Playful new public artworks have begun to appear around Bideford

A series of bold new artworks are beginning to pop up around Bideford as part pf ongoing regeneration plans for the town.

The ‘Time Slip’ project will see five new public art installations placed at key locations in the town as a well as a centrepiece totem pole-style ‘wayfinder’.

A lost glove, harvest jug and rainbow have already been placed in locations near Bideford Quay – the artworks are created in steel and stone and then hand decorated with vitreous enamel.

Led by Torridge District Council, in association with The Burton at Bideford and curated by Company, Place, the public art project has been funded by the government through the Shared Prosperity Fund.

The project is part of Bideford’s Regeneration Strategy and responds directly to local feedback asking for more colour, creativity and vibrancy in the town centre.

The playful artworks reflect the town’s prehistory, industrial history and a natural, innovative future.

The designs emerged from a collaboration between local young people and Supergroup, a duo formed by artist John Booth and ceramicist Ian McIntyre.

Selected through an open call and paid the National Living Wage, 10 people aged 14 to 21 worked with Supergroup and chose ‘icons’ - objects from Bideford’s past, present and future that mattered to them - giving the artists a view of the town through their eyes.

The council said the project also generated work for a number of local people including 10 young creatives, one cultural producer, three youth workers, one curator, one filmmaker and a stone mason.

The ‘lost glove’ was inspired by Bideford's historic glove-making industry and can be found at Victoria Park railings on Kingsley Road near the Burton.

The harvest jug, representing Bideford's historically significant slipware sgraffito pottery tradition, is located at Fisherman's Steps/Kingsley Steps.

The estuary rainbow, intended to highlight Bideford's weather and atmospheric conditions over the estuary can be found on a lamppost opposite Rose of Torridge building on Bideford Quay.

To be installed soon is a ‘dropped ice cream’, which will be found at the tidal defence wall on Bideford Quay.

Plus the centrepiece totem wayfinder entitled Bideford Past Present and Future, will be situated at the corner of Landivisiau Walk by Fisherman’s Steps.

The column features ‘Bideford Inscriptions’ written by the young project participants and inscribed in the manner of inscriptions on slipware pottery.

Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, lead member for culture and community engagement at Torridge District Council, said: “This is such a brilliant project. Community consultation in Bideford has repeatedly shown that residents and businesses want more colour and vibrancy in the town, whilst also celebrating the town’s heritage. I think our talented young people have certainly delivered on the brief!

“It’s fantastic that this project has been designed by young people at the heart of the community. It has given this group of Bideford’s creative young people an amazing chance to work with high-profile artists, as well as a range of local professionals from engineering and the creative industries, providing an insight into the industry and adding a real-world project to their CVs.

“We hope the project inspires people of all ages to take pride in this amazing part of the world that we call home, and to reflect on what makes Bideford and our wider Torridge and North Devon community so special. Our heritage, landscape, stories and shared identity are a huge part of what makes this place unique, and it’s wonderful to see young people interpreting that identity in such a creative and imaginative way.

“We hope the ‘Time Slip’ artworks will start a conversation about Bideford in 2026 and beyond, celebrating where we have come from, who we are today and what it might look like in the future too.”