Saturday 8 March 2014

Hello From Glorious Devon

I'm having a few days in Devon with my daughter
Just the two of us which is wonderful.
 It's a long drive down here  so I don't see her as
 often as I would like but as her partner is away for a short while
we thought we would have some Mother and daughter time.

She lives and works in Exeter which was my Mothers
home town and  so I know reasonably well from time spent with my Gran.
My parents and I lived further along the coast in Torquay when 
I was a teenager until my Gran died and I went to London for work
but I still feel very much at home here.


Today has been such a sunny day that we went for a long walk
around the city as well as doing a bit of shopping.
(My feet are killing me now)


Exeter  is a really nice old city which
has a lovely old cathedral 





surrounded by the old Cathedral Close




and the Deanery where my Gran used to work at one time.
My parents had their wedding reception here.




 In places you can still see the old city walls.


as well as the old Guildhall in the main street 
which here is called Fore Street. Quite a few Devon
towns seem to have a Fore street and I can only assume
they were the foremost streets in the town but if any of you know 
differently then please let me know.


But it's not all history here, it has it's fun side
like this beautiful Pub sign for the Hour Glass Pub


And the bored statute just watching the traffic go past
although I doubt there was any traffic when he was
originally carved.






These two murals caught my eye as well.



We walked along the River Exe towards the old quay


making sure to 
avoid all the swans there were about.


Then, as we were near by, we walked past my Grans 
old house in the part of the city they call St,Leonards.
  My Gran lived in one house, 
one of her brothers (she had 7) lived next door
and her Mother lived opposite. 

All the other brothers were within walking distance.





On Thursday and Friday while my daughter was teaching
I did a bit of research in to my family history.
I have been researching my family tree for a couple
of years now but mostly online, then I discovered that
Devon has a wonderful heritage centre with a lot of 
old records.  I have had great fun adding to my knowledge
and finding a few skeletons in the cupboard as well.

For a start my Gt.Gt Grandparents both had younger brothers
who were firm friends and
became young tearaways, ended up being
transported to Tasmania in Australia for theft in 1842
 at 16 years old.
Seems a trifle harsh to me for one so young
 but then life was then I suppose.






I also went and had a look at one of the villages
were another lot of Gt.Gt Grandparents came from.
I think they would still recognise parts of it today.




 We are going out for a meal tonight before I head back
to Norfolk
at some stage tomorrow and I will have to wait for
for a few months before I see her again.

See you all again soon and thank you for all the lovely
comments I get , I really enjoy reading them.

Gillxx



11 comments:

  1. This looks fantastic! How wonderful that you were able to spend the day with your daughter!!! And how outstanding to have gone to check out where your grandmother once lived. I find it so awesome that her family was all within walking distance! Those were the good old days! Such a beautiful city! Lovely weekend to you! Nicole xoxo

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  2. What a great day you had, Exeter looks lovely - sadly I have only bypassed it at the end of the M5 on the way to Cornwall, so all I have seen of the city is the motorway service station.

    The weather has been glorious today hasn't it? Lets hope it lasts for the rest of the weekend!

    Helenxx

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  3. Days spent with grown daughters are so few and far between aren't they? Mine is 27 and as i'm reminded often her and her hubby are busy busy busy... But i do miss her and the times when she was younger and we were inseparable... ah well.... have to grab the time together when you can... Thanks so much for sharing. i too dabble in searching my family tree. I have a fascination with my maiden name. 'Tigar' you pronounce it like the animal but it is spelled different. Yeah imagine growing up with that last name...lol not always fun.. I did find out years ago it was spelled like the animal 'Tiger' but someone changed it. Anyway.... I cannot seem to find what nationality it comes from... what country did it originate...... its fun isn't to try to find answers to out questions...hugs! deb

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  4. I am SO Pleased that you managed to have such a lovely time out with your daughter. I was supposed to be heading out with mum on a photographing-things-like-a-mad-person tour of our own little corner of the world today but she was a bit too wobbly so we've given it a miss to try again tomorrow. Fingers crossed! I know she's invested in industrial quantities of camera batteries. The woman takes more pictures than ANYone I know. She even photographs her dinner!

    Your own photograophs are lovely - really. Such eye candy with those old buildings. ANd that heritage centre sounds like a godsend for researching family history! Wonderful stuff. A complete pleasure to visit you as always. Big hugs from Shroo:)xxx

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  5. Wow , you practically lived on my doorstep when I was still in England, well at least in the same area. I loved seeing Exeter again through your eyes. I loved to go shopping there with my daughter, she did her managerial training course for 'Next' in Torquay so to shop in the bigger store in Exeter was a great treat for me, she would buy me all sorts of things with her discount, seems like a life time away now. How fantastic that you were able to dig deep into the family history even though you discovered the harsh thing that happened to the young brothers. I Loved reading about your trip to visit your daughter. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

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  6. Exeter - one of my favourite places. Last time we were there we eat at the cathedral. I know Exeter very well as we lived in Sidmouth for four years.
    I have been doing my family tree mainly on line too, my husbands family comes from Norfolk. One of his Gt grandfather's was a Norfolk bare fist fighter.

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  7. Qué bonito pueblo. La catedral está hermosa.. Se ve antiguo, como me gusta.
    Saludos desde Chile
    Maru

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  8. Only been once to Exeter, Gill, when our younger son 'passed out' from Royal Marines training ...many years ago! It does look wonderful and so good for you to have that lovely time together. Lx

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  9. What gorgeous photos. I really must make a list of all the beautiful places my blog friends travel to. Then, when it's my turn, I'll have some simple choices to make.

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  10. Thanks for sharing your visit with us Gill, was very nutters ting and lovely pictures too!

    I will be making your picture this week so hopefully it will be with you a on

    Love claire xxx

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  11. Looks like you had a great time with your daughter, and Exeter looks a lovely place to visit. Family history is fascinating isnt it?!
    Gill xx

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