- Heritage
Educational and very interesting!
Arlington Court, Gardens & Carriage Museum
Intriguing Regency house and impressive collection of horse-drawn vehicles, set in a picturesque pleasure gardens, formal Victorian garden with its display of flowers and fruit and vegetables in the Walled Kitchen Garden.
Fascinating Bat-cam to watch the colony of Lesser Horseshoe Bats in the attics. Magnificent array of carriages - great and small, elegant to the humble servants carts - in the National Trust Carriage Museum. Wander the twenty miles of footpaths that meander through the estate. The Lake Walk is quite splendid and walking through the woodlands takes you to a small bridge over the river.
The original Hartland Abbey was built in 1157 as a monastery for the canons of the Order of St Augustine of Hippo. In 1539, King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and gave Hartland Abbey to the Sergeant of his Wine Cellar. His descendants still live at the Abbey.
Gertrude Jekyll, (British horticulturist, garden designer, writer and artist), visited the Abbey to
help design and create part of the gardens which can still be admired today. For children there is plenty of space to run about, follow the nature trail, be fascinated with the donkeys, peacocks, guinea fowl, Black Welsh Mountain Sheep or watch the buzzards as they 'meow' above. Walk to the beach, become entranced with the exhibitions and museum. A full day out!
Narrow gauge railway, part of the project to rebuild the legendary Lynton & Barnstaple Railway which was opened in 1898 but closed in 1935. The first part of the project opened Woody Bay Station to Bridge 67 in July 2004. The second part of the project opened Bridge 67 to Killington Lane in May 2006. This mammoth undertaking was started in 1979 by a band of volunteers.
They originally thought to renovate and preserve the railway not realising the extent of work needed which actually became rebuilding the railway - an extremely ambitious undertaking. To quote from their web site 'The volunteers who are slowly and courageously putting this lost little gem back into the Devon landscape deserve wider support, so do visit yourself and experience this most charming and unique of railways.'
