ON a lovely Saturday afternoon (July 6), one of the events to celebrate 80 years of the Citizens Advice Bureau, now just Citizens Advice, was an open garden and tea near Crediton.

Mary Rose and Ronald Somerville opened their large and very varied garden at Rookwood, Sandford and included a plant stall, children’s entertainment and music plus a visit by 99-years-old Mrs Vera Pidsley, a founder member of Tiverton CAB more than 50 years ago.

The afternoon had been organised by Mary Rose and Ronald with Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice, Mark Bailey (Business/Funding Development and PR Officer), Caya Munro (Community Volunteer Co-ordinator) with Linda Webster. Members of the Lions Club of Crediton and District helped, particularly as car park marshals.

Vicki Rowe, Chief Executive Officer for Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon Citizens Advice explained how Citizens Advice had begun in 1939 when the Government had introduced the welfare benefit system.

She said it had become evident that a service to help people was needed. Then the majority of advice at the start of and during the Second World War was such as loss of ration books, evacuation and homelessness because of bombing.

“This has developed over the years and we now offer a huge range of advice in a number of areas but welfare benefit is still the main one,” she said.

Vicki added that they had been looking for the local history of CAB but some of the original records had been lost. History of the CAB at Crediton has proved elusive with Vicki thinking it was formed during the last war. She would be delighted if anyone who has information they would be willing to share, would contact the bureau.

She added that last year in Mid Devon Citizens Advice helped more than 2,500 people over the telephone or in person, dealing with almost 3,800 new issues including £1,078, 171 of financial gains for the Mid Devon clients.

She added that Citizens Advice helps people to solve their problems and provides free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities.

Vicki had brought with her a case book from North Devon dated 1940-42 listing all the issues raised by clients then that included a London taxi driver who had been evacuated, a request for help in completing a Post Office Savings Book form, soldiers on leave, three sailors, someone enquiring about finding a house or flat, several requests for sending messages to Guernsey and then replies, sailors asking about coupons for clothes.

She added that it still very much depended on volunteers, “we could not run without volunteers”, and she was sure Mary Rose held the record as a volunteer.

She had begun with the CAB as a volunteer adviser, then became a member of the management committee, then a Trustee seeing huge changes to today’s service with the website and computers.

The Mayor of Crediton, Cllr Frank Letch, explained that he was chairman of Crediton Town Council which gives a “reasonable grant” to help Citizens Advice.

He said that this year had seen both organisations lose their “home” in the former council office building on Market Street at Crediton. The town council had found two small rooms to rent, Citizens Advice was still looking for new premises. If anyone has ideas please contact Vicki at: [email protected] .

At the moment it still operates from the Old Council Offices on Tuesday and Wednesday 10am to 3pm. To contact call 01271 312 948.

As guest of honour, Mrs Vera Pidsley explained how she became involved in the CAB.

They were farming near Uplowman near Sampford Peverell. She explained: “The Mayor of Tiverton at the time called a public meeting in 1966 or 1967, I was a member of our local WI. It was agreed we needed to start an advice giving service.

“So we had meetings and it got down to perhaps 12 of us volunteers. We had six months training, some in Tiverton and some residential near Torquay.

“From this we opened the Tiverton branch with a tiny little room by the Town Hall. Two of us sat there, Joan, I can’t remember her surname, and myself with a book in front of us so that we could write down details of anyone who might come in.

“We met once-a-week and eventually we got very busy,” she said.

“From this little room beside the Town Hall we moved to St Peter Street and then to Gold Street where the offices are still.

“Things we were asked about included housing, relationships, the need for social support,” added Mrs Pidsley. She was president of Plowman WI for some time.

Children’s entertainment on Saturday afternoon was by Traces Faces and music was provided by Lizzie Spiers and Jason Bomford. All the cakes were home-made and included lemon drizzle and chocolate.

A fantastic £954.40 was raised on the day and came from donations of £523.30, refreshments £253.60, plant sale £43.50 and raffle £134.