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Bridgerule and the Tamar river
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Bridgerule click for Bridgerule website click for Bridgerule Bugle and information about the parish plan click for Parish lunch photos from 2008 click for Bridgerule forum Bridgerule Parish lies adjacent to the Cornish Border in Torridge district in the County of Devon near to Bude and Holsworthy. It is cut in two by the river Tamar and the western side of the parish was in Cornwall until 1844 when the county boundary was adjusted. Most of the homes in the village, the Shop, Pub and Parish Hall and a play area are to the west of the Tamar while the Parish Church, Methodist Chapel, Primary School, Bridgerule Playing Field and Football Club Pavillion are across the Tamar in the eastern area. There are also hamlets of Borough and Merrifield. A small industrial area has been established on the site of the Old Railway Station. At Parish Meetings called by the Parish Overseers for East and West Bridgerule after Local Government re-organisation in 1894, Twenty-seven electors attended the first meeting in West Bridgerule while in East Bridgerule 15 electors are recorded as being present. Local people seem to have strongly resisted the division of the Parish along the Tamar. The inhabitants successfully petitioned for the two halves of the Parish to be combined under an Order of the County Council from 1st April 1950 as the Parish of Bridgerule with a Parish Council and ten Parish Councillors. Today the Parish has 249 properties and 573 electors on the electoral register. The Parish Church, dedicated to St Bridget and restored in 1878, has a tower of Ashlar granite, wagon roof, modern screen and very early Norman font. The Norman manor of Tackbear has plaster overmantels and woodwork dated 1693. The name Bridgerule is thought to be derived from Ruald who held the manor in the Domesday Book.
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