A Day of Return Visits

Today, Wednesday, became a day for returning to places we had already been on the holiday, but hadn't been able to access at the time. But, before we begin, a brief update on the morning.

Morning

After the late night yesterday, when we didn't get to bed until after midnight, it didn't surprise me that I was feeling groggy this morning. It was 6.15am before I woke up.

I'm not sure if last night's meal had lots of hidden sugar or hidden alcohol but my mouth tasted very furry this morning and my head slightly groggy. Not a normal state, honest, I'd brushed my teeth before going to bed. The groggy didn't last for very long, thankfully.

I made breakfast and at 7.15am Drew got up also complaining of a furry mouth and groggy head! He had his cup of tea and chocolate delight (yes, Janet he is still having them for breakfast).

I completed the blog post about our Exe Estuary walk and we got ready to leave by 9.30am for our planned outings for the day.

Tiverton Museum

Those of you paying attention will know that on Monday, August 1st we visited Tiverton. As the blog described we enjoyed our visit but were disappointed not to be able to visit the museum as it is closed on Monday's. At the time I wrote that it: "might give us an excuse to revisit this town later in the holidays."

Well, here we are!

The, to give it its full title, Tiverton Museum of Mid-Devon Life is a great museum. We have been to many one or two room town museums, when holidaying in the country, whose claim to fame is often an original bequest from some member of the local gentry, who had no one left to leave stuff to, combined with random bits of junk others have contributed over the years. Tiverton Museum is not like this at all. Rather, it is very thoughtfully laid out and takes you gradually through various aspects of Mid-Devon life.

From childhood items, 

through agricultural implements, 

to Cider production.

Mantraps, rattraps, and gunpowder are also covered in this section.

The Wool Industry links to India are also celebrated

as is Church history in the area, including this harmonium, not vastly different from the one I played in St. Gildas Church, Bonymaen in my teenage years, playing notes and peddling at the same time can be a challenge.

The Museum has a section of, nearby, Honiton's lace industry, including this fascinating crystal ball, used not for fortune telling, but to intensify the light for lace markers doing delicate work by candlelight. [Co-pilot's note: Nonsense, dear readers, I know a palantír when I see one 😂]

The museum then moves on to kitchens, with the first representing the 1930s,

the second, the 1950s, again touching on my own history as the cupboard at the centre of this image is exactly like one from my own home of the 60s and 70s, and a great cupboard it was too. 

There was also a section for dressing up in various eras costumes, Drew focussed on the hats as this example shows - there are more example on Flickr. 

World War II was represented by an Anderson Shelter, like the one my grandmother had in her garden until her death in 1982.

and also modern(ish) tech, which indicated that Drew's life is now history too.

Perhaps the pièce de résistance of the whole museum was the Transport section. This ranged from lots of wooden farm equipment

to early motorised tractors

and to the star of the Show, the Tivvy Bumper. 

This fine old train was set up so that a visitor could get into the driver's cab and pull leavers with realistic sounds. Drew loved this experience [Co-pilot's note: I made it go choo choo, dear readers, choo choo!]

The museum has a lot to share, and there are many more photos on Flickr, if you click here and then click or swipe left you will be able to see all 171.

St. Andrew's Church, Cullompton

On the same day we first visited Tirverton, we travelled on to the lovely little town of Cullompton. Getting there later in the afternoon we were too late to take photos of the inside of the Church (which is open from 10am to 2pm), having been told by a friend that there was some great stained glass in the church, we planned a return visit, so along with our return visit to Tiverton some six miles away, here we are.

The church, with its very imposing tower, was being visited today by an American family, come to discover some of their English ancestors, a number of whom were mentioned on one of the memorials.

The church did have some lovely stained glass, here are three examples, but more can be found on Flickr

It also had some interesting carvings both in the wood and in the wall niches.

Best of all, to my mind, was the medieval rood screen, though no longer stood above the entrance to the chancel, is still in the church. It shows images of death and hell, but would have originally also held a crucifix, showing the way beyond death to new life.

Lyme Regis

Our third visit of the day was back to Lyme Regis, again those who have read all our posts will know that on Tuesday, August 2nd we travelled along the South East Devon Coast ending in Lyme Regis and found that Mark Hix's Oyster and Fish House was full and we wouldn't be able to book for that day. So, this return visit was to Mark Hix's place for a late lunch. 

