Scorriton

Scorriton being a village near Holne which we visited at the end of our stay there. Part of the interest being dispute about whether it is spelt 'Scorriton' or 'Scoriton', with our understanding being that it is said with a short 'o' which usually makes for a double 'r'.

The story from the Ordnance Survey

Official sign

Mill wheels

Just before the off, I snapped the steps leading up out of the back of our cottage, which I believe to have been made out of worn out mill wheels, my understanding being that these last did not used to last very long at all, and so there would be plenty of scrapped ones about. All the steps exhibiting the characteristic radial grooves, and at least one, off snap, the circular edge.

Hole - large

Headed off down the track to Scorriton, probably once a road, now sinking back to being a track. The large green dashed track on the map above. Lots of large holes in the banks, with the one snapped above looking a bit big for a rabbit - but if not a rabbit what else was it going to be?

Steps

Then a curiously well made set of steps, leading up out of the track. Why would someone have gone to the bother? Brain must have been in neutral as I did not think to climb up and take a look.

Holes - mainly small

More holes. Earthworm tunnels exposed by erosion? Or perhaps earthworms are just a bit dim and carry on pushing out in the open air? Somewhere along the way a water treatment works, discretely hidden behind the hedge. And so into the village. A proper rural backwater, with farms and suchlike, not on the road to anywhere much. One of which would sell us clotted cream rather than scrumpy (see below) and which looked as if it had sold milk in bottles, not so very long ago.

Rustic machinery

Rustic bus shelter

It struck us that if walls could talk, this bus shelter might have had some tales to tell.

A very satisfactory lunch at the Tradesmans Arms, in my case involving lasagne (made, it turned out, on the premises) and a perfectly decent sauvignon blanc. The proprietrix sounded a bit south London to me, while the lady cook might have been from the Philippines. Wouldn't like to say where the pleasant young waitress came from. But if not the daughter of the house, how would one wind up in such a place on a weekday lunchtime?

As we left a B&B party turned up on foot, having walked the fifteen miles from Ivybridge. One of the ladies was wearing trainers near identical to my own, in fact the waterproof version of my own, and we agreed that one had to choose between wet feet and hot feet. I moaned about their short life, sometimes as little as four months. And this morning, having turned up reference 5, I wondered whether they were on an older persons singles holiday.

The dining extension had been contrived with lots of windows and with fine views over the valley below. Lots of swallows swinging about. Even some sparrows, said to be common but not here in our part of Epsom.

The Methodists

Perhaps from the days when the working classes went to chapel, for one time and place in the week when the ruling classes left them alone.

Rising to the top

But even on Sundays, there had to be someone in charge, as testified by the commemorative stones let into the base of the building, at a handy height to be read.

Development opportunity

Rustic, working stable

Nettles

The leaves on these nettles seemed particularly large, but that may have been the sauvignon blanc talking.

Gill

We closed the day with a final visit to the church at Holne, running into, inter alia, another Gill of the Gills, seemingly quite common hereabouts - with a Tavistock member of the clan being noticed at reference 3 and an arty one at reference 4. While this chap put in sixty of his ninety years as vicar of Holne, just leaving him enough time to pop over to Cambridge to get his MA (CANTAB).

Anachronism

I have already noticed the chair, part of which is snapped above, included again here as one of our party was quite sure that Border Collies - the sort of thing that stars in 'One man and his dog' - were not around at the time of the Deluge. I might also mention that somewhere along the line we came across a regular collie, not often seen these days.

Collie?

At least I thought it was a collie at the time, a tall thin hunting dog in format, mainly brown, but nothing like as hairy as the dogs turned up by both Bing and Google. Perhaps the show fashion is for long hair.

And that closes the recent holiday in Devon.

PS: amused this morning to find that the place that Scorriton is twinned with is in the department of Calvados, with Calvados presently being my strong liquor of choice.

Castle Fontaine-Henry

The castle there is very ancient, and named for the good friend of the builder, one King Henry II of England. At least according to Wikipedia. See reference 1. So far, I have found accounts of its place in the Normandy landings and advertisements for holiday cottages, but no suggestion that Calvados is to be had. Perhaps, as with scrumpy in England, you have to go there in person and pick up on hand written signs posted on farm gates.

Reference 1: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontaine-Henry.

Reference 2: https://www.tradesmansarms-dartmoor.com/.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/tavistock-day.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/newgill.html.

Reference 5: https://www.walkthetrail.co.uk/holidays/26/dartmoor-exmoor--the-two-moors-way?itinerary=0.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/01/shopping.html. Suggesting that my present trainers are around five months old. I shall inspect them this morning and try to estimate how much longer they have to go.