Talk:Westward Ho!

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[edit] Novel VS Town Name

The article here says that the town is named for the novel, however the link from the article about exclamation marks implies that the novel took its name from the town. Clearly only one of these can be correct. BigHaz 01:12, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

By now, exclamation mark has been changed to make it clear the town is named after the book. What I want to know is, did the town exist before the book, and if so, what was it called before? If not, when was it founded and under what circumstances? The "History" section of this article is pretty scanty on the history. --Angr/tɔk tə mi 00:08, 18 July 2005 (UTC)
According to this the town was established in 1863: Until 1863 Westward Ho! was just pastureland with a few farmhouses and ploughed fields. Bastie 18:03, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Another Westward Ho

There is another Westward Ho. It is located approxamately 10km east of Sundre, Alberta, Canada. It is a small hamlet of about 100 people. This place was named after the book while it was an Oil camp in the late 1950s. The story goes that someone was reading the book at a time when the oil camp needed a name.

[edit] Use of 'Torridge'

The first line said

Westward Ho! is a seaside town in Torridge, Devon, England, near Bideford.

I don't know anyone who would describe a place as being 'in Torridge'. Yes, it's located in the area administered by Torridge District Council, but 'Torridge' is merely an administrative area, as opposed to being a geographical one (with the exception of the River Torridge, but that isn't a geographical area, it's just the name of a river). And it's certainly not used in normal parlance of those who live nearby.

So I've changed it. Feel free to change back if you feel strongly :-) Guidomax 13:35, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Cut and paste from Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities of 2007-09-19.

[edit] Westward Ho!

If the book Westward Ho! published in 1855 was the cause of the name for the town Westward Ho!, when did the town get named? Did it exist before/what was there? -- SGBailey 23:12, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

The settlement now called Westward Ho! is near Bideford in Devon, which was Charles Kingsley's home town. After Kingsley's novel was published in 1855, people came to visit the area he described, which gained the convenient name of Westward Ho! It became more developed after the United Services College was established there in 1874 and kept the name of the book. Xn4 23:26, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
My recollection is that a developer named it Westward Ho! in the hope of selling land and houses there. He failed, and some of the houses were sold cheaply to the newly formed USC. Don't have refs to hand, but will try to dig them out. DuncanHill 23:30, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
There's an article about the development of Westward Ho! in Devon Life, volume 9 (1972) pp. 34-35. Xn4 23:34, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
This from Devon Libraries Local Studies page :
"WESTWARD HO [in the parish of Northam] is an entirely modern settlement. Following the publication of Kingsley's book in 1855, a 'company was formed to develop this site as a watering place. The Westward Ho Hotel was built, a church (Holy Trinity) followed in 1870, and by 1872 there were two or three rows of terraces, many scattered villas, and a single line of shops. A golf course was laid out on the Burrows which became known as one of the finest in England. The United Services College for the sons of officers was opened in 1874, and is the mise en scène of Kipling's Stalky& Co. Within the next thirty years much more building took place in a planless way, but worse came in the 20th century. To-day Westward Ho is a sad spectacle of what uncontrolled speculative building can do with a fine site. Many of the buildings are alien to Devon, and most of them could be anywhere else. The golf course remains superb. The Pebble Ridge is a remarkable natural phenomenon nearly 2 m. long, about 50 ft. wide, and 20 ft. high." Carrington's biography of Kipling adds that USC bought a row of twelve lodging houses, and converted them into a school by running a corridor along the length of the terrace.
DuncanHill 23:45, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
According to Adrian Room, A Concise Dictionary of Modern Place-Names in Great Britain and Ireland (Oxford 1983), the Northam Burrows (North Devon) Hotel and Villa Building Company was formed in 1863 and the Westward Ho! Hotel opened two years later. "The name had been proposed by a friend of Kingsley, Dr W. H. Acland of Bideford, although it appears that the author had not been consulted and that the friendship between the two men was endangered for a time." —Tamfang 04:45, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
That's a fair description, but it actually isn't quite so terrible as the above might lead you to believe! I'm thinking of another part of England where since I was a child an equally beautiful coastline has been buried under field after field of permanent caravan and 'mobile-home' parks, a lot of which have to suffer the winter weather without any coats of paint when the spring comes... but there you are, we're warned "Never go back!" Xn4 23:56, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Anyone going to revise the Wikipedia article Westward Ho!?--Wetman 04:56, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

End of cut and paste -- SGBailey 07:08, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Westward Ho! 1947 Foreign Labour Scheme

I'm not sure if anyone is aware of this, but the British Foreign Labour Committee implemented a plan to bring (in total) roughly 78,500 European displaced persons to work in "critical industries" in Britain around 1947. At the very least there should be a disambiguation here.

For reference, see Paul, Kathleen. Whitewashing Britain (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997), p 72. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.159.40.28 (talk) 16:31, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Westward Hoe?

Anyone know whether the "ho!" was adapted from "hoe" as in nearby martinhoe, trentishoe, etc? 82.10.108.49 (talk) 22:58, 9 May 2008 (UTC)