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.

Bellever Tor is a helluva tor

The local poet Paul Mann wrote the words of today's title in his poem - The Ballad of Bellever Tor. The first verse goes:

Bellever Tor is a helluva tor,  

It’s a rip-snortin’, ca-vortin’ swell-of-a-tor

And if, as I live, I heard tell-of-a-tor

The words I inferred would be “Bellever Tor”.

Well, Bellever Tor which is the centre of Dartmoor was also the centre of our day today.

Morning

Having got up at 5.30am (a real lie-in for me when on holiday) I uploaded last night's photos and began yesterday's blog posts. Drew got up around 7am and after breakfast and ablutions we headed out at 10am.

Planning for Dartmoor  

For no reason that I can determine Drew has been obsessing about Dartmoor since we started the journey on Thursday - perhaps it is the only place in Devon he has heard of? [Co-pilot's note: As slander, dear readers, a defamatory slander!! I do like open moor land, as others may remember from our visits to Bodmin Moor and the Yorkshire Moors in the past. AND I had also heard of Exeter] Anyway, this obsession has crept into my mind, so for our first touring day we decided Dartmoor is where we would go.

I had seen the Dartmoor National Park website, so before heading off I looked for some suggestions of what to do on Dartmoor. The website provides a series of downloadable audio walks (with transcript and maps). So taking advantage of the wi-fi at our accommodation I downloaded them ready for the journey.  

Travelling to Dartmoor

Having made our decision about our planned walk we left Exmouth for Dartmoor at 10am. There was a route via the M5/A30 which bypasses parts of the moor, but we opted for the more traditional route along the B3212 which took us through villages with quaint names like Doccombe, Batworthy and MoretonHampstead (marked as M'Hampstead on most of the signs given the length of the name). 

The undulating road was easy driving, for most of the journey we were preceded by a bicycle, a tourist bus and a Belgian Motorhome. 

Dartmoor National Park

We entered the Moor and were warned about lazy sheep on the road:

But in fact, the only things lying down we saw were a herd of Long Horn cattle.

Postbridge

We arrived at the Postbridge National Park Visitor's Centre at 11.15am. 

Where we parked the car and used the facilities. Having left a glorious Exmouth in bright sun it soon became clear that the Moor has a different climate - we should have guessed! There was now a light but persistent drizzle, that was like a low-lying fog. So, we also decided to buy a Mac in a Sac each. Drew's in yellow, mine in blue.

Bellever Walking Tour

With our new macs we headed out on the first stage of the tour - you can follow the full tour in the transcript or in the audio files (note the pods are in a zipped file which will need to be unzipped to use).

The wide path soon became something a little narrower and was to the left, so we both began the 'Time Warp' from the Rocky Horror show - only singing the words, not doing the actions - when a perplexed women appeared among the trees beside us - she was picking herbs and mosses, so didn't seem to disturbed by random singers. 

This took us to Kraps Ring a circular area made up of granite boulders which were orignally a Bronze Age Village of about 15 houses where people would have been living in around 1,500 BCE. There is also evidence (the circle) of a wall around the village.

Moving away from Kraps Ring and further up the hill we come to what archaeologists believe is the Chief's house overlooking the village.

There are also a series of burial mounds, most of which are now only small humps with more wildflowers growing than on surrounding land. 

From here we climbed Lakehead Hill where there is a more substantial buriel area and a kistvaen (stone chest) and markers. While people may have been shorter 3,500 years ago, they clearly would have had to be squeezed in to be buried here. 

We leave the hill and walk down a path, ready for our next climb up Bellever Tor. As we do so the audio tells us that this area sees a lot of Dartmoor Ponies, but that they are often scared of humans, so can be as elusive as Bear's in Alaska - at the moment the audio says this a Spring of Ponies (yes spring is the right word, I looked it up while writing the blog having wondered out loud about it as we walked.) appear and begin to get closer to us. All the pictures are on Flickr in addition to this one here:

The Path to the Tor become steeper

But it is worth the effort to get up there as the Tor is an amazing piece of geology as well as being the centre point of the Moor. No wonder so many spooky stories are written about these parts when these odd landscape features are so common.  