The Oyster and Fish House is a relaxed venue where the focus is all on the food and wow, it was lovely food.

While we were making our minds up about the choices from the menu (a menu which is revised twice daily) we shared soda bread and focaccia with salmonata

The soda bread was made from wholemeal flour and had a strong tangy flavour, the focaccia was soft and bouncy, both worked well with the Hix invented salmonata with its sprinkling of cayenne adding sharpness to the gentle flavours of smoked salmon.

For starters Drew had whipped broad beans with a grilled flatbread, the broad beans were fresh and light with a hint of herbs in the background, giving it a delightful flavour. The flatbread was crispy and drizzled with olive oil which gave it a lovely flavour.  

I opted for the shellfish soup with rouille and croutons, the soup was a reliable shellfish soup with all the flavours of the sea that we could see ahead of us. Well blitzed it had no bits in it (sometimes this dish is served with whole mussels or cockles) but if anything, this made the flavour better, the refreshing rouille combined with it well and the croutons were nice enough to eat on their own, but even better when soaked or dipped into the soup. A great success as a dish. 

For mains Drew had a Fish House prawn burger with a spiced tartare sauce and chips. The burger bread was a lightly toasted brioche, which wasn't overly sweet as brioche can be. The burger itself was innovative, with huge chunks of prawn bound together in breadcrumbs and fried. The burger was topped with lettuce and presented in this simple but tasty way, celebrating the chief ingredient. The chips were warm, salty, crisp with no fat sticking to them. The tartare had large chunks with plenty of cumin through it, Drew used some on his burger but most of it got used as a dip for the chips which worked fantastically. 

I choose Sea Bass steak with Poole cockles, the cockles were large and juicy, the sea bass was a cut (hence the word steak) from a larger fish but had a lot of flesh on it. I love Sea Bass, so of course I loved this dish, but the addition of the salty cockles really did raise it to a much higher level. A real seaside treat.

I accompanied the mains with new potatoes and minted peas and beans. I'd asked for these to be butter free, as I'm not a fan of butter, and I always feel butter gives the vegetable a cloying texture, rather than enhancing them. These vegetables stood their own ground without any aid other than the parsley, with the potatoes, and the delightful fresh, mint with the peas, mange tout, sugar snaps and beans. If all potatoes and vegetables tasted this good, I could easily live as a vegetarian, but for today I was happy to be pescatarian and the fish and cockles were so delicious themselves.

Drew had Isle of Wight tomato and basil salad for his veg, well he had about half of them, as I couldn't help having a few too. As usual these tomatoes were vibrant and full of flavour. 

For dessert Drew had a Bowl of Summer Berries with Double Cream on the side. The variety of different berries, strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants that are all reasonably sweet were lovely, but everything was really set off by the, almost wince inducing, sharpness of wimberries. The cream was good, but Drew didn't use much of it as he wanted the berries to be the main flavour for him. 

I had a delightful cheeseboard with lovely large slices of Dorset Blue Vinny, Bath Soft Cheese and a local Mature Chedder. The waitress felt the need to warm me that the yellow stuff on the edge of the board was butter, I avoid it, but apparently a diner, last week, had started eating it thinking it was cheese!!!  

I couldn't have had three cheeses more to my taste. The vinny, which I've had twice before on this holiday, is a sharp blue cheese with a balance been the hardness of the cheese and the soft veined part, lighter than a stilton it could hold its head with Shropshire blue and equivalent. The Bath soft cheese was at room temperature, so it oozed flavour as it moved along the board. Having had it straight from the fridge in a pub a couple of days ago, it was nice to actually be able to taste it. The cheddar was a hardened mature version with all the right notes of crunchy sharpness. It was all delicious. The menu had wanted the cheeses served with quince jelly and ale chutney, but regular blog readers will know my feeling about sweet food with cheese!

We finished the delightful meal with two lovely cups of strong espresso. It was even better than I imagined and showed how good food cooked well can be as great a celebration as all the poncy show of 'tarted up' food. 

Back to Exmouth

We travelled back the 46 miles to Exmouth and got here with only 15% of our battery charge left, an estimated range of 18 miles. Due to our late-night last night, we had only been able to charge the car to 80% overnight. So started the day with an estimated 92 mile range and a 82 mile journey, but it all worked out fine. 

