The current pound may well be sinking

but any Torridgeside resident who has a 19^th century £5 note like this in his possession would be sure to get much more than its face value when it was issued by the Hartland Quay Bank.

No longer is it legal tender, of course, but its worth as a collector’s item in prime condition would be considerable. Established by Edmund Hockin and Sons, merchants, the bank occupied part of the present hotel at Hartland Quay, which at that time was a busy little commercial port. Its notes continued in local circulation for some years.

On the left-hand side near the margin, the notes had a view within an oval showing the Quay itself with a ship inside and the limekiln and two rows of houses n the background.

After the Hockin’s enterprise had stopped issuing notes the engraved plates from which they were printed were lost. But one – for £5 – turned up at a sale near Bude about 1930 and the late Mr Pearse Chope, a distinguished son of Hartland, acquired it and his family gave it to Hartland Church. Reproductions of the note were made and sold to help the church funds.

Gazette article dated 17 September 1976