9 BIDEFORD QUAY
The front of Charles Kingsley’s ‘little white town’.
Bideford is my favourite North Devon town. It once had railways on both sides of the tidal River Torridge. Linked by a wonderful and ancient stone bridge with arches of varied sizes, East-thewater was served by the LSWR and later the Southern Railway from Barnstaple through to Torrington and then linked through to Halwill Junction by the last of Colonel Stephens’ light railways, the North Devon &
Cornwall Junction Railway.
On the other side of the river, for little more than 15 years, there was the Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway, a steam-operated tramway which began on the quay, right beside the water and all the bustle of a busy harbour. I love to imagine a fictional BWHAR link across the river to the rest of the rail network. The buildings would be low-relief models of the wonderful assortment of Regency and earlier buildings, some of which would simply need back-dating.