A treat for my sister!!

The journey had been like this

Tiverton and Honiton

When the political history of our era is written, the constituency of Tiverton and Honiton (which includes the town of Cullompton) will have had a significant part to play. It was here that the 50%+ Conservative majorities of previous elections (60% in 2017 and 2019) became a 52.9% majority for Richard Foord of the Liberal Democrats in July 2022 - a key turning point in the removal of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson from the Leadership of the Conservative Party and, all being well in a month's time, from being First Lord of the Treasury. 

This wasn't the reason for our visit, but it made the place even more appealing knowing it had such recent significance.

Breakfast

Every holiday seems to fit into a pattern and without an alarm or even a clock I got up again this morning at 5.30am. Made breakfast and uploaded photos to Flickr and wrote yesterday's blog post. 

Route

Our route today avoided the Motorway which runs through the middle of the area and stayed on the pretty A and B (and occasionally lesser) roads in the area. The map, courtesy of Google outlines the route well.

After a shower and shave etc. we left the house at 10.20am and headed for the East Devon town of Honiton.

Honiton

Honiton is a busy little town which, though we didn't know it until we had arrived, is famous for lace and pottery which have been sources of income for the town since the 15th and 16th centuries, respectively. 

Our first stop on arrival at Honiton was St. Paul's Church in the centre of the town.

The externally impressive Church is less impressive inside, but is interesting as, unlike most churches of its era, it runs from North to South not East to West. This was because, during the time that Honiton was becoming a wealthy town through its Lace Merchants (1830s), the Town Centre had already been well established and the only land available was the site of the old Medieval chapel of All Hallows (first mentioned in 1327) which, had burnt down in 1765. All that remains of All Hallows is the Chancel, but more of that later. 

Honiton Museum

Next to St. Paul's, is the building that was the chancel of All Hallows chapel and became the School Room and later the Memorial Chapel for the All Hallows Public School (for US readers Public School in UK English means Private School in US English!). It is the oldest surviving building in the Town.

All Hallows now houses the Honiton Museum and our planned brief stop here to see some of the Pottery and Lace for which the town is famous became a much longer stop than expected. 

Honiton Pottery

Honiton Lace

The upstairs room of the Museum has eight cabinets with interesting items. From Honiton First and Second World War memorabilia to items about the Town Council and Mayors and others about the former school in whose former building the museum is housed.

Venture downstairs and you come to a space wholly given over to Lace - not an area, before today, that Drew or I knew anything about. Mary Webber of the Honiton Lace Makers Guild was about the remedy this defect. The photos below show lace from the 1800s onwards in date order (of about 50 years each) from top to bottom.

The museum's webpage gives some insight into the lace seen on sight, but not in as much detail or as much enthusiasm as Mary Webber who seemed to adopt Drew and spent all her time explaining the lace making process and its outcome to him. I was safe to wander around reading the signs.

Lace Making equipment

Honiton had been making lace since the 1500s when Italian lacemakers came to the town and shared the skill with the townsfolk. With the easy access of the South Devon ports from Northern France the area has lots of examples of continental influence on the culture. Once Honiton began its claim to fail was the quality and detailed workwomenship of its lace. Note - no men were involved, except in selling it, as Mary put it "Some things never change, the women do all the work and the men make all the money".

Honiton veils became incredibly popular in the 1840s when Queen Victoria wore one at her wedding to Prince Albert as well as using Honiton lace for her wedding dress. 

King Edward the Seventh had a Christing Gown made of Honiton Lace which is still used by the Royal Family today. To Mark the Millennium in 2000 the Ladies of Honiton produced a Lace Christing Gown for the local Church and this is now used for a variety of babies being baptised in the Church. 

Mary was one of the creators of this gown, her name, along with the others involved is recorded in the museum.

Lovers of lace can see even more examples, including some worn by Wallace Simpson and others work as Mourning clothes on Flickr - start here and click left for more.

We had arrived in Honiton at 11:00am and it was 12:40 when we departed. A longer, but more informative, visit than we might have expected.

