Great Torrington Official Welcome and Information Road Sign on the Main A386 Road into the Town With Warning ‘Bends’ Sign and a Passing Car.
This A386 view is taken on the rural outskirts of the town where the bridal path known as Rolle Road starts. It is situated at the bottom of the Torridge Valley below Castle Hill. The Rolle Canal, which this right of way follows, was built between 1820 and 1824 for Lord Rolle. The weir which diverted the flow of the River Torridge into a leat, maintaining the canals water level is situated just above the RHS Rosemoor attraction. In total it stretched for seven and a half miles to the tidal River Torridge, below Weare Gifford. It functioned as a the main route for goods into and out of the area for a just under fifty years until it was abandoned in the 1870's when the railway succeeded it. The river Torridge which flows alongside starts its life on Woolley Moors between Bradworthy and Morwenstow. After completing a long loop, it meets the Taw at Appledore then flows out into the Bristol Channel. It is famous for its setting in ‘Tarka the Otter’ by Henry Williamson and more lately in ‘Flow’ a novel for young adults by John Insull. This walk, along the River Torridge, leads to the old Torrington Railway Station, where you can join the Tarka Trail to Bideford and beyond along the disused railway line. A study by the University of Liverpool in 2019 found that Great Torrington was the healthiest place to live in Great Britain. This was based on the criteria ‘low levels of pollution, good access to parks, green spaces and health services, along with few retail outlets’.
Size: 6000px × 4000px
Location: Great Torrington, Devon, England.
Photo credit: © John Insull / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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