By the 18th century, Barnstaple had ceased to be a woollen manufacturing town. Its output was replaced by Irish wool and yarn, for which it was the main landing place; the raw materials were carried by land to new clothmaking towns in mid and east Devon such as Tiverton and Honiton. However, the harbour was silting up — as early as c. 1630 Tristram Risdon reported that "it hardly beareth small vessels". Bideford, lower down the estuary and benefiting from the scouring action of the fast-flowing River Torridge, gradually took over the foreign trade.