Northam

Christmas Eve at the Front

An interesting letter has just been received by Mrs Packer, of Broadclyst, from her husband, Corpl Packer of A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, who is serving with the Expeditionary Force in Northern France. In the course of a letter he describes a remarkable incident which occurred on Christmas Eve between the British and German trenches.

Northam Urban Council has its youngest member – at least for many years.

He is Mr Joseph Thomas Need, aged 29, of 2 Darracotts Court, Appledore, who has been elected to fill the Appledore seat vacated by the former vicar, Rev Royston Dixon.
Mr Need had a 166-vote victory in Thursday week’s election over a fellow employee of Appledore Shipbuilders Ltd, Mr Philip Bale Waters.
Mr Need is the youngest member of Northam Burrows Committee and of the committee of Northam Residents’ Association. He is also a member of Appledore Preservation and Conservation Society. A joiner, he is social organiser of the Shipyard Angling Club.
Gazette article dated 9 February 1973

When Register Gave Away Bridegroom’s Age ‘Secret’

A 21 year old Northam girl, Miss Annie Glover, vowed that she would never marry anyone younger than herself. ‘Of course you won’t’ her ’21 year old’ boyfriend, Mr Ernest E Copp, a mason, assured her.

They were married within a short while, but Miss Glover did not realise until she signed the register at Northam Parish Church, on her wedding day, that her husband was, in fact, only 19. This happened 50 years ago ‘but I forgave him long ago’ Mrs Annie Copp, now aged 71, of 3 East View, Meddon Street, Bideford, told a Bideford Gazette reporter.
Bideford Quay front proved a romantic spot for them, for that is where they first met one afternoon. At the time Mrs Copp was a domestic worker and one of 11 children of the Glover family living in Honey Street, Northam. Mr Copp also came from a large family, being the eldest of 10, and lived just a few yards away from his present address, at Strawberry Cottage, Meddon Street.
Strawberry Cottage is at the very end of a cul-de-sac off Meddon Street. It has no name but it could be called ‘Copp’s Close’ for at one time there were four generations of the Copp family living almost next door to each other. At the moment Mr L Copp, youngest brother of Mr Ernest Copp, lives at Strawberry Cottage.
Mr and Mrs E Copp’s only son, William John, lives practically next door to them at East View Bungalow, next door to which is Ivy Cottage, the home of their daughter, Mrs W Buckley. There is one other daughter, Mrs F Kemp, who lives at Bridgeland Street. There are altogether six grandchildren and two great grandchildren, the latter being children of Mrs Kemp’s daughter, who is married to Mr Terry Sherborne, son of Cllr T W Sherborne. A few doors away at Prior’s Cottage lives Mr E Copp’s sister, Gertrude.
The full Gazette article is dated 27 February 1959.

‘Galling’ Writes 40,000 Miles A Year Motorist

Gazette article published 7 February 1959

He drove 40,000 miles a year covering the South-West and had held a clean driving licence for 30 years and it was galling to be summoned for an offence at home, wrote Richard Colin Walters, of Glengarth, Durrant Lane, Northam when he pleaded ‘guilty’ by letter at Bideford Magistrates Court last week to parking a car on the highway without lights in Bideford on January 4th.
The Bench imposed a fine of £2.