WHAT were those stories captivating the minds of those living in 1970s Teignmouth? Let's find out!

► SWEB ROTA

Although load shedding does not seem to be imminent, SWEB are publishing a rota indicating how their electricity supplies will be affected, should it be necessary to disconnect supplies during the Power Engineers’ industrial action. 

These rotas are in all West Country evening and morning newspapers, and featured in television and radio news bulletins. 

► MUSSELMEN’S FEARS ALLAYED

Sewage outfall pipe to be sited under the Shaldon Bridge, as agreed by council on Tuesday. Mr. Jordan of the consultants repeated that the effluent discharged would be better than the Royal Commission standard, and that it was not necessary to carry the pipe to the bridge. The discharge would amount to only !/2 million galls a day and this is very small in relation to the rest of the flow. 

► BROAD GUAGE PARSON

An article by Ronald R. Gatiss in Tuesday’s Western Morning News, on the last days of the broad gauge railway, mentioned the Rev. A. J. Malan, who lived in Teignmouth for many years, and gained fame as the greatest photographer of railways in the broad gauge days. His collection of photographs is kept in the archives of the British Transport Commission.

► AFFRAY AFTER DISCO

After a Dawlish Warren  inn “turned out” at 11 o’clock,  James Fletcher, from Kent, was charged with assaulting Andrew Smith and causing actual bodily harm. 

It appears that Smith was dressed in rather a casual manner, with a tatty leather jacket, described as rather a beatnik manner. Fletcher went up to him, said in a jocular rather inebriated manner “Hello, my old flea bag” which is the way people dressed in a beatnik manner tended to be addressed. 

Smith took exception to this and there was a scuffle. “Smith seems to have pushed things too far,” said Mr. Brian Bennett, prosecuting. “There was an impression that Smith had asked for what he got, but he got too much,” and was kicked about 16 times, said the doctor’s report.

► PARACHUTED TO WEDDING

A former Shaldon man was the bridegroom at one of the most unusual weddings of the year. Mr. Tony Dale is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Dale, a former Teignmouth councillor, of Fordeleigh, Ringmore. He served with the RAF for 14 years, then emigrated to Perth, Australia.

In the RAF he was a parachute jumping instructor, and in Australia set up a skydiving instruction business with a service colleague, Mike Deakin, at Rockingham. 

He met his wife, Gloria when she came to learn. The couple parachuted to their wedding from a single engined aircraft, flying at 6,000 ft, and landed at Rockingham, 30 miles south of Perth, where the Rev. John Owen was waiting to perform the ceremony, which he did with them still in their flying gear.

► TRAFFIC WARDEN IN SHALDON

That a traffic warden was not neccessary in Shaldon in the winter months was emphasised at the Urban Council last week, Mrs. Irene Arnot pointed out that the Chief Constable had said that so long as Shaldon had all-year-round traffic orders, the village had to have a warden. 

Half the time in the winter, you hardly see a car, except on Sunday. Mr. Card remarked “ Most of the time, in winter, you could go around with a shot gun, and nobody would be hurt.”

► RIVIERA CINEMA

Sunday and Monday: “ DUEL” - one of the best made most nerve wracking films for ages. : “ASYLUM” with Peter Cushing and Britt Ekland. Friday and Saturday: Ken Russell’s controversial film of Tchaikovsky: “THE MUSIC LOVERS”, with Richard Chamberlain and Glenda Jackson.