By: Blonde Two
On Sunday, Mr Blonde Two and I set off for what turned out to be a rather “middle aged” Dartmoor outing. I think it was the three churches Buckfast Abbey, Buckland-in-the-Moor, and Widecombe that made me feel a bit twinset and pearls. Luckily we saved the day right at the end by a having a quick “very young person’s” scramble up Bell Tor in search of possible bivvi sites.
Our main trip goal was to visit St Peter’s at Buckland-in-the-Moor (we all know that it is in the moor now so I will drop that bit). If you want to find a lovely, chocolate box bit of Dartmoor then head for Buckland. Because of the middle-aged thing, I couldn’t bring myself to take any pictures of the cottages but here is the church (St Peter’s). It sits on a hill and is, well, just very “Dartmoor”.
There were two reasons that I wanted to visit St Peter’s. One was that it ticked off another of my squares in the Dartmoor 365 book (current total 148) and the second was the clock. At first glance, the clock looks like any other church clock, it is clean and shiny and there are some lovely chimes (apparently “All Things Bright and Beautiful” but I didn’t hear that). You could easily pass by without looking twice at it. On closer examination, however, you realise that this clock is lacking something rather fundamental – it has no numbers (Roman or otherwise). Look carefully at the picture below and you will see that the words “My Dear Mother” are spelt out on the clock’s face.
The clock was commissioned by William Whitely in 1931 as a memorial to his father (I am being silly here, of course it was his mother). This is the same chap who arranged for the Ten Commandment Stones to be carved up at Buckland Beacon see previous post –http://wp.me/p2OiIR-dQ. We didn’t stay too long as it was rather chilly up there and we were hungry. After all, it was already T past A when we arrived!
That’s fascinating! I like things like that!
My mum in law has a clock where the numbers run anti clockwise! That makes a challenge to read the time but it doesn’t make time go backwards!
I have a friend who is a clock addict. I must show him that!
Any clock addict should definitely visit Buckland-in-the-Moor. As should anyone who likes long place names or thatched cottages.
A brilliant clock! I DID take photos of the beautiful cottages too because I try and take photos of whatever there are sketches of in the 365. There are several people who I now know who are on the 365 trail and I wonder whether some of the residents of these gorgeous villages get fed up with people photographing their properties.
On a recent visit to Jordan (the village not the country!) I went to take a photo of the thatched cottage which is in the 365 but it was very hard because the owners have erected willow screening right along the length of their front wall, so all you really see is some screening and a thatched roof – now quite so picturesque as the full cottage. I wonder if they are fed up with people thaking random photos of their property and if they even realise why? I know I would get a bit annoyed if lots of people were taking such interest in my house! So we went a bit further up the road and tried to be a little more discrete! I try and be a little more considerate when taking photos of cottages now!
We saw one that was asking photographers to donate to the Devon Air Ambulance. I thought that was a good idea and gave them a goodly amount. It was on a walk that went through Jordan so might have been the same place.
Now I feel guilty if that was the case! I don’t recall seeing anything about donations but I probably had my blinkers on!!! What a good idea though – would’ve donated if I’d realised.
My sister in law lost her mum in Feb this year, and Jean loved that clock – so the whole family visited on Mothering Sunday in March 🙂
A lovely spot for a bit of remembering. It had occurred to me that I could have been more organised and written that blog post on Mothering Sunday!