Bucks Mills Ledge Boat
The Bucks Mills Ledge boats got their name from a submarine ‘ledge’ that lay offshore, at Buck’s Mills, West of Bideford. They were approximately 12ft in length- one man boats – rigged with one dipping lug and a tiny mizzen. They were heavily built craft to cope with being hauled up the beach for Bucks Mills has no harbour. A quay was built by Richard Cole (who owned large estates nearby and died in 1614) ‘to shelter ships and boats’ and for the import of limestone and coal. Today the limestone kiln is still there, yet the quay did not survive for long, although signs of it are still visible at low water.
According to the fishermen’s agent and the Town Crier for Bideford in 1933, these ledge boats were 12ft carvel boats, all built at Appledore by either Hinks or Thos Williams, the latter being best for fishing and strongly built ‘with a lot of bottom’. There were a dozen such boats around the turn of the new 20th century.
Today there seems to be only one surviving Ledge Boat Flying Foam which passed into private ownership after the demise of the Eyemouth ISCA collection of craft.
Sources: 2, 17
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