The 2nd June saw a very well attended Social evening with Phil Badcott giving a lively and humorous talk on the ‘Folklore of Bygone Devon’.
Feedback after the event showed us how well his talk was enjoyed by all, and I think most of us learnt a few anecdotes and how they originated, including when is the best day to sneeze and how to cure a relative of boils!!
Our next Social evening is on Friday 08 September at 7.30pm, this is also our AGM and will be held in the main hall.
For this event our guest speaker will be Simon Dell who will be giving us what promises again to be a very entertaining and fulfilling talk entitled “The Fair Arm Of The Law
That’s it for now – so take care and read on once again with the wartime memories of the late David Best. Derek .. Chairman MLHG
Part 4
The artillery unity brought with them their own piano and a full-size dance band, and it was not long before they were performing in the Village Hall. No-one had seen anything like it before. The noise was deafening in a hall which had previously never seen anything much larger than a trio, and very soon the events became a major attraction.
Girls would come up from the town forsaking the thousands of aircrew trainees in the seal front hotels to dance with the soldiers at Marldon, and social barriers were lowered as villagers started to accept this new lifestyle. Surprisingly, it was the old ladies who moved with the times first. They had seen this sort of thing before and were not going to be left out of this one, so they came along to watch, bringing with them their knitting and picnic supper. They would stay for a couple of hours, then go home to bed having thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the rapidly changing world.
In a way the evening entertainment filled a gap at a time when all the news was bad, and they were merely tasting a bit of whatever life was left to any of us. However, their appearance gave the evenings an air of respectability and also gave them quite a lot to talk about the next day.
In 1941 I was confronted with a bit of a problem, because I changed schools in the later part of that year and was expected to work harder at my lessons. Each day I left Marldon where all the action seemed to be happening to cycle along the deserted lane to Torquay (now the old Ring Road). The only relief from the monotony of the journey was the daily arrival of a squad of army engineers, who travelled in their trucks to a wooded area a mile outside the Village. Access to the project was closely guarded, but after several months the vehicles failed to arrive, so I went to investigate, some distance from the road. There was no trace or any sign of construction work. Small boys are adept at discovery, so I was able to find the trapdoor entrance, which led down a flight of steps to a bunker equipped with water tanks, lights and a telephone. I was also horrified to discover that the bunker was in fact an arsenal filled with explosives and ammunition, so I went away with the awesome knowledge of a military secret.
Many years later, it was revealed that in the early stages of the war there was a serious possibility that the country could be overrun. Winston Churchill therefore had ordered a network of hideaways, as they were called, to be constructed, and these would be manned by local people who would carry out guerilla activities against the enemy and survive as best they could.
The bunker I found that day after school was intended to be manned by the Marldon Home Guard. It is fortunate that we never experienced German occupation, for the units would have soon been winkled out, resulting in heavy local casualties.
More to follow….
Marldon Local History Group 