site at Woolacombe is 'essential' to the resort but NDDC turn it down.
25	3	1976	The North Devon Leisure Centre floods to a depth of 2' as the pool is being refilled. A BBC announcement that Westward Ho! is in danger of imminent flooding due to a weakened pebble ridge is described as 'scare mongering' by TDC. Desmond Dekker is advertised to appear at the Tempo Club in Queen Street, Barnstaple.
1	4	1976	Tickets for a concert by Roger Whittaker at the Queens Hall sell out very quickly even though prices are up to £3 each. Winkleigh Cider factory is given planning permission for a large expansion. Clifton Cinema in Ilfracombe shows the X-rated 'The Happy Hooker' on a Sunday.
8	4	1976	Chequers Nightspot in Barnstaple sells for £35,000 'in a slow but intense session of bidding.' Clovelly's fishing industry is said to be under threat from a damaged breakwater - which Clovelly Estates are reluctant to repair.
15	4	1976	South West Water calls for water saving as supplies are beginning to run short. The Devon and Dorset Regiment march through the High Street in Barnstaple with fixed bayonets before being posted to West Germany. A Milton Damerel man is fined £20 for growing cannabis - which he reckoned to be 'as natural as using mint or any other herbs.'
22	4	1976	Braunton Ratepayers Association demands an inquiry into how NDDC runs its financial affairs following losses on car park income. Football club scouts trying to persuade Barnstaple Town players to leave the club are denounced as 'poachers'. The Jack Straw Disco is appearing at the Narracott Cabaret Bar in Woolacombe.
29	4	1976	Devon Housing Association purchase the row of Georgian houses on the Strand in Bideford which had been in use as offices. Militant North Devon teachers 'work to rule' to protest at staffing cuts in the area. 'A virile group of young Torrington football supporters' smash up a new bus shelter
6	5	1976	Cottage hospitals at Lynton, South Molton and Torrington are spared major cuts in an NHS 'economy axe'. A plan to turn RAF Chivenor into an industrial or holiday complex is ruled out. A float based on the 'Magic Roundabout' TV series and built by the Torrington Cavaliers is accidentally destroyed by fire.
13	5	1976	N.Devon MP Jeremy Thorpe steps down as leader of the Liberal Party following allegations about his relationship with a male model. Sewage pollution at Appledore is said to be so bad that it constitutes a typhoid risk according to a local businessman.
20	5	1976	Mrs.Elizabeth Fern becomes the first ever female Mayor of Barnstaple. After a police investigation Ilfracombe Air Cadets are cleared of charges of vandalism in the town's parks. A derelict barn on Lundy is converted into a self-contained centre for student parties.
27	5	1976	An Egyptian child's mummy in Ilfracombe Museum develops white mould and begins smelling so it is cremated. The Gateway supermarket in Bridgeland Street, Bideford closes after only a year's trading. Planned Sunday lunchtime striptease shows at Ilfracombe's Alexander Theatre are cancelled following local protests.
3	6	1976	North Devon College students stage a sit-in strike over recognition of the Student Union. The old railway goods yard in Bideford is offered for sale to Torridge District Council for £250,000. A cacti collection owned by Joe Withers of Witheridge reaches 1500 in number.
10	6	1976	An Earth Fair pop festival near Challacombe attracts about 5000 people. An escaped lion cub is run over by a police panda car in Barnstaple High Street. Torridge District Council are told they can only demolish half of Bull Hill in Bideford, the rest has to be preserved.
17	6	1976	Members of Chawleigh Friendly Society, founded in 1869, go on their annual 'club walk' through the village behind a brass band with banners flying. A public meeting in Combe Martin votes 209-2 to urge the parish to buy the local beach. Barnstaple Male Voice Choir is revived after a lapse of 30 years.
24	6	1976	A Lynton businessman threatens 'activism' to bring 'total English speaking TV' to his home town where Welsh TV reception is common. The Exmoor Society warns that the moor will disappear by 2000 if farmers are not stopped from steadily bringing it into cultivation. A former NDDC councillor stands in a parish council election in Bishops Tawton and receives no votes at all.
1	7	1976	Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips spend a week training at South Molton for the forthcoming Montreal Olympic Games. Mary Shaw retires as Headmistress of Edgehill College after 21 years in the post.
8	7	1976	The spire of West Worlington church is hit by lightning and loses two-thirds of its wooden tiles. Westward Ho! beach is inundated with ladybirds. They form 'a moving carpet' along the whole 2 miles length of the beach.
15	7	1976	Billy Moore dies aged 93. He ran a boat hiring business from the slipway at the North Devon Athenaeum in Barnstaple for many years. Hawkwind play the Queens Hall - their encores last half an hour.
22	7	1976	Even though 16,500 people petition to save the building a public inquiry gives the go-ahead for demolition of the century old 210 room Ilfracombe Hotel in the resort. British Rail announce they have no plans to halt freight movements on the Barnstaple-Exeter line.
29	7	1976	A plan by two local people to open a pub in Ashford is defeated - the parish must remain 'dry'. Frankie Vaughan appears at the Chequers Night Spot in Barnstaple. Tickets which include a 3 course meal are £5.50.
5	8	1976	Barnstaple architect Bruce Oliver who designed the Queens Hall and restored the Three Tuns pub dies aged 93. Two homeless women and a young baby become squatters in a long-empty house in Coldharbour, Bideford.
12	8	1976	The Sunday afternoon church service in Mariansleigh is stopped to enable the congregation to fight a fire that destroys 3 thatched cottages in the village. Bideford Round Table organise a tug-of-war across the River Torridge near the Bridge. The 'rope' made out of steel and jute breaks.
19	8	1976	The first stand pipes are installed at Orchard Hill, Northam in case water rationing is introduced. A 10' long basking shark appears about 70' offshore at Croyde - bathers remain in the sea.
26	8	1976	Some 30 acres of bracken are burnt in a fire that breaks out at Kipling Tors, Westward Ho! A group called Barnstaple Alternative Education Project announce plans to open their own school for 4 to 9 year olds in the town.
5	5	1977	Plans to build a new holiday village at Blackmore Gate are slammed as a 'blot on the landscape.' The 600 seats on a special Royal Jubilee excursion train from Bideford to London are sold out rapidly.
12	5	1977	The newly crowned Barnstaple Town Football Queen Alison Mack admits she has never seen a game in her life. A fire at Portledge Hotel is blamed on 3 members of staff who are charged with arson.
19	5	1977	Prince Charles visits Appledore to launch RMV Scillonian III which is the new ferry boat to the Scillies. The BBC are examining the use of laser beams to improve TV reception at Lynton.
26	5	1977	Two separate UFOs are seen over the North Devon coast. An RAF spokesman reckons they were either weather balloons or satellites. Frankie Howerd appears at the Queen's Hall in Barnstaple. Tickets are priced between £1.25 and £2.
2	6	1977	Decorations erected for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations in Barnstaple are destroyed by vandals. Plans by Appledore Shipbuilders to fill in the patent slipway at Hubbastone meet enormous objection - mostly from their own employees.
9	6	1977	Sticklepath Residents Association campaign against plans to redevelop new industries on the Shapland and Petter site. Northam town council vote not to stage a public lottery to raise funds for the parish.
16	6	1977	£10,000 is to be spent on burying intrusive telegraph poles at Croyde to improve the village's appearance. The Appledore Maritime Museum opens in Odun House. It includes a Victorian toilet.
23	6	1977	The Patio Pool at Westward Go! which was used by Rudyard Kipling is offered for sale at £65,000. Sam Fenwick of South Molton offers one of his kidneys to the Iraqi Embassy in London for £50,000.
30	6	1977	Another victim is added to the 24 cats killed over the preceding 3 years by an unknown person labelled 'The Cat Poisoner of Pilton'. The Maids of Barum female morris team dance in Butcher's Row, Barnstaple.
7	7	1977	Two local boys, Adam Newman and Alan Ball, are winched to safety from Welcombe cliffs by a helicopter from RAF Chivenor. The Boomtown Rats with Bob Geldorf appear at Chequers on the Strand in Barnstaple.
14	7	1977	Woolacombe Service Station starts selling petrol in litres rather than gallons - residents are 'speechless'. Alan Bates and Lee Remick come to Hartland and Westleigh to film 'The Shout'.
21	7	1977	North Devon's first refuge for battered women is about to open in Barnstaple. It can take up to 20 women and children. A young girl fishing for tiddlers in the rock pools at Westward Ho! catches a 16 legged, 3 pincered crab.
28	7	1977	A Combe Martin woman is arrested after police find 51 cannabis plants in pots around her house. A 4 bedroomed chalet-bungalow is offered for sale at North Molton for £15,500.
4	8	1977	The site of the demolished Strange and Amory almshouses in Meddon Street, Bideford is to be redeveloped as old peoples' flats. Four Torrington girls do a topless streak at Vicarage Field and sell tickets at 50p each to raise funds for the football club appeal. Some £250 is raised.
11	8	1977	The newly opened roller skating rink on the site of the old swimming pool in Rock Park, Barnstaple is constantly full of young skaters. The Queen and Prince Philip visit Lundy on a private day trip during her Jubilee tour of Britain.
