In 1768 the French produced a map of the Taw and Torridge Estuaries and hinterland showing the main habitation and geographic features. It was one of a set detailing all the ports and inlets on the southern coast of England and the Bristol Channel, drawn by a French spy on a mission to discover likely invasion points.

As well as Barnstaple, Instow and Appledore, the map shows the locations of Pilton, Bradiford, Heanton Punchardon,  Newport, Upcott House and it also mentions Pilton House (the home of Robert Incledon completed in 1746).  This illustration below is an extract from the larger map.  For the full map with the key to the features, click on the illustration to open The Pilton Story archive.

Extract from 18th Century French Spy Map of the Taw and Torridge Estuary

The first French Army of England gathered on the English Channel coast in 1798, but an invasion of England was sidelined by Napoleon’s concentration on campaigns elsewhere and then shelved in 1802.   However, his planned invasion of the United Kingdom at the start of the War of the Third Coalition (1803-06), although never carried out, was a major influence on British naval strategy and the fortification of the coast of south-east England.   Fourteen hundred French did invade at Carreg Gwastad, near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire in 1797 but were captured.

Oil painting 'The Lane towards Pitt Farm, Raleigh, Pilton'

Frederick Richard Lee, born in Barnstaple in 1798, was the son of a successful Barnstaple architect, Thomas Lee.  After living in Kent for many years, he came back to Devon in 1858 with his second wife, Mary, to live in Broadgate House, Pilton.  Having inherited his father’s fortune and, by then, being well-established as a major figure in the English landscape painting world, he travelled widely in this country and abroad, and from the 1860s spent his time between Broadgate House, his yacht in which he sailed the world, and South Africa, where he owned several farms.

He was a prolific painter – compared to Constable, with only about twenty paintings to his credit, Frederick produced over 300 known works, plus many more in private hands completely unknown to the wider public.  A large painting of the River Taw at Bishop’s Tawton is displayed at the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon and a dilapidated little oil painting of his on board came to light recently at the North Devon Athenaeum.  The scene was identified as ‘The Lane towards Pitt Farm, Raleigh in Pilton’ (above), painted in July 1830, and he was known to have painted other scenes in this valley of the River Yeo, the whereabouts of which are now unfortunately not known. For more on his story, click on the picture.