Bideford Wedding Fairs

The small port of Bideford is located on the estuary of the River Torridge in North Devon as is linked by a thirteenth century, 24 arch, Long Bridge to East-the-Water. It is thought that each arch was paid for by a local wool merchant or guild and the size of the arch was dependent on the merchant's wealth. There is a yearly run across the bridge every New Year's Eve. The race must be completed before the last chime at midnight from St Mary's Church. The tower of the church dates to 1259
The port is famous for its Bideford Witch Trials, when in 1682 three women (Mary Trembles, Temperance Lloyd and Susannah Edwards) were hanged for witchcraft - the last time anyone for habged for the witchcraft in the country
The author of the novel Westward Ho!, Charles Kingsley, lived in Bideford in the nineteenth century. He actually wrote the novel while living there and is commemorated with a statue on the quayside