Wellington Monument

For those who love Devon and expected this blog to be about that county and that county alone I have to fess-up to the fact that the town of Wellington and the Monument associated with it is in Somerset. But as Drew has been a long-standing fan of Sharpe, since before I knew him, and that we have both read all the Sharpe books, including the most recent, his fascination with Wellington knows no bounds. 

[Co-pilot's paragraph: I feel a need, dear readers, to intercede at this point. Whilst it is true, I feel that the portrayal of the character Lt. Colonel Richard Sharpe in the Television programmes by Mr Sean Bean is worthy of note Mr B is failing to recollect I also own three biographies of Sir Arthur (as was) including the Holmes and Longford biographies, which are equally considered to the definitive treatise on the subject. If interested I would refer you to the Holmes version in the first instance, given the Longford often appears to cloud the relationship between Wellington, the Longford's and the Packenham's.]

The Wellington Monument stands above the town of Wellington from which the Duke of Wellington - Arthur Wellesley before ennoblement (and Arthur Wesley at birth in Dublin) - took his name. 

His connections with the town are very tenuous. When he was first appointed a Lord after the battle of Talavera, as he was still in Spain his brother was asked to find an appropriate place for him and the Manor of Wellington was on sale. So, he became Lord Wellington of Talavera and Wellington. After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo he was raised to the rank of Duke under the title by which history now recalls him.

The Tower gives wonderful views of the surrounding country, even on a good day, and this was one, over to the hills of South Wales. If you look to the top of the photo, below the clouds, the second hazy line of mountains you can see are the Black Mountains.

Tiverton

Safley back in Devon, we arrived at the Market Town of Tiverton at 2.30pm. I must admit that Tiverton was an unknown place to me. If you'd asked me before today I would have mentioned the by-election (as mentioned above) and that it has a railway station - Tiverton Parkway - on the Great Western Line.

It turns out that it is a very pretty town. With a very impressive Town Hall.

The town is centred around, our old friend, the River Exe and came to prominence through the Wool Cloth Trade.

The grand buildings of the Wool Merchant's make there way up St. Peter's Street to the Church. 

An interesting town character was John Heathcoat

his family has dominated politics in the region for generations. 

• John Heathcoat - Member of Parliament for Tiverton - 1832 -1859
• John Heathcoat-Amory (Grandson of the above via his mother, hence the name change) - Member of Parliament for Tiverton - 1868 – 1885
• Derick Heathcoat-Amory (Grandson of the above) - Member of Parliament for Tiverton - 1945–1960 (also Chancellor the Exchequer) 
• David Heathcoat-Amory (Grandnephew of the above) - Member of Parliament for Wells from 1983 to 2010

We walked up St. Peter's Street to the Church, which is dedicated to St. Peter. 

This is a fascinating Church, built on Saxon foundations by the Normans it includes a door dating back to 1069.

The external decor of the Church is amazing. The influence of the Wool Cloth Trade is very evident, with the benefactor, John Greenway, who remodelled the Church in the late 1400s showing his ships carrying cloth to the various parts of the world. Of course, Drew was more interested in the monkey than the ships😉

Drew made his second friend of the day at St. Peter's, a lady cleaning the church came out of the main door and apologised for not being able to let us in due to builders. She did however show us the Church keys, which are themselves fascinating due to their age. 

With all this 15th century grandeur, the part of the building that this lady was most insistent we go and see were the new Toilet block upon which the builders are working. 

Next to the Church is the ruins of Tiverton Castle, which was demolished during the Civil War, when it was on the Royalist side. Parts of it were rebuilt as a house. A door, from pre-reformation era, link the castle to the church grounds. 

The castle is only open on Sundays and Thursdays. So we looked at the gate, but got no further. 

Walking through the town centre and feeling peckish after an early dinner last night, we stopped at a bakery and sandwich shop called Number 33. I had a Devon Pasty (which has a similar filling to a Cornish Pasty, but is shaped like the pasties from elsewhere in the UK) and Drew a Lamb and Mint Pasty, we had a bottle of diet coke each and sat on a bench in Tiverton Town centre and eat them. Nice they were too. We were both puzzled as we sat on the bench as we listened to a lady behind us saying 'wait a minute' to the cashpoint machine, all was revealed however when she moved past us and we found she had a dachshund, that we couldn't see with her. So, it seems it was the dog, not the cashpoint that she was instructing to wait!!

