At about 10:45 am on the 16 December 1945 a Lancaster bomber crashed in Borough valley Mortehoe. The pilot was killed and the other six members of the crew injured. This is an account of these events both from a witness who saw it happen and the co-pilot who was seriously injured.

Members of the fair committee were under the impression that the 700th anniversary of the fair had not been marked in any way due to the fact that the event took place shortly after the coronation in 1953. In fact, research for the archive did reveal that a few new events were introduced.

Pictures compiled in the North Devon ond Disk project

Beaford Archive photographs

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Sales Brochure with descriptions of Bratton Fleming properties for sale in 1919.

Bratton Fleming Churchyard Monumental Inscriptions with layout plans

School groups with names from The Mary Orchard Collection

General views of Broadwoodkelly 2004

The Harris family who lived at Wheel Barton, Broadwoodkelly

Burton Art Gallery has a permanent collection of oil and watercolour paintings, North Devon slipware, porcelain, pewter and Napoleonic bone model ships. Local artefacts include items from local industry and a model of Bideford's long bridge.

The Chapman family lived in the Merton/Black Torrington area of North Devon in the nineteenth century. The records shown here concern Alfred Chapman, a tenant farmer, who emigrated to the USA in the autumn of 1870 after an unsuccessful legal spat with his landlord, John C. Moore Stevens. Alfred's diary account records daily weather conditions - of great importance to a local farmer, but also family events. There was a gap in the diary at the time of the legal dispute , but it was resumed again recording his journey to Boston (Mass.) and eventually New York, where he met his family off a boat .

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Prior to the various Education Acts of the 1870s and 1880s - the amount of schooling a child received depended solely on their sex and their parents’ financial situation, social class, religion and values. The earliest found mention of any organised schooling in Holsworthy is in 1792 when it is recorded that Mr Walter Friend of Waterloo Farm ran a boys day school – the only school in the entire district.

Beaford Archive photographs

George Monck was born at Great Potheridge in Merton in December 1608. He was an important figure in the English Civil War, engineering the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. As a result, he was created Duke of Albermarle and his regiment of foot was made part of the British Army, becoming the Coldstream Guards, who maintain their links with Merton to this day. On his death, he was granted a burial place of honour in Westminster Abbey at the expense of Charles II. 2008 marks the 400th anniversary of Monck's birth.

In 1852, a petition signed by 317 local inhabitants, brought about a great meeting at the Stanhope Arms Hotel, during which a ‘highly influential committee’ was appointed to form a company to provide a railway from Bideford to Plymouth, via Torrington, Holsworthy and Launceston, linking with the canal terminus at Blagdon Moor. Named the ‘Bristol and English Channel Junction Railway’ the scheme was not to reach fruition and, after initial enthusiasm the plans were shelved. Holsworthy was to wait another 25 years before getting its railway.

The Poor Law Act of 1834 sought to set up one system of poor relief for the entire country - the Holsworthy Poor Law Union formally came into being on 1st December 1835 and, like all other Unions, its administration and operation were overseen by a Board of thirty Guardians representing its 23 constituent parishes. The first meeting of the Holsworthy Union Board of Guardians was held in the White Hart Hotel on 1st February 1837. The new Union Workhouse was built in 1853 in Mr Dawe’s field. Designed by Mr Edward Ashworth, the ‘T’ shaped building was built to hold up to 80 inmates.

Beaford Archive photographs

A collection of photographs of Parracombe past and present

Beaford Archive photographs

The Green Men & Women of Kings Nympton

Material relating to Lapford during World War I and II

Merton is a small parish on the River Torridge, a few miles from Torrington. Its ancient church is All Saints, built in the Perpendicular style and restored in 1875. It forms part of the Clinton Devon Estates, with its chief residence being Great Potheridge, birthplace of George Monck, Duke of Albermarle, now a Centre for Outdoor Learning. Please browse our collection of photographs for information on this historic parish.

A few old photos of the Village

Pictures of Fremington parish through the years, compiled in the North Devon on Disk project

Pictures of South Molton taken throughout the years

Beaford Archive photographs

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Collection of photographs and plans of the wartime airfield.

Beaford Archive photographs

Photographs of Winkleigh through the years