ANCIENT NEWTON ABBOT

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1935, Page 13

ANCIENT NEWTON ABBOT

QUARTERS OF ALL BLACKS

HISTORIC SURROUNDINGS.

DEVON PEOPLE’S WELCOME.

(By Air Mail—Special to News.) Newton Abbot, Sept. 15.

When the New Zealanders took up their headquarters in the pretty little Devonshire town of Newton Abbot it was, no doubt, the biggest event for the townspeople since 1924. They turned out in force and the unfortunate ones who were unable to meet their guests considered themselves unlucky indeed. The band was there, and throughout the week the streets have been, gaily and profusely decked with flags. Funnily enough there are few New Zealand flags amongst them, due possibly to the fact that they are scarce in the neighbourhood. Although the players have done all their training at Paignton, seven miles from the town, they are often to be seen around the streets and places of interest of Newton Abbot. Those of them who are enthusiastic golfers have spent some pleasant hours at the Stover links about two miles out on the Bovey Tracey road, while those Izaak Waltons, of whom there are a few, have had plenty of sport in the rivers Teign and Bovey and in the pond at Zitherixon. One old Devonshire veteran told me one night, over a pint of cyder, all that he considered was worth knowing about fishing. “Aye,” he said, “the fish be thick aroond Newton. ‘The Teign fer salmon, the Dart fer peel, Ford Leat fer trout an’ the Lemon fer eel’.” Two days’ racing provided a counter attraction. On the Wednesday I saw Manchester patting the nozzle of a winner, so I presume some of the others were present too. Autograph seekers are numerous. One lad, while waiting around on the off chance of having a book signed by some of the team, slipped on the pavement and fractured his leg. INTERESTING RELIC. Among the interesting old relics of the past, which Newton Abbot does not lack, is St. Leonard’s Tower. Originally an early English church, built probably in or about the 13th century, it now remains merely an ivy-clad tower, the main body of the church having been demolished in 1835. It is near St. Leonard’s Tower that William of Orange was first proclaimed King of England, and although Newton Cross (most Royal proclamations were made at a cross) no longer exists, I understand it stood almost in front of the Globe Hotel, where the All Blacks have been living for the last week. William was fresh from a short march from Ford House, where he and his forces lodged on their way to Exeter. Incidentally, Ford House has another royal visitor to its honour board; Charles I stayed there on one occasion.

In Crompton Castle, another manor near the township, legend says Sir Walter Raleigh, just back from the West Indies, was one day enjoying a quiet smoke when a Surprised servant enter-' ed and, seeing Sir Walter enveloped in smoke and having no knowledge of tobacco, rushed away for a bucket of water which he benevolently threw over his master.

However, the main beauty of Newton Abbot is_in the surrounding country. Glorious Devon is beautiful throughout but here one finds variety. The grandeur of the moors is available, for Newton is known as the “Gateway to Dartmoor;” nothing could be more typical of rural England than the little valley in which nestles Bradley Wood, the green field around it, and the quaint old cottages. An Englishman’s seaside paradise, Torquay, is merely five miles away. There in 1915 and onward New Zealand convalescent soldiers made a good name which remains to this day. The All Blacks passed Torquay each day en route to their mornings’ training at Paignton. PUBLIC ELECTRIFIED. On Saturday, September 14, they travelled by train to Devonport and electrified a representative public. What a pity they did not stay at Plymouth for the week-end A place more rich with naval history does not exist in England. Plymouth and Devonport might be classed as one and the same town, or city, I should say, for Plymouth although containing no Cathedral was made a city by special proclamation of the Prince of Wales. In Plymouth Sound -off the famous Hoe where Drake played bowls while the Armada sailed into sight, such ships as the Golden Hind, the Belerophon conveying Napoleon to captivity in St. Helena, and recently the Normandie have anchored.

Further down at the Barbican a stone marks the departing place of the Pilgrim Fathers who left the shores to form a New Plymouth in a New England. They left in 1620. In 1840 another party of Devon folk left the same place to carry the British flag to another New Plymouth in the Southern hemisphere. This time the Mayflower was mere history but the Amelia Thompson was a very material thing. In 1919 the same surroundings witnessed the landing of the American seaplane N.C. 4, after completion of the first trans-Atlantic flight. Drake, Frobisher, Raleigh, Gilbert, Blake and Hawkins all left the Barbican on countless occasions to sail up the Sound on their way to the broad Atlantic. Blake’s and Frobisher’s remains rest in St. Andrew’s church in the city, while in the Guildhall nearby beautiful coloured windows laud the deeds of these “Men of Devon.” To-day I should say Plymouth is more heavily fortified than any other English port. Naval forts and military batteries are scattered all around it, whereas in the Sound is a large naval seaplane base and over at Devonport is a fleet ready to put to sea at a moment’s notice. Barracks seem to be in every street. But" the team saw none of this. They were at Plymouth until 10.30 p.m., after which all but a few returned by train to Newton Abbot.