Details
Price: £4.99
Available from: Walter Henry’s Bookshop (Bideford); North Devon, Appledore and Braunton Museums; Burton Art Gallery (Bideford) or direct from distributor @£4.99 (including postage)

Distributor / Further details:
Chris Preece, 538, Kingsley Park, Westward Ho! N. Devon EX39 1UG.
Tel. 01237 475368;
E-mail: chrispreece@btinternet.com

Pages: 48

Illustrations: 30 (including map)

Release date: Immediate

Have you ever wondered when walking on the beach at Westward Ho! what the peat and clay mounds are? What is the identity and age of the shipwreck there? What about those lines of stakes visible at low tide in the estuary? Is there really any evidence for the story of a lost chapel in the sands at Braunton? These questions and many more are answered in a new publication, “A Field Guide to the Archaeology of the Taw and Torridge Estuaries” by local author and professional archaeologist, Chris Preece, who has appeared on C4’s ‘Time Team’.

This is the first guide of its type in the country and details the sites of the estuary from the Mesolithic through to WWII. It is written for the general public and includes a map showing all the locations, as well as footpaths from which most sites can be accessed.

The book describes all the important sites in the estuary such as the prehistoric sites at Westward Ho!, the stone row at Yelland, the ‘Chapel of the Sands’ and the medieval shell midden on Braunton Burrows. It also includes the latest research on the fish weirs of the estuary by the North Devon Archaeological Society (documentary evidence suggests some of these may have existed as far back as Saxon times).

Many of the hulks which lie abandoned on the foreshore are identified and described as is the wreck at Westward Ho! There is also a brief survey of lime kilns, shipyards, the Sea Lock and World War II remains.