Colebrooke House, Beer, Devon

 

Another building in Fore Street, Beer. I don't have much information about it, and it isn't a Listed Building, but I have several photos of this really delightful building and just had to give it a page of its own.

Also an Arts & Crafts House, it's right next door to Durham House (seen in the previous post) and shares the same roof line. Again, I don't have any proof of this, but I suspect that the architect David Carr may have had something to do with the design. Built around the same time as others he designed, it's a lovely late Victorian/early Edwardian building.

With the same arrangement of front gables with prettily cut bargeboards, the front consists of two bays. The right bay comprises canted bay windows running down the first and ground floor storeys, whereas on the left is a first floor oriel window above a door and large window on the ground floor. There is a small window in each of the gables.

I love the pattern on the balcony shelf beneath the window. Simple but really effective. Other interesting features include the side door with curved corner above and the drip mould above the narrow window.

The mediaeval style front door is fabulous and, like Durham House, it has two separate windows in the spandrels above.

Seen in situ on Fore Street, below, next to Durham House on the right hand side.

And finally two photos taken a few years before on a brief walk down Fore Street. The paintwork was black then, which I think looked rather striking, although I do prefer the blue. 

Another short article quickly(ish) done! More coming up soon. Cheers. :)

 

 

Durham House, Beer, Devon

 

This building is on Fore Street in the village of Beer. I'll be adding it to another article all about the street itself, which is full of wonderful Arts & Crafts buildings, but this deserves a page of its own for its fab architecture and to use more photos than I will with the longer street article. 

Delightfully higgledy-piggledy, it has different levels along the roof line with two gables above two of its bays, inbetween them a taller flat extension of the roof above two central doors on the ground floor, and a sloping roof at one end above the main ground floor door. There are canopies above all three doors, bargeboards on the gable roofs and drip moulds above some of the windows.

As with the two galleries, seen in the previous post, this surprisingly isn't a listed building. There isn't a lot of information about it, but it was built in 1897 and is commensurate with the erection and remodelling of several buildings on Fore Street. These include those designed by the architect David Carr, who lived in Beer and worked for Clinton Estates who own parts of the village. Interestingly, this was built the same year as another property designed by Mr Carr.

Built with a facade of Beer Stone, from the quarry situated above the village, it has a lovely creamy colour, contrasting nicely with the doors of light wood. Some of the late Victorian characteristics include the arched doorways.

I think the two doors lead to self-catering holiday lets and the main door to the Bed & Breakfast part. The main entrance door being open on my first photo visit, I saw the lobby with its beautiful Art Nouveau Minton tiling.

Having seen photos online of the interior another feature is the gorgeous stained glass in the windows. Some can be seen in the ground floor window, below.

Altogether a scrumptious fairytale creation with lots of interest.  :)

Just a short article but well worth looking into a bit more thoroughly. I think there might be another stand-alone one from Fore Street before I embark on writing about the whole street at some point. It's the usually cry of 'need more photos', lol! 

I'm also gradually editing photos taken in Lyme Regis that I visited a few weeks ago, so there'll be some from there too. Lots to do and finally have the energy recently to write more as well as catch up with house maintenance and other neglected jobs, which is a huge relief. 

Cheers. :)

Steam Gallery & Marine House, Beer, Devon

I've put these two buildings together because they are both art galleries and, although very different from each other, they both have the most delightfully quirky architecture. They will also be in the article about Fore Street but, along with a few other buildings that deserve pages of their own, they also have more photos than will comfortably fit on the longer post.

Starting with Steam Gallery, which surprisingly isn't a listed building, it has a corner plot with the front entrance situated on the corner of the building. There's also a chimney stack on that side and I don't know if that was deliberate or if the fireplace was removed in order to accommodate the door...unless it only services the top floor.

Fore Street is choc-a-block with older cottages and late Victorian/Edwardian Arts & Crafts buildings, such as this one. Some were designed or remodelled by the architect David Carr, who lived in Beer and worked for Clinton Estates. Interestingly, although some are listed buildings with Mr Carr as the named architect, there are unlisted buildings in similar styles. Whether he was instrumental for most of the other buildings or else they were copied when remodelled by builders is something I haven't been able to ascertain. It's an interesting question though.

There are some lovely details on the windows. Interestingly, they're echoed on some other buildings too, which makes me wonder if David Carr designed the overall remodelling of many buildings on Fore Street to fit in with the Arts & Crafts theme.

The ground floor elevation mainly consists of the shop front, which also includes the attractive leaf patterns carved in the wood surround, and above is a stucco surface with a mock tudor gable. Part of the front comprises a smaller window showing a background of the stone rubble wall also with stucco on the top floor, seen below.

The two galleries came about when the owners Mike and Rosemary Lambert bought Marine House in a decrepit state and transformed it into an art gallery. Opening in 1998 it was an immediate success and four years later they also bought the property now known as Steam Gallery for their second venture.

