Exploring East Devon #5 :: Sidbury & Branscombe

Hi there everyone 😀

As promised last week ... for this week's post we are back on the south coast with more to share from our holiday in East Devon back in September ... boy, does it seem like a lifetime ago.

It was Saturday, so the start of our second week and after a few fairly hectic days we were aiming for a bit of a less energetic day. We decided to start off with a wander round the tiny village of Sidbury, which was were we were actually staying.

It didn’t take long but we had chance to have a browse in J.A.NICE, which had some very nice bits and pieces and we were very tempted to pick up a few bits, but we never would have fit them in the car ...

We did, however, pick up a few bits from Drew's butchers ...

It was then a bit of a wander through the churchyard ...

... before we headed down one of the pretty narrow streets to the bridge over the river ...

We then retraced our steps back to the church ...

And that really was about it ... a very tiny, but pretty village.

Having dropped our bits from the butchers back at The Old Piggery we decided to head for Branscombe, where we hoped to find a nice table outside the pub and sit with the papers for a bit.

Now a trip to Branscombe is definitely not for the faint hearted ... the lanes are very narrow, just wide enough to squeeze the car through in places ... with infrequent passing places and, in our experience ... 100% chance of meeting the local bus and having to do some nifty reversing and maneuvering.

We ended up at The Masons Arms in the centre of Branscombe ...

... where we managed to find a nice table outside out of the way and we sat for a while, with a fairly expensive sandwich and some chips, whilst just chilling with the Saturday papers ...

We had a few stop off points on our way back, the first being at The Forge, where we complimented the blacksmith on his bluebells, which were really stunning ...

Spotting the footpath sign across the road ...

... we decided to have a wander to the mill to see what we would find. The path took us past the tea rooms, which were sadly closed for the season ... that pesky Covid ...

... and through an orchard where they may have been just a little bit of scrumping take place ...

It wasn't far to the mill which, whilst closed for the season, had been well worth the walk ...

On another day I’m sure there would have been paddling in the ford ... but not today ...

We headed back to car and carried in a bit to our next stop, St Winifred's Church ...

It really is a lovely little church and in the most gorgeous of spots ...

We did a bit of Geocaching ... which ended up taking up the footpath behind the church, which was a bit of a slog ...

... but did reward us with a fair decent view ...

There was one last stop I wanted to make on our back along the narrow lanes. I'd spotted the most beautiful of gardens on our drive past and I really wanted to stop and take some photos ...

My pictures do not do the garden justice at all and when we got back to The Old Piggery a quick Google search told me lots about Doreen's Garden and the money that she raises for charity. There were also some tips about the best places to take photos from and I found this image, which I am allowed to share with you, for which I can take no credit whatsoever. It far better captures Doreen's beautiful garden than any of the ones that I managed to take ...

So that was it for another day ... a lovely relaxing day, just mooching about exploring in the sunshine ... which was still in fair abundance when we finally made our way back to The Old Piggery ...

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