I had heard about the beauty of Exmoor and the Northwest Devon Coastal Path. In fact, Lynton and Lynmouth where known by the Victorians as Little Switzerland. John and I finally had the chance to see it for ourselves. It did remind me a bit of Switzerland -- it certainly has it's own spectacular beauty with hints of alpine charm. It very quickly became another one of our favorites places in England. It's one of those places we could happily return to again and again.
Two villages on the coast, one about 500 feet above the other, Lynmouth is the harbor village below and Lynton is built on the cliff above. They are connected by very steep roads, trails, and fortunately a funicular cliff railway.
Lynton and Lynmouth are also known as the walking capital of Exmoor. One of the most popular walks leads west along the coastal path to the Valley of Rocks with its wonderful scenery and a flock of wild goats. Even on a lightly misty morning, we were awestruck with the beauty and ruggedness along this path. The path here is quite flat and steady, although the drop down to the sea is steep and not for anyone afraid of heights.
About a mile from Lynton is a rock formation called "White Lady" whose supposed shape of a woman's face appears in the cracks between the boulders making up Castle Rock (I never could see a face in the formation). From here you can continue west along the spectacular coastal path or there is an easy loop back to the town of Lynton - about a two-mile walk in total.
The other popular walk from Lynmouth is the National Trust path up the river gorge to Watersmeet where the Trust has a shop and a tea room. This path is one of the loveliest river walks we have found in England.
The sound of rushing water, chirping birds, and the lush green dotted with bright bursts of wild flowers make this walk breathtaking.
The path leads to Watersmeet House, a former fishing lodge which dates from approximately 1832. It stands at the bottom of a deep gorge at the confluence of the East Lyn River and Hoar Oak Water. The site has been a tea garden since 1901 and owned by the National Trust since 1996. They have delicious scones here, Devon style, which means you put the clotted cream on first then the strawberry jam.
One of the reasons we look forward to returning is that Watersmeet House is the starting-off point for some 40 miles of woodland, streamside and seaside walks. We covered just over 12 miles of those trails. I'd love to walk the rest.
The East Lyn and the Hoaroak river combine just inland from the harbor at Watersmeet and sweep down the gorge where the National Trust path runs, through the village, to the sea. On August 15, 1952, a terrible flash flood swept down these rivers through village of Lynmouth. Thirty five people died as a a torrent of water and thousands of tons of rock poured off the saturated moorland and into the village destroying homes, bridges, shops and hotels. It was one of the worst flash floods in British history.
You can still see some scars from the terrible flood and there is a museum in Lynmouth that contains photographs, newspaper reports and a scale model of the village, showing how it looked before the flood. It's well worth a visit.
We stayed in a lovely Guesthouse, the South View Guest House in Lynton. It was clean, quiet, comfortable, reasonable, with delicious breakfasts and the a delightful host and hostess.
Our guest house wasn't far from the famous and ingenious cliff railway which connects the two villages. In 1887, the town's main benefactors Sir George Newnes and Sir Thomas Hewitt began building the funicular cliff railway. It opened in 1890 and is the highest and the steepest totally water powered railway in the world!
The rail system runs using the weight of water and passengers as a counterbalance. The car at the top has water poured into it's tank (from a nearby stream) making it slightly heavier than the car at the bottom. When the breaks are released on both cars, the weight of the top car combined with with gravity send it down the track pulling the bottom car up the track. In other words, no other power is used other than the weight of the water and the passengers. I think that is rather ingenious green technology, especially for a 1887 invention that is still working perfectly today. In fact, there has never been an accident on this funicular since it started running!
About 3 miles east of Lynmouth, the Exmoor moorlands begin. That is where we spotted a small heard of "wild" Exmoor ponies. They are wild in the sense that the herds roam freely on the moor, but they all belong to someone. A few years ago people were afraid that the ponies might become extinct so the National Park Authority bought young stock and now owns two herds.
While we mostly walked the coastal trail and the beautiful Watersmeet National Trust trail, there are endless walks out on the moorland. We saved those for another day.