18	8	1977	Henry Wiliamson, author of 'Tarka the Otter' and a long-time resident of Georgeham dies aged 81. Combe Martin villagers declare war on 18 'hippies' living in an 'Ashram' in the village.
25	8	1977	It is announced that the North Devon Leisure Centre has lost £21,000 in a year. Demolition of the curved iron railway bridge across the River Taw at Barnstaple commences.
6	4	1978	Peter Smithson becomes the first local man to become a Master glassblower at Dartington Glass, Torrington. A plan to build a new hotel and sports complex for golfers at Saunton is rejected.
13	4	1978	The Government decides to re-open RAF Chivenor in 1980. The foundation stone of the new pharmaceutical factory of A.H.Cox is laid at Barnstaple.
20	4	1978	Work begins on a £33,000 emergency scheme to repair a 150m gap in the Westward Ho! pebble ridge. A Lynton bank clerk sees UFOs over North Devon on 3 separate occasions.
27	4	1978	Second World War anti-invasion metal spikes are exposed at Saunton Sands. Bideford is to spend £5000 on enhancing Jubilee Square - including the building of a kiosk there.
27	4	1978	600 Scouts, Guides, Cubs and Brownies march from Barnstaple Civic Centre to the Queen's Hall to celebrate St.George's Day. Combe Martin beach is purchased privately after the parish council refuse to buy it for £28,500.
4	5	1978	A 13 year old girl is killed when a bus carrying a Welsh rugby team crashes at Fremington. At Braunton a modern 3 bedroom detached house is for sale at £15,950
11	5	1978	A fire at the seventeenth century Barnstaple Inn in Chulmleigh is put out when smouldering thatch is dragged off the roof. The ornamental lamps now in place along Taw Vale in Barnstaple are erected.
18	5	1978	A 'black object' seen in the sea at Woolacombe zooms away across to Lundy at 600 mph. Martin Carthy the famous folksinger appears at the Lobster Pot in Instow.
25	5	1978	The North Devon Labour Party candidate Trevor Smith is removed for refusing to attack Jeremy Thorpe. The new film 'Star Wars' is showing at the Clifton Cinema in Ilfracombe.
1	6	1978	The Hunting of the Earl of Rone ceremony is re-established at Combe Martin. Clevelands Mansion at Northam is demolished to make way for modern flats.
8	6	1978	Jeremy Thorpe says he is 'happy' to see the police over allegations he hired a hit man to kill Norman Scott. An Ilfracombe wedding is spoilt when guests at the reception steal the groom's car and crash it.
15	6	1978	Parracombe parish council face unpopularity when they close the village youth club. Kentisbury farmer Patrick Kift becomes the top sheep shearer in Britain.
22	6	1978	Colonel Robert Gilliat becomes the Lundy administrator after beating over 900 other applicants for the job. Littleham residents unite to resist County Council plans to turn local beauty spot Parsonage Wood into a rubbish dump.
29	6	1978	A hoax telephone caller at Ilfracombe is arrested after he fails to notice a police car outside of the callbox he was using. Noel Edmonds appears at Chequers Night Club in Barnstaple, tickets are £2 each.
6	7	1978	Philip Waters warns fellow Northam town councillors that Crow Point 'is lost and cannot be saved whatever action is now taken.' 3 students of Ilfracombe School convert an old Land Rover into a 6 wheel half-track vehicle.
13	7	1978	A West Down garage owner is fined £2100 for selling petrol in litres rather than gallons. Planning permission is given for Bideford's first dogs' beauty parlour in Torrington Street.
20	7	1978	A UFO sighting is reported over Ilfracombe by Michael Birch. Torridge District Council say there is an urgent need for a multi-storey car park in Bridge Street, Bideford.
27	7	1978	Woolsery Village Hall Committee organise a dung flinging competition to raise funds. Moves by the National Front to use council property for fund raising events in N.Devon is fought by horrified local groups.
3	8	1978	Barnstaple Town Council agree to pay half the cost of appoinbting a private 'town constable' to combat vandalism. The Lurkers appear at Chequers nightclub in the Strand, Barnstaple.
10	8	1978	Work starts on building the first factory on the Hatchmoor Industrial Estate at Torrington. The Boer Four record their first single 'The Boers have got my Daddy' live at Westward Ho! Holiday Centre. 1000 copies are pressed up.
17	8	1978	Holsworthy church is to be locked up when not in use due to vandalism. Col.Robert Gillat arrives on Lundy to begin work as the new Administrator.
24	8	1978	Frank Hansford-Miller of the English National Party announces his intention to fight the North Devon Parliamentary seat. 100 nurses at Barnstaple's North Devon Infirmary and Alexandra Hospital have scabies.
31	8	1978	The Ilfracombe Victoria Pavilion Theatre is closed due to huge losses. A Navy helicopter crashes 2 miles SE of Lundy whilst taking mail from Bideford to HMS Hermes.
7	9	1978	Locals barricade the road to the new Pall Europe factory in Ilfracombe protesting at dust and noise from traffic going to the site. South Molton's only cinema the Savoy is to be reopened after 18 months' closure.
14	9	1978	Moves are announced to convert the derelict tannery in Swimbridge into a new light industrial centre. Ashreigney Horse Show attracts over 100 entries.
21	9	1978	A weekend orgy of vandalism and noise in Croyde is blamed on 'visiting surfers.' Mac Fisheries close their shop in Barnstaple High Street after trading for nearly 60 years.
28	9	1978	A Lynton hotel porter is charged with assaulting police after eating 'magic mushrooms' he picked locally. Plans to use the Devil's Elbow site at Filleigh for a rubbish dump are attacked by locals.
5	10	1978	The first patients are moved into the new North Devon District Hospital. Meddon Green at Hartland is landscaped by a local farmer even though it is publicly owned manorial wasteland.
12	10	1978	Bradworthy Market auctioneer Bill Cory retires aged 95. Local councillor Keith Evers reckons that nothing could make Westward Ho! 'any worse than it now is.'
19	10	1978	The 'City of Perth' container ship becomes the 50th vessel to be launched from the covered yard at Appledore. Fremington villagers are up in arms over smells from the abattoir at the local Quay.
26	10	1978	The North Devon Civic Society object to plans to divert the Anchor Wood footpath in Barnstaple. Mud are to play in Chequers nightclub in Barnstaple.
2	11	1978	Felix Gade resident agent on Lundy from 1926 until 1970 dies aged 88. Bideford is set to get a 7 storey car park holding 300 cars in Bridge Street.
9	11	1978	Ilfracombe demands the re-opening of the rail link to Barnstaple - as an alternative to the Link Road. The traditional custom of 'Firing the Anvil' is held at Hartland to mark the marriage of Robert Conibear a local blacksmith.
16	11	1978	The owner of the Woodford Bridge Hotel unveils expansion plans to 'bring Monte Carlo to Milton Damerel'. Vandals manage to put out all the lights in Chulmleigh Square.
23	11	1978	Dirty water at Clovelly is said to be staining peoples' washing. Plans to demolish Westmead House in Braunton are shelved following a petition containing 1743 names.
30	11	1978	Norman Scott gives evidence in Minehead about an alleged murder plot by local MP Jeremy Thorpe. A party of Chinese government officials visits Barnstaple to see the road sign factory at Pottington.
7	12	1978	Work begins on construction of a new double roundabout system outside Shapland & Petter's factory in Barnstaple. Old Ford, reputedly the oldest house in Bideford, opens as a craft centre.
14	12	1978	The North Devon Infirmary in Barnstaple closes after 152 years as the area's major hospital. New street signs are erected in Barnstaple - in one street they read Dymond Street at one end - and Diamond at the other.
21	12	1978	The 500 ton 'Kingba' which has been berthed under arrest at Bideford Quay for a year is sold to new owners. The principal of North Devon College attacks 'yobbos' and 'drifters' who visit the College at lunchtime to eat subsidised meals.
28	12	1978	Some 400 out of 600 pupils at South Molton school fail to arrive due to large falls of snow. The railway signal box at Instow is made a Grade II Listed Building.
28	12	1978	Bideford Rugby Club beats Barnstaple in a Boxing Day Derby even though bookmakers had odds against them of 100 to 1. A 13% pay rise to agricultural labourers in North Devon brings their average pay to £48.50 for a 35 hour week.
4	1	1979	A blizzard hits North Devon and a bus from Plymouth to Bideford arrives 42 hours late. Richard Bayliss retires after 22 years as headmaster of Chittlehampton Primary school.
11	1	1979	Panic buying strips supermarket shelves in the area as the long term freeze continues. A jilted Barnstaple girl throws white paint all over her boyfriend's house - she is fined £10.
18	1	1979	Firemen from 4 towns fight a fire at Aaronson Brothers' chipboard factory in South Molton. A two bedroomed cottage in Bideford is for sale at £5500.
25	1	1979	Some 8" of snow falls overnight in North Devon and milk collection is decimated. A 12' long model of a killer whale is found dumped outside of Marks and Spencers in Barnstaple.
2	2	1979	Conservative County Councillor Noel Bathom claims that 'dirty books' are to be found on local library shelves. A Beatles tribute band 'Those Four' appear at Chequers in Barnstaple.
9	2	1979	Landslides on Lundy make the road to the landing beach virtually impassable. Freda Avant an Ilfracombe councillor says she will go to gaol before paying extra rates towards mending the town's sea wall.
