Welcome to Bideford 500

Bideford is a town where history can be found on every street. It is a history so colourful, and so significant that it has the power to change the future prosperity of the town forever. It is a history that the people of Bideford can and should celebrate at every opportunity.

Our mission: to encourage Bidefordians, both honorary and hereditary, to embrace that history, through research, education, and its presentation to all who will watch and listen.

Our objective: through fostering knowledge and ownership of Bideford’s heritage, is to instil a sense of community, identity, and civic pride in our town.

Our Expectation: in achieving this, Bideford 500 will help to build a future from our past, encourage the economic regeneration of Bideford, and make it a better place to live, work and play for our children, their children and all the generations that follow.’

Bideford 500 is a voluntary organisation, open to everyone. We are responsible for the annual Bideford Heritage Festival.

  

   Mark Horton, President of Bideford 500
“For a town like Bideford, its long Atlantic heritage is the key to its prosperous future!” – Dr Mark Horton

 Bideford 500 is particularly fortunate to have Dr Mark Horton, a Reader in Archaeology at the University of Bristol and one    of the ’Coast’ Team of BBC fame as its President. Mark’s support for the Project came about after he’d spoken at a Manor Court Ceremony in 2008 where he gave a Talk that clearly indicated that Bideford’s significant past was not being celebrated as it should. Bideford 500 continues today as a Constituted Project supported by an enthusiastic Committee intent on celebrating and promoting those 500 years between the 16th and 20th century in Bideford.