This film is part of Free

North Devon’s Heritage Coast

A family holiday is filmed in and around Bideford.

Home movie 1935 3 mins Silent

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Overview

North Devon is a traditional tourist location with enduring appeal as the ideal for family holidays with its stunning landscapes, cliffs, long sandy beaches, surfing and moors. By the 1950s these locations were already firmly on the tourist map. The spread of railways during the Victorian era brought holidaymakers to the coast and sea-bathing became a popular pastime. The Rock Pool at Westward Ho! near Bideford probably dates back to the turn of the twentieth century.

Many tidal pools including the expensive to maintain Art Deco ones have been lovingly restored and reportedly about 30 remain along with the vestiges of those carried away by the very sea they sought to entrap. For the uninitiated, high tide would fill the pool and at low tide when the sea was a faint line on the horizon of a never-ending beach, the tidal pool built into the rocks, was a great source of funtime leisure. This film shows a typical holiday in the area with quaint Clovelly, its cobbled street and donkeys, Hartland Point and Bideford on Regatta Day and a picnic on the cliffs looking out towards Lundy and the Bristol Channel.