Issue 18 Autumn 2014 Serving the Village and Parish of Witheridge West Ridge Veterinary Practice 5 Chapple Road 31 Park Hill Hillmans Witheridge Tiverton Winkleigh EX16 8AS EX16 6RW EX19 8HJ 01884 860236 01884 255336 01837 83240 www.westridgevets.co.uk Providing complete veterinary care for your pets, horses and farm animals throughout Mid Devon We care for your animals as much as you do Clean Sweep Tel: 01884 - 821297 or Mobile: 07773 - 618524 Editorial If this looks full, it’s because it was a bit of a squeeze to fit in the articles as well as all the news . For me the long articles make Witheridge Voice worth doing. I was asked for a ‘To the Editor’ page - no space in this issue. The magazine opens with Reverend Castlehow pt 2. His involvement in the Scout movement had a long Swallow babies Gill Knight lasting effect on Witheridge boys. ‘Commemorating the WW1 Centenary ‘ records a little of Sheila Plummer’s talent for displaying information. ‘In Another Life: Sunset NEXT ISSUE out last Surf ‘ shows another side of Mary Stanbury and St John’s week in November. Fair fills the centre pages with summer colour. Reminders late Oct. No apologies for all the photos of Class 3 visiting Gerald Manning’s meadow or the subsequent overnight camp. CONTENTS Page Most memorable of the meadow visit was after vainly Features trying to control 28 children who managed to find baby Reverend Castlehow Pt 2 5 frogs in a meadow of wild flowers, Gerald took them to The Two Moors’ Way 17 WW1 Centenary 18,19 a recently cut hay meadow and said they had to run Sunset Surf 23,24,25 round and jump on all the hay bales! They didnt need St John’s Fair 32,33 telling twice. Alternative Perspectives 39 No apologies either for putting ‘Archie’s War’ with Spirits 39 Sheila’s WW1 display. Children learn by doing and they Witheridge Trivia 57 now know what the 11th hour of the 11th day is about. Thank you to those who agreed to talk to me or who sent things for inclusion. I get a bit frazzled but I try to fit as Regular much in as I can. Thank you as always for those who Welcome to the village 9 choose to advertise with us. Without your help there Community News 13,15 would be no magazine. Carole Campbell Parish Hall & Oakmoor 11 Churches 29,31 Editor [email protected] Schools 34,35,37 Advertising [email protected] Ted’s Farm recipe 41 Phone 01884 860773 Vet News 43 Editor Carole Campbell Treasurer Jim Campbell Children’s activities 45 Chairman Gill Manning Secretary Jess Campbell Sports 47,49 Advisor Carol Prynn Proof reading: committee Incomers’ Guide 55 Website https://sites.google.com/site/witheridgevoice Places to Go Wordsearch 53 Wordsearch answers 57 Posters ONE page of A4, LARGE type/ full size jpeg Parish Council 59 Facebook www.facebook.com/witheridgevoiceonline Library & Printed by Burridge Printers 01837 82386 Things I Could Go To 61 www.burridgeprinters.co.uk What’s happening 62 Cover Gerald Manning 3 Highly recommended local out-side caterers Weddings, Cocktail parties, Birthdays, Hog roasts and Summer balls A personalised event management service, equipment hire Waitress service and licensed bar. Please contact Sally or Suzie on www.relishcatering.co.uk email: [email protected] Need to rejuvenate old metal? We provide a variety of services ranging from powder coating to hot zinc spray and shot blasting. We keep a range of about 100 colours in stock, and most are exterior polyesters, which provide excellent durability and colour retention on gates, railings and garden furniture. Telephone 01884 34506 Opening Hours: Monday to Thursday 8 am to 5 pm or Friday 7 am to 1 pm Email: [email protected] www.industrialcoatingsupplies.co.uk Units 1 + 2 Simmons Place, Kingsmill Industrial Estate Cullompton EX15 1BH 4 Rev. JAS Castlehow 2: Witheridge Scouts Highly recommended local out-side caterers Rev Castlehow joined the Scouts in 1910 only 3 years after Baden Powell started it. He came to Witheridge in 1925 and started A personalised event management service, equipment hire Witheridge Scouts in 1926. He was much loved and respected, a man who led by example, but more importantly, he broadened Scout’s Assoc. 