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...commanding an extensive view of the sea and of the rivers Taw and Torridge, with the surrounding picturesque scenery,... lnstow possesses all the advantage of town and country, being half-way between Barnstaple and Bideford...
Descriptions like this, written by an estate agent in 1830, still attract people to Instow. On entering the village most people follow the signs to the sea-front, and within a minute there is the extensive view - an expanse of water, bright in summer with the sails of catamarans and wind-surfers, or, if the tide is out, a Iong stretch of golden sand. Few can resist staying a while to enjoy the view across the estuary, with Appledore beneath its green hills, sunlit on a summer morning or silhouetted against a dramatic sunset. The water too is everchanging - blue and sparkling one day, whipped into whitecaps by a gale-force wind the next - yet even on the dullest day there is always something to see: birds at the water's edge: people braving the rain to exercise dogs or children; fishermen or gravel-barges on the far shore: ships to or from Bideford: and, the ferry chugging across to Appledore on Summer tides.
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