16	2	1979	Cox's Pharmaceuticals set up their own job office in Barnstaple to find 160 staff. A strike by local government workers sees rubbish pile up in Ilfracombe and Barnstaple.
23	2	1979	The first video recorders go on sale in South Molton. Construction work takes place on a new bridge across the River Yeo at Rolle Quay.
1	3	1979	Holsworthy tops the league in England for the percentage of couples opting for a church wedding. (80%) Barnstaple's largest supermarket Discount Foods in the High Street closes after just 18 months.
8	3	1979	Banner waving mothers block New Street in Torrington in protest at the removal of a 'lollipop warden' for the Blue Coat Infanmts School. New telephone links mean North Devonians can now phone direct to the rest of the world.
15	3	1979	Fed up with waiting for the council to act 35 members of Ilfracombe's Fore Street Association begin painting their street. N.Devon Communist Party are to put up a candidate in Bideford at the next town council election.
22	3	1979	52 people travel from Instow to Arromanches to begin twinning with the French settlement. Chris Slee begins refurbishing the derelict corn mill at Weare Giffard.
29	3	1979	Archaeologists unearth a section of Barnstaple's medieval town wall between Green Lane and Boutport Street. A ship under construction at Bideford Shipyard is 'put under arrest' and the 110 strong workforce is laid off.
5	4	1979	Devon County Council are considering an experimental 'park & ride' scheme for Barnstaple. A National Front candidate stands against MP Peter Mills in the West Devon constituency.
12	4	1979	Villagers in Bucks Cross are said to be 'terrified' by low flying Phantom jets. A music festival in Chulmleigh is based around the theme of 'The Police'.
19	4	1979	Eight people stand for Parliament in North Devon against Jeremy Thorpe - they include Auberon Waugh of the Dog Lovers' Party. A Pyjama Disco party with 'Prizes for the most daring nightie' is held in Chequers club in Barnstaple.
26	4	1979	Would-be Tory MP Tony Speller denounces 'Funny Farm' candidates standing against him and sitting MP Jeremy Thorpe. A Bideford councillor reckons a new factory at East-the-Water is 'vandalism gone mad' and a 'desecration of the countryside'.
3	5	1979	North Devon Meat take over the old FMC abattoir at Pottington industrial estate. Lynton council 'kick up one hell of a stink' over poor street lighting in the village.
10	5	1979	Conservative Tony Speller beats Liberal Jeremy Thorpe by a huge 8500 votes in the Parliamentary election. Candy Tiles of Newton Abbot take over Brannam's Barnstaple pottery works.
17	5	1979	NATFE union members at North Devon College begin a 'work to rule' over salary claims. Mike Towns becomes warden of Northam Burrows after being Conservation Officer at Milton Keynes.
24	5	1979	Fears are expressed over a serious decline in salmon running up the Taw and Torridge. Council house tenants in the area are to be given the right to buy their houses.
7	6	1979	The Royal Marines take over the Army camp at Instow for amphibious trials. Plans are announced to fill in the saltmarsh area just above Bideford Long Bridge
14	6	1979	Lord O'Hagan becomes the first MEP for Devon. A 424 ton German coaster, the Anna V nearly beaches at Westward Ho! but is towed in to Appledore.
21	6	1979	An extension to Barnstaple's Civic Centre costed at £600,000 rises to £1 million. Ilfracombe agrees to twin with Herxheim in West Germany.
28	6	1979	Jeremy Thorpe is cleared by an Old Bailey jury of hiring a 'hit man' to kill Norman Scott. The gamekeeper at Castle Hill, Filleigh is sacked after losing 900 pheasants.
5	7	1979	A service of thanksgiving at Bratton Fleming for the freeing of Jeremy Thorpe is attacked by the Archdeacon of Barnstaple. Hartland appeals to the Chief Constable to have a resident policeman living in the village.
12	7	1979	Dartington Trust announce plans to open a merchant bank, an insurance company and a school in Barnstaple. A Chulmleigh man is taken to court after his 'obsession' with collecting scrap overwhelms his cottage.
19	7	1979	Building of the new 300 house Londonderry estate in Bideford begins. Torridge District Council offers £20,000 towards the £100,000 needed to repair the cliff road on Lundy.
26	7	1979	'Open warfare' against juggernaut lorries is declared by residents of Victoria Street in Barnstaple tired of the 'pounding' they receive. £20 worth of counterfeit 50p pieces are found in slot machines at Woolacombe.
2	8	1979	Torrington milk factory takes its last delivery of milk in churns which are to be replaced by bulk tankers. Tom Sherborne stands for election to Landcross parish council - and gets no votes at all.
9	8	1979	A new factory for International Ball Screws Ltd. is begun to be built at Whiddon Valley, Barnstaple. Torridge Council are given a Government loan to buy the old railway goods yard in Bideford for housing.
13	8	1979	The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visits Barnstaple to say 'thank you' to 350 party workers. Robert Scarbro begins work as Barnstaple's first town constable.
16	8	1979	Building plans announced by Alan Smith will double the size of both Woolsery and Dolton. The John Collier shop in Barnstaple High Street is to close due to 'dwindling profits.'
23	8	1979	The Save the Children Fund wish to lease the old Alexandra Hospital in Barnstaple as a centre for Vietnamese Boat People. Torrington Army Cadet Force becomes the first in the Westcountry to have girl members.
30	8	1979	Woolacombe Surf Life Saving team become British Champions for the first time. The animated film version of Lord of the Rings is being shown at Bideford and Ilfracombe cinemas.
6	9	1979	J.H.Baker & Sons are given permission by the Government to fell ancient trees at Webbery Wood in Alverdiscott. An organ built by the Wyvern Company of Bideford accompanies the Pope on a tour of Ireland.
20	9	1979	Production at Shapland & Petter's Barnstaple factory halts as 400 workers strike for higher pay. 'Full House' signs go up outside Ilfracombe's Victoria Pavilion for the first time in years.
27	9	1979	'Ghoulish' spectators hamper a helicopter rescue of a woman from the sea at Ilfracombe. An epidemic of headlice hits schools in Fremington, Torrington and Bideford.
4	10	1979	'Workshy drifters from Liverpool and Manchester' are denounced as 'jobhoppers' by Ilfracombe hoteliers desperate for staff. North Devon District Council decline to purchase the old Shippams factory at Chulmleigh.
11	10	1979	The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.Coggan, visits Barnstaple and denounces striking workers. Second World War anti-personnel mines are found on Woolacombe beach.
18	10	1979	One of British Rail's 125 mph trains travels to Barnstaple from Exeter. 10 year old Shaun Ley from Lynton appears on 4 episodes of 'Junior That's Life' on television.
25	10	1979	A large swastika is carved into the turf at Rock Park Bowling Club in Barnstaple. West Buckland school announces plans to become fully co-educational after 120 years.
1	11	1979	North Devon Communist Party publish their own newspaper, it is called 'Broadsides'. Ian Adair of Bideford publishes his 75th book on magic tricks.
8	11	1979	Plans are announced to demolish Braunton railway station and replace it with a village green. Bideford's largest building firm A.F.Beer & Son Ltd closes and 64 men are laid off.
15	11	1979	North Devon Leisure Centre makes losses of £650,000 over 3 years. Experimental wood frame houses planned at Broadwoodwidger are described as 'looking like a barracks' by a local councillor.
22	11	1979	A white Rolls Royse parked in Joy Street, Barnstaple is sprayed with green paint by vandals. A nurse living on Lundy is given a wide selection of medicines to help islanders and tourists when taken ill.
29	11	1979	Trevor Beer of Barnstaple wins the £700 Gavin Maxwell Award of the World Wildlife Fund. A new rent collector employed by NDDC is collecting arrears by 'surprise early-morning and late-night calls.'
6	12	1979	Margaret Price of Ashwater is voted Disabled Sports Personality of the Year by British sportswriters. Bideford Shipyard is sold for £150,000 to a 'mystery buyer'.
13	12	1979	Severe gales cause major flooding throughout North Devon and move two of the slabs at Tarr Steps on Exmoor. Subsidence at the North Devon Leisure Centre in Barnstaple means very expensive repairs have to be carried out.
20	12	1979	Torridge District Council vote to stop funding the Plough Theatre in Torrington. 'Dreary streets, apathetic traders and rising prices' are killing Christmas in Barnstaple according the President of the town's Chamber of Commerce.
27	12	1979	The newly formed N.Devon Ecology Party attack councillors' lack of interest in the new District Local Plan. The first Star Trek film is being shown in Barnstaple.
28	12	1979	Flooding hits Bickington Post Office and along the Bideford-Instow road. Clovelly lifeboat is checked by divers for leaks - whilst afloat and on patrol.
3	1	1980	Floods in the Kenwith Valley, Bideford see 70 houses full of water. Chawleigh parents complain that school meals for their children are being brought from Chulmleigh.
10	1	1980	Moves by Torridge District Council to cut an annual grant of £12,000 to the Plough at Torrington are defeated. Dornat & Co., who have produced mineral water in Barnstaple for 120 years, close down.
17	1	1980	A Chinese crested dog born at Alverdiscott is claimed to be the smallest dog in the world. Captain George Chugg a master mariner of Braunton reaches his 100th birthday.
