Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2008 | Page 37
SOCIETY
life
Spare
Duke takes a
lesson from
Yarmouth
Primary
HAVING been officially opened two months
earlier by the High Sheriff, Alan Titchmarsh,
Yarmouth Pier was further honoured with a
visit from the Duke of Edinburgh.
The Duke first met the crew of Yarmouth
Lifeboat, before unveiling an inscribed
plank, one of many which have had to be
replaced after the pier’s supports have been
consumed by the voracious gribble worm.
After the unveiling, attended among others
by project manager and namesake Richard
Gribble, the Duke returned to the crowd –
www.wightfrog.com/islandlife
what he was heard to call
the swarm – and noticed
the children of Yarmouth
School were clutching
their own colourful
interpretations of the
destructive worm.
“These are the things that are eating the
pier, are they?” he asked. “They’re not that
big, surely?” William Toms, 8, said: “No,
they are really tiny”, while Bertie Whistance,
7, speculated: “They are probably the size
of four specs of dust.” It was Jack Daley, 7,
with the coup de grace: “They are related
to woodlice,” he said wisely. “Ah, maritime
woodlice,” said the Duke, as if the gribble
had been explained at last.
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