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Wembury On This Day, 22 October 1929

Fined a shilling after a cesspit dispute

A rather extraordinary little Wembury dispute reached the magistrates and the Western Morning News on this day in 1929.

The case concerned Arthur Roper of West Wembury, who was summoned at Plympton for assaulting John Light of Sherford.

According to the report, the trouble began over a barrow load of refuse and a defective cesspit.

Mr Light had apparently been involved in moving refuse for Roper’s wife when a disagreement arose. The matter then turned to the condition of the cesspit, which Mr Light said was defective. He arranged for a mason and a labourer to inspect it and, when the two men arrived at the bungalow, Roper challenged them about where they were going.

What happened next was the part that ensured the story made good newspaper copy.

Mr Light told the court that Roper followed them and struck him behind the ear.

He then fell into the cesspit.

The incident must have been unpleasant enough at the time, but more than ninety years later it reads almost like something from a silent comedy.

Roper denied striking him. He said that the workmen had already objected to the smell from the cesspit and refused to work on it. He admitted having what the newspaper described as a very straight talk with Mr Light, and said that he had only pushed him after asking him to clear away.

The magistrates clearly believed that Roper had overstepped the mark.

The chairman said that the assault in the strongest sense had not been proved, but that Roper had been wrong to take the law into his own hands.

He was fined one shilling and costs.

The sum sounds tiny today, but the case itself gives a useful glimpse into life in rural Wembury before modern drainage became universal.

Many houses outside the more built up parts of the parish still relied on cesspits or similar private arrangements. If one failed, overflowed, leaked or produced an intolerable smell, it quickly became more than a household inconvenience. It could affect neighbouring property, water supplies and public health.

The dispute therefore sat somewhere between a private quarrel and a sanitation problem.

It is also a reminder that village life was not always as peaceful as nostalgia sometimes suggests. A disagreement between neighbours over a load of refuse and a defective cesspit could escalate into an argument, a shove or blow, a fall into the pit, and finally an appearance before the magistrates.

There is something particularly memorable about the setting.

A bungalow in West Wembury, two workmen arriving to inspect a cesspit, an angry confrontation, and a complainant ending up in the very pit they had come to discuss.

The magistrates treated the matter seriously enough to impose a fine, but the newspaper clearly recognised the comic potential of the story too.

Nearly a century later, it remains one of those small local incidents that tells us far more about everyday life than many grand historical events.

It also proves that complaints about drainage in Wembury are not exactly a modern phenomenon.

Source: Western Morning News, 22 October 1929.

On This Day in Wembury

22 October 1986 — Churchwood Holiday Estate Clearance Sale

On this day Western Evening Herald listed a clearance sale at Churchwood Holiday Estate, Wembury, offering a wide range of ex-hire furnishings and fittings. Items included 15 asbestos-roofed chalets (22 ft by 8 ft) to be dismantled and sold for £75 each, alongside settees, stacking chairs, stools, plumbing and electrical fittings, and large quantities of bedding. The sale ran from Saturday 18 October through Wednesday 22 October, open daily from 8.30 a.m.

Reflection: The sale reflects a phase of refurbishment at Churchwood Holiday Estate, when older hire chalets were being cleared out to make way for updated facilities. Churchwood, set above the beach and still operating today, has long been part of Wembury’s holiday trade, drawing families to the coast since the postwar years. The 1986 auction offers a snapshot of the transition from more basic, utilitarian holiday accommodation towards modernised chalets and leisure provision.

Source: Western Evening Herald, 18 October 1986 (advertising sales running until 22 October).