Frogmore Creek at low water
My maternal ancestors, as far back as I have researched, came from villages astride the Devon-Somerset boundary. Matthew Nation, my great-great-great-great-grandfather died in Dulverton, some 25 miles west of Taunton in Somerset and some 75 miles north of Frogmore in Devon, in 1795 aged 47. The following year his eldest son Stephen, aged 16, joined the East India Company as a cadet and sailed for India. (Note 1) Whether Dulverton has changed much in the intervening two hundred years is anyone’s guess, as down here in the West Country life responds to different rhythms to the rest of England.
We had booked an AirBnB, The Granary, in the little hamlet of Frogmore (note 2), east of Kingsbridge, Devon for a week, to spend some time with my daughter and her three boys. Securing it months ago, I guess we all imagined sun-drenched days on sandy beaches, the warm after-glow of sun on skin; a period in late July when time would stand still. This year, however, autumn has come early to the United Kingdom and we managed one day on a small shingle and pebble beach, oddly named Blackpool Sands, just north of Slapton Sands. (see PC 308 From Pillar to Post November 2022)
Blackpool Sands
With a light rain forecast to last all of our first day, we took The Lady Mary, a little 50 pax ferry, from Kingsbridge down the estuary to Salcombe; a great way to both be on the water and also see something of the marine-scape.
What I hadn’t counted on was the cost. Three adults and three children cost £48 – one way! Clearly the wet-weather programme for families on holiday is extremely expensive.
Salcombe caters for the tourists: lots of shops selling nautical clothing and nick-nacks with a nautical theme, local artists displaying their efforts and the inevitable pizzas, burgers, and pasta food options – oh! and ‘Cornish’ pasties in Devon! Later we took the ferry back to Kingsbridge …. in the rain!
I met The Pophams over 30 years ago and, knowing they had moved, many months ago, to Devon and settled in Buckfastleigh, we got ourselves invited for lunch. So good to be warmly-welcomed and bombarded with chat and chat and lunch ….. and then off to Hembry Wood for an afternoon walk with their two dogs along the River Dart.
moss grows generally on the north side of trees (in the Northern Hemisphere)
The Pophams are an artistic family, with daughter Ellie an aspiring opera singer and Karen a well-established oil painter and member of The South West Academy. The latter has an exhibition at West Brompton Cemetery Chapel, Fulham Road, London SW10 9UG 9th – 14th September 2023.
Chris, delightfully a regular reader of my PCs, is embarking on a new career in wood sculpting.
No wet-weather holiday programme would be complete without the visit to a cinema. Kingsbridge’s Kings Cinema has three extremely small and cute theatres and in one screened Pixar’s Elemental: “fire, water, land and air residents live together ….. two discover how much they have in common.” The age-old story – female meets male but they are of the wrong tribe, wrong side of the tracks, wrong social level, race, religion, sexual orientation – but love wins! And this aimed at children!
And with children there’s always a thrill in going to a castle, whether it’s Windsor, Cardiff, Corfe, Edinburgh or even Dartmouth.
Large guns faced seaward as it sits across the mouth of the River Dart, which we had encountered as a smaller river back in Hembry Wood.
I have been to Dartmouth before, when my brother was being commissioned from the Royal Naval College, so was aware that in this part of the world roads are often extremely narrow; everyone is tested in their knowledge of the width of their car but fortunately passing spaces are frequent. We live in the city of Brighton & Hove and adore being here. But cities and towns are not everyone’s cup of tea and I am reminded of the contrasts down here in Devon. Little concrete and glass, few high rise apartment blocks, less hard surfaces and grey; replaced by green in the trees and green in the fields and rolling hills, by cattle and wildlife.
Slapton Sands ahead in the murk!
In Torcross at the southern end of Slapton Sands we stopped for some afternoon tea and another chance for the boys to swim in the cool sea, under grey clouds!
A World War II American Sherman Tank
Parents used to use the expression ‘you’ll get square eyes if you look at television for too long’ before laptops, iPads and the plethora of screens which give us access to so much of modern life. My grandchildrens’ iPad use is normally extremely controlled but on a wet holiday they delighted in trying to alter the shape of their eyes! Aside from the odd card game and the completion of a 1000 word jigsaw, I tried to get one of my grandsons to contribute to this postcard. “Oh! It’s so hard! …… I can’t think! ….. Why can’t I …..? ….. So sorry, my mind’s a blank!”
We left a day early. On the day we should have returned it was again blowing a hooley; 40 – 50 mph winds and torrential rain. Lucy, a yoga chum currently not working because of the Writers Guild of America strike and its knock-on effect here, returned from Cornwall – “The worst drive of my life!”
Frogmore Creek at high water
A last view from the AirBnB across the Frogmore Creek reflecting that these rhythms are timeless: the tide goes out, the water recedes and comes back …… and we inhale and exhale, our breathe goes out. We breathe in ……..
Richard 11th August 2023
Hove
http://www.postcardscribbles.co.uk
Note 1 Stephen Nation, then a Brigadier, died of Cholera aged 48 in 1828
Note 2 Not Frogmore Cottage owned by The Crown Estates and recently occupied by Harry & Meghan.
postcards 