Jacob's Ladder Beach & Connaught Gardens, Sidmouth, Devon

 

This is a very interesting area with various different things of an historical and geological nature, along with the structure of stairs known as Jacob's Ladder. This includes old lime kilns as well as the remains of a boat winch for lifting boats to the top of the cliff, Connaught Gardens situated on the clifftop, a WW2 pillbox and some amazingly fab geology.

I'll start at the bottom and work my way up, with headers for each section of interest.

Undercliff Walkway   

All the above photos were taken along this part, as well as those in this section. I have a humungous amount of photos - too many to put in this post - along with a lot more information, so I'll be writing a separate article about it another time to include everything.

The 220 million year red sandstone rocks date back to the Triassic period and can be seen along parts of the East Devon coast. The lovely soft sandstone has weathered into fantastical shapes and, where necessary, the damaging parts of erosion have been shored up with stone, brickwork and pebbles, creating some wonderful compositions of diverse materials.  

When I first walked around the base of the cliff I was amazed at this magical part of the Jurassic coastline. Even scratched graffiti looks charming as they've weathered into soft shapes and patterns. I visited again just over a year later and it was still totally enchanting.

Old Lime Kilns & Boat Winch

The 18th century lime kilns were at the top of the cliff at the far end of the walkway, situated inside a crenellated building. The kilns are no longer there and another, similar, building was made for use as a boat house, seen below.

The boat house and winch was devised by the owners of a cottage called Seaview, the grounds of which is now Connaught Gardens. There was no path then and it was the only way to get their boat up the cliff. The 'tower' was built and rendered with flint to strengthen the cliff for hauling weight, the remains of the winch can still be seen at the top of the lower section. 

There's also a stairway next to the tower. I didn't realise at the time that it allows access up and through a couple of archways to the gardens. There are also steps around the corner which lead up to a small takeaway cafe and shop. The main cafe/restaurant is in the top building, now called the Clock Tower.

Some nice bits of seaside rustiness.

And a couple of photos taken from the top of the steps on a further visit.

Jacob's Ladder

This is a really scary set of steps for anyone who's acrophobic. I did try to climb it - in the interest of research, lol - but after getting partway up the very lowest section I realised I couldn't do it after all and had to gingerly make my way down again whilst hugging the rail!

The first stairway to be built here was just one long set of steps, giving it the nickname Jacob's Ladder from his vision of a ladder between heaven and earth in the bible. As this wasn't very popular - no prizes for guessing why! - the stair was reconstructed to how we see it today, as well as another rebuilding in the 1950s for safety reasons.

Instead of climbing the ladder I enjoyed a long and winding walk up a zigzag path on terra firma, where I was able to see more of the Clock Tower.

And some more geology can be seen through the entrance to the gardens. Looking out to the sea, you can see the sea stacks - stand alone stacks of rock created through erosion from the tides around the cliffs eventually cutting off sections from the mainland - in Ladram Bay.

My first visit was in September 2012 and I didn't have time to walk around the gardens then but made another visit in April 2014 specifically to do that. Mind, I couldn't resist walking back along the undercliff walkway to take more photos afterwards too.

The Clock Tower

Now a cafe/restaurant, the boat house was built to emulate a castle and was constructed sometime in the 19th century, although I don't have an exact date.

It's a Grade II Listed Building, although there isn't very much about the building's architecture in the description. Some of the wall surfaces are finished in flint and others with pebbles, both of which were ubiquitous building material at one time in East Devon. I have an article about pebble buildings here for those who might be interested to see the different ways they were used, both decoratively and as a structural material.

Connaught Gardens

An old, walled garden, it can be accessed from the road as well as a walk up from the beach (or climb up Jacob's Ladder!).

 

Seaview Cottage and the grounds were up for sale in the 1930s and bought by Sidmouth Council, who demolished the cottage and made the area into the public gardens that we see today. It was named Connaught Gardens after the Duke of Connaught, who officially opened it on 3rd November 1934.

 

There are lots of walled 'rooms' in the gardens, decorated with pebbles along with some lovely faded orange brickwork. Some of the walls from the cottage were retained to provide shelter and interest. The one below shows where there was once a door, window or fireplace in that wall now bricked up, with another alteration beside it.

Further gardens beyond the series of walls, much of which contain tropical plants. They do well here because of the mild climate on the South-West peninsular.

 

The Grotto, seen below, was one of the original parts retained, along with the old walls and entrance drive.

The statue below - called The Sidmouth Fiddler - was commisioned by the Rev.Canon David Slater for the 50th annual celebration of the Sidmouth International Folk Festival. Created by the artist Greta Berlin, it was unveiled by the folk musician Martin Carthy MBE on August 1st 2004.

And lastly, there's a WW2 pillbox in the hillside above the winding path.

WW2 Pillbox

I only have this one photo, but it shows a half-sunken variant type. The embrasures have been glazed over and there are artefacts from the 1940s inside. The Blue Plaque description is as follows...

"This Pillbox formed part of the defences of our coast against invasion in 1940 and with these cliffs and gardens was used in training for the D.Day Landing on the 6 June 1944. The Fiftieth Anniversary of which this plaque commemorates East Devon District Council 6th June 1994.

And finally, an abandoned boat on the beach on my way to the walk beneath the cliffs.

And that's about it. I'll be writing a separate article about the walkway to include a lot more photos and geological information. It might not be straight away after this one - so much to do, so little time, lol - and I might finish and post up some other ones first. I'll see how it goes but meanwhile I hope this post has been interesting. Cheers.  :)