The Old Bakery, Branscombe, Devon

One Saturday in late September 2015, two friends and myself went to the Branscombe Autumn Fayre, and the next day we decided to go to the village again to visit the Old Bakery and Manor Mill, taking in the Forge and Forge Cottages on the way.

This is the third place on the National Trust trail in Branscombe - the Forge and Forge Cottages are on the previous two blog posts - and after looking at those we set off on the footpath through a delightful orchard to reach the Old Bakery.
 

Formerly called Bridge House, comprising a cottage and bakery, it's an 18th (possibly 17th) century Grade II listed building. Consisting of plastered stone rubble walls and stacks with a topping of bricks added in the 19th and 20th centuries, it is also thought to contain some cob. The iconic Devon thatched roof continues in a sweep to cover the rear outshot (an additional annexe built onto the main building), apart from the north-west corner, which includes an 18th century oak doorframe. 

The lovely slate-topped buttresses, above, are used to strengthen walls which have no internal support. These may have been a later addition to prevent the wall bulging out at the bottom, which sometimes happens with cob walls.

The front faces towards its up-hill garden in the south-west. This consists of late 19th century casement windows with glazing bars, and these are arranged symmetrically around the central doorway containing a 19th century plank door and a contemporary single-pitch porch.

The former bakery is thought to be the longest surviving bakery using traditional methods. The owners, brothers Stuart and Andrew Collier, made their bread kneading by hand up until 1946, and continued baking with a kneading machine, delivering their goods in the village and wider area by horse and cart, until its closure in 1987.

Now owned by the National Trust, along with the other three places on our list, the building has been restored and used as a tearoom. However, the traditional bakery has been left as a museum, together with the bread oven, kneading machine and the baking tins used for the loaves.

And, as it was lunchtime when we got there, we treated ourselves to a lovely lunch of egg mayonnaise and cress sandwiches with salad.

Then we set off through the rest of the orchard, over a stream on this delightfully funky bridge and across a meadow to Manor Mill...which can be seen on the next article coming up. :)

Forge Cottages, Branscombe, Devon

Originally listed as Margels Bridge Cottages, and probably consisting of four cottages, this lovely Grade II listed building now comprises two cottages; Forge Cottage and No 1 Forge Cottages. Forge Cottage is now owned by the National Trust and is let out as a holiday home.

I noticed it when some friends and myself went to the Branscombe Autumn Fayre at the end of September 2015, and I managed to sneak out for a few minutes to take some photos of the Forge that's on the opposite side of the lane. Then the next day we decided to come back to Branscombe to have a look at the Mill and other places and I took some photos of Forge Cottages on the way. It's a pity I didn't take some on the day of the fayre, as it was a gloriously sunny day, but on the Sunday it was overcast with white cloud cover, as can be seen on my photos. Doh!
 

Built with plastered stone rubble and possibly some cob in the late 17th or early 18th century, it was later renovated in the early 1970s, and the stone & rubble chimney stacks were topped with brick in the 19th or early 20th century. An axial chimney stack serves both cottages in a central parting wall with back-to-back fireplaces. Each cottage comprises a two room plan with two storeys throughout. The frontage includes two upper storey windows and three ground floor windows plus a door for each cottage. It is thought that the central ground floor windows conceal where a further two doors entered the other two cottages of the original four, and an occupant from the 1970s recalled knocking through a partition wall to make two into one, which confirms it.

A gable ended roof, with its iconic thatching, No 1 also has a one room plan extension to the rear. Although the interiors were thoroughly refurbished circa 1970, much of the original carpentry detail was retained including the ceiling beams, and the exposed bases of the roof scantling suggests that late 17th or early 18th century A-frame trusses were used. The rubble fireplaces have chamfered oak lintels.
 

On the opposite side of a footpath running by No1 is this old outbuilding. I don't know if it's connected to the cottage at all, but I took a photo of it anyway. So annoyed at myself for not taking it on the sunshiney day before, as it looked gorgeous then, but rather drab on the photo taken the next day.
 

I only took these five photos, and consisting solely of No 1, as we walked past on the footpath to the Old Bakery and Manor Mill, also owned by the National Trust. The footpath leads through an orchard to the Old Bakery, as seen in the photo below. The Old Bakery can be seen on the next blog post, whereas the Forge is on the previous one.
 

And a rather sneaky photo of my two companions. I was keeping my distance as they naughtily scrumped a few apples. Bad girls! ;)

The Forge, Branscombe, Devon

One Saturday, in late September 2015, two friends and myself went over to the Branscombe Autumn Fayre, and whilst there I also took some photos of the nearby forge. We decided to visit the village on the next day too, to look at the Old Bakery and Manor Mill, which also gave me another opportunity to take more photos of the forge and a few of Forge Cottages, which can just about be seen on the opposite side of the lane in the photo below.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, these four buildings all belong to the National Trust and can be visited one after the other on a very pleasant walk. The Forge is the first of these.
 

