No cars, no tat... this is a unique village
ICAN’T believe it… a Debbun maid, I’ve visited such far-flung places as Oz, the States, Guadeloupe and South Africa, but until the other weekend I’d never been to Clovelly. But then again, it was unknown to the outside world until the middle of the 19th century.
It was partly as a result of Charles Kingsley’s Westward Ho!, set in and around the village, and later The Water Babies, that visitors began to go. I only went because my old friend Locky, at one time the youngest publican in the UK, recently took over the New Inn… mercifully halfway down that hill.
OK, I’m not that daft. I didn’t take the Jimmy Choos. Actually, I haven’t got any and my husband and I did pack ‘light’. Turns out not light enough as suitcases on wheels won’t cut it. Everything needed in the village is transported by the kind of trollies we used to make and race around on as kids.
Originally it was donkey work, but nowadays they are all safely grazing with smug looks on their faces at the stables at the top of the village. I went right off ’em! On the plus side, what a treat not to have to get out of the way of cars and bikes, and not just for us humans. I noticed a number of well-fed puddy cats soaking up the warmth of the cobbles safe in the knowledge that they didn’t have to worry about traffic or dogs that are safely kept on leads by visitors.
As for doggy sculptures, not one did I see the whole weekend. I got the feeling that in the event a dog couldn’t hold it and their owners didn’t bag up, any number of folk would jump out and rub their noses in it. The owners’, that is, not the dogs’. But Clovelly welcomes wellbehaved canines and, more importantly, well-behaved owners, and there’s always the treat of a doggie ice cream in the shop which, not being a dog owner, is pretty new to me. Still if, as with children, it keeps them happy and quiet, I’m all for it. A double scoop of salted caramel certainly shut me up for 10 minutes, much to the delight of my husband.
We also took the four-mile walk along the famous Hobby Drive, which winds through the woods, giving magnificent glimpses of the harbour and Bideford Bay, and I didn’t moan once. No, not more ice cream, but on account of the fact that Hobby Drive is a wide, flat, track laid by Sir James Hamlyn Williams and created as apart of the Romantic Movement of the early 19th century, which embraced the beauty of nature rather than science and reason. Gawd bless yer, Jim!
Sadly, we didn’t have time to go in the opposite direction to Mouthmill Cove or visit Clovelly Court and Gardens. We’ll do that next time.
What a unique place – stunning position, no cars, no individually owned homes and free of the tat that sadly seems to accompany seaside towns and villages all over the world.
With foreign travel so fraught with problems at the moment, there are a few more places in the South West I really want to see: Lundy, St Michael’s Mount, Looe Island, for goodness sake. I used to live in Looe, but never walked across when the tide was out. I hear they’re looking for a couple of residential volunteers at the moment to stay in the island’s bell tent and assist the wardens. Throw in some salted caramel ice cream and I could just be interested!