The ancient and historic town of Pilton is today a suburb of Barnstaple. It is located about half a mile north on the outskirts of the town in the English county of Devon, and the district of North Devon. In 2009, the Pilton (Barnstaple) ward had a population of 4,239 living in some 1,959 dwellings. It has its own primary and secondary school. It is separated from the adjacent town of Barnstaple by the originally meandering River Yeo, now much straightened. Sir John Stowford (born c.1290 died c.1372) of Stowford, West Down, Devon, Chief Baron of the Exchequer built Pilton Causeway which links the towns of Barnstaple and Pilton, which were then separated by the treacherous marshy ground in which flowed the tidal meanders of the small River Yeo. It is recounted by John Prince (1643–1723), that Stowford decided on building the causeway when on his way from his home at Stowford, north of Pilton, to Barnstaple, he met whilst fording the Yeo the drowned bodies of a woman with her child.