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