local history
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Congratulations to Bideford Town Council maintenance team who won first prize in the Bideford Carnival float competition for their impressive replica of Revenge, the ship Sir Richard Grenville famously defended to his death off the island of Flores in the Azores. Grenville’s reputation as one of Elizabeth I’s fiercest and bravest commanders is derived from…
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All around the country, Heritage Open Days 2026 attracted visitors to enjoy and explore local heritage in castles, cottages, factories and workshops around the theme of ‘everyday lives of working people’. Locally we recorded over 250 visits to events that highlighted working life at: railways with Bideford Heritage Railway Centre and Tarka Valley Rail, steamship…
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With warnings of the El Niño weather system bringing heavy rain and storms this winter, the Environment Agency held a public information event explaining the work they will be undertaking to help keep Bideford safe from flooding. Major construction works are about to start as part of the Kenwith Valley Flood Scheme to update the…
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On the site which is now the Rose Saltern on Bridgeland Street (Wetherspoons) the original buildings dated back to when the street was first laid out in 1691. This is one of the sites we’ll be featuring next Thursday 17 September as we celebrate a Heritage Open Day in Bridgeland Street. The original building was…
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The 630 miles of the South West Coast Path from Minehead to Poole Harbour, including the north and south coasts of Devon and Cornwall was, until the opening of the King Charles III England Coast Path in 2026, the longest long-distance path in the UK. The route is said to have had its origins in…
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Heritage Open Days are coming to Torridge, courtesy of the Heritage Harbour and our partners. Billed as ‘England’s largest festival of history and culture’ Heritage Open Days run from 11 to 20 September this year. Thousands of volunteers across England organise events to celebrate their local history and culture. It’s a chance to see hidden…
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In preparation for Bridgeland Street Open Day on 17 September, our research continues. One surprising finding is that, although it was built for merchants and well known for its solicitors and doctors, it was actually a street of women! In 1861 about three quarters of the adults living there were women, including almost all the…
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With the Heritage Open Day events planned for Bridgeland Street on 17 September, we continue with another piece about the history of the street. Knowing how much the late contributor to this column would have liked this event, we have edited an article about The Custom House from an original article published by Peter Christie…
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There are many fine houses in the Bideford and Northam districts, Victorian and older – although they have been much modified. Knapp House is one of the foremost. The placename Knapp is fairly common in Devon and refers to a hill or ridge. Bideford Archive has several documents relating to various sales or lettings of the…
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Have you ever noticed a brass plaque outside 24 Bridgeland Street, which reads ‘Rooker and Bazeley, Solicitors’? The antique Gothic script in the word ‘solicitors’ suggests there is a long history attached to the building, as indeed there is in houses up and down what is one of Bideford’s most emblematic streets. The difference is…
