On This Day in Wembury
4 December 1937 — Gabber Road to Close for Water-Mains
The Western Morning News announced that the road from Down Thomas to Gabber in Wembury would be closed from 11 December for two weeks. The closure was to allow the laying of new water-mains, with traffic diverted along the Langdon Court road. The notice came from Percy T. Loosemore, Clerk to Plympton St. Mary Rural District Council.
This small announcement marked a big change for the parish. Until the late 1930s, much of Wembury had relied on wells, springs, rainwater collection, or hand-pumped supplies. The installation of mains water was part of a wider push across rural Devon to modernise public health infrastructure in the interwar years. For households at Gabber and Down Thomas, it would have meant easier access to clean water and fewer outbreaks of waterborne illness, as well as less reliance on carrying buckets up steep lanes.
Source: Western Morning News, 4 December 1937.
Entries are summaries and interpretations of historical newspaper reports.