Holiday #2 in 2021: Westward Ho!

1-8 November 2021

Where we stayed

Beach House, on the edge of Westward Ho! Booked through Original Cottages.

This trip was a last-minute whim to escape to the coast – we booked it less than two weeks before the start of the holiday and hence got a bit of money off. The property was much larger than Ruth and I strictly needed – three bedrooms, three bathrooms – but we enjoyed luxuriating for the week in all the unnecessary space. The house is on a newish-looking development next to the Royal North Devon Golf Club.

Westward Ho! was a purpose-built resort village, named after the novel of the same name by Charles Kingsley, which seems an odd way of doing things. Kingsley was from nearby Bideford, which we visited during our stay. WH! is pleasant enough though lacks much olde-worlde charm, if that’s your thing. It has a big sandy beach that forms one of a line of them on the north Devon coast – Saunton Sands is to the north, the other side of the Torridge estuary, and Woolacombe further north again beyond Baggy Point.

We did once take a family holiday at Instow, the other side of the river from Appledore, but it’s a holiday I remember very little about and we don’t seem to have much in the way of family photographs. The cottage was afflicted with damp and Mum’s chief memory seems to have been attempting to get Hannah some emergency asthma medication. Hannah reminded me that I had spent much of the week revising for my Chemistry O-level, perhaps explaining why I don’t remember much else about it.

We spent quite a bit of time on the first evening figuring out the ridiculously high-tech cooker, featuring this by way of an extractor. V. sleek but not hugely obvious.

First full day: walk to Appledore via Northam Burrows

We walked from our holiday home to the village of Appledore via Northam Burrows, an area of dunes and saltmarshes that’s home to the course of the Royal North Devon Golf Club (which is, according to Wikipedia, the oldest golf club in England). It was the first time I've seen sheep grazing on a golf course; Ray remembers playing there once and having to clear sheep crap out of the way so that they could use the green to putt.

Setting out across Northam Burrows

Beach from Northam Burrows

This was the only day of the holiday when we had much rain. The golfers were clearly a hardy breed as there were still plenty of them out.

Rain ...

We had a brief walk around the village of Appledore before seeking lunch at The Seagate.

Street in Appledore

We made a vague attempt at locating the pub where Dad had told us he once stayed with his parents as a young boy, 64 years previously, but as he couldn’t remember the name of it, and we had no idea whether it was still there in any case, this was a bit of a doomed endeavour. There were several pubs in the village (and presumably more in times past) – here I am standing outside one called The Champ – which might have been the one; who knows.

I have long-ago family connections with this area on Mum’s side. Auntie Anne sent me this interesting snip that includes a studio photograph from 1844. Susannah Clibbett (the seated woman in the picture) was one of the Appledore Clibbetts, a family of shipbuilders. (Mum says that she was named after Susannah - loosely, as Mum’s name is the shorter form Susan.) Anne writes that Susannah married a Captain George Hicks, a mariner from Cornwall, and that the family later moved to Calstock in Cornwall. 

The little girl in the picture was Mum and Anne’s great-grandmother Blanche Ellery Hicks. Blanche later married a Cornish man, Richard Martyn, and they moved to south Wales, where Anne and Mum were later born.

Route of the walk below: 4.7 miles. We had to walk back as well, but took a shorter route back along roads.

Second full day: walk around Westward Ho!

We had a stroll along the beach.

We passed a swimming pool set into the rocks. We did see some people swimming in it over the course of the week.

We passed Seafield House, a large derelict Victorian house occupying a prominent position on one end of the front. Someone has clearly had some fun with it as there were skeletons etc hanging in the windows.

We identified part of the route of the Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway, which seems to have been open for a total of less than twenty years in the early twentieth century. This stretch is now part of the South West Coast Path.

Looking back along the coast path

A while further on we turned away from the coast path and walked inland in order to make it a circular route. Had to stop and take a photo of these old gates. The location given by Google Maps suggests they led to a house that no longer stands.

The return route took us along Bay View Road, set high above the village and featuring some large houses. This was a total route of 7.7 miles.

Third full day: Bideford

We drove into Bideford and had a walk around.

The Torridge estuary at Bideford

We crossed over the bridge and walked a short way along the route of the old Bideford to Barnstaple railway line, noting the platforms of the former station.

We walked up to Chudleigh Fort and then back down and over the bridge back into the main bit of the town. We had lunch at the Pannier Pantry.

Chudleigh Fort

Our lunch spot

After lunch we visited the Burton at Bideford gallery where there was an exhibition of Devon photography by James Ravilious. I'd heard of the painter Eric Ravilious (his father) but hadn't heard of James. They were really interesting photos of rural life there in the 1970s/80s.

