A One Horsepower Car in Wartime Tavistock Local History
By Roderick Martin
WHYis the power of an engine rated in horsepower? Well, these marvellous photographs taken near the Drake Statue junction at Plymouth Road, Tavistock in the early 1940s by the late Miss Emma Cole may just hold a clue. The car belonged to her father, Tom Cole, who farmed at Boyton, in the parish of Whitchurch.
It is being
pulled by their farm horse, ropes having been attached from a harness to the front of the car. On the back of the photograph it states that this was done to save fuel which was rationed during the Second World War. Most people eked out their petrol ration by coasting down hills but this was even more efficient. Perhaps with the high cost of fuel we should be re-considering some of these measures once again.
However, it is not immediately obvious what is happening in the scenes. The farm horse, having good road sense, has stopped before the white lines of the road junction, and appears to be carefully looking to see if any traffic is coming. The more distant view shows that there is also a dismounted rider who has blocked the other road, as well as some sheep. Possibly all are part of a farm team trying to drive the sheep up Plymouth Road. Surprisingly the iron railings protecting Sir Francis from public and traffic have survived the patriotic fervour of
“
..Sir Francis survive(s).. ‘tanks and spitfires...”
This bottle came into my possession through a local auction after her death in August 2005.
supposedly turning railings into ‘tanks and spitfires’ during the early war years. The background scene with the large semi-detached houses and the towering Fitzford Church behind has remained largely unchanged. What has changed is the road layout. There is no roundabout but a junction. The main road seems to be the Callington road, with the Plymouth road joining it. One wonders how the horse-and- car would have coped having to circum-navigate the present roundabout, or for that matter how easy it would be to drive a flock of sheep up the Plymouth Road today.
Emma Helena Cole, the daughter of Thomas Cole, was born in 1914 at Greenwell Farm, Meavy. In 1934 her father purchased Boyton Farm in the parish of Whitchurch. The Boyton
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the Tavistock Museum are always interested in scanning and recording any interesting old photographs of the town. The museum is open daily from 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. until the end of October 2011. This season there is an exhibition to commemorate the centenary of the 1911 Sale of Bedford Estate properties in Tavistock.
farmhouse is shown below in a photograph Emma took in the 1950s. I am told that for a number of years their farm supplied milk to people living in the Plymouth area. The farm
even had its own distinctive milk bottles, one of which she kept. It is a wide- rimmed bottle which would have been closed with a cardboard cap, probably dating for the early 1950s.
The photographic team at
Boyton Farmhouse
Milk bottle from Boyton Farm
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