The Heritage Centre

Its half way through the half term holiday and we're all going a little stir crazy. I had to pop in to Barnstaple to go to the post office so I decided to take the children into the Heritage Centre, mostly under protest I should add. I ignored the whines of "Can't we go to Playtime Adventure?" and bribed them with a trip to the cinema tonight instead.

The Heritage Centre is situated on The Strand, the road that runs along the river Taw. The area directly in front of it is home to the Millenium Mosaic which charts Barnstaples history back 1000 years to when it was made a borough by Athlestan. It is generally also home to large groups of skateboarders, but the weather today must have driven them away.

Inside the centre the tale of Barnstaple's history is also told, starting in Anglo-Saxon times, focusing quite a lot on Tudor times, mentioning briefly the Civil War and ending in the 18th Century with Barnstaple born playwright John Gay. Adult tickets are £3.50, children £2 and under 7's go free. The children were given a quiz on a clipboard and a pencil to record their answers but finding these answers involved listening to the recording of the models telling their stories and once they'd pressed the button to start the recording they generally lost interest in this. Much more interesting was the task of looking for the 15 white plastic mice that were hidden in the exhibits. When we got to the end and had only found 10 we had to go round again. We still only managed to find 13.

Other points of interest were remaking the broken pottery plates magnetised to the wall, dressing up in costumes, and doing a brass rubbing. By the time we'd finished my nine year old daughter said, "OK this isn't boring after all".

Saunton

Yes, I know I've written about this before, but its worth another mention. Today was a glorious day and as we haven't been anywhere for a while (the whole of January in fact) we thought we'd stretch our legs. It must have been a good idea because well over one hundred other people had the same one. There were loads of them on the beach, surfers, dog-walkers, parents with children clutching nets, etc. And it could've been April the temperatures were so good - brilliant sunshine and not a breath of wind.

Our main reason for choosing Saunton, and not somewhere I haven't blogged about yet, was The Sands cafe. Owned by the hotel you can see in the photo, and situated at the end of the car park, it serves the most wonderful hot chocolates. Unfortunately it's shut until March (this wasn't the case last winter) so my children were a little disappointed. However, there is a little kiosk next to the beach shop between the car park and the beach, and they serve hot chocolate and hot doughnuts, and it was so lovely no one minded sitting outside on a picnic bench (see new blog for proof - link opposite.)

PS. Car parking in winter is a mere £2!

Bideford - New Years Eve

There is nowhere better to be on New Years Eve than Bideford. It often ranks in national newpaper polls as one of the best places in the country to be on New Years Eve. One poll for the Independent rated it as one of the top ten in in the world. Thousands of people flock here from all over the country. And everyone wears fancy dress! The pubs are packed to the rafters, the streets are full and there is such a fantastic atmosphere that even the weather can't dampen it.

People gather on the quay at midnight. The clock at the end of the old bridge chimes in the new year but it is also announced by the DJs on the music stage which blasts out dance tracks all night. Then follows a great fireworks display which lasts about 15 minutes.

We had a bit of rain last night - it managed to fall while we were in the pubs, luckily for us. Then there was a bit at 11.50 as we made our way to the quay. Miraculously it completely stopped by 11.58. Someone up there was smiling on us. Lets hope our luck holds for 2007. Here are a few of the photos I liked the best. Happy New Year everyone!

Parracombe

Fresh air and exercise were the order of the day today. Get the kids out before they drive me totally insane. After all we haven't been out for a while. "We went out on Christmas Eve," they cried. Well that was ages ago!

So we got out the Jarrold Exmoor walks book to see where we haven't been before. Walk No 1 - Parracombe. That's not too far away, Blackmoor Gate, turn towards Lynmouth then left for about a mile. The book said 'short easy walk, some farm lanes may be muddy.' No worries, it's a nice day and a little bit of mud never hurt anyone.

Well for a mile and a half of the walk we were having a great time. The sun was shining, sheep were frolicking in the fields, the paths were easy to follow and only a little bit squishy underfoot, there were even a few tiny streams to wade through.

Then we hit the path from hell. Mud almost up to our knees and no other way through. We tried climbing the top of the hedge but that only got us so far. Children wailed, got stuck, fell down, became entangled in prickly brambles and had to be carried. But fear not, by the time we'd reached the hole in the hedge which let us into the adjacent field we were all laughing about it; which was a good job because the farmer in the farm at the end of the lane was laughing even harder when we got there.

Just to give you an idea - this was the last photo I took before my camera battery gave out. We had fun but this a walk best attempted in the summer.

Christmas House

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a visit to this house. Somewhere in between Bickington and Instow on the old Barnstaple road this house is now so famous and so popular around here that the police put cones along the roads nearby to stop people parking in front of it. When we arrived there were already at least thirty people stood around. The photo really doesn't do it justice.

