Julia Barnes - Böcker

Bideford is a historic port on the River Torridge in north Devon. In the sixteenth century Bideford developed as a major trading port for the American colonies and maintained its significance into the eighteenth century. During the twentieth century the port and shipbuilding declined in Bideford, although it still has a fishing fleet. In Lost Bideford & District authors Julian and Anthony Barnes and Peter Christie portray, through the years, the old bridge in Bideford and the pier, wartime activities including the arrival of American GIs, old businesses that have disappeared today including factories, mines and lime kilns, lost schools, mansions, windmills, chapels and toll houses, railways that have closed, the changing face of neighbouring Instow and Northam, and much more.Lost Bideford & District presents a portrait of this corner of the South West over the last century to recent decades, showing not only industries and buildings that have gone but also people and street scenes, many popular places of entertainment and much more. This fascinating photographic history of lost Bideford and the surrounding district will appeal to all those who live in the area or know it well, as well as those who remember it from previous decades.

The Manor of Northam dates back to the Norman invasion and is well recorded in the Domesday Book, being part of lands owned by a Saxon Lord called Bristric, and this appears to be the first recorded evidence of what was in the area. There is evidence of prehistoric settlements and much evidence during the Saxon era, when Vikings raided the area. Westward Ho! has its drowned forest and Stone Age kitchen midden hidden beneath the sands, where the sea still exposes deer antlers, flints and ancient pottery. A late Victorian venture with its pier and its palm trees and its grand hotels, it was intended as a holiday resort to challenge Torquay. The surrounding parish, containing about 2700 acres of land, is also included.