North Devon History
Bucks Mills, Barnstaple, Bideford, Appledore, Westward Ho!
NEW: BUCKS MILLS people
and place John Bradbeer
ISBN 978-0-948444-56-2 Thematic Trails. 2011.
A5. 36 pages. 32 illustrations; full colour.
NEW: THE OCEAN QUEEN; links between Canada and North Devon. Barry D
Hughes
ISBN 978-0-9504018-8-1 North Devon Maritime Trust 2011.
A5. 49 pages. 30 illustrations including 4 colour plates by Mark Myers.
£4
Barry Hughes reveals, with evocative descriptions and images, the early
interdependence of the maritime communities of the Taw and Torridge and
the shores of North-east America some 3000 miles away. Trade, initiated
with the development of the seasonal fishing industry off the
Newfoundland coast in the 16th century, soon blossomed into a wider
transatlantic commercial links in shipbuilding, lumbering, manufactured
goods and a human cargo of west country emigrants. The story of the
Ocean Queen, built in 1845, epitomizes the strength of the Taw/Torridge
transatlantic trade and the sometimes poignant stories buried within its
history.
Barnstaple
EXPLORING BARNSTAPLE (2nd edition)
John
Bradbeer.
ISBN 978-0-948444-42-5 Thematic Trails 2002.
A5. 40 pages. 35 illust. £2.40
There is no better way to get a feel for the history of Barnstaple than
to walk its streets and explore its hidden by-ways with an expert who
has researched the history of the town and who cleverly responds within
the text to the questions which inquisitive visitors inevitably ask.
Bideford
EXPLORING
BIDEFORD Peter Christie.
ISBN 978-0-948444-31-9 Thematic Trails 2000.
A5. 48 pages. 25 Illust. £2.95
Bideford, like many medieval market towns has, until recent times,
changed and expanded relatively slowly. As a result, much of the
structure of the town, its plan or lay-out and its buildings, have been
preserved even when the function of those buildings has changed. One of
the pleasures of exploring an old-established market town and port such
as Bideford, is the recognition of features of the town which have been
inherited from a very different past.
GRENVILLE Alison Grant.
ISBN 978-0-9504018-3-6 North Devon Museum
Trust 1991.
A5. 78 pages. 23 illustrations. £4.95
This is a study of Richard Grenville, mayor of Bideford, his
life, death, character and reputation. The booklet describes his
voyages including, Puerto Rico and Virginia (1585), and
Newfoundland (1586).
Appledore
ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF APPLEDORE 1 David
Carter (2000) ISBN 978-0-9538524-0-7 17cm X
24cm 200 pages, 300 photos. £12.50
This admirably detailed liberally-illustrated book presents a strictly
chronological history of the shipbuilding and seafaring village of
Appledore. Browsing through the opening set of fascinating ‘then and
now’ photographs, each pair about a hundred years apart, one is struck
by how little the physical fabric of the village has changed. The lives
of the people themselves over the same period is a very different story.
The last quarter of the book picks up this human story by focussing on
the history of one family, the Slades, probably the most famous of
Appledore’s seafaring families.
ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF APPLEDORE 2, Its life and
people David Carter
ISBN 978-0-9538524-1-3 David Carter (2009). 17cm x 24cm 246
pages, 400 photos. £13.90
After some 20 pages sketching the early history of Appledore, the rest
of the book describes itself as a ‘guided tour’. It could perhaps be
better described as a ‘village companion’, for the geographical tour
provides a framework to introduce the evolution of the village and its
people including many anecdotes and stories so that, in the company of
David Carter, we get a real sense of time and place. This guided tour is
so comprehensive that to read the 200 pages whilst walking is quite
taxing. Better perhaps to curl up on the sofa and read this fascinating
book and then, if you visit the village, to follow the route with the 8
page Heritage Trail (below) which will trigger recollections of fuller
accounts in the book.
APPLEDORE HERITAGE TRAIL David Carter
(2009)
£1.00
8 page (A5) booklet introducing twenty-six places of interest to visit
in Appledore. Text by David Carter. Twenty six illustrations, including
a map of the route, by Bill Wright.
APPLEDORE, handmaid of the sea John Beara
ISBN 978-0-9509110-1-4 North Devon Museum
Trust 1976. £3.60
A5.152 pages. 2 illustrations.
The background to the modern history of Appledore is outlined accurately
and clearly.
SALMON NETTING IN NORTH DEVON Alison Grant
and Philip Waters
ISBN 978-0-9504018-6-7 North Devon Museum
Trust 1998. £5.95
A5. 91 pages. 54 illustrations.
A comprehensive history 'through fair weather and foul, good times and
bad'. Details include the construction of the traditional Appledore
salmon boat.
HMS WEAZEL 1782 – 1799 Bob and Ann Brock
ISBN 978-0-9504018-7-4 North Devon Museum
Trust. Appledore. £4.95
The story of HMS Weazel from construction in 1782 to the time when, as a
Royal Navy brig, she was sent to North Devon to protect the coast
against pirates and was lost, with all hands, in a hurricane off Baggy
Point in February 1799.