On This Day in Wembury
1 November 1997 — Bus Strikes Power Line on Knighton Road
On this day the Western Evening Herald reported that strong winds had blown an overhead electrical wire loose across Knighton Road, Wembury, on Tuesday 21 October. The situation escalated when the loose wire was struck by a passing bus, causing a local power failure and inconvenience to residents. South Western Electricity Board (SWEB) engineers quickly attended, making the area safe and restoring supplies.
The report appeared alongside notices of other parish life: the annual Christmas Pudding Stir at HMS Cambridge, where disabled pupils from Dame Hannah Rogers School in Ivybridge were once again guests; a talk to the Wembury Local History Society by Group Captain J. R. Goodman on “A Thousand Years of Sherford”; Wembury Grasshoppers Cricket Club’s autumn dance in the Village Hall; and a local bird feed delivery service run by Valerie Gray of Heybrook Bay.
The Knighton Road incident shows how vulnerable rural parishes were to sudden weather damage, and how everyday services—like buses—could suddenly become part of the drama. The accompanying local items also capture Wembury’s busy social calendar in the late 1990s, from cricket and history talks to community ties with HMS Cambridge.
Source: Western Evening Herald, 1 November 1997.