A LITTLE pomp and ceremony was conspicuously absent as the mayor took the chair at the Tavistock Town Council meeting last week.

Cllr Anne Johnson apologised to members for the fact she was not wearing the mayoral chain.

'I haven't fallen on hard times and pawned it,' she said, and explained that some of the links in the chain had been faulty since she took office last May.

The gold-plated chain has been sent to one of two specialist companies in the country, Frattorini's, which deals in such repairs.

The chain dates from around 1932.