Pilton and Barnstaple in a 1740 Painting

This oil painting of Pilton and Barnstaple from about 1740 hangs in the North Devon Museum. It clearly shows the community of Pilton and the Church of St Mary, to the left of the town of Barnstaple. Artistic licence has no doubt been used and it is difficult to know exactly how it would have looked.

The little bridge over the River Yeo is visible and above it on the hill is the large building probably of Raleigh Court where the North Devon Hospital now stands. In the fields below the village are drying racks which can also be seen on the hills above. These were for drying sheepskins and also for the woollen cloth which was woven in the area.

Thanks to the North Devon Athenaeum for their permission in allowing us to use this picture, one of the earliest images of Pilton that we have found.

Pilton Bridge Garage in the 1960s

Pilton Bridge Garage was built in the 1930s by Charlie Hinxman and he is recorded in Kelly’s Directory as the owner in 1941.  In the 1960s, it looked like the photograph below when it was owned by Terry Loder’s uncle, Jack Bater.  By the end of that decade, petrol cost about 5 shillings and 6 pence per gallon (the equivalent of around 6p/litre and about one twentieth of what it costs today.  Regrettably, this splendid Art Deco building, which wouldn’t have looked out of place in the heyday of Hercule Poirot, was replaced by the modern construction which is there today.  The photograph was first posted on the Facebook Barnstaple History Page by Terry Loder to whom many thanks are due.