Barnstaple

Barnstaple enjoys a superb location at the head of the Taw estuary, at the furthest point downstream where it was possible to ford the river. The first bridge across the Taw was built in the late 1200s, but the present impressive structure, 700 feet long with 16 arches, dates from about 1450 although it has been altered and widened many times.

Visitors will immediately realise that Barnstaple takes its floral decorations very seriously. The town began its association with the Britain in Bloom movement in 1991 and just five years later crowned its efforts by winning the Gold award for the Prettiest Floral Town in Europe in the Entente Florale Competition. Wherever you turn you may well find a magnificent display - a hay cart full of flowers outside the police station and civic centre, for example, a giant postage stamp modelled in blossoming plants outside the Post Office, or a stunning model of a train (again, all created in flowers) at the entrance to the railway station.

The town’s love of floral exuberance may be one of its most endearing features, but Barnstaple is also the administrative and commercial capital of the region, a pre-eminence it already enjoyed when the Domesday Book recorded the town as one of only four boroughs in the county. Back then, in 1086, Barnstaple had its own mint and, already, a regular market. More than nine centuries later, the town still hosts produce markets every Tuesday and Friday, but the Pannier Market is open every weekday. This huge, glass-roofed building covering some 45,000 square feet was built in 1855 and its grandiose architecture resembles that of a major Victorian railway station, (London’s St Pancras springs to mind). The Market takes it name from the pannier baskets, (two wicker baskets connected by a leather strap draped across the back of a donkey, pony or horse), in which country people in those days would carry their fruit and vegetables to town.

Just across the road from the Pannier Market is Butchers Row, a quaint line of booth-like Victorian shops constructed mostly of wood with brightly painted wooden canopies. When they were built, facing north for coolness, back in 1855 and were occupied exclusively by butchers. Today, you’ll find a much wider variety of goods on sale – seaweed amongst them. Every week during the summer season at least 300lb of this succulent algae are sold, most of it ending up as a breakfast dish, served with bacon and an egg on top.

In the pedestrianised High Street stands the rather austere Guildhall, built in the Grecian style in 1826 and now housing some interesting civic memorabilia – portraits, municipal regalia and silverware – which are occasionally on display. Nearby, the Church of St Peter and St Paul dates back to the early 1300s. After having its spire twisted by a lightning strike in 1810, it suffered even more badly later that century under the heavy hand of the Victorian restorer, Sir Gilbert Scott. Much more appealing are the charming 17th-century Horwood’s Almshouses nearby, and the 15th-century St Anne’s Chapel, which served for many years as the town’s Grammar School. During the late 17th century John Gay, author of The Beggar’s Opera, was numbered amongst its pupils. The town has other literary associations. William Shakespeare visited in 1605 and it was the sight of its narrow streets bustling with traders that inspired him to write The Merchant of Venice. The diarist Samuel Pepys married a 15-year-old Barnstaple girl in 1655.

As at Tiverton, the 17th-century well-to-do residents of Barnstaple were much given to charitable endowments. As well as Thomas Horwood’s almshouses, Messrs. Paige and Penrose both bequeathed substantial funds for almshouses, and in 1659 Thomas’ wife, Alice, paid for the building in Church Lane of a school for “20 poor maids”. It is now a coffee house.

A slightly later building of distinction is Queen Anne’s Walk, a colonnaded arcade with some lavish ornamentation, surmounted by a large statue of the Queen herself. Opened in 1708, it was used by the Barnstaple wool merchants who accepted that any verbal bargain they agreed over the Tome Stone was legally binding. The building stands on the old town quay from which, in 1588, five ships set sail to join Drake’s fleet against the Armada. The building is now home to the Barnstaple Heritage Centre where more can be found out about this ancient town and one of its most enduring industries, pottery, which has been made here continuously since the 13th century. As in those days, local Fremington red clay is used.

There’s more pottery on display in the Museum of North Devon where a whole room is devoted to Barum Ware created by local potter CH Brannam (1855-1937). With its strident dark blues, greens and earthy tones on red clay, the range was vastly popular in late Victorian times.

Barnstaple has two railway stations but only one is still functioning. This is the northern terminus of the Tarka Line, a lovely 39-mile route that follows the gentle river valleys of the Yeo and the Taw where Tarka the Otter had his home. The railway is actually the main line route to Exeter but has been renamed in honour of one of the area’s major visitor attractions.

Walkers along the Tarka Trail will know Barnstaple well as the crossover point in this figure-of-eight long-distance footpath. Inspired by Henry Williamson’s celebrated story of Tarka the Otter, the 180-mile trail wanders through a delightful variety of Devon scenery – tranquil countryside, wooded river valleys, rugged moorland, and a stretch of the North Devon coast, with part of the route taking in the Tarka Line railway in order to get the best views of the locations described in the novel.