Monday, 20 June 2016

DAY 28

Sunday 19th June, 2016                                                            

Weston-Super-Mare to Bude                                                 Miles 174

Today is Father’s Day.  I visited old haunts with family memories.  It also rained torrentially, my first really wet day in the last 4 weeks.

I have a bit of a soft spot for Weston.  I had many a Sunday School outing here.  I also have happy family memories from days out to the beach with the family when the children were very small.  It is also quite possible that I was conceived here as I know my parents came on holiday to Weston about 9 months before I was born!

I had one sadness about having arrived last night in Weston.  I missed the Red Arrows who had performed there just one day earlier!
 
My family in weston in 1974
I had not been to WSM in at least 20 years and not a lot has changed.  It does have a nice sandy beach close in to the Esplanade, but being an estuary town of the River Severn, it also has mud, lots of it when the tide is out.  Indeed Weston Super Mare is often nick named Weston Super Mud!  The old pier at Weston continues to be a ruin, but hopefully someone will come and rescue it.  The main Pier still seems to be very much in use.
 
Weston Main Pier
WSM became a cultural “hot spot” last summer when Banksy (the famous street artist who is still doing graffiti art) put on a “pop-up exhibition” inside an old swimming pool building.  It was called “Dismaland” and was an anti-establishment “Bemusement Park”.  It contained quirky contributions from around 40 major artists.  In total it apparently generated 20 million pounds in extra income for WSM.  WSM is clearly going after the arty crowd as well as the pensioners on tour buses!

I drove along the Promenade and took the road into Uphill.  The manor here was offering B&B, shame I did not find them yesterday.  This is the “Nob Hill” part of WSM.
 
Chalet Alley
I followed the quiet coastal road along to Brean, Berrow and Burnham on Sea.  I remember having had a holiday here as a child in a caravan at Breen sands (where there is a nice sandy beach).  This was then one of around 10 caravans in a field.  Now the area is chalets, chalets and more chalets.  I did see two fields left that the chalet developers have not yet moved onto, so if you’re quick there is still space for you to start your own chalet park.  These fields though were clearly farmed by an eco farmer who did not plough or spray right to the edge of his fields to allow wild flowers to grow and there were banks of wild poppies providing bright and cheery colour to an otherwise grey and overcast morning. 
 
Breen Poppies
Burnham on Sea feels older and quieter than Weston. There are no obvious caravan parks, but there is one holiday village tucked away at the end of the Esplanade and out of sight behind trees.  Despite being “On Sea” there is no sea in Burnham.  This is very much River Severn estuary water and when I was there the tide was well out leaving the boats in the sailing club marooned on the mud banks. 
 
Burnham Upon No Sea
The rain turned into a persistent drizzle and the winds increased.  As I left the town I saw a sign for Exeter and very nearly took the road.  To have spent the day with Marilyn would have been perfect.  However, I was due to meet Pete in Bude and so turned away from this and headed towards another sign that said Hinkley Point.  This is a controversial nuclear power station that is being built on the estuary.  It is not expected to produce any power until at least 2025, when the last of Britain’s coal power stations are set to close.  At the moment new roads are going in to allow construction of the site.  The plant is to be built by the French power company EDF.  However, just 2 days ago senior managers at EDF told MPs that they feel that the go ahead should be delayed due to design flaws in two similar plants being built in France and China.  If the people building the nuclear power plant tell you that there are design flaws then you should listen to them.  Otherwise it may become a rather drastic way to get rid of the chalet parks!
 
Watchet out - train might be running!
I drove on in the murk to the pretty little town of Watchet with its old station, still in use as a terminus for the West Somerset Railway that runs from Minehead to Bishops Lydeard near Taunton.  A return trip on this railway would cost 19 pounds. 

After Watchet you get to Blue Anchor where chalets are in your face on the front.  There is also a view across to Minehead with the white spires of the Butlins Holiday camp, prominent and close to the town.
 
