The sun was shining brightly when we left Gosport, though it was only 1 degree, but after leaving Portsmouth, passing by Southampton, Poole and Dorchester and crossing into Devon it warmed up nicely and by the time we pulled into the little fishing of West Bay (originally known as Bridport Harbour) for lunch it had climbed up to a balmy 8. I had wanted to see this town since watching the British crime drama Broadchurch, filmed partly in West Bay in 2013, and especially the majestic 180 million year old sandstone cliffs that played such an important role in the series. The area is part of the Jurassic Coast, shipbuilding one of the early industries here until its decline in the late 1800s and, now like most of these small ports, relies heavily on tourism. We walked to the base of the cliffs on the sandy beach, the wind very strong and chilly, but it was still a nice break from the morning drive and the fresh air and lapping water of the Channel smelled good. We warmed up considerably when we found a small café by the harbour that served hot and tasty Cornish pastys before we continued on to our next AirBnB in Crockernwell, near Exeter, an hour west.
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| West Bay |
Crockernwell is a tiny village in the eastern edge of the Dartmoor National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty. Our AirBnB, called Fingle Farm, was located in a small chalet closer to the picturesque village of Drewsteignton, surrounded by fields of green dotted with sheep and their lambs. Once off the dual carriageways we drove along narrow hedge-lined roads, many with no room to pass unless you backed up till you found a spot to pull into. Chickens, guinea fowl, ducks and turkeys frolicked in a pen outside our kitchen window, the hills rolling away in the distance. Guinness, the 3-legged cat met us at our door, came in and made herself at home by the heater. It was altogether a peaceful and bucolic scene. We were here for two days so decided to take the short drive into Exeter the next morning.
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| AirBnB, Crockernwell |
We stopped first to look around the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, a small city gem that showcases Devon and Exeter history and geology from millions of years ago to the present day, rooms of natural history specimens, artifacts from the ancient worlds, a showcase of world cultures, and collections of birds and butterflies from all over the world. From the RAMM it was a very short walk over to St Martin's Church, a 1000 year old church in the heart of town. It is one of the cities oldest buildings, consecrated a year before the Norman Conquest. There is even some fragments of medieval glass in the south window of this tiny church and some very interesting monuments and I found it a little oasis, welcoming and unobtrusive close to the cathedral that towers over it.
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| Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery |
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| St. Martin's, Essex |
Directly across from St. Martin's was one of England's great Cathedrals, a Gothic masterpiece. Originally constructed in 1114 it was first built in the Norman style of which the two towers and the lower part of the Nave survive. A major rebuild in the Decorated Gothic style was carried out between 1270 and 1350 and the cathedral, surviving as it is for 900 years, has weathered selected damage during the Reformation years and during the English Civil War as well as the non-selective damage inflicted by the German Luftwaffe in WW2. A highlight for me was the Astronomical clock from the 15th century on the north wall. Below the clock face is a door with a round hole at the bottom, cut sometime between 1598 and 1621 to provide access for the Bishop's cat to deter rats and mice that were attracted to the fat used as a lubricant. Mice running up the rope of the mechanism of the clock is thought to be the origin of the nursery rhyme phrase 'hickory, dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock'! After spending a few hours soaking in the history of this Cathedral it was time to stop at Marks and Spenser's for our supper, then home and begin preparations for our trip west to Cornwall tomorrow. We are staying one step ahead of the rain it seems and hopefully England's warmest spot will live up to its name, the Cornish Riviera. GWS
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| The Tomb of Bishop John the Chanter |
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| Astronomical Clock |
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| wooden Bishops Throne and Canopy, 1313 |
