Bideford, United Kingdom Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

Like Barnstaple, nine miles to the east, the estuary town of BIDEFORD formed an important link in the north Devon trade network, mainly due to its bridge , which still straddles the River Torridge. First built in 1300, the bridge was reconstructed in stone in the following century, and subsequently reinforced and widened, hence the irregularity of its twenty-four arches, no two of which have the same span. Bideford's greatest prosperity arose in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when it enjoyed a flourishing trade with the New World, and today the tree-lined quay along the west riverbank is still … more »