The Story of Newberry Valley: From Hillfort to Campsite
- Dawn Fletcher
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Long before this peaceful valley welcomed visitors, the land was known simply as Newberry Farm, a sheltered farmstead set in a valley running down to the sea on the rugged North Devon coast.
But the story of Newberry Farm reaches back far beyond the more recent farming history of the valley.
High on the ridge above sits Newberry Castle, an Iron Age hillfort dating from around 700 BC.
From this commanding position, people could watch the coastline and the valley below. Although the site is clearly a defensive enclosure, few artefacts have ever been found there, leading historians to believe that the hillfort may have served mainly as a temporary place of refuge for the farming communities living in valleys like that of Newberry Farm.
Smugglers on the North Coast
For centuries the valley itself remained agricultural land centred on Newberry Farm, with fields and tracks leading down towards the small sheltered cove of Newberry Beach.
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, that secluded beach became part of a very different chapter in the valley’s story — smuggling. Along this stretch of coastline, smugglers were often referred to locally as “The Gentlemen.” Under the cover of darkness, small boats would land goods such as French brandy, gin, tea, silk and tobacco in hidden coves like Newberry Beach, avoiding the heavy taxes imposed by the Crown.
Smuggling here was rarely the work of a few rogue sailors. It often involved entire communities, from fishermen landing goods on the beach to farmers storing them inland. Valleys like the one surrounding Newberry Farm provided the perfect route to move contraband quietly away from the shore.
Barrels and crates would be carried along cliff paths and hidden tracks up through the valley, where goods could be concealed in barns, outhouses or haystacks before being transported onward to markets such as Barnstaple.
Boatbuilding on the Beach
Newberry Beach also had a more legitimate maritime role. In the Victorian era, small boats were built and repaired on the beach, and wooden hobblers posts once stood there to moor coastal vessels.
By around 1825, the golden age of smuggling began to fade. The establishment of the Coastguard service and the reduction of import taxes made the illegal trade far less profitable.
A Landscape That Remembers
Today, the valley around Newberry Farm is quiet again. But the landscape still carries memories of its long history - from the Iron Age hillfort watching over the valley, to the paths that once carried barrels of contraband inland.
It’s a reminder that the peaceful valley we see today has been part of local life, trade and survival for thousands of years.
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