On this day in Wembury — 12 March 1988
A small notice in the Western Evening Herald announced a jumble sale at Wembury Village Hall, “in aid of Hall Funds,” starting at half past two with entry ten pence and the promise of refreshments and a raffle. It was the sort of familiar event that kept village life turning through the 1980s, when a Saturday jumble sale was still a social occasion as much as a fundraiser.
In those days the hall tables would be stacked with donated clothes, crockery, records, toys and books, most of it priced at a few pence. Volunteers from the hall committee would spend the morning sorting through bags of jumble while others brewed tea and arranged plates of sponge cake and biscuits. There was always the friendly rush as the doors opened and regular bargain-hunters hurried to the stalls, followed by the gentle chat of neighbours catching up over a cup of tea.
Jumble sales like this one funded the upkeep of Wembury Village Hall long before online appeals or grant schemes existed. They paid for repairs to the roof, heating, lighting and the stage curtains that saw every play, dance and harvest supper of the time. Each event drew the community together, proving that even the smallest sale could build something larger — a sense of belonging that still lingers in the hall’s walls.
(Western Evening Herald, 11 March 1988)