Westward Ho

The writer Charles Kingsley, who lived in Bideford, is best known for his books 'The Water Babies' and 'Westward Ho!' and it was from this title that the resort that we know as Westward Ho! was named. The town was built to satisfy the Victorian passion for seaside vacations and had its heyday in the fifties and sixties. Magnificent cliff top walking to the east along National Trust pathways around to the rocky beach at Abbotsham and beyond and to the west; the delightful nature reserve at Northam Burrows offers further excellent walking and views over the coastline and golf course. Riding Stables. Westward Ho! has sheltered sands and a two-mile long pebble ridge which acts as a barrier between the sea and Northam Burrows Country Park, a SSSI and saltmarsh of international importance. It is also the home of North Devon Golf Club, the oldest links golf course in the country and is an ideal family holiday destination. High above the beach is Kipling Tors, named after another author with North Devon connections, Rudyard Kipling. The Tors are a well-loved local beauty spot and lead to the South West Coast Path and on towards Clovelly, Hartland and beyond.

Westward Ho!, named for the novel by Charles Kingsley, is the only village in the whole of the British Isles to have intentionally included punctuation within its name. World wide, it shares this distinction with Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Quebec. The village itself was constructed ten years after the novel was published, in 1865, as a destination location for Victorian seaside vacationers. Charles Kingsley himself did live here for a time. Eventually, the area began to shift from a town composed primarily of holiday camps to a real village with residential areas of houses and flats. Today there are only two major holiday camps still running.

Westward Ho! is the perfect destination for those vacationers who are looking for a nice stay by the beach in a holiday cottage where they can keep to themselves, relax, and enjoy the area. The village is known for the surfing seas along its beaches, which are comprised of long sandy expanses backed by pebble ridge and grassland that extends for approximately three miles. This seaward area lies within the North Devon Coast and so is part of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In addition to the surfing, Westward Ho! is known to have the oldest golf course in England and Wales, the Royal North Devon Golf Club. The village hosts an arcade, a go-kart track, The Rock Pool, and a tidal lido-making it an excellent place to entertain a family.

If you find that you want to go further afield during your holiday then consider these options, each of which offers a little variety to spice up your trip. Nearby Westward Ho! you can find the Northam Burrows, an inviting country park where you can take in some of the local views as well as the area sheep and horses. Barnstaple, which has been the regional centre of North Devon, offers local shopping and restaurant options within easy driving distance. Local attractions include the Tarka Trail, the St Johns Garden Centre, Marwood Hill Gardens, Arlington Court, Barnstaple Museum, Cobbaton Combat Collection, Exmoor Steam Railways, Queens Theatre, North Devon Farm Park, and the Exmoor Animal and Bird Gardens. Alternatively, you could visit Bideford, where you can take a day trip on the M.S. Oldenburg to Lundy Island. Other activities in the area include Tapely Park Gardens, Burton Art Gallery, Big Sheep and Milky Way.

Westward Ho! is a seaside resort with all the features one expects - amusement arcade, putting green, playground, beach shops, snack bars and seaside pubs. The beach - sand/pebbles - is easily accessible from the car park and is ideal for swimming and surfing. There are also pools in the rocks which have been adapted for swimming. Nearby - Appledore, Bideford, Northern Burrows, Royal North Devon golf Club. On a narrow strip of land beneath the wooded hillside and golden sands of Bideford Bay, lies this wonderful little seaside resort that has been a popular family holiday destination since Victorian times. Reputed to be the only place in the world with an exclamation mark in its title and contains the oldest golf links club in England and Wales.

The village is fronted by over two miles of golden sand and is protected by the famous pebble ridge and long promenade. Behind the pebble ridge lies the Northam Burrows Country Park, with nearly 1000 acres of common ground to explore. To the west of the village you will find wonderful scenic walks too. All the traditional seaside attractions you would expect are situated on the promenade and within the village, which provides a vibrant atmosphere and happy bustling shopping centre. Westward Ho! has a large choice of varied holiday accommodation and is ideally situated close to the many wonderful attractions that North Devon has to offer. The town of Westward Ho! takes its name from Kingsley's book and started to be developed ten years after the novel was published in 1855.

The United Services College was established in the town in 1874 to provide education on public school lines for the sons of naval and military officers. The college's most famous former pupil was Rudyard Kipling who arrived from India in 1878 and whose novel 'Stalky & Co.' is based on his schooldays there. A wide, long sandy beach, backed by a pebble ridge, which protects the Burrows Nature Reserve and England's oldest established golf links behind it. The opposite end of the sands are backed by a town popular for its quintessential seaside 'resort' amenities, including amusements, pubs, restaurants and gift shops. To the east lies the village of Northamwith a first class indoor pool and Abboisham to the west, with historic thatched pub and rock and shingle beach, approached via lovely National Trust headland walk.

