Detailed Rolle Canal View: Looking Along the Historic Canal and the Old Roving Bridge Towards Bideford. Torrington Commons, Great Torrington, Devon.
Rolle canal view looking under the old ‘Roving Bridge’. This bridge was originally the main driveway to Denys Rolle’s residence of Beam House. This bridge was renovated in 2000. This historic bridge near Beam in Great Torrington is on the edge of Torrington Common land and is near the Tarka Trail, which follows the River Torridge to Bideford continuing inland to Barnstaple. After the passenger service closed the line was still used to carry clay from the large quarry outside Merton to the port of Bideford. This section of the Tarka Trail near Great Torrington offers good views of the River Torridge. The Great Torrington Railway Station is now the home of the Puffing Billy and the Tarka Valley Railway. This is one of the main access points for the Tarka Trail. The Tarka Trail covers a distance of 180 miles (290 km), following a figure-of-eight route through the North Devon countryside. The 31mile (48km) section from Braunton to Meeth is level and mainly tarmacked being built on the disused Railway line. The Rolle Canal 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 RHS Rosemoor. 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.
Size: 5472px × 3648px
Location: Great Torrington, Devon, England.
Photo credit: © John Insull / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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