Tideford

A Memory of Tideford.

This photograph shows Tideford prior to 1961, a quiet village on the road between Trerulefoot and Saltash. That was all about to change when the new Tamar road bridge was opened connecting Saltash with Plymouth in 1961. What had been a minor road now became the main road out of Cornwall into Plymouth. Previously the main route had been via Torpoint and the car ferry. If that happened today, it is likely the village would have had a by pass. But, in 1961, they just put the new road right through the middle of the village and the houses on the left of the photo were demolished. The new A38 split Tideford in two and, as traffic levels increased through the 60s and 70s, it became increasingly difficult to cross the road from one part of the village to another. At the time of writing the village is still split in two, a monument to the failure of planners to foresee the increasing volume of road traffic