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Riding about as an emmet in Devon


yen_powell

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I went to north Devon to visit my son and his family plus to have a little ride round and look at a bit of scenery. The weather report lied as usual, those wankers at the Met Office should have their soft dangly bits put in a vice. Whilst passing over Exmoor in the pissing rain on the way there was a bright flash off to one side of me and an immediate noise like a bomb had gone off. I though the army were firing shells, but realised quickly it was a close by lighting strike. I shit myself!

Visited Clovelly, the private village you pay to walk in (no driving allowed). The shop keepers I met were all really chatty, they had visited and then got jobs and moved in, one had been there 20 years, but still had a broad Birmingham accent. All goods are moved about by sledge and most houses had theirs stored outside the front door, chained up to stop tourists taking them home I reckon.

Later went to The Valley of the Rocks and left it at the other end via a £2 toll road. Road as a description was a bit strong, it was about 5 feet wide with a heap of mud along the middle all along its twisting steepness. Trying to keep my left leg away from rocks and tree branches meant my front wheel hit the mud in the centre sometimes and caused a few hairy moments. Couldn't even stop and take pictures it was so narrow with drop offs into the surrounding woods.

I stayed in a B&B that used to be the old vicarage in Barnstaple. The two hobby horses pictured were hanging on the coat rack.

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We visited  Clovelly (years ago) during the summer, it was mental, like Wembly  turning out after a FA cup, got down to the harbour and we found the rest of the FA cup crowd.....

We was not there for long.

 

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5 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

These are some seriously good aged textures you've captured in these pics. So nice to look at. Thankyou.

Taken on my work phone, don't have a phone of my own.

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3 minutes ago, Clive said:

We visited  Clovelly (years ago) during the summer, it was mental, like Wembly  turning out after a FA cup, got down to the harbour and we found the rest of the FA cup crowd.....

We was not there for long.

 

It wasn't too bad, the rain helped keep numbers down.

To answer Pete's question, everyone that lived there I spoke to loved it. They said if anyone moves the whole village pitches in and uses the sledges when required. The super rich landowner walks through asking if anything needs fixing and sorts it straight away, rents are not too bad and if they work there as well pay is good. If residents get too old to walk the hill they get moved to the bottom of the village so that they can use the single access road in a vehicle if required.

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Just now, yen_powell said:

It wasn't too bad, the rain helped keep numbers down.

To answer Pete's question, everyone that lived there I spoke to loved it. They said if anyone moves the whole village pitches in and uses the sledges when required. The super rich landowner walks through asking if anything needs fixing and sorts it straight away, rents are not too bad and if they work there as well pay is good. If residents get too old to walk the hill they get moved to the bottom of the village so that they can use the single access road in a vehicle if required.

So they all pay rent?

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This place was on one of Henry Coles Motorbike progs. The man who owns the place says he has to make sure people who want to move there really understand the downsides and that mainly people are very happy there. He seemed vaguely embarrassed he owns all of it.

Those cobbles look savage though, imagine them icey in the winter 😱 no thanks.

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4 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

This place was on one of Henry Coles Motorbike progs. The man who owns the place says he has to make sure people who want to move there really understand the downsides and that mainly people are very happy there. He seemed vaguely embarrassed he owns all of it.

Those cobbles look savage though, imagine them icey in the winter 😱 no thanks.

I asked about snow and ice and one of the people I spoke to said that as it is sheltered from behind and the sides and faces the sea it is very rare to get snow or ice even when surrounding areas do. It pissed down both before and whilst I was there so I walked very carefully on the cobbles, break a hip at my age and it's curtains. The water goes into the joints between the pebbles and so the tops dry quickly.

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3 hours ago, XTreme said:

WTF? They can't take their cars in and they push their supplies around by cart?

Who in their right mind would want to live like that?

That's to keep all the lazy chavs out i'd live there  :littleguy:

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20 minutes ago, Pedro said:

 

What a couple of cuties!

 

Great pictures, great report, thanks!

Those are my grand daughters. Known to me inside my head as GD1 and GD2 because their real names are too embarrassing. When GD1 ran ahead near the edge of the harbour I hesitated before calling out her name aloud.

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14 minutes ago, Sofia said:

Lovely!! Much prefer Devon to Cornwall.  #discuss

I used to ride to Devon every Friday evening for about 2 years for the weekend. Plymouth in fact. Most Saturdays we would ride across town and get on the very quick ferry across the river and into Cornwall and just explore. I like them both equally.

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