Mill Street
Mill Street has been an important commercial area for many centuries and has kept its character and charm despite the many changes over the years. Above the ground level fronts of the shops many of the older original facades have survived. Mill Street runs parallel to the Quay and may have been the earliest quay with the gardens and warehouses of its properties running down to the ancient riverside.
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Cooper Street.
Part way along Mill Street on the right-hand side is Cooper Street, one of the narrowest streets in the town.
Cooper Street, as the name confirms, was the barrel making centre and it was here that the hogsheads, large wooden barrels used to transport and store tobacco, were made for the trade with the American colonies.
In 1673 the mayor of Bideford decided that the town had become untidy and dirty and needed cleaning up. The corporation placed a large number of empty hogsheads at strategic points around the town and the mayor decreed that the citizens should put the rubbish littering the streets into them and then the Corporation would remove them and provide more empty ones. It worked and Bideford had created the first municipal rubbish collection!
Continue down the street to the small square at the bottom.
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