BIDEFORD  , a seaport,

market town and municipal borough in the Barnstaple parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, 84 m . S . W. of Barnstaple . Pop . (1901) 8754 . It is served by the London & South-Western and the Bideford, Westward Ho & Appledore railways . It is picturesquely situated on two hills rising from the banks of the river Torridge, 3 M. above its junction with the estuary of the Taw . Many of the houses are built with timber framework in Elizabethan style, and the two parts of the town are united by a bridge of 24 arches, originally erected in the 14th century, when the revenue of certain lands was set apart for its upkeep . The church of St Mary, with the exception of the tower, is a modern reconstruction . A stone chancel screen and a Norman font are also preserved . Industries include the manufacture of earthenware, leather goods, sails, ropes and linen, and ironfounding . The small harbour has about 17 ft. of water at high tide, but is dry at low tide .

Anthracite and a coarse potter's clay are found near the town . The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors . Area, 3398 acres . Bideford (Bedeford, Bydyford, Budeford, Bytheford) is not mentioned in pre-Conquest records, but according to Domesday it rendered geld for three hides to the king . From the time of the Conquest down to the 18th century, Bideford remained in the possession of the Grenville family, and it first appears as a borough in an undated charter (probably of the reign of Edward I.) from Richard de Grenville, confirming a charter from his grandfather, Richard de Grenville, fixing the rent and services due from the burgesses and granting them liberties similar to those in use at Breteuil and a market every Monday . Another charter, dated 1271, confirms to Richard de Grenville and his heirs a market every Monday and five days' fair yearly at the feast of St Margaret (loth of July) . In 1573 Elizabeth granted a charter creating Bideford a free borough corporate, with a common council consisting of a mayor, 5 aldermen and 7 chief burgesses, together with a recorder, town-clerk and 2 serjeants-at-mace . This charter also granted the Tuesday market, which is still held, and three annual fairs in February, July and November, now discontinued . A later charter from James I. in 1610 added the right to have a town seal, 7 aldermen instead of 5, and to chief burgesses instead of 7, and continued in force until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1873, which established 4 alder-men and 12 common councillors . In the 16th century Sir Richard Grenville, the famous Virginian settler, did much to stimulate the commercial development of Bideford, which long maintained a very considerable trade with America, Spain and the Mediterranean ports, the import of tobacco from Maryland and Virginia being especially noteworthy . From the beginning of the 18th century this gradually declined and gave place to a coasting trade in timber and coal, chiefly with Wales and Ireland . The silk industry which flourished in the 17th century is extinct .

See

John Watkins, History of Bideford (Exeter, 1792) .