Tony Rogers continues his recollections

"I told you I owned the Hotel Kildare in Kingsbridge and I was the mayor for some years . As I said earlier It was during one of those periods when I was also the parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Party that I spoke from the Compton Castle in front of a crowd they reckoned was 10,000. I don't think it was that many but the whole car park was absolutely jam-packed and the hovercraft that was bringing Jeremy Thorpe, John Pardoe and David Penhaligon was running two hours late. They were coming up the Kingsbridge estuary. It was during the October 1974 general election. Unscripted I had to hold the audience till they got there. And I'll tell you what my friend, that was a feat, and done on the Compton Castle herself.”

I had been in touch some months ago with the Liberal Association in Devon for further confirmation of a visit to Kingsbridge by hovercraft. At last I had a reply, from The Right Honourable Jeremy Thorpe .

"We did indeed come up to Kingsbridge by hovercraft. I gave an address from a small boat anchored by the quay."

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