24	1	1980	The Mothers Pride bakery in Barnstaple is to close with the loss of 80 jobs. The Northam Residents Association are to publicly protest against a County Council plan to suspend free parking on Northam Burrows.
31	1	1980	North Devon churches act together to ban the local showing of the Monty Python film 'The Life of Brian'. Lynton councillors strongly oppose a plan to site a 'summer refreshment caravan' at County Gate by the Exmoor National Park Committee.
7	2	1980	Members of the religious cult 'The Moonies' are all over North Devon recruiting new believers. Braunton parents campaign to extend Caen Primary School's playground on to the adjacent disused railway line.
14	2	1980	A group at South Molton finalise plans to house 2 Vietnamese 'boat families' who have fled their own Communist government. Twelve houses in Hillside Road, Ilfracombe are threatened by a huge landslide.
21	2	1980	N.Devon District Council vote to increase rates by 21%. A £400,000 maritime research vessel 'Calanus' is launched from the Appledore yard of J.Hinks and Son.
28	2	1980	The CEGB confirm they have no plans to convert Yelland Power Station into a nuclear powered one. The Department of the Environment is to buy 900 acres of Exmoor from the Fortescue Estate and open it to the public.
6	3	1980	Residents of Fore Street, Ilfracombe form a human barricade in a protest against traffic using their street. Devon County Council propose a park and ride scheme from Seven Brethren Bank to Barnstaple town centre.
13	3	1980	Local farmers demand Barnstaple suspend links with its French twin town following a French ban on English lamb. A 3 bedroomed cottage in central Bideford is for sale at £17,000.
20	3	1980	Government imposed spending restrictions mean no-one on local housing waiting lists will be housed for a year. South Molton Pannier Market walls are bulging outwards and repairs are put at £100,000.
27	3	1980	The Landmark Trust take over the Summer steamer service to Lundy from P & A. Campbell. The South Molton born Lord Chief Justice Widgery announces he is to retire as Britain's top judge.
3	4	1980	North Devon College Rag Day leads to complaints from the public about being squirted with shaving foam and flour. Papers left by Henry Williamson are accepted by the State in lieu of Death Duties.
17	4	1980	The Torrington Corps of Drums announce they will not play at the Mayfair and Carnival after being 'snubbed' by the organising committee. Bideford Manor Court hears complaints about the increasing number of houseboats on the River Torridge.
24	4	1980	Devon County Council begin demolition of houses and shops in Barnstaple to allow construction of the town's Relief Road. Webbers introduce a computer to match up available properties with would-be purchasers.
1	5	1980	The staff of the North Devon Journal go on strike though the management bring out a single duplicated sheet of news costing 1p.
8	5	1980	The printing staff of the North Devon Journal are out on strike and no newspaper appears
15	5	1980	The new Barnstaple town plan is described as 'sloppy, wishy-washy, childish and loaded' by the town council. A deputation from Braunton travels to London to plead for more school places to meet extra demands from RAF Chivenor children.
22	5	1980	It is announced that North Devon District Hospital is to get its own radio station. A spill from Torrington's milk factory kills nearly 1000 fish in the River Torridge.
30	5	1980	220 'Mods and Rockers' fight at Ilfracombe over the Whitsun holiday. Fremington House is sold for £118,000 to Geoffrey Ward who plans to turn it into a nursing home.
5	6	1980	Grenham Mill, Hartland burns down and owners John and Antoinette Moat are left homeless. Barnstaple Freemasons are attacked for illegally tarmacing over an area of Trafalgar Lawn for their car park.
12	6	1980	Kirkham's tyre depot on the Pill in Bideford burns down and causes huge dislocation to road traffic. A Lynmouth shopkeeper is told by the Race Relations Board to take down posters banning French students from his shop.
19	6	1980	Bickington parish council vow to fight Devon County Council plans for 2 permanent gypsy camps in their area. An usherette in Barnstaple's Classic Cinema joins those who claim to have seen a ghost in the building.
26	6	1980	A thatched terrace cottage at Petrockstow is for sale at £19,500. Northam town council oppose plans to turn Appledore's Market Street into a pedestrian precinct.
3	7	1980	Westleigh School with just 9 pupils is targeted in a money saving drive by Devon County Council. Saunton Sands Hotel is used as the base for an episode of Roald Dahl's 'Tales of the Unexpected'.
10	7	1980	200 workers strike at Coutants Electronics factory in Barnstaple over 'poverty level wages of £50 per week. The Ilfracombe based Queen of Cornwall pleasure boat hits rocks at Combe Martin with 69 passengers on board some of whom suffer shock.
17	7	1980	A Barnstaple baker closes shop and blames over-zealous traffic wardens for loss of trade. A local councillor proposes a mile long refuse tip on saltmarsh along the Instow-Westleigh road.
24	7	1980	The obstructive attitude of church authorities is blamed for holding up house building in Hartland. Torridge District Council abandons plans to build a bus station and public hall in Bideford.
31	7	1980	A destructive house fire in Abbotsham Road, Bideford is followed by a torrential thunderstorm which leaves the house gutted and flooded. In Chulmleigh a shop and adjoining modernised cottage are for sale at £28,500.
7	8	1980	Joseph Shepheard the first ever male head of Edgehill College in Bideford resigns. Anthony Reynolds (14) of Westward Ho! claims a British record score on the 'Space Invaders' arcade game.
14	8	1980	Rail traffic between Barnstaple and Exeter has a record breaking year. Ilfracombe Architectural and Preservation Society oppose the closure of Langleigh Lane and an adjoining bridleway.
21	8	1980	The 640 strong Yelland Residents Association threaten to withhold water rates when dirty water comes from their taps. Welsh Nationalists are blamed after a TV transmitter on Exmoor is deliberately damaged.
28	8	1980	Lilian Prowse retires after 24 years as North Devon Liberal political agent. Plans are announced to turn Dornat's lemonade factory in Barnstaple into an entertainment centre.
4	9	1980	Shops in Barnstaple High Street are flooded following torrential rain. Westleigh Cricket Club win the N.Devon League for the 3rd time.
11	9	1980	Alenco on Pottington industrial estate lay off 70 workers and say more could go. It is made public that in the event of a nuclear war the Chief Executive of NDDC could have looters shot.
18	9	1980	Bideford and Northam are to be separated from the N.Devon electoral division. 10 people are arrested for drug offences following police raids in Woolacombe and Saunton.
25	9	1980	Unemployment in North Devon rises to a record high of 3155. An Ilfracombe taxi driver is threatened at knife point by a mentally disturbed man.
2	10	1980	North Devon runs out of space at its refuse dumps and looks to Torridge to help it. The second 'Festival of Fools' held in Barnstaple Pannier Market is a huge success.
9	10	1980	Ilfracombe town council threaten to remove pay and display machines from the town car parks if NDDC do not. Torrington town council demand 'drastic action' to curb smells from North Devon Meat's abattoir.
16	10	1980	N.Devon detectives mount a major drive against local sheep rustlers. A BBC play 'Autumn Sunshine' is filmed in Ashreigney using locals as extras.
23	10	1980	The N.Devon Link Road receives Government approval. The staff of Sunfood a Barnstaple wholefood shop are taken to court for selling sugar in non-metric bags.
30	10	1980	The Milk Marketing Board announce plans to modernise their Torrington factory. The film 'The Blues Brothers' is on general release in N.Devon.
6	11	1980	17 N.Devon schools lose their cooks; meals are to be supplied from a central kitchen. A 4 bedroom detached bungalow set in a quarter acre of land at Fremington is for sale at £30,000.
13	11	1980	The Hatherleigh Town Crier is given a uniform for the first time. The petrol station at Mullacott Cross near Ilfracombe is demolished to make way for an 'amenity complex'.
20	11	1980	Bickington residents make a last ditch attempt to close the Clay Pits refuse tip in the village. Christie Estates win a court battle to stop part of Instow beach being registered as common land.
27	11	1980	James Needs, chairman of Torridge District Council, resigns over council overspending. A house at Westward Ho! is for sale - it includes a signal box from the Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway.
4	12	1980	A Highampton woman is told to stop baking loaves using Imperial measures. N.Devon schools lose 57 teachers in Government cutbacks.
11	12	1980	All 49 workers at Brannam's Barnstaple pottery works are laid off. An Ilfracombe woman leaves £10,000 to her cat.
18	12	1980	Holsworthy Carnival makes just £14 profit. A swan with its head severed is discovered in Rock Park, Barnstaple.
24	12	1980	Homeowners on the Whiddon Valley estate oppose plans to build factories near them. The first council house sale by Torridge District Council is announced.
8	1	1981	Large numbers of local people protest over plans to build a permanent gipsy site at Seven Brethren Bank in Barnstaple. A public inquiry is to be held into the future of Instow's Grade 2 listed railway signal box.
15	1	1981	A sheep runs into the 'Duo-man' shop in Braunton's village square. A Torrington man is fined for dumping litter on the town's Commons - and then asks for his rubbish back.
22	1	1981	A huge march is staged in Barnstaple by public sector workers protesting against Government cuts in spending. Michael Turner of Abbotsham Barton is named as the new Devon NFU chairman.