The exhibition

The Burton at Bideford gallery and museum

Fourth full day: walk from Saunton Sands to Croyde

We drove to Saunton Sands and parked in the expensive but thankfully fairly empty car park (pondered again how this area must be hell in the holiday season). We had a cup of tea on the beach and then followed the South West Coast Path towards Croyde. 

Looking down Saunton Sands from the north

The path runs parallel with and just above Croyde Road until it descends to the road near Chesil Cliff House, an OTT vanity project featured on a Grand Designs episode in 2019. At the time we walked past it it still looked unfinished but was on the market with Knight Frank for £10 million earlier this year.

Chesil Cliff House

Looking towards Lundy Island

The beach at Croyde

Just past Chesil Cliff House there’s a path leading down towards the rocky coastline, which we took and made our way around to the beach at Croyde. We had a picnic on the sand here before having a bit of a walk around Croyde and then heading back.

Final full day: local bumble and lunch

We walked into Northam to have a look at the Church of St Margaret. I believe some ancestors of mine were married in this church, but have forgotten which ones – quite possibly George and Susannah mentioned in the snip above.

Church of St Margaret of Antioch, Northam

From Northam we walked back into Westward Ho! and had lunch at The Pier House.

My lunch

Westward Ho!

Verdict

It was an enjoyable week and an interesting area; I'd go again. Our holiday house was lovely though aspects of it seemed a bit impractical for a holiday let - in addition to the cooker already mentioned, the kitchen had gorgeous (Corian?) white worktops that were extremely easy to stain, as Ruth did by leaving used teaspoons on the draining area. We had a bit of a panic that we had indelibly stained it and were going to be charged for an entire replacement worktop. A bit of Googling suggested that bicarbonate of soda might do the trick - unsurprisingly, we hadn't brought any with us, but located some in the nearby Tesco and Ruth spread it on and we left it overnight. In the morning, the tea stains looked even darker brown than they had previously. So boo to bicarb. In the end we managed to scrub the tea stains off with some innocuous product like washing up liquid.

Bicarb paste left overnight

Ruth in the living area at Beach House

August round-up

Met up with Helen the first Saturday in August for one of our as ever long overdue catch-ups. We had lunch in the branch of Byron at the Central Saint Giles Piazza, before making our way over to the British Museum - I had been devoid of cultural ideas so Helen had noted the free exhibition of Francis Towne watercolours. I had never heard of Towne but he seems to have painted a lot of pictures of Italy during a jaunt there in the 1780s. On arrival at the museum, we had to queue to go through what seemed to be a mammoth bag-checking operation in a specially erected tent in front of the museum. Can only assume heightened levels of security for some reason – whether connected to the previous week’s attack in nearby Russell Square I wasn’t sure.

Once inside, we opted for a general browse around some of the galleries before seeking out the Towne exhibition, though as it was a hot day we found ourselves spending a lot of time intently studying the exhibits that happened to be near the pedestal fans dotted about. The Towne watercolours were in room 90 in the Raymond and Beverley Sackler Wing, which, blessedly, was air-conditioned, meaning that we spent perhaps more time in it than we would otherwise have done. We had tea in the Great Court Restaurant before Helen had to run off to get her train back to Feltham as she and Greg were intending to travel to Tunbridge Wells later that evening. I inexplicably went to the Speedo shop in Covent Garden and bought a swimsuit, which I intend wearing as soon as I’ve lost a stone and a half.

View down to the Terrace Gardens

Ruth and I spent the second weekend in August on a two-night Secret Escapes break at the Richmond Hill Hotel. We arrived mid-afternoon on the Saturday, slogged up Richmond Hill in some heat and checked in, before going out again for a wander around the Terrace Gardens and looking down at the famous view which is apparently the only view in England to be protected by an Act of Parliament. This seems a bit disproportionate, surely – it’s a nice view but there are many such around the country. Just a reflection of the many rich/influential people who’ve lived in the area? On returning from the park I went for a relaxing swim and steam room session at the Cedars Health Club just behind the hotel.

On the Sunday morning we did a walk that I’d found in 'Walking Village London', starting by walking down Nightingale Lane past the splendid/monstrous (depending on your view of Victorian Gothic architecture) Petersham Hotel and walking to the ludicrously posh village of Petersham – never seen so many thumping great houses in a small area. Visited St Peter’s Church briefly (churchyard only as there was a service on) before walking to the neighbouring village of Ham. Crossed Ham Common, stopping for a while by the pond for Ruth to photograph some ducks, and made our way down Ham Street (where we were very excited to see a Huf Haus going up) past Ham House to the Thames Path. Walked back along the river to Richmond and had lunch at the Old Ship. Wandered round the shops for a while after lunch and Ruth bought two rings from Eastern Adornment. In the evening we had a nice dinner at Adesso, a Sicilian restaurant further down Richmond Hill. On the Monday morning we had a walk in Richmond Park before heading back to Reading.

