Bideford (/ˈbɪdɪfərd/ BID-if-ərd) is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, South West England.

Whatever the truth of the matter, years later, when she was acting as regent in England for William the Conqueror, she used her authority to confiscate Brictric's lands and threw him into prison, where he died.

[9] The Exon Domesday[10] notes that Bideford and nearby Littleham were held at fee farm from the king by Gotshelm, a Devonshire tenant-in-chief of 28 manors and brother of Walter de Claville.

[14] The Grenville family held Bideford for many centuries under the overlordship of the feudal barons of Gloucester, which barony was soon absorbed into the Crown, when they became tenants in chief.

He is by tradition the founder and ancestor of the prominent Westcountry Grenville family of Stowe in the parish of Kilkhampton in Cornwall and of Bideford in Devon.

His great-great-grandson Sir Richard Grenville (1542–1591), the captain of the Revenge, was born in the manor house in Bideford, formerly situated on the site of numbers 1–3 Bridge Street.

On his return from Roanoke Colony Grenville's ship Tiger captured a Spanish galleon the Santa Maria de San Vicente off Bermuda in late August 1585.

[21] Raleigh converted to Christianity and was baptised at Saint Mary's Church on 27 March 1588, but died from influenza during his residence in Grenville's house on 2 April 1589.

[26] After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the expulsion of French Protestants from France a considerable number of them immigrated to Bideford, and they brought a lot of new trades to the town, including silk weaving.

When he was in his youth, he fell from a cliff yet did not suffer any injury, then later on in his life someone fired an arrow at his forehead, but it did not penetrate his skull, and the only lasting damage was a scar.

[30] In 1830 it was reported that 5000 people waved farewell to ships leaving Bideford for New York City, Montreal, and St. Andrews (New Brunswick).

Experiments nearby, including The Great Panjandrum, were said to be viewed in the area in secret by Dwight D. Eisenhower and Sir Winston Churchill at the Strand Cinema.

[38] The original Long Bridge spanning the River Torridge connecting the East and West of the town was said to have been built out of timber in the year 1286.

Another theory is that the piers of the arches of the bridge were built on naturally existing, and therefore randomly situated, large stones in the river.

In 1886 a Ship called 'Edward Birkbeck' launched from a Bideford shipyard hit the bridge, but only caused small damage by knocking some of the stones out.

[51] The Kathleen and May, the last remaining British-built wooden-hull three-masted topsail schooner, is registered in Bideford and was at one time based there.

[citation needed] This area of North Devon was home to the author Charles Kingsley, and is where he based his novel Westward Ho!.

Westward Ho!, the only town in the United Kingdom which officially contains an exclamation mark in its name, is approximately three miles (5 km) from Bideford.

Bideford Black was used in a number of ways; for example, it was used as camouflage paint during World War II, in mascara by Max Factor, by artists, and in the boat-building industry.

Recently some Bideford Black was exchanged, by locals, for some pigments provided by Australian Aboriginal Elder Noel Butler.

Bus services are provided by Stagecoach South West; key routes include:[65] The nearest railway station is at Barnstaple 7.5 miles (12.1 km) away.

The line had eleven halts which largely served visitors wishing to enjoy the scenery along the coast or the beaches around Westward Ho!.

During the summer Bideford can experience wet and unsettled weather off the Atlantic but also can be one of the warmest places in Devon when warm continental air masses move up off the continent and in 2022 a short heatwave around 17–18 July produced record warmth with temperatures pushing 35c and overnight lows in the high teens.

Buried in the now abandoned and neglected East-the-Water Cemetery in adjacent plots are Victoria Cross recipients Gerald Graham and George Channer.

The town council received widespread attention in February 2012 when the High Court ruled that prayers as part of meetings were not lawful by the Local Government Act 1972.

The two Devon County Council councillors who represent the town are Anthony Inch and Linda Hellyer, they are both members of the Conservative Party.

[87] Bideford is renowned for its New Year's Eve celebrations, when thousands of people – most in fancy dress – from surrounding towns, villages, and around the world gather on the quay for revelries and a fireworks display.

The station, which started in 1992 and originally called Lantern FM, was based in Bideford in a building named "the Lighthouse", and later moved to an industrial estate in nearby Barnstaple.

[92] On 20 October 2006, British ex-patriate David Riley came to mark the '20-year link' between Manteo on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and Bideford.

The colony was established by Sir Richard Grenville, who brought back two Native American Indians, one of them called Manteo which gave the North Carolina town its name.