DEVON: Ilfracombe
By Tim Saunders
We learn that bees have five eyes and two stomachs at Quince Honey Farm, South Molton, which was founded in 1949 and is a haven to thousands of honey bees. Beeswax is used in lots of products from furniture polish to sweets. Bee expert Caroline is an absolute mine of information and really engaging as she delivers her talks and demonstrations. We’re each able to make a beeswax candle and then Caroline dons her beekeeping outfit to show us inside a hive, which has around 50,000 bees in it… “Boy bees are lazy,” she smiles, adding that their sole purpose is for mating and then they’re as good as kicked out with some females even biting off their wings so they don’t return. Charming.
We stay in a comfortable self-catering apartment at North Devon Resort where we relax and sleep well in decent beds. Harriett (14, Heidi (12) and Henry (9) share a room and we’re able to rustle up a quick dinner each night without too much
trouble. The dishwasher’s a blessing and the shower room’s finished to a good standard. Our children enjoy catching up on their programmes and we even get a little time to watch some old Top of the Pops shows. Entertainment is provided on site and there’s a singer every night. We discover that Harriet, who works at the venue, has a fantastic voice, as she takes to the stage to sing Amy Winehouse’s Valerie. We play table tennis and air hockey and our children make friends playing indoor football and tennis with them. During our stay we come across Americans and French visitors staying at the resort so feel like we’re abroad. We really enjoy going in the indoor swimming pool whenever we like between the hours of 830am and 830pm, without booking. This is becoming quite rare among the large holiday resorts these days and really does make North Devon Resort, an independent operator, stand out from the crowd. We’re also in an excellent location here to really explore North Devon and during our eight day stay we certainly do.
At Ilfracombe Chocolate Emporium, a 20 minute stroll down the hill into the High Street we take a workshop in all things chocolate and find out that flies pollinate the cacao bean. We didn’t know that. Award winning chocolatier Jeannette Cann gets us to taste different chocolates – using those taste buds as well as our noses - and afterwards we each decorate a chocolate man (a choice of white, milk or dark) with a range of toppings from chilli to mint and coffee, strawberry and even jelly beans. For me the chilli and coffee beans enhance the taste. The children thoroughly enjoy decorating and their creativity shines through, unlike their father’s! A great deal of time is spent creating handmade chocolate, which is of a superior quality to the mass produced varieties found in supermarkets.
Continuing the creative journey we visit Tarka Pottery in Little Torrington, about 20 miles away. Here we make pots and decorate them during a wonderfully relaxed and friendly two hour workshop with Jax and her team. Here we each enjoy making a pot on a wheel, which is really difficult but very rewarding. We then put our artistic abilities to the test. Working to a deadline does bring its own issues and so keeping the design simple is certainly a sensible move. Jax advises that including your design inside the pot is less likely to crack under the extreme heat of the firing process so I pop a cut out bird on the bottom of my bowl and enjoy doing some leaf pressing and popping those along the sides. Cross hatching and adding slip to fix the designs to the pot along the way, I add some shell designs to the exterior, which can also act as handles, I think, if they come out ok. It’s exciting to know that once dried each of our pots will be fired and a month or so later we will receive them in the post! What a great memento of our holiday and something to look forward to even when we’re back at work and school. The business was named after the famous book, Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson, which detailed the life of an otter in this part of Devon.
Getting on a bike is a great way to see the local area and we’re able to do this on mountain bikes along the old railway line into Ilfracombe from Lee Meadow Cycle Hire at Woolacombe, a route suggested by Matt, who runs the business. It’s great fun riding downhill and not worrying about traffic for the vast majority of the route. There’s a sandy beach at Ilfracombe, which feels like a valley because there are properties on either side high above in the surrounding hills. At the entrance to the harbour is Verity, an eye-catching thought provoking 65-foot tall bronze statue by Damien Hirst, who has lived in the county. The sculpture depicts a pregnant woman holding a sword and a set of scales, symbolizing truth and justice.
Not far from Ilfracombe is Arlington Court, a splendid historic property that was a private family home for 500 years. Inside this grand stately pile are pillars that at first glance you might think are marble but we learn are a cheap imitation yet still quite effective. In one of the rooms there’s a trapeze artist in a box and if you turn the box, the figure moves. Looking at the back we see the mechanism is much like a water wheel but uses sand, it’s all very clever. There are some wonderful gardens here, too. We all have a go at archery and slingshots. Caroline and I find a bench and doze in the afternoon sun… for all of five minutes before the children want something. We watch wagtails diving around the lake. At the pinery we find another bench and shut our eyes for a little longer. The pinery, we learn, allowed for pineapples to be grown in Victorian England – a pit filled with manure where the resulting heat was perfect for these South American fruits to flourish here.
Back in Ilfracombe its museum was founded by entomologist and adventurer Mervyn Palmer in the 1930s and his son still volunteers today. This is home to so much history about the place, detailing the cholera of Victorian times that threatened the tourism trade through to terrible hotel fires. There’s been fishing from the harbour for centuries and the museum charts this together with details of the local men who lost their lives in wartime. The children have a go at some Morse code and dress up in old costumes.
Henry, like his father, is impatient, and so it is a joy to watch him patiently wait for the Amur Leopard to appear at Combe Martin Wildlife and Dinosaur Park. He’s an illusive fellow and I think even David Attenborough could become a little exasperated surely. But Henry sits down and waits. And out of the corner of my eye I see what I think looks like a leopard’s coat and I jump up and let him know. For once, I’m right. It’s a thrill. Not least because in the 1970s there were only about 30 of these creatures in existence. Now, thanks to the efforts of parks like this one, things are improving. We see monkeys and fruit bats, sea lions and seals. As well as dinosaurs…. We marvel at how the dinosaurs have been created because they’re not just models, these move and make sounds. I think they’re as life-like as a Spielberg movie... Some even squirt water at the children, which they love. We have fun talking to Charlie the parrot who actually says, “Hello.” We stumble upon a Pharoah’s temple, which is quite a shock and welcomingly cool on a hot summer’s day. The children discover a mummy case that can be opened for them to hide inside.
Down the road near Barnstaple is Heanton Court, a pub in an old manor house, owned by Vintage Inns where we each have a drink and a two course meal in relaxed unhurried family-friendly surroundings. My chilled Guinness is very welcome and goes well with my chicken, bacon and avocado salad. Salmon fishcakes and tenderstem broccoli with a bitter shandy for Caroline while Harriett has a chicken pie and Heidi and Henry both have Margherita pizzas accompanied by fizzy drinks. Desserts of brownie and vanilla ice cream and Belgian chocolate end this meal on a perfect note. Table service is good with friendly and accommodating waiters and waitresses.
On our way home we visit Okehampton Castle where we roam among the ruins and immerse ourselves in this historic structure built after 1066 by Baldwin FitzGilbert after he was given land for success in battle. Later we stroll round this historic market town and find an excellent music shop full of electric guitars.
I don’t think we could have done much more during our eight day stay at North Devon Resorts and we’d love to return to the area.
For more information visit:
