Meet new North Devon Gazette guest writer David ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald

This week the North Devon Gazette would like to introduce you to our new guest writer David ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald, who will be contributing regularly in the coming weeks, meeting local people and personalities and popping up at news events.

Fitz needs little introduction and was a hugely popular presenter on BBC Radio Devon, until he was recently made redundant, leading to an outcry from his many loyal listeners. Anyway, let us introduce you…

I am proud to say that I am a Devonian, born on Dartmoor and very familiar with the entire county. I know its size and its unique problems especially the roads.

Recently, a friend was staying from London. He asked if he could take a short trip from Plymouth to Bude to watch the surf as he wanted to see all of Devon. I had to explain that there is no such thing as a short trip to Bude from anywhere and Bude is in Cornwall! 

I went on to tell him of my recent journey to North Devon, to host the North Devon Manufacturers Awards. I did not need to be asked twice, I have done it before, it is always a good bash, always good food and always good company.

As ever, it was being held at the Barnstaple Hotel in which I have to say, the staff are remarkable, wonderfully welcoming, and truly efficient. I even expressed my surprise to the manager that they actually had staff!

The one thing I didn’t check, was what the state of the road repairs in the area were and there I made a schoolboy error. At the very last minute, I noticed that at night various sections of the A361 become home to Europe’s largest collection of traffic cones.

I drive a 2002 Mazda MX4, it was an MX5, but it’s so old and rusty a lot of things have dropped off. There are also things that have never been fitted which includes satnav.

I have never been a great lover of satnav as it can mislead you quicker than a prime minister’s press release. It also seems to have a mind of its own, which of course it does not because if ‘you’ put in the wrong information ‘you’ will not arrive at ‘your’ destination. The term P.I.C.N.I.C. comes to mind which stands for … problem in chair, not in computer.

On this occasion, I convinced myself that I could come off at Okehampton and strike out for Folly Gate and Hatherleigh, but due to a lack of space, the cones were being stored there as well.

I then found myself going through Sheepwash… twice. I know it was twice as a rather large brown cockerel watched me go by on both occasions. On reaching Peters Marland I realised that this journey had lasted longer than my first marriage, but in truth was slightly more interesting. 

At a darkened crossroads, there was a signpost for South Molton, which I took, but by now if it had said South Somerset, I would have taken it.

However, this reminded me of the worst satnav mislead ever. Many, many years ago, while working for another radio station, a call came into my office to say there was a Polish lorry driver in trouble.

He had been lifted out of his cab and had walked across the tops of the hedges to safety, leaving 44 tonnes of lorry wedged! It took some translating, but the load of steel girders he was carrying were due to be dropped at South Molton, unfortunately he was in South Milton. 

If you have never been to South Milton near Kingsbridge, the main street is three heifers wide. It took eight hours to winch the main rig back to the Salcombe road and another hour to get the cab reattached via a five-mile country lane crawl.

Back to my journey. I was now beginning to wonder if going via Cardiff might have been an option. A couple of years back I was on stage at The Landmark in Ilfracombe with Falklands veteran Simon Weston CBE.

He promised me he could see his auntie’s house from the dressing room window and was wondering if it was quicker to row back to the Welsh coast rather than try to find the A39.

But I love living in Devon, may it never change. Switch off satnav and enjoy it. Give my regards to the cockerel in Sheepwash.