29	1	1981	Bickington tip is identified as the favoured future tip for North Devon. Three North Devon jewellers'shops in Barnstaple, and Ilfracombe are targeted by smash and grab raiders.
5	2	1981	A long term assessment of the value of the Torrington Plough centre is to be carried out by Torridge District Council. Plans are approved to turn the Dornat lemonade factory in Tuly Street, Barnstaple into an ice skating rink.
12	2	1981	Barnstaple based sand barge operators go to a planning inquiry to try and save their industry. The old Braunton signal box is removed to Blackmoor Gate by enthusiasts from the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway.
19	2	1981	A court injunction is taken out against Torrington punk group The Cult by the landlord of the town's Black Horse pub. The Lobster Pot in Instow cancels an evening of 'political discussion' about Ireland.
26	2	1981	Plans to build a swimming pool in Chanter's Lane, Bideford are turned down. A seventeenth century 3 bedroom cottage in Kingsnympton is for sale at £27,500.
5	3	1981	Sunday deliveries of milk to Bideford and Torrington households are to be withdrawn. Saunton Sands Hotel is given the first 4 Star rating in North Devon.
12	3	1981	Massive flooding hits Sheepwash, Taddiport, Bishops Tawton and Tawstock. Prominent Trades Union leader Jack Jones plants an oak in memory of Ernest Bevin at Winsford on Exmoor.
19	3	1981	Bideford residents are angry that the local football club is monopolising their Sports Ground. Ilfracombe taxi-driver Bert Rudd is still working aged 84.
26	3	1981	Manchester City play at Bideford and attract a crowd of 5000. The Greek-owned 264 ton Ena V comes ashore at Abbotsham Cliffs.
2	4	1981	Pottington based Fairey Electronics closes with the loss of 27 jobs. A bull placed in a field at Baggy Point is said to be 'harmless' and no risk to walkers.
9	4	1981	Regular helicopter flights from Hartland to Lundy begin - at a cost of £19 each. A woman dies after her car careers over Appledore Quay into the River Torridge.
16	4	1981	Bideford, Barnstaple and Ilfracombe each have a woman Mayor - the first time this has ever happened. The first North Devon 'test tube' baby is conceived by a Barnstaple woman.
23	4	1981	Moves are made to stop 'ritual killing' at the Torrington abattoir. A 2 bedroom detached cottage at Lee Bay is for sale at £27,500.
30	4	1981	The ketch Springtide is wrecked off Capstone Point and 2 brothers in her crew die. The Regal cinema in Barnstaple and the Strand in Bideford close.
7	5	1981	Roman Catholics in Barnstaple apply to demolish their old church. 300 Bideford ratepayers threaten to withhold their rates unless the Kenwith flood defence scheme is built.
14	5	1981	260 employees at Clark's shoe factory in Barnstaple are put on 'short time'. A local man announces plans to open a speedway track in North Devon.
21	5	1981	Heanton councillors reckon the new Chivenor roundabout will endanger lives - not save them. An ice and roller skating rink is opened in the old Alexandra Theatre in Ilfracombe.
28	5	1981	A 'price war' in North Devon sees petrol prices plummet to the lowest price in Britain. Tony Manley a local printer establishes the Hartland Times which quickly sells out.
4	6	1981	Ex-Prime Minister Jim Callaghan attends the wedding of his niece in St.Brannock's church, Braunton. North Devon District Council votes to demolish Barnstaple's Roman Catholic church.
11	6	1981	Local gardeners queue up to obtain elephant droppings from the visiting Fosset's Circus. Hatherleigh stages a reconstruction of an English Civil War battle to celebrate the town's millennium.
18	6	1981	A 2 bedroom 'Character Property' at Braunton is for sale at £25,500. Horseplay at a Barnstaple wedding gets out of hand and leads to the bride's father being gaoled for assault.
25	6	1981	Moves are started to stop the demolition of Victoria Chambers in High Street, Barnstaple. 60 pupils leaving Ilfracombe School cannot find jobs as unemployment is so high in the town.
2	7	1981	An Ilfracombe woman threatens to dump lumps of oil from her local beach at Barnstaple Civic Centre unless councillors take action to clean the beach. Water skiing is banned at the Wimbleball Lake reservoir near Dulverton.
9	7	1981	Brian Ford opens a new foodstore at the old Olivers textile factory at Barnstaple's Seven Brethren Bank. South Molton plans for a paved pedestrian and tree lined Square.
16	7	1981	Park & Ride schemes are operating in Barnstaple, Ilfracombe and Lynmouth. Lady Ann Palmer opens the Eric Palmer Centre at Torrington.
23	7	1981	A spurned Torrington woman slashes her ex-lover's suits to pieces. A Berrynarber campsite owner advertises for a 'Lady Godiva' to attend his Royal Wedding celebration.
30	7	1981	Dartington Glass experience a huge sales boom after producing special goblets celebrating the wedding of Charles and Diana. Permission is given to expand the Deep Moor rubbish tip at St.Giles near Torrington by 100 acres.
6	8	1981	The Social Democratic Party forms a branch in North Devon. Wiliam Dawes of High Bickington shoots himself in his vehicle after being in a 2 car pile-up.
13	8	1981	Locals fear 'drugs, sex and nudity' at a pop festival to be held at Snapper. Clodagh Rodgers follows the Wurzels at the Queens Hall in Barnstaple.
20	8	1981	A fire at Tanton's Hotel in Bideford which causes £50,000 worth of damage is thought to be arson. Hundreds of North Devon council tenants apply to buy their houses - at an average cost of £10,000.
27	8	1981	The British Plastics factory at Torrington closes with the loss of 57 jobs. A man dressed in a blue dress with white spots and a green cardigan is scared off during a burglary at Woolacombe.
3	9	1981	Woolacombe surf life savers win the British championship. 150 North Devon members of the Devon Emergency Volunteers train for what to do following a nuclear attack on the area.
10	9	1981	A combine harvester driver at Fairy Cross survives his machine somersaulting 15 times down a steep slope. The first house on the Londonderry estate in Bideford is ceremonially opened.
17	9	1981	Bill Bass, 69 year old Mayor of Holsworthy dies at his own Mayoral Ball. A shortage of toilets sees Saunton Sands being 'heavily polluted' by desperate tourists.
24	9	1981	Battle scenes to illustrate a film of 'The Wall' by Pink Floyd are filmed at Saunton Sands. Elastogram UK close their factory in Ilfracombe with the loss of 25 jobs.
1	10	1981	A £5 million refurbishment scheme begins at the Milk Marketing Board factory in Torrington. Torridge District Council car parks do not pay - as there are too many free spaces in its towns.
8	10	1981	Shebbear College announces it is to go co-educational. Pilton Abbey is placed on the market for £100,000.
15	10	1981	Lawrence Olivier stays in Chittlehamholt for five weeks completing his autobiography. It is reported that reinforced concrete sprayed on Westward Ho!'s sea wall has been stripped off by the waves in just 2 years.
22	10	1981	17 year old hairdresser Lyn Thomas is elected Holsworthy Carnival Queen. Unemployment in North Devon tops the 5000 mark.
29	10	1981	Tommy Docherty the famous football manager visits Bideford Football Club. Ilfracombe town council seeks public views on a proposed dry ski run at Hillsborough.
5	11	1981	A proposed 'smuggling exhibition'at Clovelly is turned down by villagers. A £1500 plan for the enhancement of Braunton streets is denounced as turning the area into 'a concrete jungle'.
12	11	1981	The Mayor of Ilfracombe Eleanor Tumblety resigns due to ill health; she dies weeks later. Woodpecker Toys of Lynton close after their premises are bought by Bray Leino Artline.
19	11	1981	Fremington is hit by a wave of vandalism and locals demand more police patrols. Torridge District Council decide to buy the garden of the old Hartland vicarage and to use it as a car park.
26	11	1981	Barnstaple night club Tempo in Queen Street is sold and renamed Bees. South West Water say they will only provide a fine screening sewage plant for Bideford and not the full treatment plant locals want.
3	12	1981	Local opposition stops development of the Roundswell industrial site. Torridge District Council decides to go ahead with the construction of the Kenwith Valley dam designed to stop flooding in parts of the town.
10	12	1981	Protests are launched to prevent Braunton's new graveyard expanding on to prime agricultural land at Wrafton. South West Water ask Torridge to prevent any new building in Holsworthy until more mains water is available.
17	12	1981	Sudbury Gloves Ltd. close their factory in Silver Street, Bideford and move all production to Appledore. Massive flooding occurs throughout North Devon - the oldest locals can remember nothing like it.
24	12	1981	A huge fire does massive damage to Draper's government surplus store in Ilfracombe's Portland Street. Combe Martin council is to buy the privately owned village beach in order to improve its 'tourist image.'
31	12	1981	Unemployment reaches 25% in Ilfracombe and the town is said to be 'slowly dying'. Cyril Braund of Northam founds the Braund Society which honours the family who once provided most of the population of Bucks Mills.
7	1	1982	Holsworthy market traders refuse to pay a £1 rent increase which takes their rents up to £2.50 per week. Devon County Council give the go-ahead to develop an industrial park at Roundswell.
14	1	1982	Deep snow paralyses North Devon and sees 4000 houses without electricity. Plans to introduce double yellow lines into Chulmleigh are rejected by the parish council.
