Easter Sunday
It's Easter and AFC are away at Plymouth, sounds like an extended Awayday to Devon!
So at about 09:15 on Sunday 20 April we set off, the weathermans forecast was for rain to commence at 10:00, and right on key it came and it duly rained all the way to Devon and beyond.
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| Rain on the M3 |
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| Barrington Court |
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| Strode Hall |
Next to Barrington Court and joined by a corridor is Strode House, former occupants, and
formerly a stable block but now houses the Restaurant and living accommodation on the first floor.
The gardens were delightful even in the rain!
Next stop was Chagford, a pleasant former stannery town on the edge of Dartmoor. Apart from the cafés, bistros and restaurants everywhere else was closed. The primary objective for going to Chagford was to visit the Pepperpot Art Gallery where we regularly (well twice) purchase watercolours of the local area which have been painted by not so well known artists from the late 19th and early 20th Century, and over the last year we've become quite friendly with Richard the proprietor, however as previously mentioned it was closed, oh well that's saved me a few quid.
However, the Birdcage was open, this is a very charming bistro / cafe which we have visited before. Nicely decorated and with a good menu. Today we treated ourselves to a Cream Tea, Yummy very tasty, and the first cup of tea was a delight, the water is so much better than in London, straight off the moor!
We were actually staying near Okehampton at Sourton, last year we stayed at the Mill End Hotel near Moretonhampstead, this year we slummed it in the Travelodge!
You can't fault a Travelodge, you know what your going to get, and in this case a large room, a very comfey bed, bathroom, TV, tea making facilities and half an hours free wi-fi! Given its close proximity to the A38 it was remarkably quite. The building it's self is rather unsympathetic with the surroundings, almost modern brutalist, sharing a plot with the obligatory Little Chef, however the Prewley Moor Arms was just across the road offering real ale and home cooked food.
Unfortunately the road was a duel carriageway, the A38, and even if we choose to walk the 'long way round' there were no paths or pavements. The Pub is situated at the end of a road where the new A38 was driven through cutting the road off so it now leads to nowhere, must have done a lot for business. There's a small Caravan / Camping site next to the pub and the granite way runs behind, which is the route of the old LSWR mainline to the West via Exeter, Okehampton, Tavistock to Plymouth. Lots of talk of re-opening this line following the storms early in the year and the cutting off of the railway at Dawlish.
Anyway back to Prewley Moor Arms and the need for us to drive to the pub! We enjoyed a couple of pints of local brew, Dartmoor Ale and Legand from the Dartmoor Brewery based in Princetown. The food is all locally sourced produce, apparently we had to wait awhile for our food but to be honest I did not really notice. I had gammon, chips, salad and egg, the thickest piece of gammon I've ever had, a good 1 1/4 cm thick, whilst Beverley had beef lasagne. Very enjoyable. I think the meal, coffee and five drinks cost £40 (this really should be posted on Tip Advisor shouldn't it!).
Suitably fed and watered we returned to the Tavelodge, and it was still raining.
Good night dear see you tomorrow.
Easter Monday
After a marvellous nights sleep, we were up early and down to Meldon reservoir (I was quite surprised to night that the reservoir was not as full as I expected it to be) for a brisk walk down to quarry across the impressive viaduct that used to carry the railway and back to the car and a drive into Chagford for breakfast at the Birdcage, Full English, toast and black coffee.
Then next door to visit Richard at the Pepperpot, Beverley examined the paintings while I chatted to Richard, it turns out we both used to work for NatWest although Richard started with the National Provincial.
So much for saving a few quid we left Richard promising to return later in the summer, our wallets empty but clutching a couple of paintings by Frederick Parr
A few weeks ago Beverley had been where she shouldn't have been in eldest daughter's bedroom and unfortunately knocked over a butterfly tee-light which shattered into a number of small pieces and even my skill with the glue failed to repair it. So with the promise of a replacement we visited the Marble Factory at Bovey Tracey as this is where Eldest had originally purchased it, unfortunately we were unsuccessful, but we were reward with a Mini Cooper Rally!
I Don't generally drive to football preferring to travel by train, indeed I had originally booked a Travelodge in Plymouth City centre with this in mind, however with the prohibitive cost of the trains, even three months in advance and then the cutting off of railway I changed my plans. Whilst this has given us more flexibility I'm currently writing this on the A303 in a traffic jam approaching Stonehenge and still a good two hours drive to go, it doesn't seem quite a good idea now!