Trees in Richmond Park

The hotel was OK – plus sides: friendly staff, nice though small room (a Hill Collection Double on the ground floor), Sky TV, nice steak dinner on the Saturday night. Downsides: ludicrous wine mark-up in the restaurant, atmosphere-free bar with big screen TV showing the Olympics, disappointing breakfast buffet, odd ensuite arrangement with a frosted glass wall on one side which coupled with the unfortunate positioning of a mirror enabled a bird’s eye view of your partner on the toilet.

The front at Paignton

Spent the following weekend down in Devon as part of a Book Group deputation to visit Claire for the August meeting, following her relocation to Newton Abbot back in February. I took the train down early on the Saturday morning, joining Helen, Alison and Ali who’d already arrived by car. Claire took us on a tour of nearby coastal towns thanks to a Torbay Dayrider bus ticket, starting off in Torquay, where we walked along the front a bit and ate ice creams, then on to Paignton, where we spent a couple of hours holed up in The Boathouse - Claire had planned this as a spot for us to wait out the storm that had confidently been forecast, but in the event it remained sunny. Helen ordered a cream tea and the rest of us picked at some snack food. After this we walked through Paignton to catch the bus again to Brixham, where we had a drink in The Blue Anchor and discussed the August book, Natsuo Kirino’s Out. After this we walked via the pretty harbour along to the Breakwater Bistro, where we had a lovely fish dinner seated at a table with a great view of the bay. Took the bus back to Newton Abbot and viewed Helen’s photos of her recent open water swimming holiday in Lithuania.

Brixham

View from Scout Point

The others left around 11am on the Sunday and Claire drove herself and me to visit Coleton Fishacre. The 1920s house is attractive-looking from the outside but we decided against going in, opting instead for a walk around the grounds despite the on-off rain. Very pretty grounds with some lovely viewpoints, albeit it was unfortunately not a clear day. The grounds border the South West Coast Path and you can look down to Pudcombe Cove, though the former access to the cove is now blocked off.  Had a look at a couple of things through Claire’s binoculars and pondered whether I might buy my own at some point. After a cream tea and some fat-chewing, Claire drove me to Dartmouth via the cute little car ferry from Kingswear. We parked up in Dartmouth and walked around the pretty little town, taking in Bayard's Cove Fort and and finishing with a waterside pint.

Dart estuary from Dartmouth

Over the two days we saw several rhinos that are evidently part of Paignton Zoo's Great Big Rhino Project, including this one - 'Rupert' - at Coleton Fishacre. Also this one in Paignton.

Ali, me, Claire and Alison behind a rhino

On the Monday morning we had a walk around Newton Abbot and back to Claire’s house via a pretty walk along the little River Lemon. Browsed in various charity shops and a New Agey shop where Claire bought me a ‘goldstone’ bracelet. On investigation, goldstone is not a natural material but a type of glass, but is quite pretty. Apparently, Goldstone is believed to bring luck to people who have the star sign of Leo. Leo is indeed my star sign, though I don’t have much interest in astrology.  This crystals site claims the following for goldstone:

Goldstone is said to help attain one's goals. Goldstone is also said to help one stay calm and stabilize the emotions. It can be used as an energy generator and can deflect unwanted energies, making it used as a protection stone. It is also used for long distance healing and revitalizing one's energy field.

That’s a lot of potential benefits. Must wear it often.

Returning to the book: I quite enjoyed Out, a Japanese crime novel about four women who become embroiled in dismemberment and other shady dealings after one of them murders her husband. There's an interesting interview with Natsuo Kirino here, noting that she started out writing romance novels before a seemingly rather dramatic change of genre.

Spent this last weekend at Mum and Dad's, coincidentally in the company of Ray who'd also picked that weekend to arrange a visit to them. We all had a walk along the Usk on Saturday followed by a visit to Dad's allotment, where we contemplated quite a number of courgettes that have now grown into marrows. Mum and Dad seem to have decided that they don't have a use for them and they'll have to be composted. I think I remember cooking stuffed marrow once, but it was decidedly uninteresting, so I didn't volunteer to take any.

On Sunday morning I took Ray for a walk from the Llanfoist Crossing car park along the disused railway line and then back along the canal. We were joined for a cottage pie lunch by Hannah and Henry and by Dave and the girls, followed by Mum and Nia appearing with a surprise birthday cake for me and a symbolic single candle. After lunch Ray had a rousing game of football with Nia which she allegedly won by a quite incredible hundred-and-something goals to his one. I participated briefly and tried to invoke the offside rule at one point, but didn't push it in case Nia challenged me on it.

Returned to Milton Keynes yesterday. Disquieting realisation that it's September on Thursday. Where has the year gone, etc.