FEBRUARY TALK
It will come as no surprise to anyone but again we are required to report that an event has had to be cancelled. We had booked Alex Graeme for a talk at the Village hall on Monday February 22nd on the subject of the ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’. Clearly this cannot go ahead but we do plan to rearrange this talk for another time. Our next talk and AGM are not till July – surely by then but nothing can be guaranteed.
SPANISH FLU 1918-20
Had you been looking at this image below right from Torbay this time last year in February 2020 it would have seemed like a slice of ancient history. Now it seems all too familiar. At one point Spanish Flu in Torbay claimed 100 lives in one fortnight in Paignton. Unlike COVID-19 Spanish Flu was worse among young people and in the Torbay area women seemed to be more susceptible. When this pandemic is finally over many of us will try to put these events behind us and start to enjoy normal life again, but Historians like to record events for future reference and if you go to the Flickr section of our website www.ipplepenlocalhistory.org.uk you will find our COVID19 lockdown pictures.
We do not quite know how the 1918 epidemic impacted on Ipplepen but the directive above shows that schools were closed for about three weeks and given the 1918 version of a deep clean.
FIFTY YEARS AGO
In 1971 33 children from Ipplepen School were performing their music at the annual dinner of the Stars Organisation for Spastics. They were a surprise entertainment arranged by Leslie Crowther. Before the event ten-year-old Brian Harris presented a cheque for £150 (an anonymous gift from an Ipplepen man) to comedian Dickie Henderson who accepted it on behalf of the organisation. The children went on to make a Christmas record with Beatles producer George Martin.
John Marsh
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