21	1	1982	Rockham Bay Hotel at Mortehoe is badly affected by fire. North Devon Conservatives denounce the N.Devon Peace Council as 'a danger to peace'.
28	1	1982	Ilfracombe calls for seasonal Summer workers who stay on over the Winter and became 'window smashing louts' to be 'deported'. Bideford Town Band are evicted from their practice room at the Westcombe Depot.
4	2	1982	The Barnstaple Women's Group picket the town's Astor Cinema in a protest over the film 'Dressed to Kill'. Work is about to start on 9 new factories at the Alverdiscott Road site in Bideford.
11	2	1982	Crew members from HMS Otus which is officially twinned with Torrington visit the town. Car and motor cycles are said to be 'carving up' Braunton Burrows and calls are made to ban them.
18	2	1982	British Rail deny rumours that clay trains from Meeth are to be axed. £10,000 is to be spent on Lynmouth Under Pavilion with a view to making it a National Park Information Office.
4	3	1982	Britain's largest indoor horse jumping arena is opened at Mariansleigh by Toby and Susan Sheppard. St.Peter's church, Barnstaple breaks a 664 year old all male tradition when it sees Patricia Pilditch ordained as a deaconess.
11	3	1982	Children aged as young as 12 are said to be obtaining 'large quantities' of alcohol in Torrington. A public inquiry into plans to build a new Torridge bridge open at Bideford.
18	3	1982	The newly formed Ilfracombe Harbour Residents Association are to encourage yachts to visit the town. All of South Molton's 58 market stalls are taken following an extensive refurbishment scheme.
25	3	1982	Serious disturbances follow a decision by Bideford College teachers not to supervise lunch hours. 28 council houses in Bratton Fleming are said to be full of mould due to condensation problems.
1	4	1982	The organiser of a pop festival at Snapper is fined £50 for illegally selling 10% proof 'Dynamite Jungle Juice' cider. Drug addicts stage a series of raids on chemist's shops in Barnstaple and Torrington.
8	4	1982	The Ministry of Agriculture admit to gassing badgers in North Devon to try and stop the spread of TB in cattle. A man dressed as woman helps the Bideford Lamb Inn Ladies Darts Team in a match.
15	4	1982	Fortescue Estates announce they are to sell off 2000 acres of Exmoor land. Permission is given to open The Quay pub at Instow.
19	4	1982	Holsworthy Citizens Advice Bureau closes due to a shortage of staff. The Strand Cinema at Bideford and the Regal at Barnstaple close due to falling audiences.
22	4	1982	A disabled French trawler Machereux is towed into Appledore for repairs. A drowned man clad only in his underpants kneeling with his head buried in the sand is discovered at Woolacombe.
6	5	1982	Phyllis and Maurice Smithson retire from Torrington's Railway Hotel after 30 years. Plans to build a shopping centre at Green Lane in Barnstaple go to a public inquiry.
13	5	1982	Barnstaple Ladies Circle hold a fashion show and raise £1000 for the local Battered Womens Refuge. A Midlands firm's offer to set up an all year round market in Ilfracombe is rejected by the town council.
20	5	1982	British Rail proposes reopening the Barnstaple-Bideford rail link. Publisher Robert Maxwell rescues Holsworthy's Art Products Company after it goes bust.
27	5	1982	Two Bideford traders have to pay £1200 following protests over car parking charges. 800 North Devon school 'dinner ladies' go on strike over a new contract of employment.
3	6	1982	N.Devon District Council do not appoint a new Chief Executive even though 170 people have applied for the job. A sea cruise for pupils of Caen Street School in Braunton is cancelled when their ship takes part in the Falklands War.
10	6	1982	South West Water apply for drought orders in North Devon. Ronald Duncan the controversial North Devon author dies aged 68.
17	6	1982	Torrington Commons Conservators ask for a special law allowing them to fine glue sniffers £200. Some 6000 fish at Stafford Moor fishery, Dolton die through lack of oxygen.
24	6	1982	A fire at the Royal Norfolk Hotel in Barnstaple is blamed on arson. The Lee Residents Association vote to remain part of Ilfracombe and not become a separate parish.
1	7	1982	A 5 bedroomed country house with 14 acres of 'good pastureland' in Beaford is for sale at £87,500. The Strand Cinema in Bideford is reopened by the Potter family after a 2 month closure.
1	7	1982	Hartland people are said to be too scared to report acts of vandalism in the village. A Northam policeman has his house burgled - the thief even steals his truncheon.
8	7	1982	The old home of Henry Williamson at Georgeham is up for sale at £65,000. Lundy is given permission to erect a £100,000 wind turbine to guarantee its energy supply.
15	7	1982	The Plastic Canvas record company based in Kingsnympton puts out a record by Braunton band Ghosts of Dance. A house at Chulmleigh is washed away in a freak Summer storm.
22	7	1982	Work on Fremington's new church hall comes to a halt when funding runs out. To mark the birth of Prince William a copper beech is planted at Hollands Park, Combe Martin.
29	7	1982	The old Alexandra Hospital site in Barnstaple is to be replaced with up to 60 new homes. A detached 3 bedroom bungalow in Westward Ho! is for sale at £33,000.
5	8	1982	There are complaints about a cockerel waking people at 4 a.m. every morning in Hartland. Residents of Gould Street, Barnstaple turn out in force to welcome Sergt.Barry Norman home from the Falklands War.
12	8	1982	Contractors are about to complete digging a new tunnel to channel floods away from Coney Gut in Barnstaple. North Devon College reports it has 3000 students - 1250 full time and 1750 part time.
19	8	1982	Some 400 'CB breakers' or Citizen Band radio enthusiasts attend a regional meeting in Lynton. 97 rafts take part in a race from Umberleigh to Barnstaple for charity.
26	8	1982	Bideford trawlermen say they are having to give up owing to Common Markets rules. The Foundations, with their hit song 'Build me up buttercup' appear at Club Ruda.
2	9	1982	A new group for retired people titled Third Age is set up in North Devon. Captain William Slade, author of 'Out of Appledore', dies aged 90.
9	9	1982	Mazzard trees are about to be exported to California from Westacott Nurseries in Barnstaple. Sophie Speller, daughter of North Devon's Tory MP, becomes manager of Torrington punk group 'The Cult'.
16	9	1982	Terry Pratchett, best selling author, writes to the Journal in his earlier incarnation as News Officer for the CEGB. Ilfracombe's Clifton Cinema is about to be demolished to make way for 2 shops and 26 flats.
23	9	1982	The Keymarket supermarket chain is given permission to build a new store in Kingsley Road, Bideford. Demand for 'video nasties' in North Devon rises sharply following nationwide publicity about them.
30	9	1982	A fortune teller warns that Barnstaple's future development will be 'one bloody great mix up.' 350 ex-servicemen march to St.Mary's church, Bideford to dedicate a new British Legion flag.
7	10	1982	Barnstaple traffic is in chaos as Taw Vale, Pilton Street and Sticklepath Hill are all closed for repairs. Steeplejacks repairing Bishopsnympton church clock find it has been peppered with shotgun pellets.
14	10	1982	Health workers picket N.Devon District Hospital during a strike over pay levels. Gerald Squire leaves Huxtable's in Alexandra Road, Barnstaple thus closing the last real blacksmith's shop in the area.
21	10	1982	Robert Bale retires after 33 years as editor of the North Devon Journal-Herald. Skinheads invade a disco at Barnstaple's convent school chanting National Front slogans and smashing windows.
28	10	1982	150 motorcyclists deliberately break a new law by riding from Ilfracombe to Barnstaple not wearing helmets. Only a few people in North Devon are able to receive the new Channel Four TV station.
4	11	1982	The unemployment rate reaches 24% in Ilfracombe. Hundreds of tons of sand are removed from Instow beach to prevent its being blown across village roads.
11	11	1982	The last scheduled British Rail passenger train from Torrington carries 843 rail enthusiasts. Two Bideford woodworkers begin commercial production of boomerangs.
18	11	1982	Elderly people due to move into new flats on the East-the-Water riverside in Bideford are said to be afraid of rats in the area. Ilfracombe's High Street is closed when a crack is discovered in the 45' high chimney stack above Hodges' menswear shop.
25	11	1982	The Duke of Kent visits RAF Chivenor to congratulate Falkland War veterans. Brian Greenslade, chair of the N.Devon Liberals survives an exploding gas bottle at his home in Marwood.
2	12	1982	The 10,500 tonne Tankerman becomes the largest vessel ever to be launched from Appledore shipyard.
9	12	1982	South Molton residents launch a 'Save our Square' campaign after 'enhancement' plans are announced. People in Winkleigh are asked their views on 3 alternative by-pass routes.
16	12	1982	A huge store leads to massive traffic dislocation as many roads in the area are flooded. 150 North Devon women journey to Greenham Common to join protests against the presence of US missiles there.
23	12	1982	The bodies of 2 skinned whippets are found in the Bideford borough cemetery. Police discover an indoor 'cannabis farm' in a raid on a cottage in Burrington.
30	12	1982	A group funded by the Manpower Services Commission begin indexing nineteenth century copies of the North Devon Journal. Parking charges in South Molton car parks are set at 80p per day.
6	1	1983	'Wreckers' descend on the beached coaster Johanna at Hartland and strip the ship of everything portable. Part of the Halsdon estate at Dolton is to become a nature reserve.
