Barnstaple

Barnstaple, a port and municipal borough in North Devon, 40 miles N.W. of Exeter, on the river Taw. It is said to have been a borough since the reign of Athelstan in the tenth century, and was once a great centre of the wool trade, but it has now little in the way of business beyond some potteries, a few ship-building yards, and a fleet of fishing boats. Until 1885 it returned two members to Parliament, but the representation is now merged in the county.