1920 Front row Baden Powell, the boys’ horizons. Prince Arthur, 3rd son of Queen Victoria on The first scouts were Ernest Stenner, Bill his right. Middle Rev Castlehow far left. Williams, Bill Hutchings, Basil Reed and get water from the farmer and Lionel Gunn. He took boys to West Coast whatever the weather, we had to have Jamborees in 1933 and 1936, the World an early morning wash in the river. Scout Jamboree in Hungary, the Latvian At Mamhead we camped on Lord National Jamboree and in 1937, he led Lumley’s lawn. We were the only scouts an international camp in Switzerland allowed to camp there as Rev Castlehow with Bill Hutchings, Derek and Reg Nott. was good friends with Lord Lumley. On With war only weeks away, he took alternate nights he would go down to boys to the French Alps in 1939. the main house to play bridge. Recollections of Gordy Pyne (1940s) Getting ready for camp We would be You paid a little bit to go to camp for a called to the vicarage to get things out fortnight. You didn’t have to go to of the stables, repair the tents, scrub the church though, he would take you. The billy cans, pack up everything in tea younger lads (11 year olds) went to West chests and make sure they were dry. Yeo bottom for a weekend while we Notts provided the lorry free and one of went to Colleton Hall just off Witheridge the drivers took us down. We took axes, Moor. It was a good ¼ mile each way to spades and our bikes. Paul Williams, Rev.Castlehow, Bill Williams, Derek Nott 1930 Scouts in the French Alps 1939 5 Tables and chairs We drove 2 irons into the ground and hung the billy can across the top. Then we dug 2 trenches and made a table top from laths of wood lashed together which could be rolled up. Boys sat either side of the trench then we fixed the table runner support into the trench and unrolled the top. It was very primitive but it worked. We made a dresser out of poles to put We would cycle to Dawlish, Starcross washing up bowls on and cut out a cup and Dawlish Warren for a swim, then rack and plate rack from sticks lashed pick whortleberries to make jam and together. The bell tents had a rubber cycle back in time to get wood in for the ground sheet attached by loops but if it camp fire. Just before bed, after our rained a lot we had to get up and dig a cocoa and a biscuit, JAS would say ‘Here trench round to take the water away. boys, come out and study the stars’ and We slept in a sackbag- a blanket sewn he would point out them all out. up with blanket stitch. We never got up Mamhead 1943 : Two scouts were in early because of the dew on the ground control of the camp while Rev Castlehow and we just wore plimsolls and shorts. took the rest for a swim. A dog entered Cooking Younger boys got the kindling the stores tent, ate ¼ of the fruit cake and put it in a dry spot. If you didn’t do donated by the village baker (and it properly you didn’t eat and were cold. slobbered over the rest)! The 2 lads tried We ate like lords. Breakfast was porridge to hide the evidence by crumbling what one morning, scrambled egg and bacon was left into a jelly to make trifle. Being the next. We wouldn’t have had that at told the recipe, the vicar said’ Oh Lord, home. On Sunday we had rissoles one doesn’t use fruit cake for a trifle’ (tinned corn beef, mashed potatoes, whereupon Gordy and I looked at one breadcrumbs) fried in fat. another and giggled. (Cedric Turnbull To make an oven for our rice pudding The Book of Witheridge) we cut the top off a 4 gallon petrol can Gerald Manning (1940s/50s) We knew with a door hinged with wire. him as JAS but to his face it was always Rev Castlehow got the food from the SIR or Mr Castlehow. Mamhead was farmers because it was a boys’ camp. beautiful parkland, partly wooded, We would go down to Starcross for partly open countryside, with brambles bread and meat but didn’t take money. and bamboo which we cut back to make JAS paid at the end of the fortnight. It’s a camp site sheltered from the wind. We possible he used his own money. had a cookhouse tent but when it was 6 fine we cooked outside. First we put up the tents then dug the latrines. He worked out the rota in advance so by the end of the day the camp was up and everybody knew who was getting the milk, cooking, fetching water and fetching kindling. There were about 12-18 boys, 8 or 9 of us in a tent. He had his own little tent. We slept in a circle with our feet to the centre pole. The trick was to be as far from the door as possible to not get trodden on. JAS would shout ‘ OH LORD, you come out, run down the beach, boys, DO be QUIET.