A Few Days in Torquay

Saturday on the M5

Earlier this year Colin, Judith’s brother, rang to invite us to join himself and Helen & Michael in Torquay. Colin invested in a timeshare of a canal boat many years ago and now swaps his timeshare off for holidays around Europe in a system that is a complete mystery to me. But he generally gets two holidays a year from the system and this year one of them is a week in Torquay and we are joining him for the first 4 days.

So Saturday being Day One we packed up in the early morning, and Judith made Lena’s Swedish mushroom pie for our collective evening meal and we set of from Birmingham a bit before noon. On the way we chose to stop for lunch and a break at a National Trust house south of Bristol and Coleridge Cottage in Nether Stowey, near Bridgwater, fit the bill. We had tomato and red pepper soup with cheese scone, cheese and chutney for lunch in their little tea room. Then we went out to the garden and wild meadow which had wire sculpted animals to represent the animals his wife Sarah kept for feeding the family. They only lived there for three years but at least that short interlude has kept this little village on the tourist trail.

After a tour of the house we set off to rejoin the M5 South for the rest of the journey to Torquay. We were very lucky as the traffic was not congested either above or below Bristol and we arrived at the Osborne Holiday Apartments about quarter to 5. The apartments are in Georgian curved terraced houses on a cliff overlooking the bay. The view from the apartment dining room:

In Search of Agatha Christie

The anticipated storm and rain did not arrive this morning so we decided to set off for a journey in search of one of our favourite mystery writers. I discovered that Agatha Christie’s holiday home, Greenway House, is a National Trust property and we could get there on a bus and a steam train. So after breakfast we walked down to the harbour. To purchase our tickets and opted to but the Torquay to Dartmouth bus, rail and ferry ticket just in case we felt up to the challenge.

We travelled in view of Tor Bay on the steam train. Along the beach there were a long row of little beach huts. And then we arrived at the newest stop on the trainline called Greenway Halt. The conductor assured us it was a 20 minute walk. Well maybe for some but as I was stopping to take photos as well as catch my breath while walking up hill…it took more like 45 minutes. And she forgot to mention the walk up the drive after we came out of the woodland.

We passed several colourful trees along the drive before arriving at the house. It turns out that Agatha Christie came from a family of collectors, a trait she shared with her second husband and her daughter.

The racing picture is a silk weaving called a Stevengram made on a loom invented to weave labels for clothes and ships’ names for sailors’ hats. The had a rather large collection of them.

We walked back to Greenway Halt which really did only take 25 minutes to wait for the train down to Kingswear. We decided to forgo the ferry trip opting instead to get Devonshire ice cream cones at the station refreshment stand and get back on the rain to return to Torquay.

A short walk on the South West Coast Path

We had a quiet relaxed morning and waited until noon before planning anything. We decided rather than go exploring farther afield that we would check out Mearfoot Beach at the bottom of the hill in front of the apartments. It is a small, shallow beach with a cafe part wY up the cliff, and modern equivalent of beach huts (looking more like garage fronts) along the cliff next to the cafe. The whole area is a bit of a bay within Tor Bay.

We met a local man relaxing at his beach hut (or lockup) who was happy to talk to us about the area and warned us the South West Coast Path had a lot of steps up and down, but there were lots of benches for resting and enjoying views.

Last Day and Heading Home

I woke early Tuesday morning and the sky was brighter so I dressed quickly and too #1 camera down to the beach. Not much of a beach but the shoreline included some sandy parts and a lot of rocks. Not many other people out but one lady did come down for a swim! I prefer 5he indoor pool … it is a lot warmer.

After breakfast we set off home but via Teignmouth and Exmouth to stop at the National Trust property that is a 16 sided building A la Ronde. It was built by two women in the late 1700s when they developed a religious community on land they bought. They also built a chapel, school and village. Their will stated the house could only be inherited by an unmarried female relative, but the last female owner got court permission to sell the house to a male cousin when she got married. He changed the layout by joining some of the rooms to make larger rooms and adding rooms in the loft.

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It was an eccentric house with a curious history. After our lunch in the house tea room we then set off to go back to Birmingham. It was a relaxing weekend.