Monday 14 May 2012

STEPHANIE JUPP (4)

Lympstone Twitch

"An albatross has flown across",
as though it was a common crow,
"Its ten foot pinions have got stuck, oh! what
bad luck, between the red wall and the cream.

We sprang to unspring his pinions, "Thanks"
he snorted salt down his flutey nose;
"May I give you lift before I land?
"I'm afraid that may not be for some six years".

"That's fine, Lympstone's outgrown me."
"Well, when we land it will be wild and windy,
"my birthplace, where I hope to wed
and leave white pompom chicks on Taiaroa Head*".


*South Island, New Zealand

Saturday 5 May 2012

THE FISHERMEN'S BOAT SHELTER

From 'Lympstone Jottings', 'The Devon Weekly Times' September 20th 1895:

"Hurrah! Hurrah!  The Fishermen's Boat Shelter is about to begin.  The following notice is displayed in the Post Office window - Fishermen's Boat Shelter - The Committee appointed by the Parish Council having obtained the necessary authority from the Board of Trade &c., would be glad to meet the fishermen at the Girls' Schoolroom on Tuesday next,  September 24th at 7pm. to consult as to the steps to be taken to carry out the works as soon as possible - C. G. Browne, Chairman, etc.

"The work will be proceeded with directly the tides allow of the stone being brought from Babbacombe and landed close to the spot where the Shelter is to be built."

As late as 1895 boats were still the  chosen transport to deliver stone to the Estuary ports and Babbacombe still the favourite provider.    The stone, like the limestone for the kilns,  was clearly offladed into the tide,  Splash!,  and then collected at low water.  This Lympstone boat shelter is not the one that we know now but was an earlier one,  cruder but very welcome to the fishermen who had been without any form of boat shelter since they lost the Herring Cove to the Railway in 1861.    Hurrah!  Hurrah! indeed.