The Appledore Book Festival has long provided a showcase for local history and this year’s exciting programme is no exception. What is exceptional is the quality and variety of the new research which has been brought together, and what are sure to be some compelling stories of north Devon folk who inhabited these shores in years gone by. 

Already sold out is Andy Gabriel-Powell’s talk on the ‘Lost Colony of Roanoke’. In 1587 settlers from North Devon founded the first English colony in America, but they disappeared. What became of them is known today as one of America’s greatest mysteries. Andy, a former Mayor of Bideford, spent eight years in America putting together a fascinating new account of the attempt by Sir Richard Grenville, and his cousin Sir Walter Raleigh, to settle America a generation or more before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Cape Cod.

On the same Elizabethan maritime theme, Teresa Tinsley returns to the Festival to recount more adventures of local men who sailed out over the bar during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and into the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. Using Inquisition records as a source, she brings to light the misadventures of north Devonians from modest backgrounds who had contact with Spain in the years after the Armada through smuggling, privateering and naval warfare. 

Festival Founder Nick Arnold reveals the incredible story of a young soldier from Appledore who sailed to America in the 18^th century and kept a diary of his adventures. Believed lost for centuries, the diary has recently been found, providing us with a real-life Treasure Island story of pirates, storms, snakes and diseases. 

On a more modern theme, John Puddy recounts the history of the MS Oldenberg, built in Germany in 1958, and now ferrying passengers and supplies to and from Lundy Island. His talk will cover the ship’s early days as a Friesian Island ferry and her acquisition by Lundy, how she came to the UK, her extensive conversion in Bideford, and the first years of operation up to the present.

For those who prefer stories about dry land, local historian David Carter will unveil the history of Docton Court, claimed to be Appledore’s oldest building, while local author Liz Shakespeare will entertain us with stories of the bizarre health remedies applied by our ancestors – including drinking cowslip wine, eating a fried mouse, and even driving a flock of sheep upstairs and down to cure diphtheria.