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Around Kingswear - May 2014
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Around Kingswear - May 2014
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Around Kingswear - May 2014
Around Kingswear - May 2015
Gentlemens’ Dinner
It was feet in the trough time for the Kingswear chaps again on Saturday March 29th as they donned their best bibs and tuckers to chomp through an excellent beef dinner at The Ship. They raised a very creditable £512 for the Devon Air Ambulance, my preferred way to get to Torbay Hospital and the big collection was not a little to do with the generosity of Colin and Heather Lang and other donors who very kindly supplied bottles of spirits which were duly auctioned. Such merriment was interspersed with the usual ribald jokes and outrageous tales. A normal night at The Ship then!
“Not much to report,” says Mike Goodearl, organiser in chief, ”We drank, we ate, we laughed, we donated.” Nuff said.
Annual Parish Meeting
This annual event will take place in the Sarah Roope Trust Room on May 6th at 7:30pm when current village matters will be discussed. There are thoughts abroad to possibly provide play facilities in the creek so if you have views on that or any other village matters do please come along on 6th to discuss them. Don’t tell anyone but a little bird tells me there may be wine and nibbles.
Hot from the Press
Well, more luke warm really, but now you’re interested! At the Parish Council meeting of April 8th a few matters cropped up about which I was asked to mention to you. The first is in conjunction with Kingswear Historians and is a request for any Kingswear families or individuals who have any photographs, family pictures, newspaper cuttings or even family stories about World War One. Later this year the Historians are hoping to mount something of an exhibition of the above to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the awful conflict that was WW1. This would take place in early August, appropriately, and we would like to copy or photograph any of your stuff for the exhibition. If you can help, and I know some of you can, please get in touch with either me (Mike Trevorrow) on 01803 752928 or Tessa Gibson on 01803 883944. This will only be as good as the material we collect, so if you can help, please do. Thank you.
Shift Yer Wreck
There has been a small GRP dingy moored against the creek pontoon for a long time. Since January it has filled with rain water, sunk, been battered about by wind and tide and subjected to all the storms of February. Nobody has been near it and so it has been completely wrecked. This has caused a nuisance to other boats wishing to land and we have had to ask the Rowing Club to help to remove the boat, which they very kindly have done. Thanks are due to Roly Boydon and Graham Sowerby for their efforts. Your village is proud of you! BUT, and we mean BUT, enquiries have not revealed the present owner of this boat and we would like him/her/them to remove it from the grass just above the creek please, otherwise costs may well be incurred for its removal. This needs to happen quickly please.
Kingswear Historians
The past two talks have been on: ‘The Press Gangs’, put together by Tessa Gibson and delivered by Mike Trevorrow and, at the time of writing, the next talk will be on ‘The Brunels – Remarkable Men’ on Monday April 28th. This is a talk put together by me because I have long admired the energy, vision and expertise of these amazing Victorians.
The audience was most surprised by the extent of the press gangs, the danger they posed to all young men, indeed virtually all men, since the gangs could legally ‘press’ any male above the age of 18yrs and below the age of 55.
Ages had to be proved by the individuals and younger and older men were doubtless ‘pressed’ into this dreadful hard service. Their families left behind had to fend as best they could so you may imagine how hard people tried to avoid the gangs, even to the extent of permanently disabling themselves to avoid being caught.
The Brunels, i.e. Marc Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom managed to change the face of Britain as much as any other engineers, providing the technical advances to make this the richest country in the world for quite some time. Railways, bridges, tunnels, marvellous machines, ships, buildings, docks – all came under their close scrutiny, all were improved beyond measure. What an inheritance! Even their occasional failures were heroic!
Bits Falling Off
As I write Kingswear appears to be crumbling - bits are falling off, some of them into the water. Beacon Road has suffered another collapse and part of the creek footpath up against Brixham Road is no more. Presumably these unfortunate happenings are the result of the tempests and floods of February. To mis-quote William McGonegal, “February 2014 will be remembered for a very long time.” We can only hope that all the King’s horses and all the King’s men will come along to put Kingswear together again! Sorry.
WI in the Dog House
Kingswear WI had some very special visitors at their recent meeting. Donna and Dexter, two gorgeous black Labrador puppies came with their Canine Partner volunteer puppy walkers. Although only 4 months old, both puppies were already responding enthusiastically to their training and were happy to be put through their paces for a delighted audience.
Canine Partners is a charity set up to provide assistance dogs to enable severely disabled people to experience a more normal independent lifestyle. These brilliant dogs are able to help their owners dress and undress, get into bed, go shopping and experience a social life without the constant need for human carers. Some dogs have even saved their owners lives by accessing help if their owner is in distress.
Some dogs can even put a bank card into an ATM though they do struggle with pin numbers. Kingswear WI is helping with fundraising by collecting used postage stamps and some members chose to sponsor a puppy.
DON’T FORGET - THE KINGSWEAR REGATTA
IS ON 5TH & 6TH JULY 2014
First Published May 2014 By The Dart
