A stroll through the Arlington Court Estate in the neighbouring County of Devonshire.

One from the archives!  Back in November 2011 my wife and I enjoyed an autumn stay in a National Trust holiday cottage at Loxhore in North Devonshire, a village on the edge of the Trust’s Arlington Court Estate.  The cottage, named Mortuary Cottage, is tucked away in a wooded valley through which ran the River Yeo.  The back door of the cottage was only a few yards from the riverbank. 

The cottage was given its rather sombre name due to it being designated the village mortuary in the Second World War.  Apparently every village had to have a building for use as a mortuary in case it was bombed by the Luftwaffe, but why the Germans would want to bomb an isolated village in North Devonshire is unfathomable. 

Mortuary Cottage at Loxhore in November 2011.  Cott Bridge over the River Yeo is behind the trees on the right of the picture.

 

Almost every day during our stay I went for a walk into the Arlington Court Estate. The house and estate belonged to the Chichester family for eleven generations.  I followed the footpaths along the slopes of the valley and down to the River Yeo and then on to where I eventually came upon the lake where the river is dammed.  The footpath continued across the dam and up through the wooded hillside to Arlington Court. 

Footpaths in Webber's Wood on the Arlington Court Estate.  Autumn 2011.

Autumn colours in Webber's Wood on the Arlington Court Estate in North Devonshire. November 2011.

I never went into the house - with boots muddied from the walk I doubt if I would have been welcome - nor the National Carriage Museum which is housed in the stable block.

The house dates from 1822 in its current form, but viewed from the outside it did not strike me as being one of the more attractive buildings in the Trust’s care.  However, the estate’s walks are difficult to better.

The Lake and its piers.

To quote from the National Trust information board:

“Sir John Chichester formed the lake in1850 by damming the River Yeo. 

Having built the lake, Sir John decided to impress his guests by building a long approach drive to his house which would be carried over the lake by a suspension bridge.  He died in 1851 before the project was complete.  The piers remain.”

The Lake and its piers on The National Trust's Arlington Court Estate in North Devonshire photographed in November 2011.