Dining west

This being a record of our public dining during our recent tour of the west country, not elsewhere noticed.

First, back to the Burrator Inn of Dousland of reference 1, a place we have been using occasionally for some years now, and which, in various ways, has served well. And started well with this fine Carex pendula, bigger than any of those in our garden. I dare say it likes the extra water. Captured at Ravenscroft of Yelverton.

While the Burrator Inn sported this fine table. I don't suppose either bench came with it originally - but where from? What sort of establishment would want such a thing? A high table from a college dining hall, ecclesiastical or otherwise.

They served us well, only being let down in my case by the quality of the fish which came with my fish and chips, usually much better in public houses these days. I wondered whether the Bidfood in question had grades of fried fish on offer, with every day, taste the difference and all that sort of thing.

The handsome Monterey pine in front of Buckfast Abbey, where the handsome cafeteria was the next stop. It was looking better than it has looked in the recent past, and the ticket explained that this was an old tree which needed plenty of TLC. Also hard to know what to do about handsome specimens such as this when they reach their sell-by date.

The Araucaria araucana was looking well, although the lower branches had been taken off. Maybe I should have told the telephone to lengthen the exposure. Worth noting that the frame below has just two small wheels on the front two legs, and served a lot better than my four wheeled trolley would have done, which would have proved hard to manage and would have provided less support. The only downside being that BH found the scraping of the back legs on certain surfaces rather irritating.

I did not get to take a look at the famous Barbarossaleuchter on this occasion. Or, more accurately, the Corona lucis. As can be seen from reference 5, I have been wondering for some time about why the abbey comes to have such a splendid thing. Since that post I have been presented with a copy of the picture book mentioned there and I now know. It seems that the second Abbott, Anscar Vonier, a man of many talents, worked hard on the decoration of the abbey in the 1930s. This came to include a good deal of elaborate metalwork, mostly in a medieval style, mostly the work of the Witte workshop of Aachen, almost hereditary goldsmiths to Aachen Cathedral, home to one of the three models for the Corona, the Barbarossaleuchter. The corona was the gift of one Miss. Sass of Shyrehall, Buckfast in memory of her mother.

Google knows nothing of the donor Miss. Sass, which I found a little surprising, but does turn up a planning applicant of 2019: 'Mrs Christine Cottle, Shyrehall, Grange Road, Buckfast, TQ11 0EH', with one end of Grange Road providing access to part of the Buckfast Abbey estate.

Gmaps provides a map of the postcode in question.

And StreetView comes up with the snap above. Not quite the right name (Shyrehill rather than Shyrehall) and not quite the right age, but maybe the site if not the building once occupied by Miss. Sass. While Mrs. Cottle clearly has enough about her to be thinking of developing land in Salcombe (3010/18/FUL), a very desirable spot in south Devon. Lots of Range Rovers.

Google does better with Witte, turning up the informative reference 6, which includes a mention of Buckfast.

Back with the cafeteria, I took the chicken dinner option, which was adequate rather than good, but that did not really matter. The place served our purpose well.

Made up for the chicken dinner later in the day, with a fine lentil soup, flavoured with saucisson sec and cauliflower florets.

But before that, an interesting bit of walling up on the moor, above our cottage. Big blocks below, small blocks above, the whole topped off with a layer of turf. Must have been an expensive business.

On our last day, we thought a second outing to the Church House Inn was in order, that is to say a day not involving the car. The first outing having been noticed at reference 4. This second outing started well with a fine mushroom soup, even if the salad garnish was unnecessary. Soup bowl on table and bread on small side plate might have been better.

But I was a bit disappointed with the turkey pie, topped rather than pie proper, and most of the vegetables were a bit tired. The roast potatoes were good though, and plentiful enough that, unusually, I was unable to finish them.

Not very busy this Friday lunchtime. It was end of season, but it was also a retirement area and the house was only open four days a week. Was it going to be enough? No doubt we shall find out next year. 

A curious bit of carpentry on the way out. They quite liked these sorts of curves in the 1920s and 1930s - but on the other hand it is only pine, rather than some grander timber. Have to ask them next time.

Last stop, the Royal Lion of Lyme Regis, now a member of the Hall & Woodhouse family. The once famous Oak Room restaurant may be more or less closed, but they have been allowed to keep a lot of the old furniture and fittings and they have been allowed to keep their own website (at reference 7). In the picture of the front of the hotel there, the present dining room is to the right of the front door, while the building further to the right, once a different hotel has been, at least partially, colonised by the present hotel.

Maybe the serious flat arch is where the two hotels were punched together?

At dinner, the bruschetta was adequate, with the mix of vegetables being a bit much for my palate.

Medallions of lamb were good, although, as so often, they were let down by their vegetables. Luckily I still had bread left with which to make sandwiches. And having not finished my potatoes the day before, we did not finish our second bottle of wine on this occasion, with this second bottle only getting knocked off a couple of days later, back at Epsom.

While all this was going on, BH spotted a family connection on the wall, connection in that someone on her father's side used to be a tenant farmer of Morris somewhere near his Oxfordshire home, Kelmscott Manor. One of her grandfathers may have been photographed as a baby sitting on the great man's knee in the latter's old age.

PS 1: memory being difficult today, and while I got to Monterey pine, I was not sure that it wasn't really a Ponderosa pine. Fortunately, Bing turned up reference 2 which cut through the problem.

PS 2: further investigation of the Morris connection reveals error. The story now is that BH's father (usually FIL in these pages) was the baby sitting on a knee, the knee belonging to a lady in the Morris entourage with modelling connections. FIL's grandfather was the tenant farmer, while FIL's father went for a sailor. References 8 and 9 suggest that this was probably Mary, the younger daughter of the original Morris, who lived at the Manor after her mother's death in 1914 and died herself in 1938. Which fits well enough with FIL being born in 1920. The farm was probably, in the beginning, farmed by the occupant of the Manor, but at some point a farmhouse was carved out of the Manor buildings, with both it and the farm being let out. Leaving the occupants of the rest of the Manor free to enjoy the country life. Maybe they kept the odd cow and chicken. We probably still have the photograph somewhere. 

In the margins, I have been reminded that the private lives of Morris and his circle were rather complicated. And that there is a strong connection between Morris and the textile factories which were once Merton Mills. Better known to me, quite a long time ago now, as home to several interesting second hand book shops. It was possibly one of them which sold me my fine Polish atlas.

PS 3: I think the nearest I got to Kelmscott Manor, was a visit to Lechlade in 2014, as reported at reference 10. BH says that I declined a visit to the Manor on that occasion.

References

Reference 1: https://www.burratorinn.com/.

Reference 2: https://www.buckfast.org.uk/some-tlc-for-our-fabulous-monterey-pine/.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_radiata.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-church-house.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/buckfast.html.

Reference 6: https://second.wiki/wiki/bernhard_witte_goldschmied.

Reference 7: https://www.royallionhotel.com/.

Reference 8: William Morris: Decor and design - Elizabeth Wilhide - 1991.

Reference 9: https://kelmscottmanor.org.uk/explore/william-morris-family/.

Reference 10: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/03/thames-valley.html.