Life's Journey Project

The Life's Journey project will safeguard and increase the quality and quantity of physical and intellectual access to the built and cultural history of three sites in northern Devon that are linked by Tarka Trail cycle/pedestrian path. Aims

Life's Journey will explore what the heritage of those places jointly tell us about local people's relationship with the environment over the past 200 years. It brings together the winning of nature's riches (primarily heavy ball clay), the need for agricultural improvement, trade and the development of a related transport infrastructure in the 19th and 20th century.

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Volunteering and participatory events will ensure that the public is involved throughout.

The project is a partnership of a variety of organisations and is primarily funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund's "Your Heritage Grant".

AIMS:

• To safeguard, reveal and interpret cultural and built heritage features at Fremington Quay, Home Farm Marsh and places along the Tarka Trail between landcross and Torrington where remains of the Rolle Canal still exist.

• To increase intellectual and physical access to those features and places

• To involve the public throughout the project - from enriching our collective knowledge and spreading the word, to providing volunteering opportunities supported by appropriate training - and in so doing strengthen their pride in, knowledge of and engagement with their local area.

• To enhance the countryside experience for people with mobility difficulties by providing improved access to Home Farm Marsh and providing mobility vehicle hire from Fremington Quay.

• To develop a nucleus of people to ensure that in the longer term after the end of the Life's Journey Project, Fremington Quay Heritage Centre strengthens and develops to become the centre from which to access and discover the history of Fremington Quay and Home Farm Marsh and the Tarka Trail.

SITES

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Fremington Quay: Life's Journey will explore the heritage of Fremington Quay's development as a port in the 19th century, the railway that connected it to the national trade network and the people that lived and worked in the immediate area. It is the physical remains at the Quay itself but this project is about the objects and images of the the people that lived and worked in the village, and their testimonies and recollections.

Life's Journey will work with partners to:

• Update the interpretation at Fremington Quay heritage Centre
• Establish a local reminiscence group to capture people's stories of the Quay that will inform the interpretation
• Provide information, including a children's 'treasure trail' to encourage people to explore sites of interest in the immediate area such as Fremington Cuttings
• To provide 'Tramper' disability vehicle hire so that people with mobility diffculties can explore the Tarka Trail and the Life's Journey sites. This will be done in partnership with the charity Countryside Mobility South West
• Provide a series of cultural events, activities and volunteering opportunities at the Quay 

The Taw Vale Railway & Dock Company was formed in 1838 to build a deep-water quay at Fremington and a horse-drawn rail link to Barnstaple. It was needed to export raw materials from northern Devon particularly clay and other minerals, and to bring in coal and limestone for industry and for the production of agricultural lime.

The Taw Vale line was formally opened on 25th April 1848 and opened for freight in late August. Wagons were pulled by horses but by 1850, haulage on the line stopped because the horses hooves were damaging the sleepers. The line was subsequently extended and connected to the burgeoning steam railway network and opened for steam trains in July 1854.

The arrival of steam helped Fremington become the most important port between Bristol and Lands End. In 1891, 26 men were employed there. In 1929, 20,000 tons of heavy
ball clay was exported and on average, 20 wagons of coal per day were sent out around North Devon.

Fremington Quay was taken out of use in 1969 and the sidings were removed. The area was neglected for many years but was re-developed in 2001. Although the original buildings have gone, the quay was repaired and a new Heritage Centre & Café opened in a re-constructed station building and signal box.

 

Home Farm Marsh: Life's Journey helps tell the story of the site's natural heritage, its historical and current agricultural management and our changing coastline.

Home Farm Marsh is a 71ha former intensive dairy farm owned since 2002 by the Gaia Trust. Gaia is working to increase the site's wildlife value through conservation management and is looking to restore it to its former status as a wetland. The land was won from the Taw Torridge estuary in the 19th century and is protected from inundation by substantial earthwork sea defences that, in the face of climate change, rising sea levels and resource constraints, will be left through 'no active intervention' to breach over time - letting in the sea and returning the land to the estuary.

The site adjoins the Taw & Torridge Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest and Important Bird Area, and lies between Salt Duck Pond and the RSPB's Isley Marsh Reserve, both of which are SSSIs. Home Farm Marsh is not however designated.

Life's Journey will work with partners to:

• Update the interpretation of the site
• Improve access to the site from the Tarka Trail, including for disability scooters
• Build a new bird hide accessible to mobility scooters
• Provide a series of guided walks and talks and volunteering opportunities

The Rolle Canal: The project will focus on the physical remains of the 6 mile long Rolle Canal begun in 1823, particularly the sea lock at Landcross, the inclined plane and upper canal basin at Annery/Ridd and the canal channel at Furze Beam.

Consolidation and interpretation of the remains will focus on what they tell us about the clay trade in north Devon and the need for agricultural improvement in the 19th century, how those environmental factorsrequired improvements to transport infrastructure and the design, building and operation of the canal and its eventual decline.

The Rolle canal was built between 1823 and 1827 and operated until 1872 when its route was used to accommodate the new railway between Torrington and Bideford and linking through to Barnstaple via Fremington. The canal carried limestone and coal for the kilns at Weare Giffard and Torrington, and heavy ball clay for export. Like at Fremington, the navigational constraints of the river (Torridge in this case) meant  that the canal was needed to increase the volume of this trade.

None of the Rolle Canal features that are included in this Project are listed or are Scheduled Ancient
Monuments.

Work associated with the canal will include:

• Construction of a viewing platform overlooking the sea lock
• A new circular walking route following the line of the canal at Furzebeam near Torrington
• Improved interpretation and access to the canal's inclined plane at Ridd
• Provide a series of guided walks and talks and volunteering opportunities

Life's Journey runs from January 2012 to June 2013 and is supported by:

Fremington Quay Environment Group