Appledore is located within Torridge local authority area. Historically it formed part of Shebbear Hundred. It falls within Hartland Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes. The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B.F.Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library.

A parish history file is held in Appledore Library. You can look for other material on the community by using the place search on the main local studies database. Further historical information is also available on the Genuki website

Maps: The image below is of the Appledore area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765.

On the County Series Ordnance Survey mapping the area is to be found on 1:2,500 sheet 12/10,11 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 12SW,SE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS462305. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS43SE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 139, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 180. Geological sheet 292 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Appledore as included in the Library's Etched on Devon's memory website. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.

Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:

Appledore is a delightful unspoilt village at the meeting place of the beautiful Taw and Torridge estuaries. The delicate colouring of the estuary, of the Braunton Burrows, and of the hills beyond, is matched by the colour-wash everywhere in the village. The streets are narrow, many of the houses old; some are certainly Elizabethan. The church (St. Mary) was built in 1838 and is dull: everything else in Appledore is fascinating. There is little doubt that a village called Tawmouth existed here in the 11th century It seems to be identical with the Tawmutha referred to in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under 1068 (actually 1069) when Harold's three illegitimate sons crossed from Ireland with 64 ships, landed here and were beaten off with great losses. The scene of this battle may be Bloody Corner, just below Northam, where human bones and coins are said to have been found. This site is marked on the O.S. map as the scene of the battle of 878 but there is no authority for this identification.

The name Appledore first occurs in the grant of a shop or a stall (seld) "next the strand ate Apildore" in 1335, but it seems to have decayed almost to nothing during the 15th century if Westcote's statement c. 1630 is correct. He says, speaking of Northam: "This parish is grown very populous lately, for in the memory of man, at a place called Appledore …stood but two poor houses; and now for fair buildings and multiplicity of inhabitants, and houses, it doth equal divers market towns, and is furnished with many good and skilful mariners." On the other hand, Leland, writing about 1540, calls Appledore "a good Village" and it is plainly marked on Saxton's map of 1575. It certainly became a populous place in Elizabethan days, rising with Bideford, having the advantage of being the first place within the bar where ships could lie up.

On Staddon Hill, the summit W. of the village, is an earthwork, thrown up during the Civil War, which commanded the two estuaries and commands to-day a magnificent view towards Exmoor and Dartmoor. In Ogilby's day (1675) the main road from Bideford to Ilfracombe passed over Staddon Hill, crossed the estuary by a ferry to St. Ann's chapel (now gone), and continued across the Braunton Burrows. A small shipbuilding industry is still carried on at Appledore, which has two dry docks. The salmon fishery in the estuary has been carried on continuously since Saxon days. In 1086 the abbot of Caen had a fishery in the manor of Northam (probably here at Appledore) worth 30 pence yearly.