wemburywaves

On this day in Wembury – 3 September 1884

Source: Express & Echo, 4 September 1884

Langdon Barton Stock Sale
On Wednesday, 3 September 1884, Messrs. Bourne, Son & Vosper of Rousdon and Plympton held a major auction of livestock at Langdon Barton, Wembury, on behalf of Mr. T. J. Petrie.

The sale attracted a very large attendance of leading agriculturists and dealers, and was described as one of the most spirited sales of the season.

• Sheep: Over 400 sold, described as the best flock submitted to the hammer locally that year. Breeding ewes fetched 58s–51s each; two-tooth ewes 50s–40s; ewe lambs 43s 6d–32s; wether lambs 45s–30s.

• Cattle: Around 60 bullocks offered. Cows in calf reached up to £25 5s; cows in milk £21–£17; young heifers £19 5s–£14 5s; pairs of young steers £28–£26; fat steers £27–£26 15s; fat bull £26 5s.

• Horses: Several valuable horses and colts sold. Six mares in foal or with foals fetched 21½–13½ guineas; a grey horse (8 years) sold for 17 guineas; two-year-old cart colts made 22–21 guineas.

The stock was widely praised for quality, particularly the sheep, which were regarded as outstanding in the district.

On This Day in Wembury: Four Wagonloads of Young Soldiers at the Bay

On 3 September 1898, The Young Soldier carried a report from Plympton about a large party of children brought to Wembury for their annual summer outing.

Despite the name of the newspaper, these were not young recruits in the British Army. They were Junior Soldiers belonging to the Salvation Army corps at Plympton.

The Salvation Army had adopted military language from its earliest years. Local congregations were called corps, ministers were officers and members were soldiers. Children who made a commitment to the organisation’s Christian teaching became Junior Soldiers.

The newspaper in which the story appeared had begun in 1881 under the name The Little Soldier. It became The Young Soldier in 1888, the same year that the Salvation Army formally organised its work with children throughout Britain. It was a weekly illustrated paper containing stories, songs, puzzles, religious instruction and reports sent in by Junior Soldier groups around the country. Remarkably, its successor is still published today as Kids Alive!

The Wembury outing was one of the final activities arranged by Captain Bishop and Lieutenant Filby before they left the Plympton corps. Four horse drawn wagons were lent for the occasion and filled with what the reporter called a merry party.

After a pleasant journey of about seven miles, the children arrived at Wembury Church Bay. The report referred to the bay as a place associated with tales of wrecks and smugglers, stories that had apparently appeared in an earlier edition of The Young Soldier.

It was initially a fine day. The children quickly removed their boots and stockings and went paddling in the sea. Fires were lit and tea was passed around, while Captain Bishop and Lieutenant Filby worked to provide for the large party.

The report was written by Envoy W L Cole, another Salvation Army rank. He recorded that the hours passed all too quickly and that Captain Bishop’s hospitality contributed greatly to the children’s enjoyment.

Lieutenant Filby wisely arranged an early start for the journey back to Plympton. Before the wagons had travelled very far, the long awaited rain began to fall. Although the downpour delighted the local farmers and gardeners, it left the returning party thoroughly wet.

The children apparently remained cheerful throughout. Cole concluded that everyone had been happy and that getting wet had done little to spoil their day beside the sea.

This small report provides a wonderful picture of an organised children’s excursion before motor coaches and family cars. Four wagons filled with excited youngsters travelled from Plympton to Wembury, where a day of paddling, tea and games ended with a soaking wet ride home.

It also shows that Wembury Bay was already a recognised destination for outings by the late nineteenth century. For many of those Plympton children, the journey of seven miles by horse drawn wagon may have been a rare opportunity to see the sea and a day they remembered for the rest of their lives.

Background information: The Salvation Army’s history of its children’s publications and the publication history of The Young Soldier.

 

 

On This Day in Wembury: The Tragedy at Wilcox Cove

On 3 September 1914, the Western Morning News reported the inquest into the death of an 18 year old French visitor named Eric, who had drowned at Wilcox Cove on the Wembury side of the River Yealm.

Eric was staying at Braeside in Newton Ferrers with Mr and Mrs A Hartley Russell in order to learn English. His stepfather, M L M Fichou, attended the inquest and formally identified him.

On Tuesday 25 August, Mrs Russell, her two children and Eric travelled by boat to Wilcox Cove for a picnic and a bathe. It was low tide and they believed the spot was safe, having bathed there several times previously.

Their boat was secured with its stern mooring among the seaweed and a rope from the bow fastened to a rock. Eric climbed into the boat and began putting on a pair of water wings. When he first entered the water, he found it unexpectedly deep because the tide was coming in quickly, so he climbed back aboard and tested the depth with an oar.

Mrs Russell called for him to return to the shore. Instead, Eric climbed over the side of the boat, counted “one, two, three” and entered the water.

He managed only two swimming strokes before a wave struck him from behind. Mrs Russell told the inquest that he threw up his hands and cried “Mon Dieu” before apparently losing control and disappearing beneath the water.

She raised the alarm and climbed the cliff in search of assistance. Two young men came down from Langdon Court. One of them, named Reece, immediately entered the water and attempted to find Eric, but it was too late.

Fisherman A Axworthy later recovered the body in only a few inches of water in Wilcox Cove. He towed it back across the Yealm to Newton Ferrers, where it was placed in the boathouse on the quay.

Axworthy told the jury that he regarded that particular place on the Wembury shore as dangerous for bathing, even in fair weather.

Mr Russell had been away on business. Before leaving, he had made Eric promise not to go sailing and to be particularly careful if he went swimming. He had specifically warned him that bathing from a boat would be unsafe, even if swimming from the shore appeared harmless.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death from drowning. They criticised Mrs Russell for allowing Eric to bathe at the spot, although she maintained that she had believed it to be safe. They also praised Reece for his brave attempt to rescue him and suggested that he should receive some form of reward.

The inquest ended with another reminder of the extraordinary time in which the tragedy occurred. Britain had declared war on Germany only a few weeks earlier. The jurors donated their attendance fees to the Prince of Wales’s National Relief Fund, which had been established to assist the families of servicemen and people left in hardship by the war. The fund supported soldiers’ and sailors’ dependants and civilians affected by wartime unemployment.

Eric had come to Newton Ferrers simply to improve his English. Instead, his visit ended in a secluded Wembury cove where an apparently calm sea, an incoming tide and one unexpected wave combined with fatal consequences. The exact location of Wilcox Cove seems to have been lost, unless anyone knows ?

On This Day in Wembury – 3 September 1939

Britain declared war on Germany at 11:15am, and in Wembury, as across the country, the news marked the start of years of uncertainty and sacrifice.

One villager later recalled hearing Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s broadcast while home on weekend leave from HMS Impregnable at St Budeaux. As a young boy seaman, he packed his few belongings into the traditional blue handkerchief bundle while his mother wept, uncertain when she might see him again. Called back to his unit, he marched off “like a hero” — only to be released again later that afternoon, blue bundle intact. That fleeting moment of departure, however, left a lasting impression, and the anguish of his mother’s tears stayed with him throughout the war.

For Wembury, the conflict was no abstraction. The village endured air raid sirens, bombs falling uncomfortably close, and the loss of sixteen residents from a population of around 800. Along the shore, a concrete pillbox at Wembury Beach was built to guard against invasion. Sixty years later, its eroded remains still stood, battered by waves, a silent reminder of the long struggle and the sacrifices made.

As the villager reflected in 1999, “Many did not come back; and their mothers cried.”

Source: Western Evening Herald, 4 Sept 1999 (60th anniversary reflection).