13	1	1983	Bovine TB is rampant throughout North Devon. Lenny Henry performs at the Zenaxis night club in Barnstaple.
20	1	1983	It is suggested that speed warning signs are erected in the rivers Taw and Torridge. West Buckland School takes its first ever female boarders.
27	1	1983	The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway is trying to buy 5 acres around Woody Bay Station. Residents of Irsha Street, Appledore ask for a 10 mph speed limit in their road.
3	2	1983	A 15' hole opens up in Combe Martin's promenade following huge gales. The RNLI announce plans to close its lifeboat stations at Clovelly and Appledore.
10	2	1983	Plans are announced for a multi million pound scheme 'to expand and modernise Ilfracombe's harbour area.' Kingsacre County Primary School, Braunton is officially opened by the High Sheriff of Devon.
17	2	1983	Aluminium Furnishings Ltd. of Bideford call in the receivers. A newly rethatched sixteenth century 2 bedroom cottage in Kingsnympton is for sale at £26,000.
24	2	1983	The Co-op and Liptons are said to be in competition to build a supermarket on Bideford's Kingsley Road industrial estate. Ilfracombe's Clifton cinema is demolished.
3	3	1983	An attempted hold-up at Ilfracombe's Embassy Cinema fails when the cashier laughs at the 2 armed thieves. Torridge District Council raise house rates by 21p a week.
10	3	1983	Woolacombe School gets its first video player. Torrington town council ask Torridge District Council that all car parks in the town be made free.
17	3	1983	120 motorcyclists are fined for not wearing a crash helmet after a protest rally in Barnstaple. The future of Witheridge's only pub The Angel is in the balance after its brewery owners close it.
24	3	1983	Torrington Co-op in South Street closes after 83 years trading. Eight trees are planted in South Molton Square in an effort to enhance the area.
31	3	1983	A party of students from Manteo, USA visit Bideford as part of moves to strengthen links. A start is made on the Newport Link Road in Barnstaple designed to open up a new industrial estate.
7	4	1983	A Polish theatre group visiting the Plough at Torrington appeal for help to buy food. Jim Davidson appears at the Queen's Hall in Barnstaple.
14	4	1983	A baby llama is born at Lydford Farm, Ilfracombe bringing numbers up to 6. The landlord of the Exeter Inn in Barnstaple goes bankrupt.
21	4	1983	Armed patrols of local farmers hunt a 'big, black and cat-like' beast around South Molton. The bankrupt Clovelly Country Club is up for sale at £350,000.
28	4	1983	Disco goers at Buckland Brewer are 'frisked' for knives by local police. A seventeenth century water wheel at Docton Mill, Hartland is working again after a 2 year refurbishment.
5	5	1983	The Torrington dairy factory completes a £5.5 million modernisation. A church court is held in Torrington following the introduction of a 'black Madonna' by the Rev.Hummerstone.
12	5	1983	Photographers seeking a £1000 prize disturb marines aiming to shoot the 'Beast of Exmoor'. The Principal of North Devon College, Gordon Hird, retires after 21 years on post.
19	5	1983	A Barnstaple homecare store Paul Madeley Ltd is to be sued for Sunday trading. Diana Dors stops for lunch at the George Hotel in South Molton.
26	5	1983	Some £16,000 worth of trophies are stolen from the Royal North Devon Golf Club at Westward Ho! A parent stands for Torridge in the General Election under the label 'Stop Edgehill College Expelling Sara Campaign'.
2	6	1983	Rampaging pupils celebrating their last day at Braunton School cause £1000 worth of damage. The chapel in Bideford's Old Town Cemetery is reprieved from its planned demolition.
9	6	1983	Bratton Fleming carnival sees Tracey Willmetts dressed as the 'Exmoor Beast'. Plans are announced to turn the old Dornat's lemonade factory in Barnstaple into a museum.
16	6	1983	Appledore Shipbuilders win an order to build a nuclear waste carrier. Tony Speller and Sir Peter Mills win Parliamentary seats in the North Devon General Election.
23	6	1983	The factory of Batten Industries at Chulmleigh which makes dolls and doll's clothes closes. A 'Beast of Exmoor' t-shirt proves a best seller in South Molton.
30	6	1983	No-one offers to take on the job of Bideford town crier. World snooker champion Steve Davis opens the West Buckland School fete.
7	7	1983	The new North Devon Link Road could be dualled 'if the volume of traffic justifies it.' Plans to use the Yelland power station site as a rubbish tip are denounced as 'horrendous'.
14	7	1983	A South Devon businessman plans to invest £4 million in revamping Ilfracombe harbourside. A hosepipe ban is imposed over North Devon to save water.
21	7	1983	The Polar Bear which serves Lundy collides with the Aurosia and is badly holed. A freak storm leaves a foot of hailstones covering roads around South Molton.
28	7	1983	South Molton shopkeepers vote to give lunchtime opening a one month trial. Instow parish councillors vote to keep the old barge on their beach for children to play in.
4	8	1983	A topless double decker bus running along the coastline at Combe Martin is a great success. Police warn the 'Exmoor Beast' is still alive - and dangerous.
11	8	1983	Combe Martin carnival boasts 33 floats p the biggest for many years. A 3 bedroom house at Babbages in Bickington is for sale at £22,250.
18	8	1983	The Ministry of Transport gives the go-ahead to construction of a new high level bridge across the Torridge. An unexploded wartime bomb is found entangled in the moorings of the Appledore lifeboat.
23	8	1983	A regular ferry between Ilfracombe and Swansea is the central feature of redevelopment plans for the resort. Showaddywaddy are playing at the Queens Hall in Barnstaple.
1	9	1983	Spring tides reveal wartime anti personnel mines on Putsborough beach. A huge fire in Ilfracombe's shopping centre kills one and injures eight others.
8	9	1983	Ethel Rofe of South Molton passes O-level history aged 74. The Radio 1 Roadshow with Steve Wright visits Westward Ho!
15	9	1983	Expansion of Torrington's dairy factory is held up following residents' complaints about soot and milk powder pollution. Fred Bailey, ex-Mayor of Bideford suggests nudist bathing at Westward Ho!
22	9	1983	A man claims to have shot and buried the 'Exmoor Beast' on Molland Common. Anti-apartheid protestors picket Northam's Durrant House Hotel when it shows films promoting holidays in South Africa.
29	9	1983	Bideford plans to build 'a miniature indoor Westward Ho! beach' rather than a 'Victorian style tiled swimming pool.' Peter Short of Whiddon Valley wins the National Speed Hill Climbing title on a 350cc motorbike.
6	10	1983	Vandals dig 150 holes in the green at Rock Park Bowling Club in Barnstaple. Methodists in Fremington launch an appeal to build a new church there.
13	10	1983	Traders in Barnstaple's Butchers Row claim 'we're slowly being poisoned' by car fumes. Woolacombe is known as 'the wildest resort in the West' - but locals say 'Enough is enough.'
20	10	1983	Ilfracombe is 'impregnated with gloom and indifference' and is told to 'Buck up or bust' by the town's Harbour Development Group.
27	10	1983	Another 'mysterious black beast' is seen at Lower Culleigh Farm, Frithelstock. Roger Joanes of Filleigh sells off plots in his garden in an effort to stop the Link Road destroying his home.
3	11	1983	Appledore shipyard workers vote to strike over an 18 month wage freeze. A Barnstaple fish and chip shop owner is ordered to remove £6000 worth of stone facing he had put on his listed shop building.
10	11	1983	A retired American pilot announces £300,000 plans to open RAF Chivenor to civilian flights. A Maidenhead woman falls to her death from cliffs at Lundy.
17	11	1983	A local woman produces 'toy puffins' for sale on Lundy. Moves are started to preserve an old lime kiln at Park Hills, Combe Martin.
24	11	1983	Barnstaple shopkeepers vote against development plans for both Green Lane and the Cattle Market. Seven times Mayor of South Molton Jack Carter dies aged 86.
1	12	1983	Bishops Nympton residents vote 2 to 1 in favour of a new pub in the village. Torrington Football Club draft in 5 teenagers to 'breathe fresh air' into the team.
8	12	1983	The N.W.Devon Railway Preservation Society is set up to buy the disused Barnstaple-Bideford line. Plans are put forward to turn the old Mortehoe railway station into a museum.
15	12	1983	Developers announce plans to build a £1.5 million 4 star hotel on the Candar site in Ilfracombe. 400 tons of mussels wash up around Baggy Point - but locals are warned not to eat them.
22	12	1983	The Landmark Trust move their Lundy link boat the Polar Bear from Ilfracombe to Bideford. Claims are made that books on black magic are being censored by Barnstaple librarians.
29	12	1983	Britain's first farm for city children, at Iddesleigh, is filmed by the BBC. The Kingsley Road area in Bideford floods during a major storm.
29	12	1983	A coven of witches 200 strong is said to be operating in the Barnstaple area. South Molton town council ask local students to design a flag for the town.
5	1	1984	A 'Boy George' look-alike mugs a woman in Ilfracombe. Lundy imports 77 sheep, 5 heifers, 3 cows and a shire horse to improve the island's livestock.
