On This Day in Wembury — 30 October 1936: New road and riding stables at Wembury Point
On this day the Western Morning News carried a notice from proprietor Brock announcing that Wembury Point and Heybrook Bay could now be approached by a new road via Elburton, Staddiscombe, and Langdon. The notice emphasised the striking views over the Yealm Estuary and the Mewstone from this approach. It also promoted the Wembury Point Riding Stables, then under new management, offering good hacks for grass rides by the sea. Details of both riding and building sites were available from the Estate Office at Heybrook Bay, with a local telephone number given as Wembury 215.
This advertisement reflects the inter-war promotion of Wembury’s coastline for leisure and residential development. Improved access roads, stables for visitors, and offers of building sites highlight the commercial push to draw more people to Wembury Point and Heybrook Bay in the 1930s, a period of growing suburban expansion and seaside recreation.
Source: Western Morning News, 30 Oct 1936
On This Day in Wembury — 30 October 1947
The opening of Ridge Cross Cemetery
On this day in 1947, a new cemetery on Wembury Road was formally consecrated and opened.
The Western Morning News carried a notice announcing that Ridge Cross Cemetery, provided by Plymstock Parish Council for the ecclesiastical parish of St Mary and All Saints, Plymstock, would be officially opened at 3pm on Thursday 30 October 1947. The ceremony was to include the consecration of the burial ground by the Bishop of Exeter, and members of the public were invited to attend.
The opening came at an interesting moment in the history of the district. Britain was only two years beyond the end of the Second World War, Plymouth was still recovering from the Blitz, and the communities around Plymstock and the eastern edge of the city were beginning a period of considerable post-war growth. A new cemetery provided much-needed additional burial space beyond the older parish churchyards.
Ridge Cross stood on what was then a far more rural stretch of Wembury Road than it is today. Although associated administratively with Plymstock, its position placed it close to the countryside separating Plymstock from Wembury and gave it a natural connection with communities on both sides of that boundary.
That Wembury connection became more explicit later. A history compiled from Wembury Parish Council minutes records that on 28 January 1974 a “burial ground at Ridge Cross” was proposed. e-Voice It is a useful reminder that local administrative boundaries do not always tell the whole story of how places were actually used by neighbouring communities.
Today Ridge Cross Cemetery is listed at Wembury Road, Plymouth, PL9 0FD, and remains an active burial ground. Funeral Cost Index Wembury itself is now firmly within the South Hams district, while Ridge Cross sits on the Plymouth side of the modern boundary. Wembury Parish Council
The 1947 newspaper announcement is modest, little more than a public notice, but it marks the beginning of a place which would become part of the personal history of generations of local families. Cemeteries are often among the quietest historical records we possess: names, dates and family connections accumulated over decades in one landscape.
For people travelling along Wembury Road today, Ridge Cross is simply a familiar landmark. But its official life began 79 years ago today, with local residents gathering there on an October afternoon while the Bishop of Exeter formally consecrated the new burial ground.
Source: Western Morning News, 30 October 1947.
Entries are summaries and interpretations of historical newspaper reports.