The Bideford Old Town non-conformist cemetery was set-up in 1842 for use by those professing not to be members of the Church of England. Previously this Land had been owned by the Bideford Bridge Trust and held the graves of victims of the 1741 smallpox epidemic and of French prisoners from the Napoleonic wars. There is a party wall that separates this cemetery from the Bideford Old Town Municipal Cemetery, established for those of the Church of England in 1841. Currently the Old Town non-conformist cemetery has been declared a nature reserve and maintained by the Bideford Bridge Trust. Many gravestones remain in their original position. However, that has been some vandalism and neglect.