Explore
the Coast and "Country" Side of Bideford Bay
It is quite amazing that although this is one stretch of coastline, each cove has its own unique qualities. Peppercombe is noted for its red cliffs, however the pebbles give way to hard molten rock formations here and one reason the beach is popular with families with children is "The Gut" or "Gutway". The sandy inlet was created when the rock was blasted by gunpowder by Richard Cole, Lord of the Manor of Bucks, in Elizabethan times when he was building the harbour. At low tide, the large bolders are the remains of what once was the "Old Quay" The effigy of Richard Cole lies in the north wall of All Hallows Church in Woolfardisworthy. The large rock promontory is "The Gor". "Local Legend says that this rocky spit is the remains of a causeway built by the Devil to enable him to get to Lundy Island: when the stick of his Devon shovel broke, he abandoned the enterprise".
In the 18th century Bideford's main import was of culm, a mixture of anthracite and limestone which was then burnt in the local Lime Kilns. The lime fertiliser produced was used to "sweeten" the North Devon soil. There were seven lime kilns along the Torridge Estuary from Appledore to Bideford with nine beyond the Long Bridge. Kilns were then built along the coast and the remains of East Kiln at Bucks Mills, which dates from 1760, was built by Robert Davey.
Fishing was also once as main industry for Bucks Mills with herring, mackerel, whiting, lobsters and prawns being the most popular catches. When fishing declined and the lime kilns stopped working, villagers risked sailing the seventeen miles of open sea to Lundy to work in the island's granite quarry.
Historical Information - D. Hubbard-Fielder, The Story of Bucks Mills & Bucks Cross, available from Bideford Library and information supplied by the Braund Society from their publication, Who lived in Cottages like these? - the inhabitants of Bucks Mills.
