Synopsis: This walk included a visit to A La Ronde, which was absolutely fascinating. The walk required a climb to Woodbury Common, but fine sunshine and autumn colour made this worthwhile.
What made this walk rather special was a visit I made to A La Ronde, a National Trust property in Exmouth. The National Trust acquired the property in 1991. I’d been meaning to look in on this place for an age, but somehow had never got around to it. I think this was partly because I thought it was perhaps little more than curiosity. How wrong I was. But before I rattle on at length about A La Ronde,, as I fear I must, let me first say a few words about the walk.
Woodbury beginning to awakenThe walk start point was to be Woodbury, reached after a short bus ride via a rather sleepy Exeter Airport. The little village of Woodbury seemed little more awake than Exeter Airport when I arrived. A few people were shuffling towards the post office presumably for their morning papers. There are many pretty corners to Woodbury. It commands an enviable position so close to Woodbury Common, the Exe Estuary, the sea and Exmouth. It is not long however before I am following a lane up and out of Woodbury in the direction of the common.
What fun it had been to cycle through this pool
Woodbury Common is a popular destination for dog walkers, joggers and cyclists, and rightly so. It is a little wilderness on our doorstep. The ferns had turned a golden brown making a warm backdrop to the vibrant greens of the evergreen woodland. At Four Firs I picked up a route that was the route of a family cycle ride that we undertook a few years back. A large pool of water reminded me of the fun we had at seeing who could make the biggest splash. As usual the master of such antics was my brother-in-law Colin who ran away with the title.
As I began my descent from Woodbury Common I picked up a ‘lane’ that headed in the direction of Exmouth. Unfortunately this lane is a busy traffic route into and out of Exmouth, something I should have known from past experience had I studied the map more closely the night before as I planned this walk. At some places along the lane there is no verge, therefore a lot of care was required to negotiate this section of the walk. It was a relief to turn off right into a much quieter lane on the outskirts of Exmouth town.
The Point-In-View churchI was soon on a footpath looking across fields when I spotted an unusual spire that at first I mistook for the rooftop of A La Ronde. I made a minor detour up a lane to discover the peculiar A Point-In-View church, more of which, and A La Ronde too, I’ll say later. Eventually my way took me across fields from which there is a splendid view across the Exe Estuary. I dropped down to the new Exe Estuary Trail, a cycle and walk route following the course of the railway, that was not running on this day due to extensive track maintenance. I had about a mile and a half to complete before arriving at a bus stop in Exmouth to begin my journey home.
A La RondeAnd now for A La Ronde. I had got it into my head, completely wrongly as it happens, that this was a house that came about in the 1920s. I knew it was a very original shape and design, and I linked that in my mind with the various stylistic movements of the 20s and 30s. The house I knew had been decorated with sea shells and feathers, and this seemed to me very Arts and Crafts. The house is in fact more than 200 years old, dating from the end of the 18th century. It was the brainchild of two spinster cousins, Jane and Mary Parminter. They had been on a ten year Grand Tour of Europe and collected many items and they wanted a show case for their collection and decided to design their own house.
It was incredibly brave of the cousins to be travelling at that time as there was much turmoil in Europe at the time, including the wars that stemmed from the ambitions of Napoleon. Their favourite country was Italy, and although there are no designs for the house in existence, it is thought that the house is modelled on a sixteen sided building in Ravenna, Italy, the church of San Vitale. One of the pictures exhibited in the house is of this building. Apparently many papers and letters were lost during World War II as they were stored in the library in Exeter at the time of the blitz and were lost in a fire.
A La Ronde, home of the Parminter cousinsThe impression one immediately gets upon stepping into the house is that this is emphatically stamped with the personality and character of the Parminter cousins. The central octagonal room, onto which all the exterior rooms had doors, has a patterned wall designed to create the illusion that this is an underwater sea chamber, with green seaweed flowing up the walls. I think the cousins were proto feminists, even going so far as to stipulate in their wills that the house was at no time to be inherited by male heirs, although this was a rule to be broken by later family.
The Parminter cousins were from a north Devon family that had made its money in trade. They had dealings for instance with the East India Company. The family came to Exmouth partly because it was an ‘in’ place to be. Lady Nelson was living here at the time of Trafalgar and the Parminter cousins were close friends of the lady. They had also come to Exmouth because of the docks, as various commodities were landed at Exmouth and transported by road to London, as apparently this was, despite the poor roads, easier, quicker and safer than taking goods to London by ship.
The shell gallery is unfortunately off limits, as this is reached by a very narrow passageway which, if access were permitted, would result in too much risk of damage to the delicate shell decorations. The only opportunity to view the gallery directly is to stand at the bottom of some stairs and stare up a lit corridor to the nearest decorations. Even this mere glimpse is enough to convey the impression that the cousins had created something quite special in this flight of fancy of theirs. A CCTV camera has been rigged up and it is possible to use this to see the shell decorations; the camera is manipulated by joy stick.
Point-In-View church altarThere is one other thing worth a mention and that is that there is, just up the road from A La Ronde, a very strange looking church with a very peculiar name, The Point-In-View church. As mentioned above, I’d seen an unusual roof from the footpath and at first I thought it was A La Ronde, and headed towards it. It was in fact a tiny white building seemingly plonked in the middle of a field. The church sits on a small hillock from where there are tremendous views down towards the Exe Estuary and Exmouth. Its the spire, which sits right in the middle of the church roof, that first catches the eye. The building has triangular shaped windows.
As soon as you enter the church you’re immediately aware of just how small this is. The main illumination comes from windows in the central spire, from which shafts of light fall on the altar. The effect is quite spectacular. Apparently the ‘point’ of the name was the conversion of the Jews, at least according to Pevsner.
On entering A La Ronde I asked the steward at the door if there was any connection between A La Ronde and the little church up the road, and of course there is. The Parminter cousins designed and built this church, and are now buried there.
Oh dear, I do appear to have gone on at length about my visit to A La Ronde. I suppose that reflects how taken I was by the place. It is, in the words of the National Trust handbook, quite ‘unique’. I see it as a testament to the liberating effects of travel and how this broadens the mind. The ladies must have been inspired by the variety of life they saw on their journeys, and perhaps felt that a little innovation to stuffy old England was long overdue. So, what did they do, they built a sixteen sided house on a hill in Exmouth and filled it with wild ornamentation. Goodness knows what the people of Exmouth would have thought about this back then. But I suspect Mary and Jane, emboldened by their travels, revelled in their bohemian reputation. I wondered if my enthusiasm for A La Ronde was purely personal, and so, on arriving home I referred to my copy of England’s Thousand Best Homes by Simon Jenkins. Simon sums up his praise of A La Ronde by saying it is, “A tiny jewel in the National Trust crown.” Well put!
Walk Statistics:
Total Distance: 10.3 miles
Moving Time: 3hrs 51min
Stopped Time: 1hr 55min
Total Ascent: 420 metres
Maximum Elevation: 160 metres
Buses: 56 & 57
