Cream or Jam, Ma’am? Days 2 & 3

Moor, Valleys and a perfect Village

We woke up to torrential rain so the views to the Moor were obscured. On the bright side, Philip was in the kitchen cooking up a storm of his own, the most delicious cooked breakfast. Philip had already popped out and bought 2 copies of The Telegraph, one for each couple. Little did he know that I always buy a newspaper when something of historical significance happens, which is then kept as a momento, so this was a lovely gesture.

We started the morning with a tour of Chagford, it is a really lovely village, with 4 pubs in the High Street, Church, butchers, bakers, lots of independent shops, great farm shop that sells produce from the community allotment, deli, cafes and an open air lido. Chagford is home to the best hardware store ever… hardware doesn’t really do it justice, it is an ‘everything’ store, where you wander through a maze of rooms, up and downstairs where you will find outdoor wear (hence my new cap), toys, cards, craft, kitchenware, garden stuff, plumbing bits, tools, screws, nuts and bolts and every odd and sod you could think of. We visited the flea market in the village hall, bought some local honey and I found a book that I knew a friend would love.

After breakfast, the rain had eased and we headed out onto Dartmoor to walk the dogs. We walked to an ancient stone circle, where a group of people were taking part in some kind of ceremony. Sadly they were just dressed in cagoules and waterproof trousers, rather than Druid’s robes and weren’t really up for chatting so we weren’t sure exactly what they were up to, apart from they had all taken their walking boots off and there was a lot of staring into each other’s eyes. We moved on without taking a photo.

We walked further across the Moor to near where the River Teign rises. Following the recent rains, the river was strong and tumbling over the rocks. We crossed several clapper bridges, ancient bridges formed of slabs of stone.

Returning to the car we then drove down the narrow lanes to The North Moor Arms, a quirky and very dark pub that makes you think you’ve stepped back 200 years, but with a 17 pounder WWII gun in the car park. I asked why but it didn’t belong to the pub but to a neighbour, it arrived about 18 years ago, but why and what for, who knows. I expected the bar to be full of farmers talking about the price of sheep and the upcoming Dartmoor pony drifts, but we were the only customers, but instead in the gloom, a small TV balanced on the bar played ‘80’s hits and their videos. Lindsay said the tempura prawns were lovely, yet another surprise, so we ordered a couple of plates to share.

After a couple of drinks, we made our way to the bottom of the Teign River valley, catching a bride and her groom having wedding photos taken seemingly in the middle of nowhere. On the outskirts of Chagford we walked along side of the Teign to Fingal Bridge, a 17thC stone arch bridge with a pub right next to it. After drinks and scones for some, we returned to Chagford to catch up on the day’s news and get ready for dinner out later that evening.

The bells of Chagford Church had started tolling and for the next hour or so, their sound rang out across the village to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth.

We had hoped to be eating in The Globe, one of the other excellent pubs in the village, however due to an administrative error by Philip, he had managed to book a table at the pub we had eaten at the night before, which explained the panicked look in the eyes of the staff at The Globe as we asked about our ‘reservation’…. Thank goodness, the Chagford Inn serves excellent food.

Village Life

After another excellent Philip breakfast, we popped into village to do some shopping to discover there was an arts event taking place. Local artists opened up their homes and studios to visitors, this was a perfect excuse to explore the village further. On the way we met Watson, a very fat Bassett.

The art theme continued as we then visited a garden/nursery which has a sculpture trail. We all decided that there wasn’t really anything we wanted to take home and looking at some of the prices attached to the pieces, there was a whiff of Emperor’s New Clothes about the majority of the art. The most bizarre piece seemed to be some broken pots at the base of a tree… which may be slightly more collapsed as there was a another piece of art tied to the tree, which I had stepped forward to touch to see what it was made of. We spent a minute looking for ‘Reclaim’ before realising what and where it was…

We also stopped at Spinsters’ Rock, a Neolithic tomb, which I would have much rather had in my garden.

Lindsay had her eye on a chest of drawers at a local auction, so after the sculpture garden, so we made our way to the auction house where we said goodbye to our lovely hosts.

We went to Trebarwith Strand where we watched the tide race in over the rocks before going to our campsite at Heligan.