At the back of his house (I'm sorry I don't know the man's name) his garage is also as well decorated and full of animated snowmen, Father Christmas's and reindeer. People who visit are encouraged to donate money, all of which goes to charity - usually the Devon Air Ambulance. In the last four years he has raised over £16,000.

My children were fascinated and didn't want to leave. The only thing that eventually got them home was the thought of checking the NORAD website to see whereabouts Santa had got to. As I write he is currently in Italy - nearly here!

Pizza Hut

After our walk we went straight to Pizza Hut in Barnstaple. This is the third year in a row on Christmas Eve. It seems to be turning into a tradition. My motto is - keep them out of the house for as long as possible. Plus if I don't have to cook I don't have to clean afterwards either. The service is fairly crap but we were in no rush. The food was acceptable and they didn't moan too much when I said 'no ice cream' so that was a bonus.

Baggy Point

Travel through Croyde and out the other side and you will find directions to Baggy Point. A narrow country lane takes you to the National Trust car park and from there you can follow the signs to a path that takes you along the very edge of the cliff for 1 mile to the aforementioned point.

It was a bracing walk today and the fear of loosing one or more children off the edge of the cliff into the freezing seas far below was a much more effective hangover cure than the traditional hair of the dog. The walk is circular and coming back we took the route that was less hazardous, across the hills.

I have spent many hours at Baggy watching my husband and others climb the cliff. I've even had a go myself. It's a beautiful place, but you might prefer it when the skies are bluer and the sun more than just a distant memory.

The Park Hotel

It's party time! We came here last night for a lovely three course meal and some dancing afterwards, but there are plenty of places around to chose from. This is owned by the Brends, and there are four other Brend hotels in North Devon. The food was very yummy, the disco good fun, and it set Christmas weekend off just right.

Atlantic Village

It's been a while since I've had anything to report. When winter hits North Devon we tend to hide indoors. Plus the looming presence of Christmas forces the inevitability of hitting the shops and drives everything else from the mind (or at least one as tiny as mine!) So today I dragged my three children around Atlantic Village, a small outlet centre just outside Bideford on the A39.

There are really only a handful of shops, but if these are the shops you like then it's worth coming here to get the discount off the high street prices. There are several clothes and lingere shops - Select, Pilot, Kangeroo Poo, Salt Rock, to name but a few. There are also camping type shops, a toyshop, a bookshop, and - this is quite important - a Cadbury's shop!!! There are a few cafe's too. At the moment there is an ice rink, although only plastic ice, not the sort of ice you can actually go fast on.

Tagged on to the side of the Atlantic Village is an attration for children called Atlantis. A rather tempting looking pirate ship is the first thing you see on approaching the complex. But the last time we attempted to go in it was rather expensive, and we ended up not bothering. They charge prices comparable with the Big Sheep, which is only just down the road, for something which is only a fraction of the size.

So in conclusion, go for the cheap shopping, but if you want to entertain the kids, the Big Sheep is better. I bought a last few bits and pieces this afternoon and have now nearly finished! Yippee! When do the Sales start?

Wistlandpound Reservoir

Wrapped up in warm winter coats, hats and gloves we ventured out this afternoon for a Sunday afternoon walk. Head out of Barnstaple towards Exmoor and after about nine miles you will reach Blackmoor Gate, a quick right and right again will lead you down a narrow country lane to Wistlandpound Reservoir. It supplies local drinking water and there are signs up around the lake warning people not to bathe in it. The water levels seemed unusually low for this time of year.

We took a leisurely stroll around the lake and it took us about an hour. There are wooded parts, grassy paths by the water's edge, streams to play Pooh Sticks on and a jetty where you can wander down to the water and try your hand at skimming stones. We managed about two skips today and were put to shame when we were joined by a boy who managed eight or ten several times in a row.

After heavy rain it can be quite muddy in places but today it was fine and quite sheltered too. My daughters had shed hats, gloves and scarves by the time we'd completed our circuit. I, however, was glad of a cup of tea when we reached home.

Barum Gate, Barnstaple

Situated at the entrance to Barnstaple this is the first thing that greets you as you turn off the A361. It is a Travel Inn and Brewers Fayre. The kids love it as there is an enclosed playarea out the side entrance of the restaurant where they can come and go at will, safely viewed by parents through the windows. So to console ourselves after our disappointing visit to the Honey Farm we decided to lunch here (well my husand did - I comfort shop, my husband comfort eats.)

They seem to change the menus quite regularly so the ploughmans lunch I was looking forward to wasn't something they did anymore. The chicken and leek pie I had instead was very nice, although I'm not sure why it needed to be square. The children enjoyed their meals, and only the littlest one ordered chicken nuggets and chips. My husband was disappointed and vowed never to come here again. Don't listen to him, he didn't read the menu properly and ordered the vegetarian burger by mistake! That's fate telling him he needs to be more careful about what he eats.

