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Conduit LaneConduit Lane was a “drang” or alley from the southern end of the Old Quay through to Allhaland Street. It follows the course of what was originally an open drain!
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Allhaland Street
When buildings and private gardens lined the river bank from the Bridge to the Old Quay Allhaland Street was the main thoroughfare to the High Street and the old market place. In effect it was the main entrance into the town.
It has always been a narrow street and the original width can be seen part way down the street where two houses are set back from the road, two reminders of an early attempt to widen the street that didn’t quite come off!
At first floor level No 15 has a “blind” or blocked window which bears a metal plaque. The “blind” window was blocked up to avoid paying the Window Tax of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The metal plaque is a “fire mark” which indicated that the owner had insured the house with a particular insurance company – it also showed the company’s private fire brigade whether they should save the house or let it burn!
Running off Allhaland Street is the cul-de-sac Chapel Lane which probably recalls a French Huguenot chapel in the lane. In all probability the famous diarist Samuel Pepys would have worshipped there during the courtship of his wife, whose family were Huguenots from Bideford.
Make your way along the street moving away from the High Street and going back in the direction of the Bridge and stop at the junction with Bridge Street which is Bideford’s steepest thoroughfare, it’s now very different from the street Charles Dickens described in his novel “Message from the Sea”.
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