It was a great honour to be able to present Devon County Show’s former Crafts and Gardens Steward, Joan Mitchell, with a bouquet of flowers to mark her 90th birthday last Sunday 6th September.
Joan, whose history with the Show dates back decades, used to live in Ottery St Mary in Devon before relocating to Taunton in 1994.
Whilst living in Ottery, Joan was an active and committed participant in Devon County Show, stewarding at the show for 36 years when the Show was at Whipton in what was then the floral crafts tent.
White Wall Yellow Door , an initiative which provides museums, galleries and theatres with resources for families, is delighted to announce its plans to launch in Exeter.
Sophy Rickett, Director of White Wall Yellow Door (WWYD) says: “Over the last four years, we have firmly established ourselves in London and have developed a diverse portfolio of projects with clients including Trinity Buoy Wharf, the Petrie Museum of Egyptology and the Freud Museum. We have had some fantastic feedback and now feel we are in a great position to expand outside London.”
Exeter’s leisure centres are set to reopen in the coming weeks following extensive work to ensure they are safe to use.
A phased reopening will take place from September and each centre will be run under the direct management of the City Council rather than being outsourced to a private company.
The plan is to reopen the centres on the following dates, provided the necessary COVID security measures are complete:
ISCA Centre and Exeter Arena – 28 September
Wonford Sports Centre and Northbrook Swimming Pool – 5 October
Summer begins to mellow, winds begin to change and that is the herald for the beginning of a spectacular time of year for wildlife on the internationally important Exe Estuary.
As breeding grounds in Siberia turn icy cold and food supplies there dwindle, this prompts an exhausting annual migration of thousands of water birds. The rich food resources found in the Exe provide a welcome home to these birds, many of which travel in family groups.
With these changes in mind, people are asked to avoid wildlife refuges on the Exe Estuary at Dawlish Warren National Nature...
More than half of Britain’s car drivers are exceeding the speed limit, according to official figures released today from The Department for Transport.
The data reveals that on roads in built-up areas, with a 30 mph speed limit 54% of motorists, on average, are breaking the law.
On motorways it is 50% and this drops to 9% on single carriageways (60 mph limit for cars). However, only 12% of motorway car drivers exceeded the speed limit by more than 10mph on motorways. This dropped to 6% for 30mph roads and 1% for single carriageways.
Three schools across Devon County Council will be making more space outside their gates at pick up and drop off time as pupils return this term.
The School Streets schemes will restrict motor traffic at specific times to make more space for social distancing during the school run.
The schemes are being delivered by the schools and Devon County Council in partnership with walking and cycling charity Sustrans. They are being funded through a grant from the Department for Transport's Emergency Active Travel Fund.
Bradley Barton Primary in Newton Abbot is the first...
One of the UK’s biggest county competitions celebrating local food and drink has been forced to undergo changes this year for obvious reasons - but in the fertile and highly productive county of Devon, it remains the case that “the show must go on”.
The county’s producers, hospitality and catering businesses and speciality retailers have now been given the deadline of the end of this month to enter the prestigious Food Drink Devon Awards, which this year will be staged online for the first time.
“We have introduced an alternative awards scheme which aims to celebrate the...
Four popular holiday parks in Devon will be offering families two extra months of staycations this year, say owners Park Holidays UK.
Instead of shutting as usual after this October's half-term, the four seaside holiday parks will continue welcoming guests until the week before Christmas.
Park Holidays UK, one of Britain's largest holiday park groups, says the move has been triggered by "a deluge of demand" which is showing no signs of slowing down.
Almost half of the group's 31 parks in southern England are having their season extended as September shapes up to...
Exeter School is delighted to introduce its new Head, Louise Simpson, who joins the school from St Paul’s School in São Paulo, Brazil, following the retirement of Bob Griffin after 17 years at the helm.
Educated at a state school in Suffolk, Louise studied Environmental Science at the University of Wales before starting her teaching career in 1992 teaching Biology at Gresham’s School then Ratcliffe College and King’s Rochester. In 2009, she was appointed Senior Deputy Head at Brighton College, working under both Sir Anthony Seldon and then Richard Cairns. In 2010 she was...
