Seaforth Lodge & Cottages, Seaton, Devon

 

Seaforth Lodge is a short distance along from Check House and was built in 1864-65 by Henry Clutton for the Dowager Lady Louisa Ashburton. Like Sir Walter Trevelyan and his wife Pauline of Check House, Lady Ashburton also entertained noted visitors of the day, including Thomas Carlisle and his wife who came to stay with her for a month.

Now separated into different apartments and used for permanent residential purposes and holiday flats, it's still a delightful building. The main building, complete with an observatory on the roof, overlooks the cliffs. 

I don't have much information about the building itself, as it isn't a listed building. It is mentioned in the Heritage Gateway though, as being one of a scattering of several significant buildings outside the conservation area, that it's stuccoed with shallow pedimented gables, bracketed eaves and a good balcony and veranda. 

This lovely balcony is one of the early examples of wrought ironwork and is really fabulous. There are also other balconies so I'm not sure which one is meant in particular, unless the meaning of 'a good balcony' is collectively. Part of the wrap-around veranda can also just about be seen in the next two photos. More about that later.

On the road at the front is a two-cottage building facing the road comprising Seaforth Cottage and Little Seaforth. 

Looking somewhat Bavarian with their style of window shutters, they are rather attractive, although that makes them look quite different to the usual cottages.

There's another balcony on the rear of Seaforth Cottage. I don't have any information about the cottages so I can't say with certainty if it's original or not. I'm pretty sure the wall to the side of the cottage isn't original, as part of its garden/courtyard, seen below. I vaguely remember that it was a shorter wall, which has been altered in height with the addition of modern wrought iron openings, but please don't quote me on this in case my memory's failed me, lol.

Something else I did come across are several news items from different times in the British Newspaper Archive, which was fascinating. For instance, after Lady Ashburton died on the 2nd February 1903 her estate was inherited by the Marquis of Northampton. He either sold it shortly thereafter, or leased it out, because it became a seaside school for girls preparing for Preliminary Junior and Senior Cambridge, also for Advanced Examination in Music (London R.A.M.).

 

Other news items, later on in the same year 1903, were titled The Seaton Affair and Seaton Sensation, in which the attempted murder of the incumbent 74 year old housekeeper was reported. Miss Eliza Manning was attacked, badly beaten and sustained burns to her hands and face, by John Hawker from the village of Beer who was also employed at Seaforth Lodge as the gardener. 

A year before in 1902 Lady Ashburton was summoned under the by-laws to the magistrates for aiding and abetting her horse and carriage driver, James Beazley, to drive along West Walk, which is a pedestrian walkway along the western end of the sea front.

Other news pieces are about the auction of her furnishings and other wordly goods after her death and various events held at Seaforth by the school and a later resident. It's really interesting to see the history of a place through newspaper articles. 

And now back to the veranda, which can be seen in these photos taken from the other side. It looks such a lovely place to live with individual gardens for these ground floor flats. Another balcony can be seen here too. And below, another view a bit further along the road...from someone else's driveway! ;) 

I really enjoyed researching and writing this. There was a lot more to write about than I first thought when I began. Anyway, something good about leaving it until now is the availability of archived newspapers, which I'll be sure to use again. And speaking of which, that's given me the idea of writing a post about useful resources, so that's one to add when I can. :)

 

 

 

St Gregory's Churchyard, Seaton, Devon

I was walking past the churchyard one day when I saw that it was full of ox-eye daisies. Totally besotted with them, I went back a couple of days later with my camera to wander those areas that I hadn't seen before.

The extensive grounds belonging to St Gregory's Church comprise three tiers. The grounds immediately around the church are well-tended with just a few graves on the grass to three sides, the east side containing modern-day graves along with a smattering of the oldest ones. The other two tiers are on sloping ground to the west, between the church green and the main road. It is this part that has been abandoned and partly left to wildlife.

Further on in and the graves were packed together closely with small strips of concrete walkways between them. One of the things that struck me is that the graves aren't all that old. The dates are mostly between 1910 and the late 1950s. The headstones themselves weren't all that interesting either - no unusual decoration or inscriptions - but it was very peaceful and delightful amongst the flowers.

This one above was an exception and a bit unusual, although I didn't manage to get a better close-up of it.

It was at this point that I realised most of them had caved in due to subsidence. Even some of the concrete paths had broken up with gaping holes in the earth beneath. Cue an Edgar Alan Poe moment of sheer horror! At which point I made a very careful and hasty retreat to the main path...taking photos on the way of course! ;)

I mentioned in the Beer Cemetery article that I'm somewhat necrophobic. And this didn't help, lol.

 

The photos below show how subsidence has caused the headstones to lean all over the place. Many headstones have been laid on top of the graves.

The grave on the right (below) with the rather weathered stone seagull on the top belongs to a twenty-year old young lady who loved nature. She fell from the cliffs whilst watching the sea birds on their nesting sites, which is really sad and reminds me of the young woman of 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' fame, who fell and drowned whilst leaning over a river to collect foliage from an overhanging tree.

Nearby are two war commission graves; memorials of Czechoslovakian soldiers who were billeted here during WW2.

I don't have any other history separate from the church itself so I'll cover that in a later article about St Gregory's church.

And some other headstones nearby along this path that runs along the western side of the church.

My favourite photo of the day, below.

On the church side the grounds are well tended but have been left to wildlife on the western side of the path.

 

Then around the corner onto the path running along the northern side. The next two were taken on a different day in Autumn.
 

 

Further along the northern path the hedge side becomes more wild again.

At the lower, eastern edge of the churchyard, headstones stand in rows along the hedge which borders onto the Marshes Nature Reserve.

 

The eastern side mostly contains newer graves so I just took photos of a few old ones on that side, including the fallen one below on the left. The cross on the right has an anchor on the bottom plinth. Being a seaside town and traditional fishing area there have been many lost at sea and this may either mark a specific grave or be a memorial to those who've drowned.

I have so many photos from different times of different years, many of which I've added below as well as some more from this daisy visit.

An overall look at the western side of the church with graves to the west and south.

And a look from near the top of the western side, below.

The eastern side with newer graves and a view of the Marshes Nature Reserve beyond (article on that coming up shortly).

Some more Autumn ones.

We can see how the stones and crosses are leaning more in the photos above.

A fallen and broken headstone below.

Another fallen and broken one, below, which is a shame as it has a lovely floral design and shape to it. Taken during one springtime.

 

Some more of the 'Urgh, Aaarg' ones! ;)

And finally a few taken for atmosphere on a winter walk.

 

And there we go! I'll be writing the church article at some point. As mentioned earlier, I'm working on an article of the Marshes Local Nature Reserve. It's a bit tough going as, like this one, I've got a humungous amount of photos taken over the years and trying to sort them out is a job and a half. However, it's getting there and should be coming up after a few shorter ones...or easier ones! 

Cheers. :)