Quince Honey Farm

It was cold today and threatening to rain. So we decided to visit somewhere indoors. None of us had ever been to the Quince Honey Farm in South Molton before so we decided to give it a go - the leaflet looked quite inviting. We won't bother again - I'm afraid it's the one place on my blog that I have to advise against. The building itself is cold and uninviting, reminiscent of a Victorian mental institution, high ceilinged and echoey. The girl behind the counter in the entrance was miserable. And the cost was not the same as on the leaflet, £3.95 adults, £2.95 children. It most definately wasn't worth it.

Inside you are supposed to be able to look down on the working factory through the glass ceiling above it. It wasn't working. I thought at first it was just our fault for being stupid enough to pick a Saturday to visit, but reading the information on the walls around the museum it seems the honey production only happens during July, when the main hives are actually on the premises. November to Easter only the shop and cafe are open. So why charge full admission price at the end of October when there is nothing going on? It's a rip off.

The only thing interesting to see are the hives behind glass; these are many and varied but honestly, once you've seen one load of bees in honeycombs you've seen them all! PLEASE DON'T GO HERE.

Barnstaple Library

During school holidays there is always something for children going on at Barnstaple Library. They have themed days (pirates just recently), arty things to do, special holiday book stickers to collect, and today Kit Wright the poet.

He was available earlier in the day too, but this afternoon at 4.15 he gave a talk and read some of his poems to a set of children who had all achieved success in Book Track. This is a scheme where children are challenged to read and then discuss with a librarian 100 books. There are badges and stickers to collect along the way but upon receiving your gold badge you are invited along to meet an author and he/she presents you with a special certificate.

My eldest daughter was presented with her certificate today, although in true teenager-fashion she refused to stand up and collect it when her name was read out. She did let me take her photo with Kit Wright afterwards though, while he was signing a book for her.

Lets Go Superbowl

Another birthday party at another venue in North Devon that's not my home - excellent! Walk away from the mess and leave it for someone else to clean up. Today it was my youngest's birthday party. She wanted to go bowling - I have no idea why. So we booked two lanes for twelve children of various sizes from 4 to 13.

The place was packed, mostly it seemed with other birthday parties. We were advised to turn up 15 mins early to sort out shoes and things and it turned out there weren't enough shoes of the right size and the people on our lanes before us were in no hurry to get off, so we waited 25 mins before we actually started play. Not impressed with that, or the fact that they lost one of my daughters candles (we had to provide our own cake) so she only had 5 to blow out instead of 6.

Still the kids had a good time. There are other things to do here including the Megazone (a laser shooting game) and an extensive arcade. You can find it at the Barnstaple end of the duel carriage way, next to the Barnstaple Hotel on the Pottington Industrial Estate. I advise booking in advance.

Watermouth Castle

I couldn't get a good photo of the castle so this is my family having fun on one of the rides. Well once they'd stopped screaming for fear that Daddy might capsize the boat that is!

The reason I couldn't get a good photo of the front of the building is that it was covered in marquees. That was because there was an event on called 'It's our Coast' organised by North Devon Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There were stands from just about every organisation you could think of to do with the coast from the Royal Marines to the Surf Life Savers. Some of them were interactive for the children and others were just giving out information. We liked the one where you had to identify the trees from samples of their trunks and photos of their leaves. We weren't very good at it though. The presenters of the BBC Coast programme were there too but we didn't get to see them - by then we were too busy inside the castle grounds.

Watermouth Castle is a Family Theme Park. Inside are lots of displays about life in the building during Victorian times, as well as a model train set, some very old but playable amuesment slot machines, a scary dungeon and a great set of fairground mirrors.

In the gardens behind the castle there is even more to do. The grounds have been divided into zones named Merrygoland, Gnomeland and Adventureland. In these you will find wet rides, fairground rides, adventure golf, a maze (strangely with no centre), Mystical Water Gardens, a shadow room, a very long tube slide and lots of small fat men in funny hats (they're mostly all plastic too). We were there for nearly three hours today and didn't have time to do all of it. The bargain of the day was that entry was free, although we did have to pay £3 per child for unlimited access to the rides. Normally it's £10 for adults, £8.50 for children. If you're interested you'll find it on the coast road between Ilfracombe and Combe Martin.

Westward Ho! Rock Pooling

Westward Ho! is one of the best places in North Devon to go rock pooling. It is easily much better than the aforementioned Instow. I came here today with 33 children and it was altogether a much more enjoyable experience than the time I spent at Instow with only 5 five year olds. From the slipway at Westward Ho! you turn left along the beach to find the rock pools and there are lots of them. We spent an hour here and the children caught crabs, prawns, blennies and many other creatures of interest. Not many of them came back with dry feet. One girl was heard to remark that this was her best school trip to date, and many others agreed.