Again more photos of the Tor and the wonderful views it provides of the surrounding countryside are on my Flickr page.

The person on the Audio Walk got really excited at this point about the Sheep Count at Laughter Tor. These walled enclosures were used instead of counting sheep. Once the Count was full you knew you had all your sheep!! I don't think this kind of Sheep Count would helping with falling asleep!!

Laughter Tor is far less impressive that Bellever Tor, but like it, gives an amazing view of all the land around. The Tor itself has a complex history which is well outlined in this piece. Though I've not found anything explaining why it is called Laughter Tor, though it may be a corruption of an old word - lough - meaning to pile up.

Our route down from Laughter Tor was along a path beside a wall which was at the edge of a steep field in which heather and pine trees (small ones) were growing. The field included some lovely wimberry bushes, as can be seen in the photo below.

We came next to Bellever Forest with its wide range of trees and wide pathways.

Once we were through the Forest, we came to the East Dart River, which (as it is accessible by car) was very busy on what was now a sunny Sunday afternoon.

I was pleased as we left the river and walked up a minor road towards Postbridge that our Macs in Sacs worked so well and we both managed to get them back into the sac, something that I thought (given my cag handedness) would have been more difficult than it was. 

The route we took, with a couple of variations when we missed a turn, is well outlined in the map below:

It was a 10km, six mile, walk and two hours and forty minutes or 15,400 steps. It was well worth the effort to see such amazing sites in this unusual landscape. 

The Trip back to Exeter

We took the same route back as we had taken out this morning. But this time managed to catch some of the feel for the major town in the area. Moretonhampstead. It looks like a busy place to live with both a food festival and a carnival in the next month. 

Most interesting of all is the Alms houses from 1637 which are near the town centre. The local history indicates that while it was rebuilt in 1637, the original building on this site, remains of which were used for the new building was a medieval hospital built in 1451.

Dinner in Exeter

Based on a recommendation of one of my friends, thank you Tim, we decided to eat this evening at Al Farid Restaurant in the centre of Exeter, which was on our way home.

Al Farid, as well as a full menu, offers the opportunity of a share Meze, which is a series of mixed dishes. We decided to go for this option.

Our choices were Hummus Beiruti, a chickpea puree with hot pepper, parsley, garlic, lemon juice and tahini; Tzatziki, which is grated cucumber mixed with yoghurt, garlic, fresh mint and dill; Batata Harra, which is new potatoes sautéed with sweet peppers, garlic, onions and spicy harissa sauce; Grilled Moroccan Sausage, served on a skewer with a sweet and spicy sauce; Aradis, a Lemongrass, garlic, coriander and harissa marinated set of grilled tiger prawns and Izmir Kofta, which are cinnamon spiced lamb meatballs slowly braised in a tomato sauce. These were served with Pita Bread and we added to the selection a Fattoush Salad, a mixed salad with olives, lemon, fresh mint and olive oil dressing and some flatbreads.

The food was cooked as well as Tim suggested that it would be, also the flavours were amazing. Drew thought the Batata Harra was his favourite as it was very spicy, he would select the Hummus and the Moroccan Sausage as numbers two and three. I loved the potatoes too but think that the juicy Tiger Prawns win for my favourite flavours, closely followed by the juicy lamb koftas (which were exactly like Albondigas, but made from lamb not pork). A thoroughly enjoyable and filling meal.

We finished with Moroccan Coffee for me and Mint Tea for Drew.

Back to Exmouth

We got back to Exmouth having done 69 miles in 2 hour 40 minutes of driving. The car was at 54% when we got back to the house at 7.15pm (an enjoyable nine hours since we were last here). So we put the car on charge and sat and relaxed until going to bed at 10.30pm.