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BARNSTAPLE , at the head of the Taw estuary, makes an excellent
springboard, being well connected to the resorts of Bideford Bay,
Ilfracombe and Woolacombe, as well as to the western fringes of Exmoor.
The town's centuries-old role as a marketplace is perpetuated in the
daily bustle around the huge timber-framed Pannier Market off the High
Street, alongside which runs Butchers Row , most of whose 33 archways
are still occupied by butchers. Also off the High Street, in the
pedestrianized area between that and Boutport Street, lies Barnstaple's
parish church , itself worth a look, and the fourteenth-century St
Anne's Chapel , converted into a grammar school in 1549 and later
numbering among its pupils John Gay, author of The Beggar's Opera ; it's
now closed to the public. At the end of Boutport Street, make time to
visit the Museum of North Devon (Tues-Sat 10am-4.30pm; £1, free on Sat
till noon), a lively miscellany including wildlife displays and a
collection of eighteenth-century pottery for which the region was famous.
The museum lies alongside the Taw, where footpaths make for a pleasant
riverside stroll, with the colonnaded eighteenth-century Queen Anne's
Walk - built as a merchants' exchange - providing some architectural
interest.
Barnstaple's well-equipped tourist office lies opposite Butchers Row on
Boutport Street (May-Sept Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm; Oct-April Mon-Sat
9.30am-5pm; tel 01271/375000, ). Cyclists on the Tarka Trail can rent
bikes from Tarka Trail Cycle Hire at the train station (tel
01271/324202) or Rolle Quay Cycle Hire on Rolle Street (tel
01271/325361), at the top end of the High Street, conveniently placed
for the northern section of the Trail towards Braunton. There are plenty
of places to stay in town, two of them five hundred yards south of Long
Bridge, at the bottom of the High Street: the Georgian Nelson House , 99
Newport Rd (tel 01271/345929; under £40), backing onto Rock Park and the
river, and, around the corner on Victoria Road, Ivy House (tel
01271/371198; under £40). A little further out, on Landkey Road - a
continuation of Newport Road - is the excellent Mount Sandford (tel
01271/342354; £40-50), which has a beautiful garden. A mile south of the
centre on Bishops Tawton Road, the non-smoking Lynwood House (tel
01271/343695, ; £60-70) has comfortable accommodation though is better
known for its gourmet restaurant (closed Sun), where you can pick up
moderate set lunches and pricier evening meals. You'll find coffees and
snacks at the Old School Coffee House , a seventeenth-century building
on Church Lane, near St Anne's Chapel, and at the coolly modern PV , 70
Boutport St (closed Sun), which has an upstairs restaurant and the
ground floor becomes a wine bar in the evening.
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