Which lead us to Marine House.  Not so many photos of this one but there are some nice details and the overall look feels as though it should be sailing away on the sea!

The boat-shaped oriel window on the front is really delightful with its long stretch of casement lights. I thought this building was a listed one but apparently not, which again I found surprising, although it may have changed its appearance during refurbishing. The windows on the top floor have the iconic Elizabethan/Tudor style drip moulds above them, which may either be original or a modern addition.

Whatever its status, it's a fabulous building. Although there are a few styles which stand out and don't look like any other on Fore Street - such as this one - they all blend together very well to make a homologous whole.

Tiled strips around the base of the frontage contain suitably marine subjects amongst the plain black and brick-red ones.

And a final photo taken a little bit further down the street.

Not as many photos of Marine House as I'd have liked but it was actually quite difficult to get close-ups, plus I don't always realise what else I might need at the time. That is one of the advantages of digital cameras of course, but I still love my film photography and it's always a nice surprise to see what I've got when my prints come in the post...or sometimes not! ;)

There are some other buildings on Fore Street that I'll be making separate posts of, especially as I do need more photos before writing the street article, so they'll be coming up soon. Onwards and upwards! :)

 

Seaton Marshes Local Nature Reserve, Seaton, Devon

 

This is a post I've been seemingly working on forever and difficult to get right due to the amount of disparate photos taken on many of my walks there. They are all different depending on the season, weather, make of photo film and processing, which made it difficult to put together, but I'll just start from the northern end of the walk and we'll take it from there.

A favourite walk for many local residents, Seaton Marshes is a Local Nature Reserve with a wide variety of wildlife, especially water fowl and other birds. The white badge on the post (above and below) has an owl on.  I wasn't sure what it meant so I asked the people at East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty who kindly told me that the posts were part of a round Seaton walk to highlight the natural assets. The person who arranged it is no longer in the area so it's been discontinued but the posts are now part of Seaton's heritage.

Awarded a Green Flag for its natural history, access and facilities, it's also had a community focus with events throughout the year, including some 'wet and wild' weekends with many activities for all ages, as well as regular 'meet the birds' sessions at the bird hide.

A freshwater grazing marsh bordering one side of the River Axe, most of the area is off-limits to humans, ensuring a safe haven for wildlife in their natural habitat. Also, some parts are used as grazing farmland for sheep, cattle and horses. 

A path runs along the western edge of the marshes with the River Axe bordering the eastern side, beyond which is the road between the village of Axmouth and Seaton. Axmouth can be seen nestling below the hill seen in the above photos. 

The photos below show part of the path in springtime with lovely blossom on the blackthorn trees.

More of the nature seen around the path of some lichen, one of several leats and a tree embraced by ivy.

However, apart from the main path running along the one side, there are also some designated areas of access, including a long stretch out to the bird hide which sits near to the tram line running alongside the river. The bird hide is partially fenced off nearer to it so that human activity doesn't disturb the birds. 

Buildings in the distance, above photos, show the proximity of the town (a very small seaside town). It's only a walk of 10 to 15 minutes from my home to the marshes yet feels quite wild.

The bird hide, below.

The town water treatment plant is also situated on the edge of the path, where treated waste water is released below ground into a run-off to the sea. To learn more about the water treatment plant I have an article here.

There's a great little nature trail around the fenced-off plant, seen below.

 

A signpost at the end of the walk shows that just further along is the delightful Borrow Pit, a beautifully serene deep pool with surrounding trees, pathway and a wooden walkway part way across the southern end of the water.

Borrow Pit is a civil engineering term for an area in which earth has been scooped out for use elsewhere, leaving a deep hole. In this particular case the earth was used to create banks alongside the path out to the hide; the pond suitable for deep water wildlife.

It was in late November 2010 I discovered Borrow Pit to be accessible, which I didn't realise before, and decided to try out a replacement camera there. The lowering sun really picked out the willow tree in the photo above.

 

The walkway only stretches partially across the water where you can sit and watch the wildfowl and other birds, have a picnic or just enjoy being in nature.

It is such a beautiful, serene place that I took a fair few photos and had a walk all the way around the pond.   

The photos above were taken near the northern end. Just behind where I stood is a circle of benches surrounding a fire pit. A great place to spend some time with friends around a camp fire and have a few beers. ;) 

Although still quite early in the afternoon, late November with the sun slanting from the south-west made fabulous sillouettes when viewed from the northern end of the lake.

And there we go! I did manage to resist putting in all the photos, although I might have gone a bit overboard with the pond ones, lol. Anyway, I hope that was of some interest. I'm not sure what's coming up next so I can't give you a heads-up on that. I've got several articles started and partly written, including two about Rougemont Castle in Exeter. I could do with more photos for part one but I can't manage the journey yet - maybe next year - but I might get it finished anyway with what I've already got and add some more photos later.

And I'm rambling again! Cheers. :)