Heritage Harbour Blog

North Devon Journal

The River Torridge Heritage Group has been contributing this column in the North Devon Journal since December 2023. The column was previously written by the late Peter Christie, who did so much to research and promote the history and heritage of Bideford and North Devon.

The column follows a similar style with historical themed stories mixed with local politics and community interest.

The River Torridge Heritage Group is a partnership of local heritage organisations led by Way of the Wharves

Columns are copied here after publication

  • Anyone for tennis NDJ 03/07/25

    With the Wimbledon season upon us, the good folk at Bideford and District Community Archive have been looking into the origins of the Atlantic Racquet Centre. From 1946, friends and enthusiasts played as a Tennis Club on the Council owned courts in Golf Links Road in Westward Ho! but as time went on it was…

  • John Abbott of Frithelstock creating decorative plasterwork around Devon NDJ 26/06/25

    One of the most distinctive features of the creative heritage of our part of the world is the ornamental plasterwork dating from the seventeenth century which decorates some of our historic houses. One of the masterworks is the magnificent barrel-vaulted ceiling at Lanhydrock House, recently restored, in which scenes from the Old Testament are intermingled…

  • MS Oldenburg – before Bideford and Lundy Island NDJ 19/06/25

    The MS Oldenburg is a regular sight in Bideford, but how much is known about her history? She started out in 1958 as a Friesian Island cargo/passenger ferry operated by the German Railway Company Deutz Bundesbahn. She was very strongly built to withstand winter ice and able to carry an amazing 370 passengers.  Her next role was…

  • New Strategy for the Estuary NDJ 12/06/25

    The last Estuary Strategy document was published by Torridge District Council in 2014 and is described as ‘lapsed’ due to significant changes that have happened since then: two changes of ownership of Appledore Shipyard, the development of the Clean Maritime Innovation Centre and a new Economic Strategy. Seaweed farming started in Bideford Bay, there are…

  • Lifeboats at Appledore NDJ 05/06/25

    Last Sunday 4 May, Appledore celebrated 200 years of their lifeboat service. The national service was established on 4 March 1824 in The City of London Tavern in Bishopsgate, London, by Sir William Hillary who lived in Douglas in the Isle of Man. At that time there was an average of 1,800 shipwrecks round the…

  • Lifeboats anniversary and Jane Hannah MacDonald III NDJ 29/05/25

    On 4 May Appledore hosted the 200-year celebration of the RNLI. The day was fine and in the morning sunshine everyone could visit the Mollie Hunt, Appledore’s Tamar class all-weather lifeboat, brought along the quay while the tides were high. As people stood looking at the modern boat, all technology gleaming, leaflets were handed out to…

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