In Tiverton, a historic market town on the River Exe where my very best friend Jenny lives, we stayed at nearby Lodgehill Hotel and enjoyed both the hospitality and a large room with a view of the countryside.
This is Jenny with her daughter, Louise, and Howard having a pot of tea in the garden.
Tea shops are not to be missed on a visit to England so we had lunch at the “Four and Twenty Black Birds” the oldest one in town. So many flowers in the window too.
Just look at those cakes? No wonder we came back with more weight and not only in the luggage! Always wanting to tour different places of interest, we drove to Arlington Court near Barnstaple, another National Trust property, passing some Jacob sheep and peacocks on our way to the house.
The exterior of this 1820 Regency Manor is fairly plain but the interior contained some magnificent rooms including this beautiful entrance hall much of it with shipping memorabilia.
Other curios and tapestries were mostly collected by the Chichester family one of whose descendants was Sir Francis Chichester who sailed solo around the world in Gipsy Moth IV.O
The gardens are informal and include a Victorian flower garden with conservatory and a walled kitchen garden which grows produce for their tea-rooms.
The stables house the NT's collection of about 50 vintage carriages and visitors can take a ride in this C19 carriage with these lovely old horses; one of these two still working at 30 years of age.
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