·: Thematic Trails :·

Taw-Torridge

(Braunton Burrows - Northam Burrows - Appledore - Bideford - Barnstaple)

"Here is an excellent series of wildlife and nature guidebooks. They impress by their clarity - bold maps - and clear directions - as well as by the highly informative text, pleasant drawings and dramatic photographs. There is also a refreshing element of challenge to the reader. A delightful series, full of variety". (Interpretation Journal)

Braunton Burrows

BRAUNTON BURROWS ECOLOGY TRAIL by Janet Keene

ISBN 978-0-948444-30-2 Thematic Trails 1996. A5. 47 pages. 30 illust. £2.95

A combined reference book and trail designed for visitors seeking serious explanation of this large unique dune environment which is now an International Biosphere Reserve. The circular walk through this important sand dune system includes a transect from the beach, through the fore-dunes, slacks, parabolic dunes, grassland and woodland.

WILD FLOWERS OF BRAUNTON BURROWS Mary Breeds 2004 £3.95

48 pages, 210 mm X 210 mm. Over 140 colour photos of plants and Burrows landscapes. Braunton Burrows is one of the largest expanses of sand dunes in Britain. This book is both an introduction to, and a celebration of, the unique rich variety of plants that grow there. It is paradise for botanists because of the great diversity of species and the rarity of many of them. It is a pleasure to walk through these dunes, booklet in hand, to discover flowers and plants that you have never seen before. This admirably illustrated book neatly complements the exploration of the dunes set out in Janet Keene’s Braunton Burrows Ecology Trail, see above.

BRAUNTON HABITAT MAP £2.95
Coloured single-sided folded map (100cm by 45cm). Ecology Map showing vegetation, habitats, contours at four metre intervals and general landscape features. 1990 edition based on NCC surveys of the full sand dune system.

Locally you can buy Braunton Burrows Ecology & The Cliffs of Saunton at:

Braunton Tourist Information Centre, The Bakehouse Centre, Braunton, North Devon. EX33 1AA T: 01271-816700 and at

Barnstaple Tourist Information Centre, The Square, Barnstaple Ex 32 8LN T: 01271 – 375000.

Northam Burrows

NORTHAM BURROWS, estuary environments by Janet and Peter Keene

ISBN 978-0-948444-33-3 Thematic Trails 1997. A5. 48 pages. 30 illust. £2.95

A three-mile circular walk examines a mosaic of estuary habitats including pebble ridge, sand dunes, salt marsh and burrows pasture lands. The approach stresses the interrelationships between ecology, landscape, coastal defence and coastal management.

NORTHAM BURROWS, a decision-making exercise by Peter Jollands.

Thematic Trails 1997. A5. 12 pages.

This booklet, designed for tutor use with the above trail, examines management problems associated with Northam Burrows and includes an appropriate exercise for visiting students. Free, on request, with any purchase or 10p via PayPal.

NORTHAM BURROWS, a mixture of memories and facts by Philip Waters

ISBN 978-1-895546-76-4 North Devon Museum Trust. Appledore. £4

A5. 64 pages, 29 illustrations.

Northam Burrows including chapters on the Lords of the Manor, golf, freehold, grazing, horse-riding, sea defences, potwallopers, salt water inundation. This history is interspersed with the memories of Philip Waters, a local resident of long-standing.

WESTWARD HO! ECOLOGY TRAIL: beach sand-dune, salt marsh Janet Keene
ISBN 978-0-948444-02-9 Thematic Trails 1985. A5. 33 pages. 38 illustrations. £1.50
The circular route includes the slipway, beach, clay beds, pebble ridge, sand-dunes, Greysands, the Skern, salt marsh and mud flats; returning to Westward Ho! via Northam Burrows. The trail is suitable for both holiday and school orientated use. It uses a question and answer approach with panels for notes so may be regarded as an expendable booklet but it also lends itself to multiple duplication. In a later Thematic Trails booklet, Northam Burrows, estuary environments, the same author examines a wider a range of issues of concern in this estuary landscape.

A FIELD GUIDE TO THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE TAW AND TORRIDGE ESTUARIES Chris Preece
ISBN 978-1-898546-98-3 Edward Gaskell 2008. A5 48 pages. 29 figures. £4.99

An introduction to some 44 archaeological sites of interest in the Taw-Torridge estuary, all usefully located on a clear centre-page map which also shows their relationship to both the Tarka Trail and the South West Coastal Path. The booklet describes, chronologically, an array of sites, beginning with the Late Mesolithic midden site on Westward Ho! beach, passing through post-medieval fish weirs on the Taw and onto wrecks and hulks of more modern times, ending with tantalising relicts of the Second World War.

125,000 YEARS OF COASTAL CHANGE IN THE TAW – TORRIDGE ESTUARY (Bye bye Northam Burrows)
CD photo set of 100 plus images. Peter Keene 2008. £1.00
Thematic Trails. This CD set (in PowerPoint presentation form only) is essentially the illustrations used in a talk at the Appledore Book Festival in September 2008. The initial PowerPoint presentation CD carried only cryptic foot-notes, mainly as prompts to help the speaker. At the request of some teachers who were not at the festival, these mini-notes have been expanded slightly to more fully explain in print the points made during this presentation. The illustrations are intended for private non-commercial use only. Copyright © rules apply. Peter Keene (September 2009).

Appledore

ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF APPLEDORE 1 David Carter
ISBN 978-0-9538524-0-7 David Carter (2000) 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. £2.95

A5. 52 pages. 25 illustrations.

The background to the modern history of Appledore is outlined accurately and clearly.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Barnstaple

EXPLORING BARNSTAPLE (2nd edition) John Bradbeer.

ISBN 978-0-948444-42-5 Thematic Trails 2002. A5. 40 pages. 35 illust. £2.95

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.