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The number of ships using Bideford as a port has much reduced over the years. Ships queuing up to cross the bar and double moored on the quays to discharge cargoes are just memories. Of course, it didn’t just stop overnight there were a series of changes which impacted port operations. Improvements to roads and…
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We hear that Navantia, Appledore will shortly start cutting steel for the bow sections of the first new Fleet Solid Support Ships. A massive 100 x 30-metre barge will transport them to Belfast. It should be something to watch as it comes in and going out of the estuary fully laden. When we hear about…
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Few people look upstream of Bideford Long Bridge and imagine industry and shipping. However, vessels transited up as far as Weare Gifford. The arches of Bideford Long Bridge dictated all activity upstream, even the size of the sea lock at Rolle Canal: the widest arch on the bridge is 20 feet and so is the…
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One hundred years ago, on 23 September 1925, a new hospital was opened on Abbotsham Road. Bideford & District Community Archive has researched the background to the Bideford Community Hospital, which is still a key element of our community. Although there was a public dispensary in Bideford, the need for hospital beds became evident and…
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As part of Heritage Open Days last week, forty-six of us crowded into the Kingsley Room at The Burton to hear Sadie Green give a captivating talk on the links between our ceramic heritage and our maritime past. The link to the sea was crucial, not only for assembling the materials needed to produce pottery,…
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Last Saturday the Mayor of Bideford, Peter Lawrence, unveiled a plaque on the old Bideford Railway Station dedicated to the memory of Elisabeth Deneys, a young Belgian refugee who was killed on the tracks there in 1917. Over a quarter of a million Belgians came to find sanctuary the UK at the start of the…
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Northam in 1871 was very different to the village of today and into it a child was born to Joshua and Susannah (née Heard) Taylor. They lived at what is now known as 22 Castle Street which in the 1871 census was known as Back Lane, Northam. The house still exists and a plaque erected…
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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…
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With so much heritage surrounding us, it was disappointing that last year there were only two local organisations taking part in the annual celebration of England’s history and culture known as Heritage Open Days (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own). This year, Bideford and River Torridge Heritage Harbour has stepped in to ensure that more events…
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We have had some hot weather recently which has given great pleasure to locals and holidaymakers. But it’s not only the weather that has been steaming. One of the visitors who came from Kent was returning to Bideford for the first time in some 80 years. In the 1930s, when the builders merchant Devon Trading…
Bideford and River Torridge Heritage Harbour 