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