Typical North Devon Cottage

North Devon cottages are typically quite modest houses, often in a rural, or semi-rural setting. Usually these are one-and-a-half story properties, where the upstairs floor goes into the eaves. The windows are usually dormers which means there maybe restricted height in part of the room. This also sometimes means that the eave timbers form part of the bedroom space. The timber purlins, rafters and posts are left to give a more traditional feel.
In some of the larger North Devon villages and small towns the term “cottage” can just mean a small, cosy house.

This doesn’t mean that cottages are always small, though. They vary in size usually with between 1 and 4 bedrooms. Larger cottages have sometimes been created by knocking a row of small cottages into one or two larger houses and a cosy cottagey exterior can hide a spacious living area.

The joy of a holiday cottage is that you can use it as if it were your own home for the duration of your stay. This gives you the freedom to eat in, eat out and relax . Unlike a bed and breakfast or hotel, where there is usually some sort of restriction on your access because of cleaning schedules, in a holiday cottage you can please yourself.

Holiday cottages are an ideal choice for families with children and babies, especially in larger properties where three generations can holiday together.

Holidays in cottages are becoming more and more popular in the UK. Holiday rentals in areas such as Cornwall, the Lake District and Costwolds are now very expensive. This is where relatively undiscovered and unspoilt villages of North Devon really come into their own. Prices are far more reasonable and availability is good, giving holiday-makers a much wider choice.
Increased competition between cottage owners has led to significant improvements in the quality of presentation of properties on offer. You can expect tasteful decor, character furnishings and good quality appliances in most North Devon cottages.

Image credit Adrian Platt ©©

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Posted via web from North Devon Cottages

Posted via web from North Devon Cottages

Teen pregnancy hotspot town’s new logo looks like a human sperm

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26/11/2009

A town with a dire teen pregnancy record has rebran-ded itself using a logo that looks like a human sperm.

Designer Tessa Martin came up with the “idiosyncratic swirl” as part of a campaign which cost council taxpayers £5,000.

It is supposed to get people to “take another look and be surprised” by Ilfracombe, Devon.

What can I say?

Posted via web from North Devon Cottages

Devon is the setting for a couple of classic works of fiction, Lorna Doone and Tarka the Otter. Both are typical Sunday afternoon serial material and offer good plots, bags of atmosphere and a story the whole family can enjoy.

Lorna Doone

Lorna Doone is a character in a well known book that became a much loved film. (For many Americans she is synonymous with shortbread bisuits but that’s another story!) The book, subtitled A Romance of Exmoor is a novel by Richard Doddridge Blackmore. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset. The hero John Ridd’s father, a respectable farmer, was murdered in cold blood by one of the notorious Doone clan, a once noble family, now outlaws, in the isolated Doone Valley. Battling his desire for revenge, John grows up to take good care of his mother and two sisters and become a farmer like his father.  One day he meets a girl, Lorna, and falls hopelessly in love. Tragically she seems to be not only the granddaughter of Sir Ensor Doone but destined to marry the evil heir of the Doone Valley, Carver Doone. Carver will let nothing get in the way of his marriage to Lorna, which he plans to force upon her once Sir Ensor dies and he comes into his inheritance.

Lorna Doone Country

The Exmoor countryside becomes almost another character in the book and some of the descriptions make the Moor sound a very bleak, yet hauntingly beautiful place. There are lots of walks available that are based on the story and it is fairly easy to find the real life models for many places mentioned in the book. At the heart of Loona Doone Country is Malmsmead, where visitors can find Lorna Doone Farm, and nearby Oare House and Oare Church, where R D Blackmore’s grandfather was once rector.

Tarka the Otter

Tarka the Otter is another well loved story set in the Devon countryside. Tarka was written by Henry Williamson and first published in 1927. It starts with Tarka as  a cub growing up in a den with his mother and siblings. As a cub, he learns how to clean himself, swim, and catch fish. When his home is attacked by hunters, he and his family must abandon it to flee from danger. Joining up with another group of otters, the family continue to travel. At some point he loses his family and his mother forgets she even had a cub named Tarka. From then on he must fend for himself.

It is a fairly realistic imagining of the life of an otter from his earliest time as a cub to the end of his life. It is not a book for the squeamish and some of the descriptions of animal behaviour are quite vivid. However it gives an amazingly realistic, althought sometimes harsh, picture of the life of the Devon countryside.

The Tarka Trail

Tarka lives his life and has his adventures in a much more realistic depiction of North Devon than Lorna Doone. The area where the book is set is well documented and there is even a Tarka Trail which you can use to help you explore.

The Tarka Trail is a series of interconnected footpaths and cyclepaths. It is a figure-of-eight route and covers some 180 miles of path. The route covers a wide variety of landscapes including: wooded river valleys, rugged moorland, coastal cliffs and sandy bays. Walking varies between easy and strenuous, depending on the location, but, in general, it is comprehensively waymarked. You can also explore the Tarka Trail by bike and cycle hire is available if you haven’t brought bikes from home.

Preparing for your holiday builds the excitement

If you are preparing for a holiday in a North Devon cottage you could do worse than add both of these to your family reading list. Children will enjoy both these books and be fascinated by finding the real places described in them. A bit of preparation like this before a holiday can provide a good theme for days out and give that feeling of being on a quest which children often find enjoyable.

Another way to prepare is to find videos of both these stories and here are a couple to get you started.

The first is a trailer for the film of Tarka the Otter (available on DVD) and will give you a taste of the sort of countryside you will be exploring form your cottage.

The second is set on Exmoor itself and is a trailer for the 1960s film of Lorna Doone. I couldn’t resist showing you it but I fear it may give a rather strange impression of Lorna Doone’s setting. Do you think they’d ever been to the UK?

A quick look round youtube also leads to the whole of the more recent BBC classic serial of the story with Amelia Warner and Richard Coyle  but I’m not about to link to that here as the BBC may well insist it is taken down. You can however buy the series on DVD. Lorna Doone [DVD]

I think that doing a bit of preparation when you are getting ready for a holiday helps to build excitement and will add to your chances of a really good holiday in your North Devon cottage.

image credit: nicksarebi

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