Torrington

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.

To find one postwoman these days is rare enough in this part of the world

– to find two in one small town is remarkable

While most women on Torridgeside will be busy in their kitchens immediately before Christmas preparing for the holiday, Miss Marjorie Bissett and Miss Becky Gamson will be building up to a crescendo of mail delivering at Torrington.

The hustle and bustle of Christmas deliveries are no strangers to Miss Bissett, who each day leaves her home at 7 Potacre Street, Torrington, in time to report for duty at the post office at 6.15am. She has been delivering letters at Torrington for 26 years, the last 14 of them as a full time employee.

Her colleague, Miss Gamson, drives in from her home at 1 Canns Terrace, Beaford, to reach the post office at about the same time.

Both women reckon they walk about 10 miles a day and it’s a six day a week job. They serve between them hundreds of houses with Miss Bissett having the perhaps unenviable job of delivering in Mill Street.

Miss Gamson who is 57, is a Londoner by birth and before coming to North Devon she worked as a driver for the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works.

The full Gazette article is dated 16 December 1977

They Set Out For Bideford And Became Lost

Anxious search for three missing Torrington boys

Three Torrington boys who were reported missing on Sunday were found some nine hours later, in falling light, on the banks of the river Torridge at Beam, three miles away from their homes.

The boys were Tony Allen, Nicholas Hammett, both of the Calvesford Estate, and Richard Roach, of Town Park Estate.

Mrs Allen said the boys were playing at the estate soon after 10am. At 1.30pm her husband, Mr Reg Allen, went out to call his son for dinner and there was no sign of them. Mr Allen scoured an area of some 15 miles without any trace of them. He returned home and a full scale search party was recruited. Then Mr and Mrs Arthur Burke, 70 Town Park, Torrington, were seen near Torrington station, and they told searchers that they had seen the boys playing on the Bideford-Torrington road. Mrs Allen and her parents, Mr and Mrs W Ayre, travelled along the Bideford road, with Mr Bob Pearce following. They reached Bideford without finding the missing boys.

Mr Roy Ayre, conveying Mr Allen and Mr Gilbert Hammett in his vehicle, was travelling slowing along the road near Beam, when Mr Allen spotted one of the boy’s climbing over a gate near the river. He shouted and all three boys came running to the car.

First stop on the way home was at the police station where the boys received an admonishing lecture.

Later Tony Allen related his experiences to our Torrington correspondent.

The full Gazette article is dated 20 October 1961

'A Great Toune'

Just over 400 years ago the traveller-antiquarian John Leland came through Torrington and described it in his journal as ‘a great large toune and standith on the brow of an hille and hath 3 fair streates in it”.

Making no claim nowadays to being a large town – in fact it is one of the smallest boroughs in the country – Torrington still stands on its hill and certainly has more than three fair streets, as this recent aerial photograph shows.