Lost Bideford & District

Julia Barnes, Anthony Barnes, Peter Christie

From Shelf: New home and garden books published this May

Fully illustrated description of Bideford's well known, and lesser known, places that have been lost over the years.

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.