We'd promised ourselves a couple of Family Tree days, and today was the first with a trip eastwards to the Dorset town of Bridport. DW's mother's side of the family were there in the mid-nineteenth century and we thought we'd see where the "Rellies" lived.
The weather, though, was awful. High winds and lashing rain, at least as we prepared to leave Ashburton Down. Naturally we met another vehicle at the narrowest part of the road leading to the main road, but we're getting used to that.
I opted to head a mile or so west on the A38 to Ashburton first, then to use the intersection to turn east, thus avoiding many miles more of Devon lanes and backing up to allow other vehicles to pass. You get to learn from experience here. With the rain hammering down, we took it easy on the fast road to Exeter, then headed away from the city towards Lyme Regis. That road is well known to both of us because DW's mother lived in the village of Beer, just a few miles short of Lyme. The weather wasn't the best, but we enjoyed the run through the red-soil and dumpling hills of East Devon. Back home, the biggest hills are the bridges over the highway, but here we were up hill and down dale all the time.
The drop down into Lyme Regis is steep, and the sight of the heavy seas crashing in on the shore at the bottom of the hill was quite dramatic. The climb out of Lyme is also very steep, but our fancy Volvo just gobbled up the gradient like it wasn't there. It was a far cry from me driving my first car, a turd-brown Mini, up there and wondering if I'd actually ever make it.
Bridport is a few miles beyond Lyme, both in the County of Dorset by the way, and it was a first time visit for both of us, at least I think it was. Bridport is on the A35 to Dorchester and now by-passed by a decent road, but I can't believe that my dad hadn't driven through the town with us in the car when I was a kid. We opted to drive through the centre today and were pleased that we did, because Bridport is a handsome town, with a broad and busy main street. But we'll come back to Bridport because we were actually heading to Bridport's port on the coast called West Bay, just a mile or two to the south.
I'd never been to West Bay, either, but had wanted to go for a while because it's where the TV series Broadchurch was filmed. West Bay's harbour may be small and quirky, but the cliffs either side of it are dramatic to say the least, and I'm sure that's why it was chosen a good TV show location. The cliffs certainly featured prominently. The trouble was, or maybe the good thing was, there was a Force Nine gale blowing in off Lyme Bay and the English Channel, and the waves were piling in on the beach with greats amount of spray and noise. It was perfect! We sat in the car facing the pounding waves and with the rain lashing across the windshield and had our sandwiches, recreating many a family lunch we both enjoyed as kids. It seemed almost to be a right of passage for kids from Devon to have their picnic lunch in a car that was rocking in the wind and the windows were streaked with rain and sea spray.
Of course, I had to load another parking app on my UK phone so that we could pay to park in the storm. Still, I never once had to get out of the car, not involuntarily anyway.
Lunch completed, and my glasses covered in salt spray from when I left the car take a video of the waves, we meandered back to Bridport. I say meandered because I opted to drive the wrong way out of the village and ended up driving through a lot of muddy Dorset lanes to get back on the correct road. We did get to see a nice village or two, and a few of the many "Caravan Parks" in the area. I put that in quotes because I don't think they exist in Canada. They are collections of Park Homes, many for seasonal rental, some owned, that people take their annual holidays in. West Bay is a very popular place to visit in the summer and the Caravan Parks allow cheapish stays in the gorgeous Dorset countryside.
*I Googled "Bridport Dorset" for a photo and nearly all the pictures offered were of West Bay. but this is definitely Bridport, the market town, and not by the sea.
Back in Bridport and away from the worst of the wind, we parked up on the edge of town, using that parking app again, and walked up South Street towards the town's centre. As I said, it's a handsome little place and it's broad streets exist for a significant reason; rope making. I hadn't known until we started with the Family Tree thing that Bridport had been a major manufacturer of ropes and nets. There must have been a glut of flax and hemp, vital ingredients of rope, that made Bridport a great place to manufacture it. When you look at an old map, there are dozens of "Rope Walks" marked, long thin strips of land where the strands for the rope was pulled out along holders to keep it off the ground, and then twisted to generate the strength of the rope. Rope making took place in the main streets of the town, hence the length, width, and straightness of the two main roads.
Of course, DW's family were involved in the rope making process, her great great grand-father being a Flax Dresser.
Having browsed some of the shops, including a brilliant toy shop packed to the ceiling with stuff old and new, we had a coffee break, then drove out along North Allington road, past an address that had occurred on a couple of Victorian census records. The street was lined with little stone cottages which I'm certain were occupied by the myriad workers employed in the rope and net industry 150 years ago. Just driving the street gave us a real sense of where DW's rellies lived and worked, thus making the trip well worth the effort.
The run home was slow as the wind, rain, and now fog, was slowing the traffic somewhat. The tree fallen across the road just outside Bridport didn't help, either. But we rolled back to our cottage unscathed, having met a big van on the narrow part of the road between here and the Expressway of course. The Law of Sod works well here.
We have a couple of other Family Tree excursions planned, so watch this space for true tales of ancestor hunting, and lovely drives out in the gorgeous south west of England.
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