Anyway back to the Football, as I said I don't drive to many games and when I do I try to avoid the club car park on two scores, one they charge and two you can't get out after the game. So I parked up a little street twenty minutes walk from the ground next to a park, which I guess is also known as Home Park the home of Plymouth Argyle.
Home Park is modern and ancient, three sides are Cantilever continuous seating and very impressive too, whilst the remaining side is the original stand, with a huge empty unused expanse of terracing in front.
AFC, despite what a number of our supporters would be believe are on quite a good little run, I think it's now only two defeats in eleven games and we are in the top seven or eight of the from league. Today was a well deserved 2-1 victory after once again going 1-0 down to a wonder strike from 25 yards by Conor Hourihane after seven minutes, but cancelled out by the ever popular Jack Midson after great work by Kwesi Appiah. We got the winner midway though the second half following a good move and for once one of our players winning a one on one with the Keeper, the scorer being Kwesi Appiah.
It was a great all round performance, so much better than the first half on Good Friday, we never really looked in trouble even when Argyle threw on two six foot plus strikers and when they did break through Ross Worner, our keeper, made some top notch saves.
We are now mathematically safe from regulation, but the division is so tight a couple of more victories would have put in with a shout of the play offs! So we can now enjoy the last couple of games of the season.
A very pleasant break, non stop for the two days, a lot achieved a lot of money spent, a couple of new paintings and three more points, shame about this damn traffic!
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| Chagford town centre |
However, the Birdcage was open, this is a very charming bistro / cafe which we have visited before. Nicely decorated and with a good menu. Today we treated ourselves to a Cream Tea, Yummy very tasty, and the first cup of tea was a delight, the water is so much better than in London, straight off the moor!
We were actually staying near Okehampton at Sourton, last year we stayed at the Mill End Hotel near Moretonhampstead, this year we slummed it in the Travelodge!
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| Sourton Travelodge |
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| That's the Pub across the A38, you can just make out the route people take under the broken fence |
Anyway back to Prewley Moor Arms and the need for us to drive to the pub! We enjoyed a couple of pints of local brew, Dartmoor Ale and Legand from the Dartmoor Brewery based in Princetown. The food is all locally sourced produce, apparently we had to wait awhile for our food but to be honest I did not really notice. I had gammon, chips, salad and egg, the thickest piece of gammon I've ever had, a good 1 1/4 cm thick, whilst Beverley had beef lasagne. Very enjoyable. I think the meal, coffee and five drinks cost £40 (this really should be posted on Tip Advisor shouldn't it!).
Suitably fed and watered we returned to the Tavelodge, and it was still raining.
Good night dear see you tomorrow.
Easter Monday
After a marvellous nights sleep, we were up early and down to Meldon reservoir (I was quite surprised to night that the reservoir was not as full as I expected it to be) for a brisk walk down to quarry across the impressive viaduct that used to carry the railway and back to the car and a drive into Chagford for breakfast at the Birdcage, Full English, toast and black coffee.
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| Meldon Viaduct |
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| Meldon Dam |
So much for saving a few quid we left Richard promising to return later in the summer, our wallets empty but clutching a couple of paintings by Frederick Parr
A few weeks ago Beverley had been where she shouldn't have been in eldest daughter's bedroom and unfortunately knocked over a butterfly tee-light which shattered into a number of small pieces and even my skill with the glue failed to repair it. So with the promise of a replacement we visited the Marble Factory at Bovey Tracey as this is where Eldest had originally purchased it, unfortunately we were unsuccessful, but we were reward with a Mini Cooper Rally!
 |
| Mini Cooper Rally at Bovey Tracey |
Anyway back to the Football, as I said I don't drive to many games and when I do I try to avoid the club car park on two scores, one they charge and two you can't get out after the game. So I parked up a little street twenty minutes walk from the ground next to a park, which I guess is also known as Home Park the home of Plymouth Argyle.
Home Park is modern and ancient, three sides are Cantilever continuous seating and very impressive too, whilst the remaining side is the original stand, with a huge empty unused expanse of terracing in front.
 |
| The Ancient |
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| The Modern |
It was a great all round performance, so much better than the first half on Good Friday, we never really looked in trouble even when Argyle threw on two six foot plus strikers and when they did break through Ross Worner, our keeper, made some top notch saves.
We are now mathematically safe from regulation, but the division is so tight a couple of more victories would have put in with a shout of the play offs! So we can now enjoy the last couple of games of the season.
A very pleasant break, non stop for the two days, a lot achieved a lot of money spent, a couple of new paintings and three more points, shame about this damn traffic!
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