Oh dear… somehow I didn’t share a blog here yesterday. I’mm not sure how that happened – or rather how it didn’t happen, we were out yesterday during the day and had a wonderful time, but we were home by seven. I think it must be that we had such a great time in a place we had never been to before that my mind I just forgot!
Yesterday we went to Teignmouth. I have to confess that although I had heard of the seaside town in Devon, and although I guessed it was on the River Teign, I wasn’t exactly sure where it was. Teignmouth is about twelve miles away from Exeter, and fortunately it has a railway station and we travelled by train on our trip. On the way down, for the first part of the journey, I was sitting by a pillar and had a very restricted view from the little bit of window I could see from. On the way home I was by the window, and had a magnificent view as we travelled along the coast before we headed inland. This is what the South Devon Guide tells us:
Teignmouth is a stunning coastal town with historic Georgian buildings, long sandy beaches, and fresh local food.
The town sits on the edge of the mouth of River Teign and the South Devon coast – and is surrounded by lush Devon countryside, so you won’t find a more beautiful setting for a holiday. Located on the main South West train line, Teignmouth is an easy journey from London, along the most spectacular coastal train route in the country. Dartmoor National Park, Exeter and Torquay are just a few miles from Teignmouth, making it an ideal central location to explore the rest of South Devon.
People have lived in the area for thousands of years, and I’m not surprised, it’s not only beautiful but has arable land for farming as well as being on a river estuary and beside the sea for fishing – and of course transport and trade. As you can imagine a place like Teignmouth has a long history and significance, and was even attacked by the French in 1340. It was further under attack from French privateers called The Dunkirkers because obviously, that’s where they sailed from! However – although they sailed out of Dunkirk (and Nieuwport and Ostend), they were for the most part Spanish. By the eighteenth century, the pirates – known as privateers were more local to the southwest of England.
Before the tourists became the chief source of income in Teignmouth, the sea provided the main source of income for the fishermen who went out to Newfoundland waters to find their catch. This left the women at home to provide for their families which they did by fishing and operating the ferries.
Teignmouth, like Weston-super-Mare where we live, has a history of tourism stretching back to the beginning of the nineteenth century – but it predates Weston as a major tourist destination – its first tea-house was built in 1787 and by the early 1800’s was quite fashionable! It is of course much much smaller than Weston, with a population of about 15,00 compared to Weston which is over 82,000 now. We absolutely fell in love with it, such an interesting place, such a nice atmosphere – of course on a day trip we only spent a few hours there, however we’re hoping to go back, maybe for us to spend a few days there, but I think we’ll wait until the summer tourist season is over! And we will check when the museum is open too!!
PS one unfortunate experience was that I was mugged!! A seagull swooped down and snatched my ice-cream straight off the top of my cone! I’d only taken a couple of licks and it was stolen, and the chocolate flake still in it!
Lois Elsden 