Heritage Boats
A Clovelly picarooner or traditional herring boat. Richard Gregory
Much of North Devon – the way it is – the lie of our harbours, towns and villages is linked to our maritime history.
The wealth of towns like Bideford and Ilfracombe were built on maritime trade and smaller villages like Fremington, Bucks Mills or Hartland were once bustling ports or fishing harbours.
If you’ve looked out on the estuary from Instow or Appledore and seen it dotted with colourful boats during the regatta – then imagine it full of schooners and skiffs, tugs or steamers and tiny rowing boats all using the tide to make it over the notoriously dangerous Bideford Bar and into safe harbour. Many local boats like the gravel barges, the herring picarooners or salmon boats were uniquely designed or adapted to work our waters and built locally. Watch our film salmon netting on the Taw & Torridge on our films page which documents a traditional salmon boat in action and a way of life which may soon be lost.
The influence of the sea and the trade links stretches inland along the river arteries: the Taw and Torridge, with first the canal, then the railway, following the route of the river Torridge, shaping towns and villages like Torrington and Taddiport and the lives of people working the land (see Rolle canal article below.) It wasn’t just work. Lee Bay, near Ilfracombe, was once the in destination for a day out. Day trippers arrived by paddle steamer and had fifteen tea rooms to choose from.
Boat Stories is interested in archive photos and movies of those who made their living on the water and talking to people who remember life back in the day. We hope to be working with the museums, local historians and interested parties. But for the moment as we are a small team we are concentrating on contemporary boats and fishing – including those using traditional boats.
The wealth of towns like Bideford and Ilfracombe were built on maritime trade and smaller villages like Fremington, Bucks Mills or Hartland were once bustling ports or fishing harbours.
If you’ve looked out on the estuary from Instow or Appledore and seen it dotted with colourful boats during the regatta – then imagine it full of schooners and skiffs, tugs or steamers and tiny rowing boats all using the tide to make it over the notoriously dangerous Bideford Bar and into safe harbour. Many local boats like the gravel barges, the herring picarooners or salmon boats were uniquely designed or adapted to work our waters and built locally. Watch our film salmon netting on the Taw & Torridge on our films page which documents a traditional salmon boat in action and a way of life which may soon be lost.
The influence of the sea and the trade links stretches inland along the river arteries: the Taw and Torridge, with first the canal, then the railway, following the route of the river Torridge, shaping towns and villages like Torrington and Taddiport and the lives of people working the land (see Rolle canal article below.) It wasn’t just work. Lee Bay, near Ilfracombe, was once the in destination for a day out. Day trippers arrived by paddle steamer and had fifteen tea rooms to choose from.
Boat Stories is interested in archive photos and movies of those who made their living on the water and talking to people who remember life back in the day. We hope to be working with the museums, local historians and interested parties. But for the moment as we are a small team we are concentrating on contemporary boats and fishing – including those using traditional boats.
Boat Stories snapped this image of Appledore pilot gig rowers escorting the Kathleen and May into Bideford on August bank holiday. The gig rowers were re-enacting a traditional livelihood. Pilot boats used to race out from Appledore to meet the ships and earn the right to pilot them safely across the bar. The Kathleen May is the only surviving wooden, top sail schooner, restored lovingly, over many years, in Appledore and Bideford and now sailing again. She is registered in Bideford, but sadly for North Devonians she is based in Liverpool. |
Coastal schooner moored next to Bideford Quay
This image from around 1890 shows a coastal schooner moored next to Bideford Quay (now substantially widened.) Thanks Peter Christie for permission to use the image.
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The Secrets of the Rolle Canal Beam Aqueduct or canal bridge Rolle Canal Society
I first heard of the Rolle Canal, linking Torrington to the sea, about five years ago on a boat trip along the river Torridge. Dave Gabe, our skipper, pointed through some trees and spoke of an ancient sea lock, although we were nearly three miles inland from Bideford. I imagined a canal, brim full of water, slipping silently through the woods. Dave shattered this image, saying the canal had been destroyed by the railway over 140 years ago. But for the past ten years, members of the Rolle Canal Society have been on a Boy’s Own adventure, hacking through vegetation, crawling through tunnels, slowly revealing the secrets of the canal. Now thanks to North Devon’s Biosphere Life’s Journey project which has opened up viewing points along the Tarka Trail, it’s an adventure anyone can take. I was treated to a guided tour courtesy of society members: Anthony Barnes, Barry Hughes and Adrian Wills.
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Schooner on the RocksAnn Wells from Appledore contacted Boat Stories and invited me to see her ten-foot, clinker-built punt, ‘Puffin’ which her father bought for her when she was ten years old. When I arrived, Ann now 70, took me first round to the back of the house and the astonishing view. Ann and her husband George can see a wide sweep of Bideford Bay from Hartland Point in the west, round to Baggy Point in the East. Entertainment is provided by the comings and goings of various boats and ships –most of which Ann recognises. That same day they’d watched the Irish fisheries patrol vessel, Samuel Beckett (built at Appledore shipyard) undergoing sea trials. Ann can also see the mouth of the river where she fished in Puffin, alone – because her father didn’t want the responsibility should anything happen to another child. She was told never to go beyond the confluence of the two rivers or anywhere near the notorious Bideford Bar. Ann dug crabs for bait, made her own fishing lines and spent hours pottering about on the water.
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