DIARY DATES FOR 2018
Christmas Tree Festival 2018
1st, 2nd, 8th, 9th December 2018. 10.30 am till 4 pm. St John’s Church, Ivybridge.
SOME OLD NEWS ...
Visitors to Ivybridge in 1850
This charming village, which is so far famed for its delightful scenery, and salubrious air, is now quite full of visitors, every lodging being occupied, which gives it a very gay appearance. Picnic parties are to be seen daily under the shade of the fine old Oaks in the Woods, and the South Devon Railway is constantly bringing parties. The goods station of the Railway has also been much in request the last two months, quantities of artificial manure having been taken out here for the farmers of the district.
The West of England Conservative and Plymouth and Devonport Advertiser 10th July 1850.
Government inquiry 1870
Government inquiry at Ivybridge – Mr Morgan, Government Inspector, held an inquiry on Monday at Ivybridge, Devon in response to a numerous signed memorial complaining of the want of an adequate sewage system and of the pollution of the river Erme, and praying that Ivybridge might be formed into a district for sanitary and drainage purposes. After hearing several witnesses the inspector said he considered the allegations in the memorial proved and it was agreed that he should draw up a plan for a district. He suggested that when this was done, the inhabitants should be called to adopt the Local Government Act, failing which the provisions of the Sewage Utilisation Act would be enforced. It was stated that during the past year deaths from fever had been very considerable.
Western Daily Express 1870
New St John’s Church
The Bishop of Exeter presided at a recent meeting to consider the propriety of building a new church at Ivybridge Devon, in lieu of the present one, which is unsuitable for satisfactory restoration or enlargement. On the motion of Lord Blachford who has offered a site and a munificent donation, a resolution in favour of the scheme, which was seconded by the Rev. G W Anstiss, the incumbent, was agreed to. The Guardian reports that, referring to the presence of a gentleman who had built a Wesleyan Chapel in the district, Bishop Temple asked what was there in the life of John Wesley that should make clergymen unwilling to acknowledge that he was a clergyman too! If John Wesley was living and amongst them, he would have been one of the first to come there to advise or to join in with such a work as that. Mr Allen out of his munificence had lately built a place of worship for those who agreed with him. He hoped by-and-by these places of worship would be looked upon not as belonging to the Church or the Wesleyans but to both alike. It might be some way off but the day will come when all would be one and when the people who worshipped in one place would feel that they were not really separated from those who worshipped in the other. Let them do all they could to bring about that day by devotion in the work of their common master. The day would come when all differences would disappear and that they would look back and wonder what it could have been that kept them apart.
Western Times Thursday June 15th 1876
Building the viaducts
In 1892 the 5 viaducts between Totnes were widened to make the line double tracked. The design was to use granite for the arches but owing to the Plymouth mason’s being on strike, the builders of the viaducts had to have 4 million bricks made. These can easily be seen at the Bittaford Viaduct.
Pig sty for a bed at Ivybridge
At Ivybridge on Saturday, before Mr John Allen, William Smith was charged with sleeping in a pig house at Westover on Friday. It was stated that defendant drove the pigs out of the sty and took possession of it. Smith was sent to gaol for 14 days hard labour.
