ON THIS DAY IN WEMBURY – 09 September 1945
Two young Wembury children, Mavis Furzeland aged thirteen and her brother Gordon aged ten, were involved in a serious accident while freewheeling down one of the village’s steep hills. They came off their bicycle at speed, a common danger in the days before modern brakes and helmets, especially on Wembury’s sharp descents that run from the high ground at Knighton and Church Road towards the coast.
Mavis suffered concussion and multiple abrasions, while Gordon received a deep laceration to the right side of his forehead and a badly bruised eye. Both children were taken by the Plymouth and District St John Ambulance Service to the Prince of Wales’s Hospital at Greenbank. Their condition was described as “rather poorly” later that evening, and the incident would have caused real concern in a village still adjusting to post-war life, when medical resources were stretched and families were already coping with years of upheaval.
Source, Western Morning News, 10 September 1945.
On This Day in Wembury – 9 September 1945
Two rare butterflies were noted at Wembury on the same day: another Bath White and a Pale Clouded Yellow, the latter observed by D. Hunt. Both species are migrants from mainland Europe and seldom seen in Devon. Their joint appearance illustrates how the South Devon coast acted as a landing point for insect arrivals on seasonal winds — a reminder of Wembury’s role in recording unusual wildlife movements.
Source: Western Morning News, 11 Dec 1945.