The call of exploring the northwest coastal path of Devon and Cornwall pulled us westward. Next stop, Tingagel.
Two weeks ago I took my second tour of the Oxford MINI plant. It's an extraordinary tour that take a little over two hours. The first hour is spent on the factory floor watching 1200 amazing robotics assemble the body and chassis of each MINI. Then you move on to the assembly floor where teams of engineers on long conveyor belts custom assemble each MINI to the specs of each individual order.
Photography is not allowed while you are on the factory floor. In fact, you have to leave all of your personal belongings in a locker, including cell phones and cameras. I wish I could show you the mind-blowing image of 1200 robots all moving at once, some welding, some lifting and moving -- it's defies description and it's about as sci-fi as you can imagine.
"Combining human skill and ultra-advanced robot technology, Plant Oxford completes one MINI every 67 seconds, and up to 1,000 cars every day."
You'll have to take a tour and see how this is done for yourself. I've toured a lot of factories before but none have impressed me as much as the Oxford MINI Plant.
The MINI plant is located on the Easter Bypass and Horspath Road in Cowley. This is where William Morris produced the first Bullnose Morris Oxford in 1913 and where Great Britain's automobile industry began. The plant has been producing cars for over a hundred years.
There is an exhibit that highlights the history of car manufacturing in Oxford In the building behind the MINI Shop. This is the only place where taking photos is allowed on the site. For one who know very little about cars, I have certainly come to appreciate the modern technology that goes into manufacturing the MINI; the genius and generosity of William Morris who started the car industry in the U.K.; and the charming and iconic nature of the MINI.
In the 1930s William Morris (aka Lord Nuffield) was Britain's richest self-made man. He then became Britain's greatest ever philanthropist and gave away over £30m of his fortune, equivalent to £700m in today's money. Yet, despite his enormous wealth, his lifestyle was quite modest. His home, Nuffield Place in Oxfordshire, is now owned by National Trust, is about 40 minutes by car southwest of Oxford, and is well worth a visit.
This is only one of the many different types of robots you can see on the factory floor. Some of the robots are 6 times this size. To see them all moving at once is like watching the most unusual, modern, and amazing dance choreography. It's mesmerizing.
This is a photo of the factory floor that is on display in the factory museum. It doesn't even begin to show the size and scope of the electronics on the floor. Our guide pointed out that most of the electricity used on the floor is solar generated from solar panels right on the plant site.
The best part of the the tour was sharing it with Carlisle and Phil Carrol (Parents of our son-in-law). It meant so much to us to have them come visit and to have the chance to share a bit of our little corner of England with them. These photos were taken in front of a blue screen that projects photos of the factory floor.
Today Oxford was transformed into Oxford of 1914, at the beginning of World War 1, with young soldiers, horses, and gowned students walking about town. It felt a bit like a time-warp.
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Brasenose Lane and the Radcliffe Square was the site of today's film shoot for the movie "Tolkien", a biopic film of the author JRR Tolkien.
The movie is about the the early years of the author as he attended college, made friends with a group of outcasts at school, and found love and artistic inspiration.
Actors waiting on their marks to rehearse a scene on Brasenose Lane, across from Exeter College where Tolkien attended in 1911 to 1915.
Nicholas Hoult stars as Tolkien and Lily Collins is cast as his love, Edith Bratt
Tolkien enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1915. He married the love of his life, Edith Bratt, in Warwick on 22 March 1916 before shipping out. Tolkien met Edith as a freshman at his boarding house in 1911, he was 16 and she was 19.
After enlisting, Tolkien was sent to active duty on the Western Front, just in time for the Somme offensive. After four months in and out of the trenches, he succumbed to “trench fever”, a form of typhus-like infection common in the insanitary conditions, and was sent back to England, where he spent the next months in hospital in Birmingham. Many of these experiences became inspiration for his Lord of the Rings novels.
The movie is directed by Finnish director Dome Karukoski and the script is by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford.
I was told the movie will be released in 2018. I can't wait to see it.
