Westleigh, North Devon

Southcott is a hamlet east of Bideford in the parish of Westleigh in the district of North Devon, in the county of Devon, England. The hamlet consists of Southcott Barton to the West and Southcott Cottages to the East. Southcott is bordered by the A39 and the River Torridge. Southcott House, located in Southcott Barton, is a 17th Century listed farmhouse.

Tapeley is a historic estate in the parish of Westleigh in North Devon, England. The present mansion house known as Tapeley Park is a grade II* listed country house, built or enlarged from an existing structure in about 1704, remodeled in the 19th century and again in the early 20th century when pilasters, portico, pediment and parapet were added to create a Queen Anne style building. In the mid 19th century the estate was inherited from the Clevland family by William Langham Christie of Glyndebourne in Sussex. His grandson was John Christie (born 1882), the founder of Glyndebourne Opera Festival, who bequeathed Tapeley to his daughter Rosamund Christie (1933–1988), who passed it onto her nephew Hector Christie (born 1963), who briefly turned it into a hippie commune. In 2011, Tapeley Park was the subject of an episode of the Channel 4 television programme Country House Rescue, presented by the hotelier Ruth Watson, who advised on restoring the estate to a sound financial position. The gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. They are open to the public on a regular basis and feature Italianate terraces, a working kitchen garden and a permaculture garden. The estate, now mainly owned by the Christie Devon Estates Trust (trustees of the Christie family), comprises about 6,000 acres, and covers Saunton (including foreshore and beach), Braunton Burrows (sand dunes, partly a nature reserve and leased to the Ministry of Defence), Instow (including the foreshore purchased from the crown estate) and the village of Westleigh.

East-the-Water Cemetery (also known as Bideford Church Cemetery) was the Church of England burial ground for East-the-Water, once a separate village but now a suburb of Bideford, in Devon, England. Located on Barnstaple Road, the cemetery as of 2018 is abandoned and neglected, and the Victorian cemetery chapel is a dangerous structure on the verge of collapse. Burials in Bideford now take place at Bideford Higher Cemetery. The cemetery, opened in 1890, contains 476 graves holding 947 people. Among these are 20 Commonwealth War Graves Commission burials, 7 from World War I and 13 from World War II, with their distinctive headstones.

The Torridge Bridge is a 650-metre-long concrete bridge, situated broadly in an east-west direction, built in 1987 in Bideford, England over the River Torridge. The bridge provides a bypass to Bideford avoiding the Bideford Long Bridge. Known additionally for its suicides the bridge has since been improved, with the instalment of higher railings. The road expansion joints on the west side were replaced in 2020 mitigating the loud "bonking" noise caused by passing road traffic. (From the 1927 book Tarka the Otter; the Tarka Trail passes under the location of the bridge).

Chudleigh Fort is an ornamental fort in East-the-Water, a suburb of Bideford in Devon in the UK. The site was originally an actual 17th-century earthwork gun platform that was built during the English Civil War. In the 19th century, the site was reconstructed to create a stone belvedere. It was given Grade II listed building status in 1949.

Instow is a village in north Devon, England. It is on the estuary where the rivers Taw and Torridge meet, between the villages of Westleigh and Yelland and on the opposite bank to Appledore. There is an electoral ward with the same name. The ward's total population at the 2011 census was 1,501. There is a small river beach and sand dunes, that home some rare species of orchid including the pyramid orchid.The Tarka Trail passes through Instow, providing an easy means for people to arrive on foot or by bike. This section of the Trail is also part of the South West Coast Path, offering longer walks along the coast. The village is served by the Church of St John the Baptist, which has 13th/14th-century origins and is a Grade I listed building. A chapel of ease, All Saints, was built in 1936 and is now also used as a community centre.

The first Bideford railway station was opened on 2 November 1855 as the terminus of the Bideford Extension Railway from Barnstaple. This was taken over by the London and South Western Railway about ten years later. This station was resited in 1872 when the line was extended to Torrington. Regular passenger trains from Barnstaple were withdrawn on Saturday 2 October 1965 although special trains occasionally used the station until the line was finally closed to freight in 1982. After closure a railway preservation society was formed to reopen the station and a short part of the line. Over 220 yards of track were laid from the station and some rolling stock and a small diesel locomotive are on site. An occasional train service is operated from April to September and the replica signal box, interactive interpretation centre and cafe are also open during this period. The site is on the Tarka Trail so is accessible even if the centre is closed. See Bideford Railway Heritage Centre.The remaining station buildings on the down side are owned by the adjacent Royal Hotel and are used for storage.The station was included on the ATOC Connecting Communities report in 2009, which recommended closed lines and stations which should have a railway service. The report suggested the reopening of the Barnstaple - Bideford railway line. In mid-2021 some members of the Bideford Railway Heritage Centre became actively involved in working towards this objective, with Railfuture, following the example of the government's Reopening Your Railway initiative. What became known as the ACE Rail campaign quickly became adopted by the Tarka Rail Association.

Bideford Art School was an art school in Bideford in Devon from 1896 until the 1970s. Located on The Quay, today the building is used as Bideford Arts Centre and has been a Grade II listed building on the Register of Historic England since 2001.

The Burton at Bideford is an art gallery and museum on Kingsley Road in Victoria Park, in Bideford, Devon, England. It houses collections on various topics connected with Bideford’s history and cultural heritage. The art gallery displays work by local, national and international artists.

Bideford Quay Station was a railway station in Bideford, north Devon; the southern terminus on the Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway, serving the town and passengers from Bideford railway station on the London and South Western Railway. It lay on Bideford Quay where the company offices were situated.

Bideford Long Bridge in North Devon spans the River Torridge near its estuary and connects the old part of the town, and formerly important river port, of Bideford on the left bank (west side) with East-the-Water on the right bank (east side). It is one of the longest mediaeval bridges in England, being 677 feet (222 yards) long with 24 arches. In 1790 the bridge was the longest in Devon. It remained the furthest downstream bridge on the river until 1987, when the Torridge A39 Road Bridge was built a mile or so further downstream at Northam. The river is still tidal at Bideford (and as far upstream as Weare Giffard) and a very large fluctuation in water levels occurs twice daily under the bridge. An ancient New Year's Eve tradition was to try to run across the Long Bridge during the time taken for the bells of St. Mary's parish church, near the west end, to chime midnight. A sight enjoyed by many in the winter months is of the starlings at dusk, as they come in large flocks to roost underneath the bridge. It is a Grade I listed building. Another major medieval bridge, the Barnstaple Long Bridge in Barnstaple over the Taw, is a few miles away. A large scale model of the Long Bridge in all its stages from 1280 to 1925 is displayed at the Burton at Bideford museum in the town.

Victoria Park is an urban park in Bideford, Devon, England. The park opened in 1912 to celebrate the reign of Queen Victoria, the gates erected for the opening are listed with Historic England. There is a bandstand surrounded by nine cannons and facilities including rugby and cricket.