12	1	1984	Larry Percival, sacked manager of Torrington football club, wins his appeal for unfair dismissal. The new Lundy supply boat the Polar Bear begins trials at Bideford.
19	1	1984	Butcher's shops in Ilfracombe are attacked by animal liberation graffiti artists. The Black Horse pub in Torrington reports a ghost in their cellar who has been christened 'George'.
26	1	1984	Edgehill College in Bideford celebrates its centenary. A 3 bedroomed house in Torrington is for sale at £21,750.
2	2	1984	South Molton council announce an end to free car parking on market days. A Westleigh farm worker discovers £5000 worth of stolen property packed in plastic bags in a local plantation.
9	2	1984	Holsworthy experiences its fourth smash and grab raid in just 3 weeks. An unknown nineteenth century mine adit some 30 metres long is discovered in Combe Martin.
16	2	1984	The N.W.Devon Railway Preservation Company is given 10 months to raise £313,000 to buy the Barnstaple-Bideford railway line. An experimental ice hockey match is staged at the Tyrolean rink in Westward Ho!
23	2	1984	Education cuts see North Devon teacher numbers reduced by 42. Sonic booms from Concorde overflying North Devon lead to many complaints.
1	3	1984	Prince Charles visits North Devon and stops to meet a mass of young people chanting 'We want Charlie' on Bideford Bridge. The Mayor of Ilfracombe and local Tory MP Tony Speller welcome plans for a wind farm at Mullacott Cross.
8	3	1984	Divito's ice cream parlour in the Square, Barnstaple is sold and is to become a fish and chip shop. A Presto Supermarket opens in Bideford's Kingsley Road.
15	3	1984	The Top Camp holiday centre at Westward Ho! is to be redeveloped under a huge dome by the Co-op. The Kenwith Valley flood protection scheme is opened in Bideford after years of damaging floods.
22	3	1984	New old people's flats to be built on the site of the Barnstaple Town Station are given planning approval. One of the Marines who hunted the Exmoor Beast gives evidence to the North Devon Link Road inquiry about nocturnal animals in the area.
29	3	1984	Ilfracombe council denounces NDDC saying they 'are absolutely fed up with the way things are run from Barnstaple.' A 63 year old Northam woman freezes to death in a house full of pound notes.
5	4	1984	A party from Bideford's Edgehill College is caught in an avalanche in Switzerland, their teacher dies. Eaglescott Airfield at Burrington is given planning permission.
12	4	1984	200 local people are checked for TB following a woman's infection in Holsworthy. The Polar Bear, Lundy's supply ship, is to be permanently based in Bideford.
19	4	1984	Michael Caine and Billy Connolly are to film 'Water' at Hartland. A Northam councillor suggests strengthening the pebble ridge at Westward Ho! by dropping rubbish behind it.
26	4	1984	A national miner's strike sees a strikebreaking ship unloading coal in Bideford. The 800 jobs at Appledore Shipyard are said to be safe following rumours about the yard's future.
3	5	1984	The Braund Family Society get-together sees 2 American Braunds flying in. A Barnstaple councillor warns that 'shops will die' if pedestrianisation is extended to Joy and Cross Street.
10	5	1984	A hosepipe ban is introduced in North Devon following 10 weeks without rain. 50 striking Welsh miners join Barnstaple's May Day rally and ask for food to be sent to their families.
17	5	1984	Braunton council and the local Rotary Club spend £4000 on a garden on the North side of Caen Street. Ilfracombe's deputy Mayor resigns after he is not chosen to be the next Mayor.
24	5	1984	John Mock, successful manager of Appledore football club moves to Minehead as their new boss. North Devon Meat announce a profit of £1.75 million.
31	5	1984	A factory making electronic medical equipment is to open on Bradworthy's industrial estate. The refurbished old school at Warkleigh is up for sale at £55,000.
7	6	1984	A 'flying picket' of striking Welsh miners blockades a coal carrying ship at Bideford. The Labour Party Euro candidate campaigns in Barnstaple using a pantomime cow.
14	6	1984	Striking school teachers mean 1800 North Devon children are sent home for 3 days. The old post office in Cross Street, Barnstaple closes after some 80 years of use.
21	6	1984	A section of the roof of Barnstaple's Leisure Centre collapses. A new BMX track is opened at Velator, Braunton.
28	6	1984	Trevor Stanbury opens the 'Milky Way' theme farm at Clovelly. The Savoy Cinema in South Molton is to be converted into an architectural antiques showroom.
5	7	1984	Torrington Commons Conservators take action to stop North Devon Meat turning a Torridge tributary into a 'Red River'. Comedian Frank Carson tours Barnstaple shop as part of a publicity drive.
12	7	1984	North Devon faces water rationing after weeks of dry weather. Post offices at Bradiford, Chambercombe and Summerland Street in Barnstaple are set to close.
19	7	1984	200 Torrington dairy workers facing the sack due to milk quotas vote to strike. Ilfracombe's first outdoor mural at Ebberley House is completed.
26	7	1984	The Red Arrows flying display team perform at RAF Chivenor's Open Day. A thatched cottage in the middle of Chittlehamholt is seriously damaged by fire.
2	8	1984	British Rail order the removal of the Barnstaple-Bideford railway line. A motorist stopped by a Bideford traffic warden eats his tax disk before it can be examined.
9	8	1984	Armed police take part in an arrest in Northam after a man is shot. Ilfracombe's Harbour Development Group begin a study into a proposed multi-million pound makeover for the resort.
16	8	1984	3 Journal employees stage a parachute jump to mark the paper's 160th anniversary. A derelict flour mill at Rolle Quay in Barnstaple is redeveloped as modern flats for the elderly.
23	8	1984	A fire at Chapelton sawmill causes £40,000 worth of damage. A 'riot' at the Marisco Club, Woolacombe leaves its owner considering permanent closure.
30	8	1984	A major outbreak of salmonella poisoning leaves 60 locals and tourists ill. Holsworthy Electronics is almost overwhelmed with work.
6	9	1984	An emergency pipeline brings 4 million gallons of water to a parched North Devon. A gang of motorcyclists keep themselves warm at Hartland by using tree stakes for a bonfire.
13	9	1984	90 out of 240 workers at Bideford's 'Leisure Industries' company are laid off. A huge fire in Barnstaple's Joy Street sees 2 shops devastated.
20	9	1984	Bideford councillors demand to know what is to happen to the UBM wharf at East-the-Water they have just purchased. 87 illegal copies of videos seized from shops in Torrington and Bideford are ordered to be destroyed.
27	9	1984	A 16 year old 6' 6" rugby player at Grenville College, Bideford cannot obtain boots large enough to play in. A hunted stag is shot in the yard of the South Molton Co-op by the Devon and Somerset Staghounds.
4	10	1984	Holsworthy Art Products Ltd. closes with the loss of 46 jobs. The Beast of Exmoor is sighted again between Swimbridge and Filleigh.
11	10	1984	Moves to ban hunting around South Molton lead to a spate of threatening letters to organisers of the ban. Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson film 'Three Turtles' at Ilfracombe.
18	10	1984	Haircut One Hundred play the Queen's Hall in Barnstaple. Barnstaple planners demand more variety of house types on the Whiddon Valley development.
25	10	1984	Sir Peter Mills announces he is to retire as MP for Torridge and West Devon. Ilfracombe headmaster Alan Bacon denounces the 'dismal Jimmies' who keep knocking the town.
1	11	1984	Work begins on building the high level Torridge Bridge. A rare North American bobolink bird flies on to Lundy and the island is besieged by 'twitchers'.
8	11	1984	A witches' coven supposedly meets in a derelict cemetery at a ruined church in Ilfracombe. A Bideford councillor claims the closure of Bideford and Torrington rail stations was illegal.
15	11	1984	The Royal North Devon Golf Club at Westward Ho! is said to be over run by rabbits. A 2 bedroom modernised house in Cyprus Terrace, Barnstaple is for sale at £19,250.
22	11	1984	David Shepherd of Instow is elected to the panel of Test Match umpires. CB 'pranksters' are breaking in on emergency radio channels.
29	11	1984	500 homes in North Devon are flooded following a major storm surge. A 13 strong 'God Squad' is set up to tidy dilapidated churchyards in the South Molton area.
6	12	1984	North Devon loses government 'regional aid' and there are concerns no new industry will be attracted. Archaeologists excavate the site of Dornat's lemonade factory in Barnstaple prior to the new library being built.
13	12	1984	An experimental wind turbine is erected at Slade, Ilfracombe. Victoria Chambers in Barnstaple's High Street is put up for sale.
20	12	1984	Barnstaple's traders try late night shopping and have 'bonanza' takings. Plans to convert a Bideford basement office into a nuclear shelter are attacked by the Chamber of Commerce.
27	12	1984	Douglas Mounce stars in the pantomime 'Aladdin' at the Queen's Hall, Barnstaple. Over 85s are set to grow by 40% over a decade according to a new report.
25	2	1987	Plans to develop a 'Smuggling Exhibition' at Clovelly are rejected for the second time. Huge protests are directed at the owners of Knapp House, Northam over a breach in the coastal footpath.

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Items from Peter Christie's 'Looking Back' Column

In the North Devon Journal (1951-1959)

Provided by Peter Christie

Extracts from past issues (1851-1987) of the Journal