The old Taw Vale Railway track at the bottom of the hill

The Taw Vale Railway opened in 1848 from Barnstaple to Fremington Wharf for horse-drawn coal and other goods traffic and was opened to passenger trains when the Extension Railway reached Bideford by way of Instow in 1855.

is now

The Tarka Trail, over 180 miles in length taking a looping route through North and Mid Devon, from the rugged Atlantic Coast, the Estuaries of the Two Rivers of Tarka the Otter fame, the Rivers Taw and Torridge through rural Devon Countryside onto the Northern Slopes of Dartmoor, and the source of the River Taw. The Trail between Barnstaple, down the Taw, upriver to Bideford, following the Torridge to Torrington takes the route of a disused railway line and is particularly suited for both cyclists and walkers.

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VILLAGE HISTORY

Westleigh Parish Heritage Forum

CHRISTIE
of Tapeley Park

Domesday Book

Notes on Parish Church

The Church of St Peter 13th Century

The First Vicarage (now White Lodge)

Muster Roll 1569

Christenings Westleigh 1560-1697

Marriages 1561-1697

The churchwardens of Westleigh 1707

1653 -1837 Westleigh STRAYS

Westleigh Hearth Tax
1674

The old Road(Track) to shore 1828

1857 Sale of three cottages

First Parish Meeting 1894

Brief Notes from Parish Meetings
4th December 1894 to 8th January 1975

White's Devonshire Directory (1850)

The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)

General History

1881 Census: Residents of Barnstaple Union Workhouse, Barnstaple

Diptheria in Westleigh
1904

Mine in Westleigh

Westleigh School 1912/1928

Deeds of Vicarage 1930

Ships in River Torridge 1930

THE TREE-RING DATING OF EASTLEIGH MANOR

Downmans Cottages

Air view 1936

War Evacuees

Coronation list of Householders

Southcott Barton

Total population by age - 1991

Jubilee 2002

A Guide to the Manors of Westleigh Parish

The old Taw Vale Railway track

History of Torr House