Four cottages in Castle Street, since incorporated into one large building at No. 6, [on the right with the balcony in the old photo right] were a leatherworks in 18th/19th century.

It seems that dealers in bark were responsible for the destruction of large areas of oak woods in the area, for a joint petition from the tanners, curriers, and other leatherworkers in Bampton, Tiverton, and all the towns of north Devon was heard in the House of Commons on 17th May 1717, stating that for a long time great quantities of oak bark had been exported to Ireland and elsewhere, and that there was not enough bark left to carry on their trades.

That was referred to a Committee with orders to consider the laws relating to the felling of timber at such time only when the bark will run.

A large barn, originally used as a bark store for use in the tanning industry, is now the 'Bark House Hotel' in Oakfordbridge.

The Old House in Frog Street was a tannery. It had a bark mill where bark stripped from young oak trees was used in leather processing called tanning, in which animal skins were soaked for up to a year in some four dozen pits, in a liquid containing tannic acid obtained from the oak bark, resulting in them being converted into a tough leather. These traders became known as Tanners, whilst those involved in the bark trade were called Barkers (as in Ronnie Barker!). The gardens of a cottage opposite The Old House had been converted into a fellmonger’s yard by 1790, a fellmonger being a dealer in animal skins.

A leatherworker’s house was at 15/17 Fore Street, Crispin House, which still has a hook in a ceiling for drying leather, whilst The Bark House Hotel at Oakford Bridge was a storeroom for bark (above).