On this day in Wembury – 15 July
1982 (Western Evening Herald Crimefile column)
The Herald’s Crimefile column reported that a string of raids on cigarette machines across Plymouth and the South Hams included one at Langdon Court Hotel, Wembury, carried out on 07 July. Detectives said the offenders smashed open the machine, grabbed the cash, and fled. The same group was suspected of similar break-ins at other venues between 07 and 09 July, suggesting a coordinated pattern of petty but disruptive crime.
Langdon Court, a four century old manor turned hotel, was a prominent landmark in the parish, and incidents there often resonated more widely than simple property damage. The report reflects a period when isolated rural businesses were increasingly targeted by quick hit thieves, taking advantage of quieter locations and the limited CCTV coverage typical of the early 1980s.
For Wembury, the incident sits within a broader snapshot of local policing at the time. These Crimefile columns documented everything from village burglaries to street assaults in Plymouth, giving readers a weekly sense of how crime moved between urban and rural areas. The inclusion of Langdon Court shows how even small, quiet parts of the parish were not isolated from wider criminal patterns during the period.
Western Evening Herald, 15 July 1982.