Synopsis: The name Heathcote looms large over the town of Tiverton. This walk provided a nice mix of town and country. Tiverton is worth more time than I could spare it on this day. Had plenty of sun!
(selection of photos from Flickr photo set – use link above to view album)
Walk! Devon
This walk is route 8 from the book Walk! Devon. This is a favourite book of mine, as the walks are very well written up, easy to follow, and each is provided with Ordnance Survey 1/25,000 maps. All the walks are ‘GPS Enabled’, by which is meant that each has a table of waypoint grid references that can be loaded to a GPS unit to facilitate easy navigation. To see other walks from this book that I have completed, use the link under Tags to the right.
No ships have ever known to have gone down in the Tiverton Triangle, which is one significant difference it has over it's more famous Pacific counterpart.
Travel distance to the walk is thankfully low, as this is a circular walk from Tiverton. The buses to and from are plenty. I settled for an 8.15 am bus from Exeter Bus Station. Luckily I arrive here at 8.08 am, as we're hitting the road by 8.09 am; I'm not sure this is good practice! Still, it does mean I'm walking in Tiverton by 8.48 am!
Tiverton Town Hall, built in 1864, architect Mr. H. Lloyd of Bristol.
I've never really taken a close look at Tiverton. It was, like so many towns, severely vandalised by town planners in the 1960's, but it still has some charming corners. There is some mist lingering and plenty of dew still on the ground. The early morning autumnal light is lovely for photographs. I should get up early more often!
The photograph right is of the rather splendid Tiverton Town Hall, Grade II Listed. Certainly a building making a statement. Described by Pevsner as being of, ‘coarse and confident Franco-Venetian composition’. A building of exceedingly sophisticated architecture that perhaps one might not expect to find in mid-Devon.
Here, to the left, is an image of Tiverton Town Hall as it looked in 1890, from the Francis Frith collection. For more old/new photo comparisons, see the description on my Flickr photo set, link above.
Also of note is the nearby Church of St George, Fore Street, Grade I Listed that I passed but had insufficient time to explore.
This a rather interesting aerial view of both Tiverton Town Hall and the Church of St George taken in September 1928. A number of elegant buildings can be picked out from this photo, a high proportion are still in existence to this day.
Looking south down the Exe Valley.
It's a bit of a climb out of the back of Tiverton, up Baker's Hill, but I'm soon in typical Devon rolling hills. As I am about to discover, this will be a walk of some climbs (see total ascent below). Once I leave behind the environs of the dog walkers I soon have the countryside to myself, which is very typical of mid-Devon.
St Catherine's Church
There's a rather strange modern-looking church at Withleigh, the Church of St Catherine, Listed Grade II. It's not as modern as aspects of the interior suggests (built: 1847). I note that the listing for this church informs us that, “John Hayward [architect] of Exeter was the leading local practitioner of Gothic Revival church building in the County of Devon from the 1840s to the 1860s.”
Bickleigh Mill
This walk does not on the whole entail coming across very much habitation other than the occasional farm or cottage, except for the village of Bickleigh which is a tourist honey spot.
After Withleigh the walk picks up the valley of the River Dart (which I can't explain), and follows this down to Bickleigh.
Typical view along this stretch of the walk of the River Exe against a backdrop of rolling hills.
From Bickleigh the valley of the River Exe is followed back into Tiverton. I've never before seen this stretch of the River Exe as close up as on this walk. Although there are broad stretches of gently flowing water, there is also quite a lot of white water in places. Not full-on rapids, but quite a force all the same. I did pass a party of canoeists who'd obviously negotiated these the more difficult stretches of the river.
As I re-enter Tiverton I pass rows of the tiny Heathcote worker cottages. I suppose for the workers these were a welcome haven. I complete my walk by 4.00 pm, and there's a bus waiting!
Walk Statistics:
Total Distance: 13.3m
Total Ascent: 581 metres
Total Walk Time: (moving): 5 hrs 9 mins (elapsed): 7 hrs 5 mins
Maximum Elevation: 226 metres
Buses: 55 (outwards), 155 (return)