Westwood Ho

Superb surfing beach and sea fishing from the rocks. 18 hole golf course, pubs, restaurants, discos and amusements are found in the town. Nearby, Northam has an excellent indoor swimming pool. To the west of the town is a gorse-covered hill where Kipling and his friends smoked pipes and cigars and read books by Huskin, Carlyle and Whitman in their hut in the middle of the densest patch of gorse bushes. This hill, the famous 'Wuzzy' of 'Stalky & Co.' was eventually dedicated to the author and renamed Kipling Tors. In 1938 it was given to the National Trust by the Kipling Memorial Fund. The beach is patrolled by lifeguards and is one of the safest in the area. It offers vast expanses of golden sands, which makes it ideal for fun family bathing.  The wonderful surf that runs on to Westward Ho! Draws surfers from miles around, and with designated surfing areas the beach caters for every activity. The surf is also home to wild sea bass, attracting anglers from all over the country! Equipment for bathing, surfing and angling is really available from local outlets. Also, at low tide there are many rock pools, which will keep both children and the young at heart amused for hours.

Beach Type: Sand/Pebbles - Dogs: Dog access restricted

The geology of this region is dominated by sedimentary rocks laid down over 300 million years ago and known locally as Culm Measures. Predominately sandstones and shales, these rocks were heavily folded and faulted during a period of earth building activity some 280 million years ago; the results of this can be seen in some exposed cliff sections such as in the disused quarries below Kipling Tors and along the east side of Shipload Bay. There are excellent examples of several geological features along the coastline in this area, particularly wave-cut platforms at Kipling Tors and truncated stream valleys ending in spectacular waterfalls like the Beckland waterfall at Brownsham . This drops from a sheer cliff at almost 150 metres and is dangerous to view from above, but it is visible from the beach at low tide. The cliffs of this Coast are notoriously unstable and there has been considerable landslipping in many places, for example at Bucks Mills and Shipload Bay. The highest cliffs are at South Hole near Welcombe Mouth, on the rugged and dramatic west-facing Atlantic coast. Rather different in character are the undulating, convex cliffs of the north-facing coast, such as those of the Portledge section which, sheltered from the prevailing winds, enjoy a moist humid micro-climate in which dense woodland vegetation flourishes. Founded in 1863 and named after Charles Kingsley's novel, the village is known for its remarkable pebble ridge. The only town in England to be named after a novel... and also the only town with an exclamation mark after its name.

Building here has often been very speculative with the inevitable result. However, Westward Ho! offers a great variety of self-catering opportunities. The sands here stretch to the mouth of the Torridge and Taw Estuary, reinforced by a 4 kilometre long pebble bank. Underneath these sands have been found the remains of Stone Age food, including shells and a variety of bones. The pebble bank protects Northam Burrows Country Park which consists of some 250 acres of sand dunes and pasture land. A natural habitat for many varieties of flora and fauna. "Bloody Corner" commemorates King Alfred's victory over the Danes and is the burial place of King Hubba the Dane. Rudyard Kipling went to the United Services College that used to be in Westward Ho!, and his time here is said to be very influential in the book "Stalky & Co". A seaside resort beach. Sandy, backed by a pebble ridge.

The Westward Ho! cliffs provide a good section of a raised beach platform well above the level of the present beach. This platform and the deposits upon it are very important because they provide evidence of glacier ice reaching the South West peninsula. For example, flint and granite erratics (stones transported by an ice sheet or glacier) are present, as is a deposit of angular rock debris of the kind that flows down slopes during freeze/ thaw conditions in the vicinity of ice. Remarkably, there is a submerged forest amid peat deposits that can be seen around the low water mark at the eastern end of the site (SS 432296) off Westward Ho! Slipway at the southern end of Westward Ho! beach. This provides evidence of sea level rise during the Holocene Period and represents the swamping of a coastal forest by the sea about 6000 years ago. The cliffs of Westward Ho! directly adjoin Northam Burrows Country Park. A grassy coastal plain with salt marsh and sand dunes, this site is of considerable importance for both its wildlife and geology. Of particular note is its famous shingle ridge/spit formed by longshore drift with pebbles coming from further around Bideford Bay, which features some unusually large pebbles. These are made of a hard, fine-grained sandstone that outcrops in the cliffs to the south.

Westward Ho! has along sand beach backing onto a pebble ridge linking to Northam Burrows Country Park. Access via ramp from the town of Westward Ho! (named after the novel by Charles Kingsley). The beach runs parallel to the South West Coast Path.

For more details plese see Devon County Council's geo-NRB.pdf and geo-WHC.pdf

Contributed by: Liam Smith