Dunster Castle
Just before Minehead you get a terrific view of Dunster Castle an ancient fortified house.  A castle on this site dates back to the 11th century.  The castle was another one to suffer the fate of Pembroke and other castles in being destroyed by Oliver Cromwell for having been on the wrong side in the English Civil War.  The castle was in the hands of the Luttrell family from the 1600s through to 1976 when it was given over to the care of the National Trust.  The old village of Dunster I know from previous visits is well worth seeing if you have the time.  Indeed the West Somerset Railway stops in the town and can be part of a trip from Minehead.

On entering Minehead I was thrilled to see a sign, under the town name, saying “Free Parking”.  What a forward looking town I thought that really welcomes visitors.  I drove onto the Esplanade and pulled over and parked.  I then noticed a parking machine.  I mentioned to a lady purchasing a ticket at the machine that there was a sign saying Minehead has free parking. “No chance” she said.  “If Minehead has free parking I have yet to find it.”
 
Buttons Minehead
Despite some of the horrors that I have seen on this trip, the Butlins camp at Minehad, though not unobtrusive, is certainly not overpowering the town.  It is at the other end of the esplanade from the town itself.  It has a very large white domed tented style construction and obvious amusement areas.  It has been on this site for perhaps 50 years and still has a lot of very old chalets.  However, they also have added some smart looking accommodation in a new apartment block.  It is part the complex but they are clearly aiming for a wider market of people who want more luxury and sophisticated accommodation alongside the amusements that are provided.  Based on my observation of a group of people walking along the esplanade toward the town, I got the impression that they were also providing a venue for a conference.
 
New Butlins at Minehead
On driving into the main part of Minehead, I realised that I had not before been into the town and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.  Immediately off the esplanade is a tree lined boulevard with restaurants and cafes.  If the sun had been shining this could almost have been in France.

There is no sandy beach to speak of at Minehead, but I guess that people come for the air and its location, right on the edge of Exmoor.
 
Pollock Weir and pebbles
I continued on and came to Porlock Weir, an unusual little place.  The beach here is black pebbles and it and the water look very uninviting. However the two pubs did look inviting and were clearly very busy as it was Father’s Day.  The natural pebble sea barrier that protects the small harbor had been breached in recent years by storms.  A wooden barrier appears to have been erected to fill the breach and hope that the pebble barrier rebuilds itself.  The sail boats in the harbor were all resting firmly on the mud. If you had a boat in Porlock and wanted to go sailing you could only do so on a day and time when the tide was in.  I know from experience that a boat spends a lot of its time unused in the harbor.  If the sun shone and you did decide that you wanted to use it, then you could be thwarted here by the tide.
 
Add caption
There was notice displayed by the local council saying that DEFRA (Department for the Environment, Food and Agricultural Affairs) had designated the beach as a swimming beach, which clearly surprised and alarmed the local council and they put up a notice advising people of the strong tides and made fairly cynical comments about DEFRA.  They clearly were also annoyed at being designated a bathing beach as this required regular water samples to be taken and analysed under EU regulations.
 
Pollock Hill
Leaving Porlock for Lynmouth I drove on a very narrow road that led to a private toll road. Unfortunately when I got there, there was a gate firmly across the road.  I did a 20 point turn and headed back to Porlock Weir and took a higher road out.  This was difficult and with switch backs, but eventually I arrived at the pretty little village of Lynmouth. 
 
Lynmouth
In August 1952 Lynmouth was the site of a disaster.  Nine inches of rain fell in the space of 24 hours.  This area is very rocky and so the water gathered quickly and surged down into the village, which is at the bottom of a steep gradient, with the river running through it. The wall of water took away 39 houses and a total of 34 people lost their lives in Lynmouth and nearby.
 
Lynmouth funicular
Lynmouth today is a pretty village.  It has a funicular railway running up its steep cliffs to the village of Lynton, which sits above.  I have traveled on this in the past but today I felt that I did not have time.  I stopped on a yellow line to take a photograph and a lady driver in a motor caravan came across and spoke to me.  I thought that she was going to complain about where I had stopped, but no, she said that they were just about to leave and would I like her parking spot.  At this part of the village there were not many places to park, but the few that were here were free for up to 2 hours.  Though I had not intended to stop I decided to take up her offer, so I parked.  Next to the funicular was a smart café so I went in and had an excellent ham and brie quiche and a pot of tea, all for 5 pounds.