Originally listed as Smith's Shop at Margels Bridge, this Grade II Listed building is reputed to have been built circa 1580, which makes it the oldest working thatched forge in Devon.  However, the British Listings says otherwise; that it is dated to the late 18th to early 19th century. I haven't been able to discover conclusive evidence one way or the other, but the early listings are occasionally inaccurate - often due to rebuilding or extensive renovation. The 16th century information comes from the National Trust's own website, therefore it would be nice to assume that they have done more research about the building. However, the A-frame trusses have been dated to the late 18th century, therefore it may well have been rebuilt at that time. 

A single-storey building of exposed stone rubble with an iconic thatched roof, the plan comprises an open-fronted shelter to the front and an adjoining former woodshed to the right. The roof is hipped at the left of the building and half-hipped to the right, which continues down over the woodshed and on the shelter. There are two doorways; the left door a replacement one made of plank, the right door being blocked. Each have an unglazed externally shuttered window to the right. The former woodshed is now the main doorway to the showroom, whilst the left-hand door is for the blacksmith's forge and workroom. 

A delightful reminder of the past is the circular metal plate set into the cobbled courtyard beneath the overhang. Called a Hooping Plate, it was used to fit the metal rims onto cart wheels. After measuring the wooden wheel around the rim, a strip of tyre iron was cut, heated, rolled into a circle and welded to join the ends. To expand it, the tyre was heated again and slipped around the wheel on the hooping plate, then quickly cooled with a bucket of water to prevent the wheel from catching fire. Cooling also made the metal shrink to fit tightly on the rim.

The central forge has been dated to the 19th century and is still in use. Although this particular forge isn't used to make cart wheels nowadays, there are master wheelwrights & coachmakers in nearby Colyton, who still use the traditional methods.
 

The current blacksmith is Andrew Hall, much of his work of a more decorative nature, including light fittings, candle holders, and house signs, along with the more practical wrought iron gates and brackets, etc.
 

Forge Cottages on the opposite side of the lane, below, is the next of the National Trust buildings on the walk. That will be coming up next followed by The Old Bakery and Manor Mill. 

And finally, as I'm not going to write an article on it, here are a few photos of the Branscombe Autumn Fayre...

A band played some great Irish music.

Lots of fresh farm produce, baked, bottled and preserved goodies, flowers and freshly made apple juice from an apple press.

Stands included garden plants, landscaping materials, an enclosure containing a few alpacas and these fabulous old tractors.
 

Now across the lane to Forge Cottages, coming up next. :)

Farm Graveyard, Colyford, Devon

This is a couple of miles or so up the road from where I live and was a great place for taking photos of delightful rural rust and abandoned farm machinery. Some machinery was obviously still in use, moved around or disappeared and subsequently replaced with others now and then, but my favourites are the old things that had been left to decay into the undergrowth.

It's also a fabulous area for blackberry picking...can't beat apple and blackberry pies with lashings of steaming hot custard for delicious autumn puds!

 

Most of the photos were taken on the first visit, on the kind of summer day that's perfect for 35mm photography; partially cloudy and damp, which make the colours zing. The first photo of the derelict tractor is one of my all time favourites.

 

At the entrance to the field is a huge pile of bricks beneath the brambles and other vegetation, where some pieces of machinery have been left, along with old bales of hay.

Amongst the bricks I spotted the delightful remains of a 1970's style wrought iron, glass-topped table. That and the bricks made me wonder if a house had been demolished here some time ago.

On a later visit, some of the undergrowth had been cut back to reveal a circular saw with a very rusty tank nearby.
 

Another later addition, below, was this trailer. Although only there within a short time since a previous visit, it looks as though it was abandoned years ago.

And an old muck spreader, below.

I had another look whilst walking past some time later, and it's been changed quite drastically. Many of the trees between the field and the main road have been cut down, and most of the machinery has been removed. All except for the wonderful old tractor and the horsebox.

I haven't been there for a few years now but I read in the local newspaper that planning permission had been sought for building on, which is a shame and a very sad fact today when we are losing farmland and other green-belt havens at an alarming rate in Britain.

And finally, another photo of the lovely old horse box surrounded by huge teasels and other wild flowers. Something to cherish as I have great memories of some happy times spent here - and also a reminder for a delightful place that's no longer there in this rapidly changing world.

EDIT: A brief update, which I'm writing on July 10th 2022, to say that the planning permission for building was successfully opposed. However, there's now another plan being forwarded by a different building company. It doesn't entail this field but it does surround it, using up a lot of the green wedge up to the Wetlands Nature Reserve. The plans will be on view this tuesday, which I hope to be going to. Fingers crossed we can oppose it! :)