By Helen Matthews
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| Overbeck's |
“You’ll have to back up” he told the driver of the
downward-facing vehicle.
“But I can’t” she replied.
“My engine isn’t powerful enough to reverse up this hill.”
“Well, I’m not reversing all the way down again. I only live round that corner.” He pointed to
a nearby driveway. “Why don’t you go in there until we’ve got past?”
“This had better be worth it” muttered my white-faced
husband, as we showed our National Trust membership cards at the kiosk and
looked for the Tea Room. If ever there
was a time for an emergency cream tea, this was it.
I had received some strange looks when I told my friends and
colleagues that we were going to Devon for our summer holiday this year. “Isn’t
that a bit, well, mainstream, for you?” was the usual response. Maybe, but we had something more exotic planned
for December, and a complete set of membership cards (National Trust, English
Heritage, Art Pass, Historic Houses Association) burning a hole in our pockets,
so we thought we would go and make use of them in a county neither of us had
really visited properly before.
In our innocence, we thought that Torquay would make a good
base. It is a well-known resort, so there would be a good choice of hotels and
it seemed to be more or less central to the various places we wanted to go.
What we failed to realise was that it is impossible to drive more than about
three miles out of Torquay in any direction without encountering a traffic
jam. This meant that our ambitious plan
of historic house visiting had to be curtailed somewhat, as driving times were
much longer than we had expected.
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| Powderham Castle |
Our first excursion, the morning after we arrived, was a
simple potter up the coast road to Powderham Castle, and from there to Cadhay,
near Ottery St Mary. It took us half an
hour to get through Teignmouth, but we managed to reach Powderham just in time
for the 11.00 a.m. guided tour. The seat
of the Courtenay Earls of Devon, Powderham is a genuine medieval castle. But
although the current building was started in 1391, the parts that look the most
medieval are in fact Victorian. The various additions and improvements over the
years have led to some interesting architectural challenges including a
fireplace with a window immediately above it.
As curtains are not possible, there is a retractable mirror that can be
rolled across at night, though a good set of muscles are needed to work the
mechanism.
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| Cadhay |
Cadhay is a much smaller place: a Tudor gentleman’s
residence, with Georgian additions. Its
opening days are less frequent than Powderham as its main business is as a
holiday let and wedding venue; we had to visit that day or not at all. The
house and gardens were both charming, and the tea room served an excellent
coffee and walnut cake and sold pots of home-made jam. A particularly unusual
feature was the ‘Court of the Sovereigns’ at the heart of the house: each wall
is adorned with a statue of a monarch: Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and
Elizabeth I. If they all seem similar, it is not just the family resemblance –
the same body was used for each of them and only the heads are different. I’m
glad we made the effort to visit, though the return journey, through the Friday
evening rush hour in Exeter was not pleasant.
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| Torquay Museum |
The following day we opted to leave the car behind and
explored Torquay on foot. I already knew
that Agatha Christie had been brought up in Torquay, and was keen to visit the
Torquay Museum to see the gallery devoted to her life. To my joy, not only did our National Art
Passes entitle us to free admission, there also was a special exhibition about
science-fiction, and a Dalek in the entrance, providing instant husband
–appeal. I was also impressed by the
Time Ark – a child-friendly permanent exhibit about the geological history of
the planet, told from the perspective of a (time) travel company. Our
pedestrian-only day in Torquay also gave us time for a visit to Torre Abbey and
a game on its pitch and putt course. No English seaside holiday is complete
without a round or two of a putting green. This one had the added attraction of
the possibility of actually hitting the proverbial barn door with a wayward
shot. The course is right by the Spanish Barn, where the crew of The Nuestra Señora del Rosario, a ship
of the Spanish Armada that was captured by Sir Francis Drake were temporarily
incarcerated. (More on that story later.)
Torre Abbey is a former monastery which became a private house after the
Dissolution and is now owned by the local Council and run as an art gallery and
museum.
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| The Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey |
I had read that Greenway, the holiday home Agatha Christie
purchased in later life, had very limited parking. Other means of transport
were preferred. So the next day we drove only as far as Paignton, in order to catch
a steam train for a short ride to connect with a shuttle bus. Once I saw the
narrow approach roads, I was glad that we had left the car behind.
From 1944 to 1945 Greenway was used by the US Coastguard as
part of the D-Day preparations. When the property was finally returned to her,
Agatha found they had left a mural in the library (which she kept) and 14 extra
lavatories, which she insisted were removed, despite the authorities arguing
that they were an ‘improvement’.
Greenway is owned by the National Trust, and presented to look as it did
in the 1950s – as if the family have just popped out. As all the family members were avid
collectors, there is a great deal of stuff, from china to hats in evidence.
Greenway was used as a setting for some of Agatha Christie’s
novels. It appeared as Nasse House in Dead
Man’s Folly (with a corpse in the Boathouse), and Alderbury in Five Little Pigs (with the murder taking
place on the Battery). Both the Boathouse and Battery can be visited.
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| Greenway |
As we made our way out to catch the shuttle bus back to the
station, we were told that there was a problem.
The shuttle bus had broken down.
Taxis were being arranged to take us back to Churston station. When ours
turned up, we found that the driver was one of the talkative type. She was just
explaining about her bad week (the events of which had, worryingly, included
being rear-ended by another car), when, in a narrow lane with no room to pass we
came nose to nose with another taxi from the same company. No one moved.
“It’s Turbo Terry” our driver announced. “He’ll have to go back.”
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| Churston Station |
Terry meanwhile seemed to think that our taxi
should reverse, so we sat there a bit longer.
Eventually, by sheer force of will, our driver managed to persuade Terry
to reverse to the nearest passing place.
He didn’t seem best pleased, especially when our driver took the trouble
to stop and point out that he had a faulty brake-light. Fortunately, we still made it back to the
station in time to catch our train.
The following day we set off for Coleton Fishacre, an Arts
and Crafts house built by the D’Oyley Carte family of Savoy Opera (and hotel)
fame. We found the Art Deco interior
strangely lacking in character – maybe because much of it is a re-creation. It
was more like a show house than a home, despite its glamorous past as the venue
for society house parties between the wars. This time we were driving and it
turned out that the approach roads were just as narrow as those for Greenway. But at least they were straight, unlike the
approach to our next port of call.
Overbeck’s is named after Otto
Overbeck, an inventor whose creations included the ‘Rejuvenator.’ The house
itself is of no particular architectural merit, but came as a package with the
gardens, which are the main attraction: sub-tropical plantings with stunning views
over the bay. The interior is a museum for exhibits which include Otto
Overbeck’s natural history collections and other artefacts, including a couple
of examples of the ‘Rejuvenator’.
After the hair-raising drive up to the house, we were in
need of rejuvenation ourselves, but made do with the aforementioned cream tea. The
scones were huge, light and fluffy, though the tiny pots of Tiptree jam were a
bit of a disappointment. Still, it was just as well that we had fortified
ourselves. On the way back we encountered yet another Devon (traffic) jam on
our way through Totnes.
After that experience, we spent more time exploring the
delights of Torquay, including Living Coasts, a combination of a zoo and
aquarium dealing with sea life both above and below the water, Babbacombe Model
Village and Kent’s Cavern, a prehistoric cave which also featured in one of
Agatha Christie’s novels (of course) with a café which also serves a delicious
cream tea.
The moral of this story is that if you are going to Torbay,
there is plenty to do just on foot, ferry, steam train and local bus. Leave the car behind, and spend more time in
the tea shop. Just remember that the cream
goes on first, then the jam.
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