Bideford

Dubbed the Little White Town by Charles Kingsley, this attractive town set beside the River Torridge was once the third busiest port in Britain. The first bridge across the shallow neck of the Torridge estuary was built around 1300 to link Bideford with its aptly-named satellite village, East-the-Water. That bridge must have been very impressive for its time. It was 670 feet long, and built of massive oak lintels of varying length, which created a series of irregular arches between 12 and 25 feet apart. These erratic dimensions were preserved when the bridge was rebuilt in stone around 1460 (the old bridge was used as scaffolding), and despite widening during the 1920s, they persist to this day. Unusually, Bideford Bridge is managed by an ancient corporation of trustees, known as feoffees, whose income, derived from property in the town, not only pays for the upkeep of the bridge, but also supports local charities and good causes. A high-level bridge a mile or so downstream, opened in 1987, has relieved some of the traffic congestion and also provides panoramic views of the town and the Torridge estuary.

Bideford received its Market Charter from Henry III in 1272 (on 25 May to be precise), and markets still take place every Tuesday and Saturday. Since 1883 they have been held in the splendid Pannier Market building, reckoned to be one of the best surviving examples of a Victorian covered market. Along with local produce, there’s a huge selection of gifts, crafts, and handmade goods on offer: “Everything from Antiques to Aromatherapy!”

Devon ports seemed to specialise in particular commodities. At Bideford it was tobacco from the North American colonies that brought almost two centuries of prosperity until the American War of Independence shut off supplies. Evidence of this golden age can still be seen in the opulent merchants’ residences in Bridgeland Street, and most strikingly in the Royal Hotel in East-the-Water, a former merchant’s house of 1688 with a pair of little-seen plasterwork ceilings, which are perhaps the finest and most extravagant examples of their kind in Devon.

It was while he was staying at the Royal Hotel that Charles Kingsley penned most of Westward Ho! A quarter of a million words long, the novel was completed in just seven months. There’s a statue of Kingsley, looking suitably literary, on Bideford Quay. Broad and tree-lined, the Quay stands at the foot of the narrow maze of lanes that formed the old seaport.

Just round the corner from the Quay, on the edge of Victoria Park, is the Burton Museum and Art Gallery, opened in 1994. The museum contains some interesting curios, such as Bideford harvest jugs of the late 1700s, and model ships in carved bone made by French prisoners during the Napoleonic wars. The gallery has frequently changing exhibitions with subjects ranging from automata to kites, quilts to dinosaurs, as well as paintings by well-known North Devon artists. The museum also has a craft gallery, shop, workshop, lecture area and coffee shop.

Starting at the Burton Gallery, guided walks around the town are available.