Le Weekend Part 1

Le Weekend Part 1

Our French son arrived Friday evening; Saturday was another lovely day so we opted for lunch out.  We have whittled it down to about four Inns that can be relied on for good cuisine One of these is The Blue Ball Inn on Exmoor, just above Lynmouth.  The car park was pretty full but to our delight the pub was almost empty and delightfully cool.  Did I tell you we are having a heat wave?

Although I knew it would be fun I was slightly nervous about our next day visitors and what we were attempting to do, so wasn’t feeling very hungry.  M discovered there were ‘light bites’ so we opted for these   I had an excellent spaghetti bolognaise, MTL had ham, egg and chips and M had a Thai curry.  We were all very pleased and at a fraction of the cost ‘light bites’ will be another favourite.

M had a ravishing rhubarb and berry crumble with vanilla ice cream and I had just vanilla  ice cream but M insisted on spooning some crumble onto mine which is why I know how ravishing it was.

These days we avoid driving down very narrow lanes so MTL cheekily suggested M may like to drive to Oare Church which we hadn’t visited for years.   M was totally unphased and decided we would take an even more hazardous route on our return.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is mentioned in the Domesday Book.  For at least 800 years this building has been a parish church.  Oare is named from Are Water, an ancient British river name.

There is a memorial to RD Blackmore to the west of the entrance door.  A local jingle describes the unspoilt isolation of Oare Church and its neighbours.

Culbone, Oare and Stoke Pero,

Parishes three no parson‘ll go to,

Culbone, Oare and StokePero.

Three such places you’ll seldom hear o’.

RD Blackmore has taken the lively tradition of the presence of a band of outlaws (The Doones) on Exmoor and around this he has woven one of the best selling romances in literature.  There is evidence that the Doones did come to Exmoor in the seventeenth century after they were forced to leave Scotland.

Blackmore’s grandfather John Blackmore was Rector of Oare from1809 to 1842.

The story is set in the days of the Monmouth Rebellion, in the latter part of the 17^th C and there is some evidence that a number of marauders did settle on Exmoor and sustain themselves by raiding farms and highway robbery.  They abducted women and children and committed some horrible murders.  The rhyme:

‘Child if they ask who killed thee,

Say t’was the Doones of Badgworthy.’

Is said to be the result of a particularly brutal murder by the Doones.

.

On our return drive we came upon a familiar place – Robber’s Bridge.  We remembered playing there with our grand daughters – Ruth and Catherine who are now both married and Catherine the mother of two children – Pippa and Arthur.

See Photos below.