The Rottenburys The Fishleys The Kents 50 years a potter The Williams The Brinds
Fremington, Devon

The map above is from Bacon's Popular Atlas of the British Isles of 1909. Fremington is seen centre above (to the north of) Bickleton and to the east of Instow. It is described as three miles to the west of Barnstaple, the nearest big town. The nearest classified road is the B3233..

The Fishley PotteryStaff who worked there.
These were found on the internet through Google. The original reference for them (the web page they came from) was missing. They were probably taken between 1890 and 1912-1914, when production at the pottery ceased. In 1900 the pottery employed six men and an apprentice.

From Fremington Village & Pill, a self guided trail for walkers
The old FISHLEY POTTERY, taken from a painting. (Courtesy of the North Devon Atheneum, Barnstaple;photographed by the Museum of North Devon.)
STOP 11 Old Fishley Pottery

Now occupied by a small engineering firm, the building with rounded corners used to form part of the Fishley Pottery. It had a long range of low out-houses and was described by Hugh Strong in 1889 as picturesque. He wrote that it "abounds .in quaint corners and curious bits".

Morris's Commercial Directory and Gazetteer of Devonshire of 1870 carried an advertisement for "Edwin B Fishley, manufacturer of all kinds of red earthen ware, seed pans, sea kale, rhubarb, garden and chimney pots". Pipes, pitchers and ovens were also made, much being sent to Cornwall. The decorative ware was noted for its rich colours (examples can be seen in the Museum of North Devon in Barnstaple), and harvest jugs were a speciality. The clay is stone-free and needed to be kept clean before it was used for such items. Coarser wares required the addition of grit or gravel to the clay.

Fuel costs were high, but the clay was relatively cheap. In 1900, six men and an apprentice worked here, most of the throwing being done by the master. The others each had specific tasks. Production at this pottery finally ceased about 1930.


Fremington
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fremington is a village in North Devon three miles (5 km) west of Barnstaple. Formerly a borough that sent members to Parliament in the reign of Edward III. The parish itself includes the neighbouring villages of Bickington and Yelland, the latter only asserting its identity as separate entity during the 1980's. Fremington hundreds was one of the 32 historical districts of the county of Devon. Geographically, the centre of the village is approximately a mile (2 km) south of its Quay, the latter a historic wharf situated on the southern bank of the River Taw.

The church, St Peter, was thoroughly 'Victorianised' in 1867 during renovations directed by the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. The stone pulpit still carries traces of colour, apparently from the soil in which it was buried during the Reformation. St Peter's medieval tower is positioned at the east end of the church, to the north of the chancel, an oddity shared in North Devon with Barnstaple and Pilton. The only other architecture of note is Fremington Manor, now a retirement home, situated 50 metres east of St Peters. It is also a nineteenth century remodeling. Fremington's amenities include two pubs, the Fox and Hounds and the New Inn; they are situated almost next door to each other.

Fremington is famous for Fishley Pottery. Excellent, stone-free clay pits (now mainly worked out) exist in the eastern half of the parish and were also used to form pottery for Barnstaple or 'Barumware'. The clay may have formed in varve lakes, near an ice deposit which lay over Fremington during the Last Glacial Maximum. Rare (for south-western England) glacial deposits are found here. Two patches of boulder clay lie over the centre of the parish's bedrock. The next nearest boulder clay can be found in the Gower Peninsular, South Wales, approximately 45 miles (72 km) due north of Fremington. The nearest deposit of boulder clay in England can be found in the central Cotswolds, 6 miles (10 km) due east of Bourton-on-the-Water and approximately 140 miles (225 km) north-east of Fremington. The existence of the boulder clay is puzzling as the southern-most limit of the Devensian glaciation is theorised to have been located over South Wales. There are few other signs of glaciation in North Devon to support an extension to a more southerly limit. It has been theorised that the surface covering was in some way attached to an ice-mass that drifted across the Bristol Channel and deposited the till over Fremington. This, however, does not fully explain the presence of the nearly co-located varve clay beds.

The Tarka Trail cycle track, laid on the rail line from Barnstaple to Torrington, passes over Fremington Pill via the old London and South Western Railway iron bridge (railway line closed 1982; dismantled 1987) at Fremington Quay on the old Barnstaple to Torrington railtrack bed. The original railway was first planned in an Act of Parliament in 1838, and laid in 1846 connecting the 'Penhill' with Barnstaple at a cost of £20 000. A number of boats are moored here (in the Pill). The 'Quay Cafe' is located here. Whilst rather charmingly built in the style of a railway station, it is not the original one which was located the other side of the Tarka Trail where an original platform still exists. Other features around the Pill include a couple of Lime kilns, now thoroughly fenced off to prevent accidents.

Fremington Quay was once important in the import and export of many goods. It had railway sidings, cranes, etc., for the export of china clay and 'import' of coal. Between the early to mid-twentieth centuries it was the busiest (tonnage) port between Bristol and Lands End. In later life an abattoir was located here.

There is an army camp in village which is used as a base to train the Army Air Corps. The camp was originally located here to be within easy marching distance (800 m) from the railway station at the Quay. It now complements the Marines and Air Force presence at Royal Marines Base Chivenor, situated a mile (2 km) northwards on the opposite bank of the River Taw and the Amphibious Trials and Training Unit of the Royal Marines at Arromanches Camp, Instow.

The 1848 'Lewis' survey shows the parish has 6810 acres (28 km²), of which 999 acres (4 km²) were waste or common land. The number of dwellings in the village was static between the first Ordnance Survey series in the 1880's until the second world war. Fremington has since multiplied in size several times over. The population is now approximately 5 200. The A39 trunk road, which forms the main route to north-west Devon and north-east Cornwall, was diverted 2 miles (3 km) south of the village in 1989, relieving the village of its annual summer traffic jams.

The Rottenburys The Fishleys The Kents 50 years a potter The Williams The Brinds
James May's Toy Stories - 6. Hornby

James May continues his quest to show what is possible with old-fashioned toys by using them on a scale never seen before.

This time he attempts to build the longest ever model railway track - a whopping ten miles long. He builds it in Devon, linking two towns, Barnstaple and Bideford, which last had a train service over forty years ago.

Thousands of people turn out to help, but how will James's childhood model train cope in the pouring rain, with leaves on the line and every bit of mud in the way the scaled-up size of a boulder?

His old friend and railway enthusiast Oz Clarke turns up to lend a hand, but nature and the odds look to be against the plucky little engine in what is probably James's most ambitious idea yet. Broadcast on:BBC Two, 7:00pm Friday 25th December 2009

Duration:60 minutes
The video included footage of the old Fremington Station and the freight yard. According to the titles archive was sourced from British Pathe, Michael Clemens, Miniatur Wonderland and Ordnance Survey.