Bideford’s potteries were still hard at work, but in 1835 the Penny Cyclopedia described them as “principally for the manufacture of flower-pots.” It is true that Bideford’s ceramic industry had always specialised in producing good quality basic wares, however it’s output was far from limited to products for the horticultural…
An Exodus to Canada and a New Road
The period from 1830-1844 marked a low point for the economy of Devon and across that period some 1,500 people sailed to Prince Edward Island from the West Country, the majority choosing Bideford as their point of departure. James Yeo’s 283 ton vessel, British Lady (built in 1836) regularly sailed…
Coal, Lime, and Clay
Culm is a local name for anthracite and an outcrop of culm bearing strata crosses East-the-Water, beneath Mines Road, Eastridge View, and Grange Road, before continuing, under the Torridge, and onward under western Bideford. A lease signed by the Earl of Bath (John Grenville, 1628-1701) suggests this was being exploited…
The Western Route
The road from Bideford to Great Torrington had historically run to the east of the Torridge, departing up the steep hill through East-the-Water then running southward through Weare Giffard. In 1824 that was the route followed by the toll road, but, in that year, an act was passed to enable…
Exodus to Empire
The defeat of Napoleon, together with the Victorian expansion of the British Empire, brought a boom in maritime trade. Bideford’s quays were a hive of activity: large quantities of timber, hemp, and tallow were imported from the Baltic and America; wines and fruits arrived from the Mediterranean, cattle came from…
At war with Napoleon
By 1809 Napoleon was seeking to conquer Europe. A French blockade of Baltic timber caused a slump in Torridge-side ship-building. In response, Bideford expertise was shipped to Newfoundland to utilise the timber there. In that same year the first series Ordnance Survey map of Bideford was published. Along with the…
Advent of the Turnpikes
After significant rainfall, the heavy local soils must have made road travel a nightmare, but in 1763 the Barnstaple Turnpike Trust was established, its responsibilities included provision of improved routes from Barnstaple to Bideford as well as a turnpike from East-the-Water to Great Torrington, via the traditional Wear Gifford and…
An Irish Rebellion Leaves its Mark
Overlooking the Torridge, and now vaulting across the Tarka Trail by a stone-built pedestrian bridge, lies the cul-de-sac known as Vinegar Hill. We have, it has been suggested, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 to thank for this unusual name. Fuelled by the revolutionary fervour in France, and also American’s bid…
Marshall’s account
In 1794 Instead Marshall published an account of Bideford in his Rural Economy of the West Country. The war with America had apparently taken its toll, for he suggests the town was “remarkably forbidding,” by virtue of its narrow streets and cheaply built houses. In the open spaces furze faggots…
The War with America
On 31 March 1774 Britain ordered the closure of the port of Boston, thus setting the scene for the American War of Independence (1775-81). The war curtailed Bideford’s foreign trade, forcing a greater reliance on the local trades of shipbuilding and pottery. But it may also have had a sudden…