Feeling refreshed I then set off for Ilfracombe.  The road from Lynmouth is a notorious one, not just for its tight bends but also because of its gradient that is 1 in 4.  You are warned about this and have to drive in a low gear, but there are still considerable hazards from the numerous free roaming sheep.
 
Ilfracombe
Ilfracombe was very, very wet, yet the town was buzzing with people.  Brits expect rain when they go on holiday, so no one had stayed inside and the streets were bright with many different coloured cagoules. I had been to Ilfracombe a number of times for “house parties” when I was younger, but I found nothing familiar or that I recognised.  I also could find nowhere to park and there was a traffic warden (on a wet Sunday) clearly enjoying his day and writing parking tickets. A great Father’s day gift for some no doubt.  On the sea front I saw two round towers, which looked like a cross between oast houses and brick kilns.  It turned out that these were purpose built as a theatre and had no age or history to them.

In the 1820s Welsh miners were employed to cut 4 tunnels through the cliffs to provide the town with access to the beach.  The tunnels led to two bathing pools, which were strictly segregated between women and men. The women were required to swim with costumes that covered their whole bodies; but men were free to dress as they liked and most swam naked.
 
Crowed
The next town/village is Woolacombe which has one of the most popular and longest (at 3 miles) surfing beaches in the country.  It’s near neighbour, Croyde, also has a well populated surfing beach and there is a third, also long beach, at Saunton Sands in Croyde bay.  We have some close friends that have a second home in Croyde, with their main home on the border of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.  I ‘phoned to see if they were home, but they were holding an open day in the garden of their main house and would not be coming down to Croyde until Monday, so unfortunately I missed them.
 
Baggy Point, Croyde
In continuing rain I followed the coast to the fairly large town of Barnstaple.  This is not really a coastal town as it is at the head of the River Taw estuary, however it is a good place to visit and explore. It has nice architecture facing the river and in the town it has numerous old buildings including a Pannier Market building that is the place for an indoor produce and craft market.
 
Barnstaple
After Barnstaple I moved on to Appledore and Westward Ho!  There is a quay at Appledore that has a long maritime history.  From the quay you look across to Braunton. These two villages form the junction and the estuary mouth for both the River Taw and the River Torridge.  Westward Ho! Is the only town in the world with an exclamation mark after its name. The town is named after Charles Kingsley’s book of the same name and is a story based on the nearby town of Bideford.  Westward Ho! is really a manufactured place and was built specifically to attract tourists who might want to try and find a connection with the writings of Kingsley.

I had one last place that I really wanted to visit, the village of Clovelly that is built down a steep cliff to the ocean with a small harbor at the bottom.  Its main street is extremely steep, cobbled and drops 400 feet.  It was still teeming with rain when I got to Clovelly.  You cannot take a vehicle into the town and goods are dragged down the street from the car park above using wooden sledges. Tourists can walk down or travel astride a donkey.  I arrived at the car park intending to walk down into the village, but was surprised to find that there is an “entrance” fee of seven pounds.  The women at the desk said she would reduce this to four pounds as the town was going to close in less than 30 minutes.  I decided not to take up her offer.  I have in the past visited the village and there is not much there other than the cute pathway down and the donkeys.  Your seven pounds allows you access to the little shops that will sell you all those tourist items that you feel you must have at the time, but then never use or see after approximately one nano second.

I tried to get out to Hartland Point but the low cloud, heavy rain and increasingly strong winds made it a fruitless journey.  I therefore pushed on to Bude where just as I arrived at my B&B so did Peter.  We ate dinner in a horrible pub about two miles away.  It was highly recommended on Google, but I think the “good comments” were likely to have been placed by the Landlord’s wife and friends; we certainly did not feel it appropriate to make any comments.

Tomorrow Pete and I move deeper into Cornwall.



3 comments:

  1. The first picture in your blog must have been taken on the first day of the holiday, as we are not all red from sunburn!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The first picture in your blog must have been taken on the first day of the holiday, as we are not all red from sunburn!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What did you think of Verity, Damien Hurst's statue on the Ilfracombe front? It put Ilfracombe in the local news for a while when it appeared.

    ReplyDelete

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