We left Penzance and Cornwall and drove back east a bit into Devon, through the moor. The moor is an interesting place in that there is just about nothing there. There are a few farms on the edge of it and a tiny village here and there wherever there is a road through, but for the most part, there is just nothing there.
Well, nothing unless you count gorse. There's a lot of gorse. You remember gorse, right? It's what Eyore loved to eat. It's thorny, rough, slightly woody and has yellow flowers which actually look rather nice when viewed from a distance.
photo credit: www.rspb.org.uk
I read on line that plant companies actually sell gorse as a hedging. It would be great for keeping kids out.
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We had some time to kill before checking in at our next "holiday let" so we used our membership cards to go to the last working water driven forge in the country. Unbeknownst (that's a great British word!) to us, Finch Forge was celebrating its 200th anniversary as a forge that day. Previously, it had been a woolen mill. The mill used a water wheel for power coming from a nearby spring. It's amazing how much power can be harnessed from a relatively small water source.
They had a small community band, called a silver band because all of the instruments were silver instead of brass.
They also had demonstrations going on during the day, including this guy who is a nearby mostly retired blacksmith.
He was adeptly making some decorative iron snails. He had a bit of a gift of gab and seemed to really be enjoying himself, answering questions from his audience of curious watchers.
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In Devon, we have continued our tour of National Trust properties, including this one: Castle Drogo. It is the last castle built in England (so far), being finished in 1930, built by a wealthy tea merchant and grocer. He made an incredible amount of money early in his career. By the time that he was 33 years old, he decided that he would retire to spend the rest of his life being a country gentleman. He sold 75% of his company and lived very well on the dividends from his remaining shares.
Even though there are castles, parts of which were built 600 years ago or more, still standing and in reasonably good repair, this castle was a decade away from total ruin when the Trust began a multi-million pound project to repair the roof, leaking windows and water damaged walls.
The flat roof was not a good design feature. Just about any thinking person would know that. His architect warned him, but he wanted "authenticity". I've seen a few castles by now and none of them had flat roofs (and lived to tell about it).
The contractor is removing all of the large stones from the roof, making it water tight, putting down a waterproof layer, then gravel, then the original granite stone blocks and also removing the 900+ windows and fixing them.
The whole project will take upwards of 10 years. In the meantime, all of the furniture, carpets, paintings and household items have been packed in crates and await the reopening. The whole place looks like they are just waiting for the moving vans to arrive.
Castle Drogo did have its garden still in tact. The daffodils are almost gone now, but the good news is that it is now tulip time. Everywhere we look there are many, many varieties of tulips to delight the eye.
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