Set off late morning with Ms. GPS who took us safely through a number of rotary (roundabouts!) – heading for Devon and Cornwall.
Nice drive through rolling countryside – farmland, autumnal colours and little villages sitting on hillsides with their church spires.
Detoured to Bath – very pretty and on the “bucket list” for a return visit. No time to have a spa!
Nice to see familiar names on signposts and travel though the counties to the edge of the Dartmoor National Park.
Staying in what was an historic 12th century Benedictine monastery – a Manor House was added by the Burgoyne family and the Earls of Oxenham – now part of The Oxenham Arms, built around The South Zeal Menhir Standing Stone – carved from Dartmoor granite by Neolithic Man 5,000 years ago (carbon dated). Sea Captain and pirate John Oxenham was born here – second in command to Sir Francis Drake. He met an unfortunate end at the hands of the Spanish.
Has been a pub here since 1477 – 536 years. Lots of character- up and down floors, old mullioned windows, low ceilings and so on. Apparently, Charles Dickens wrote the Pickwick Papers here and the pub features in other literature such as Westward Ho.
