North Devon Pottery           

The Gallery hosts the Bideford Museum , illustrating local personalities from Bideford's past such as Sir Richard Grenville , Edward Capern the postman poet , John Strange , who assisted plague victims in 1646 when the others had fled , the last Witches to be executed in England , and the first Red Indian to land on English shores . Artefacts include examples of North Devon slipware , the original Town Charter sealed by Elizabeth 1 in1583 , a scale model of Bideford's ancient , Long Bridge in all its stages from 1280 to the present day , and a touch-green photographic record of the town on ' North Devon on disc'. Local Trades , such as a lime-burning , saddlery , glove and collar making are illustrated , and the Bideford Community Archive provides small displays on a regular basis.

A guided tour of the museum is usually available during opening hours , and school parties are welcome by appointment.

There appears to have been a thriving pottery industry in Bideford since medieval times. By the seventeenth century, pottery was being exported to Ireland, South Wales Newfoundland and Virginia. In 1792 the historian John Watkins wrote:-

"The Potteries here, for making coarse brown earthenware are pretty considerable, and the demand for the articles of their manufacture in various parts of the Kingdom, is considerably great.

The earthenware made here is generally supposed to be superior to any other kind, and this is accounted for, from the peculiar excellence of the gravel which this river affords in binding clay. That this is the true reason, seems clear from the fact that though the Potteries of Barnstaple make use of the same sort of clay, yet their earthenware is not held in such esteem at Bristol as that of Bideford.
The profits to the manufacturers of this article are very great, which is evidenced by several persons having risen within a few years, from a state of the greatest obscurity and poverty, to wealth and consequence of no small extent. This will easily be credited when it is known, that the materials of which the ware is composed, cost little or nothing, the labourers' wages never exceed six shillings a week, the other expenses of the process very trifling, and the expedition of making every article remarkably quick."