84 High Street
84 High Street. Shop-fronts ain’t what they used to be –
Aerial View of Shapland & Petter’s Site & Barnstaple Longbridge
Here’s another super-hi-quality scan of an old aerial postcard. Plenty of buildings & structures visible that unfortunately don’t remain with us today.
Click here for the hi-res Shapland and Petter, Barnstaple, River Taw Aerial Photo
I scanned the image at 1200dpi so you should be able to zoom in and have a good look – leave a comment if you spot anything interesting! 🙂
From The Air – Town & Taw
I noticed this old postcard on eBay the other day, an old aerial photograph of Barnstaple, looking down the river Taw towards the estuary.
As I didn’t recall seeing this particular image before, and after noticing a couple of things on the eBay image, I decided I wanted to see it in more detail. So I purchased it, and scanned it in high resolution.
Click the thumbnail to load the hi-res version of the photograph, or here’s the lo-res standard version.
Regal Cinema – Strand
The Strand, Then & Now. Move the slider left & right to compare the differences –
Barnstaple Longbridge
Longbridge & River Taw.
North Devon Infirmary
North Devon Infirmary as it was then, and Trinity Church in the background. Move the slider left & right to compare the differences –
Summerland Stores – Belle Meadow Road
Summerland Stores, corner of Summerland Street and Belle Meadow Road. Bit of demolition going on to allow for the development of Belle Meadow Road & the eventual relief road.
Barnstaple Square / Long Bridge #2
The final clip from the first lot of footage sent to me by Walter Parsley’s granddaughter. Walter was landlord of Mugfords in the 1960s and would film Barnstaple life from outside the pub.
There is some more of his footage in Barnstaple Videos.
Barnstaple Square / Long Bridge #1
Barnstaple Life – Vintage cine footage shot by Walter Parsley in the early to mid 1960s.
Walter was landlord of Mugfords (The Golden Lion Tap) at the time, and obviously enjoyed using his camera from his front doorstep.
I’m going to guess that this footage was shot not long after the Long Bridge was re-opened after the widening works that were featured in this first video: Barnstaple Long Bridge, since the main focus seems to be the roundabout at the end of the Long Bridge, which would have been a brand-spanking new layout at the time.
Barnstaple Square / Long Bridge | Barnstaple Fair
Here’s the next bit of footage from the vintage film taken around the time of when the Long Bridge was widened in 1963.
Also included is a bit of home movie, showing the cameraman’s young relations enjoying a merry-go-round at Barnstaple fair. I was going to edit that part out – but decided to leave it in since how often does one get to see colour footage from the very early 60s of Barnstaple Fair? Not often. 🙂
The first part of this footage is here – Barnstaple Long Bridge Widening 1963
