Bantham

Originally a fishing village, it was first documented as a port selling tin and various tin-made products to the Gauls during Roman times. Between 1750 and around 1880, it became a regional centre for the pilchard trading industry during the Cornish pilchard-boom. During this time, the extensive regional stocks of pilchards were processed at salting plants in Cornwall, and then shipped to the Roman Catholic countries of France and Spain. From there, there were either consumed locally or traded directly to Italy – still the primary market for salt pilchards today – where they were used in rustic dishes to give flavour to the staple diet of pasta or polenta. Due to over-fishing, as the trade quickly died the village went into steep decline. ==Evans Estates and ownership==

Post his World War I duties, in 1919 Lt Cdr Charles Evans bought the defunct village smithy. Having fallen in love with the place, in 1922 he bought the entire village, including over of surrounding land on both sides of the river. After World War II the family placed the estate into a private limited company, Evans Estates (1956) Limited, which held most of the village, consisting of 40 homes, a pub and a shop, the harbour, Bantham beach and a golf course on the cliff-top. The family kept close control of the village, offering manageable rents, and neither renting out property seasonally nor allowing second or holiday homes. with an estimated price of £11.5M. The estate was sold in its entirety in July 2014 to Nicholas Johnston, a property developer, who pledged to "continue to manage and conserve the Estate in the same manner as [the Evans family] have done for the next 100 years". In 2024 the estate was reported to be for sale. In 2025 the estate was purchased by Chilton Home Farms, a business operated by the Aubrey-Fletcher family. ==Present==

The village has a privately owned beach which is popular with surfers, and is backed by dunes. The beach offers views of nearby Burgh Island. The river Avon can be crossed via a seasonal pedestrian ferry. This operates between 10 am and 12 pm and again between 2 pm and 4 pm on Monday – Saturdays from late April to late September. The ferry costs £4.75 each way and is popular with walkers on the South West Coast Path as it avoids the need to walk around the Avon estuary. ==References==