Into The West

On Friday morning it was time to move on once more and head West into Devon.  It needs a capital “W” as the road signs all direct us to “The West”.  Our first planned stop was Kingston Lacy, another National Trust stately home.  Our original plan for the day was to visit Kingston Lacy, for maybe as long as two hours, then go on to Corfe Castle (now a ruin sadly) before stopping at the start of the Jurassic coast for a walk.  Well, Kingston Lacy was just amazing – we spent nearly two hours in the garden alone, before a brief lunch and another two hours admiring the house itself.  The house was the home of the Bankes family for over 300 years, until the last family member bequeathed the whole estate including all the furniture, art, sculptures, everything, to the National Trust in 1981.  As a result, all the rooms have large and impressive collections of the family’s possessions, accumulated and kept over the last 300 years.  We found the whole place completely fascinating and have had to leave both Corfe Castle and the walk on the Jurassic Coast for another time.

Since we had decided not to make any more stops, we also decided we were not in a great hurry and took the scenic route to our bed & breakfast in Budleigh Salterton (the name is bigger than the village!).  The scenic route took us along the coast, across the Exmouth estuary and through a gorgeous little village called Beer.  No, we didn’t stop to sample the wares but the detour just had to be made.

The drive through the countryside is just beautiful.  The verges (where there are verges)are covered in spring flowers and the trees with their spring green foliage are so gorgeous.  Siobhan was lucky enough to see New Forest ponies, three fallow deer grazing (surprisingly we were on a main road at that time), the occasional pheasant and lots of rabbits.  We have not yet seen any live foxes or badgers but sadly have seen a couple that have lost altercations with cars.

Tidwell Manor

Our B & B, Tidwell Manor, was a lovely Georgian home in the middle of nowhere.  Well, not quite, the village of Budleigh was only a five minute drive, while Budleigh Salterton was probably a bit closer but so small it hardly counts.  Our room was on the third floor, and very comfortable.  Once we had turned off the radiator and opened the window it even cooled down to a comfortable temperature.

Once we settled ourselves in, we went off to Budleigh in search of a meal.  Our host recommended the Sir Walter Raleigh pub and we did indeed get a delicious meal there.  Grant sampled a couple of the local hand-pull beers and was quite impressed.

Saturday started with a delicious cooked breakfast in a very formal and beautiful dining room.  The tables are all laid out with room numbers and our host took our orders while we helped ourselves to juice.  The whole place was really quite grand and we felt very spoilt.  It was however time to move on. 

Our explorations began with A La Ronde, a local National Trust property (we reckon we are now on to free visits, our membership fee being covered by the three places we have now seen).  A La Ronde is a unique little stone house with sixteen sides, built in the late 1790’s by two cousins who had returned from a seven year Grand Tour of Europe.  These two women were quite eccentric it seems and collected all sorts of oddments which still adorn the house.  The most stunning of the decorations were the different ornaments and the tower which was decorated with shells.  We never did get to see Fred & Myrtle’s paua shell house down south in NZ, but the creativity of these two women with shells seems likely to have surpassed what Fred & Myrtle did.  The house was very cleverly designed and built (apparently with the assistance of ship-builders) and Siobhan now wants a sixteen-sided house (with perhaps a few more modern touches).

From here we drove to Torquay, again by a scenic coastal route.  This part of England is very beautiful indeed, and while its weather is still on the cool and overcast side it is clear to see why they call this the “English Riviera”.  We didn’t stop for long in Torquay; while it is pretty it was also pretty crowded and we wanted to get to our next accommodation and do mundane things like getting this blog up-to-date!

We took the direct route for most of this journey, and arrived at Penrose B & B in Lostwithiel in a fairly timely fashion.  The place is just wonderful.  The hosts, Chris and Heidi, came out to meet us on our arrival, and proudly showed us the public areas of their lovely old home.  Our accommodation (for less per night than the last place) is essentially a one bedroom flat, with a full kitchen and very comfy furnishings. And the rate includes a full cooked breakfast!  We are very pleased we have planned to spend three nights here and are sort of wondering if we need to organise fourth one.

Bridge in Lostwithiel

This evening we followed the advice of our hosts and wandered along to the Globe pub and restaurant for dinner.  They managed to fit us in at short notice, and while the meal was delicious, the staff seemed very disorganised.  The highlight of the evening was chatting to the couple at the next table who are from Gloustershire.  Grant had a Doom Bar real ale on their recommendation, and we now have a microbrewery to look up in Tintern as well.

Tasting Notes:

At the Sir Walter Raleigh in East Budleigh I had an Otter real ale. These real ales are starting to grow on me.  I then had a Martha's Mild. That was dark creamy goodness.  It was another local real ale, and I'm not sure why all the locals weren't drinking this. It is really yummy. 

At the Globe Inn, Lostwithiel, I had a Doom Bar.  The Doom Bar is made by Sharp’s Brewery and is named after a sand bar where “the river Camel meets the Atlantic on Cornwall’s rugged north coast”.  “Doom Bar the beer embodies many characteristics which make it worthy to carry the name of this natural wonder.”  Really?  It was average.  Nice enough, but nothing that would make you want to go back and have another.