Our experience after lunch was not nearly so pleasant. Turning right from the slipway will lead you along the beach for as far as the pebble ridge goes - it goes a long way. Eventually you will reach a concrete track which leads you over the ridge and onto Northam Burrows which, along with Braunton Burrows on the other side of the estuary, has been declared and SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), it being the only place in England to grow a certain type of grass.

We had lunch at the Visitors Centre, then followed the sand dunes along the edge of the golf course until we reached the coast. Here the children valiently began to sketch the landscape amidst the angrily swirling sand. We had encountered the tail end of Hurricane Gordan which wasn't due to reach us until the following evening. It certainly felt like it (although there may be worse to come). Several sketch books blew away never to be seen again. Fighting our way back into the full force of the wind was, how can I put it - an 'interesting' walk. None of the children now wish to become desert explorers. I am still finding sand in places I never even knew I had!

Barnstaple Fair

Barnstaple Fair dates back to the time of Athelstan in AD930 and was given its Charter in 1852 It begins on the Wednesday nearest to the 16th September each year and lasts for 4 days. It is hugely popular and children of all ages talk of nothing else from the minute September arrives. A traditional ceremony at the Guildhall opens the Fair and a white glove garlanded in flowers, symbolising the hand of friendship, hangs from the Guildhall window for the four days the fair is in town.

The fair is a meeting of three travelling fairs and so many rides are duplicated. It is always crowded and as well as traditional rides such as the Big Wheel and the Galloping Horses there are thrill rides like Freak Out, stalls where you can chance your arm at winning huge cuddly toys or goldfish, plenty of rides for small children, candy floss stalls, and fortune tellers.It has also become a tradition in recent years that the final day of the fair is marked by fireworks. These begin at around 8.15 and can best be viewed from Barnstaple Bridge.

Our children were given a spending limit and we stayed until they'd reached it, which was just about the time they started to wilt. The rides were quite reasonably priced this year. Having expected them to be about £4 a go (listening to rumours and based on the fact that the prices always go up on the Saturday) we were quite pleasantly surprised to find that most were £2.50 and childrens rides only £1.50.

So, we have reached Summer's end and I must now turn my attention to things which can be done in Autumn and Winter with failing weather and the closing of seasonal attractions. Keep tuning in!

Barnstaple Carnival

Usually held of the third Saturday in September, Barnstaple Carnival coincides with the last day of the Fair and is when you know Summer is truly over. It starts in the Civic Centre car park with the crowing of the Carnival Queen at 5.30, then travels along the Strand and round Barnstaple, although the route is prone to change from year to year. It is one of the largest carnivals in North Devon with carnival queens, floats, majorettes and marching bands travelling in from places as far away as Bude in Cornwall. There are also many individual and group entries who walk the route in costume. The best we saw this year being Fred Flintstone and family complete with a very authentic looking car.

Hundreds of people line the route, sometimes three or four deep, and good places go early. Money is collected in buckets by people walking alongside the floats, all going to good causes. In times gone by spectators threw money onto the floats but this is now discouraged; presumably A&E no longer wish to be indundated by fancy dress clad persons sporting coin related injuries. This years carnival only took 45 mins to pass us, my children of course ran out of coins to throw much earlier than this. Then we headed across to the Fair.

Instow

This is the other end of the beach from my last posting about Instow and the other end of the season too. There is a car park behind the sand dunes at the estuary side of Instow and from there you can follow a rickety old track to the Cricket Ground. The beach is accessed from a path either side of here and is well away from the one used by most visitors. Perhaps this is why DAISI (Devon Arts In Schools Initiative) decided to use it as the location for some art in nature work - less innocent members of the general public to disturb.

This is where I went yesterday and am only just recovered enough to write about it today. I came with my youngest daughter in my role as Mum, and so was only given five five-year olds to look after - believe me this was enough! There is a reason why I chose to work with older children! The beach was very nice though and there are even rock pools you can mess about in. A little known fact that managed to surprise many locals when I mentioned it.

Ilfracombe

Having survived the night and packed up our tent we decided to pay a visit to nextdoor Ilfracombe. Ilfracombe was once a thriving Victorian holiday destination and is still popular as such. It has fallen into decline in recent years and is starting to look a bit shabby but still has something to offer the passing tourist. The harbour is pretty and is surrounded by plenty of nice pubs, cafes and gift shops. There is also the Landmark Theatre, known locally as Madonna's Bra because of the twin conical shapes of its buildings.

We went today because we happened to be nearby and to buy some seaside souveniers for my display at work; but we also decided to visit The Chocolate Emporium, a chocolate museum, shop and cafe in the High Street, as it had been recommended by a friend. It seemed to be the only shop to be shut on a Sunday but it looked very nice from the outside! You will have to wait for further details in a later posting I am afraid.