East the Water is across the river from “Bideford”:https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/review/place/197807 and connected by the Long Bridge. It is now mainly a residential suburb. although it does have a large ASDA.
The wharves along the river have gone and St Peter’s Church is no longer used.
Station Hill is lined with splendid brick built villas, although the houses along Torrington Street near the river are smaller and were probably fishermen’s cottages.
The “railway station”:https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/review/attraction/197809 was in East the River. The railway closed over thirty years ago but the station buildings and signal box have lovingly been restored by volunteers and are a reminder of what a typical rural station was like.
There is little else to attract the visitor apart from Chudleigh Fort set high above the town.
During the Civil War, Bideford was strongly Parliamentarian and Major General Chudleigh, who was in charge of the Parliamentary Force, built a defensive eight gun earthwork artillery fortress on a hill overlooking the River Torridge in 1642. Chudleigh Fort fell to the Royalists and was abandoned. In the C19th it was rebuilt as a stone folly with battlements and gun emplacements.
The site was bought by public subscription in 1921 and is now a public park in memory of those who fell in the First World War. A war memorial was built.
It is a steep climb up to the fort but there are good views across the river to Bideford. The park has been landscaped and is now an attractive place to sit.