We walked down from the town centre to the Tiverton Museum, however this is closed on Mondays, which might give us an excuse to revisit this town later in the holidays. 

Cullompton

We left Tiverton at 3.30pm and took the six-mile drive to Cullompton. 

Cullompton has a very pleasant Town Trail designed to show tourists all it has to offer. 

While most of Cullompton's fame is again associated with the Wool Cloth Trade it was interesting to see the suggestion that the town's name comes from the Irish Abbot St. Columba. Known in Ireland as Colmcille, the proposal, by a previous incumbent of the parish is that Cullompton is a corruption of Colm's Ton.

We visited St. Andrew's Church, a huge building for such a small town. Unfortunately, it opens from 10am to 2pm and as it was now past 4pm we couldn't get in to see the details.

But in one fluky moment of being in the right place at the right time, the sun shone upon one of the stained-glass windows making the crown and face of Mary, Mother of the Lord, light up on our side of the window, not just inside as intended.

Returning to Exmouth

We left Cullompton at 4.30pm and arrived at Exmouth, skirting Exeter on some minor roads to avoid the rush hour, at 5.15pm.

A total of 79.3 miles, which with heavy use of the air-con, as the temperature has been 24C or 25C since 10.30am, is 36% or an estimated 46 miles of range spare. Charging will take place overnight again.

Dinner 

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, we have booked some dinners for the holiday almost as long ago as we booked the accommodation, I tell a lie, for the first and last night's we booked the meals first and then booked the accommodation between them. These were the first two nights then Tuesday (but more about that tomorrow), Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday week 2 and the last night of the holiday. This left other days for flexibility, like that of Al Farid on Sunday evening.

However, as we walked around today and saw more and more places saying closed on Mondays, I did have a little panic. So, while in Cullompton I rang Ristorante EM which we had worked past on the first night in Exmouth to check if they were open - they were, but were fully booked except for at 6.15pm. A little earlier than we normally eat, but beggars can't be choosers.  

Ristorante EM as the spelling of the name implies is a place that serves Italian Food. And not just any Italian Food, but the authentic kind, cooked with care and attention and served in a friendly, homely environment. 

On arrival we were quickly shown to our table and made comfortable. From that moment on the experience was a real joy. The staff could not have been more attentive. They willingly discussed the food with us and talked about the options we had. 

The menu, reflecting both the Northern and Central regions of Italy reflected in the birthplaces of the owners, has all the best of Italy. Drew met his third friend of the day, with the lady owner seeing his camara and asking if we would send her the photos to add to her website. She was a bit puzzled when after speaking to Drew I replied to say I would!

We started with bread dipped in delicious Olive Oil and sharp, tasty Balsamic Vinegar. 

For the pasta course Drew had Spaghetti aglio olio peperoncino, a simple sounding dish, but one that takes care and attention to get the balance right and to keep the spaghetti from getting soggy. They managed this so well.

I had Linguine alla puttanesca another delight with the saltiness of the anchovy and the little punch of black and green olives causing a tingling on my tongue.

For mains Drew had Costolette d'agnello, lovely oven cooked lamb chops with the garlic and rosemary flavour running through them. 

I opted for Petto d`anatra all`arancia, this was no duck in orange sauce of British horror menus, but a delicately cooked piece of duck in a sauce made from the juice, pulp and pith of the orange. Using the whole orange made the sauce a wonderful mix of sweet and sour. I would certainly have this again. 

A sign of the attentive nature of the waiting staff was the arrival of some more bread for me to mop up the delicious sauce, I had been struggling to pick it up with my fork - what a treat. 

We had Patate al forno and Insalata Mista for sides which went well with both our meals. The Patate al forno were so nice we ordered a second helping.

For dessert Drew had Crostata Di Cioccolata con gelato which he loved.

The restaurant, ever an example of customer service, had no problem with serving me with a cheese board from their starter menu for my dessert and it was a lovely selection of Italian cheeses including gorgonzola. I eat the fruit, but was going to leave the raspberry sauce - but by the time I'd finished my cheese it seemed to have disappeared.

The whole experience was a lovely, unexpected treat. Having such good well-cooked food in a simple setting is so delightful. Keep it in mind if you are ever in these parts.