Discovering the Old Mineral Line, Brendon Hills, Exmoor

It seems hard to believe now, but the Brendon Hills on Exmoor were once a centre for iron mining. Whole settlements were constructed for miners and their families, although most of the houses and industrial buildings have since disappeared or remain only as ruins. There was also the West Somerset Mineral Railway (or Old Mineral Line), which was built to take iron ore to Watchet Harbour, ready to be shipped to Newport in South Wales.

The route of the old railway included the Incline, a very steep slope down which wagonloads of iron ore were lowered by means of cables; the empty wagons were hauled back up again. The remains of the Winding House, which housed the machinery for this, are by the side of the road near the Beulah Chapel, shortly after you turn down the road towards Wheddon Cross.

Beulah Chapel is interesting in itself. Standing at the road junction of the B3190 and the B3224 near Raleghs Cross, it is all that remains of a mining village where at one time several hundred people would have lived. The congregation were Bible Christians, a North Devon and Somerset splinter group of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Some suggested Old Mineral Line walks

From the car park just off the B3190 near Raleghs Cross, you can take a short walk through the woods to see the Incline, continuing if you like towards Comberrow and Roadwater.

At Chargot Woods, a few miles from Wheddon Cross, there are walks taking in the Bearland Flue chimney (which was, literally, a lifeline for the miners) and the former site of Langham Engine House.

There’s an easy walk between Washford and Watchet along the route of the Old Mineral Line. In the Market House Museum at Watchet you will find a lot of historical information and a fascinating collection of old photographs.

To discover more about this amazing chapter in Exmoor’s past, visit http://www.westsomersetmineralrailway.org.uk/welcome/

Showing off!

I’ve been in the media recently, on behalf of Exmoor House. And, because I love to show off, I’m including the links here to a video and a podcast, both starring moi.


The video is a testimonial I did for telnames, the company from whom we bought our mobile website – www.exmoorhouse.tel  Of course, it promotes their services (which I find very good, as you’ll see if you watch the video) but it also includes some nice shots of our place and mini-tours of some of the rooms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjxcrru1iOA&feature=youtu.be

The podcast is by Walks Around Britain, and it includes an interview with me about walking on Exmoor. Here it is:
http://audioboo.fm/boos/1244914-edition-015-a-walk-to-mam-tor-andy-leader-s-holmfirth-photography-exmoor-tom-heap-on-nettles

You can also download the podcast (and all the others they’ve done) free of charge to itunes. Walks Around Britain is an innovative video website; we’ll be working with them and West Country Walks shortly as they’re making a video about a walk on Exmoor near our place.

In the printed media, I did an interview for the February issue of Somerset Life magazine, as part of an article about Wheddon Cross and Snowdrop Valley. The magazine can we viewed here: http://somerset.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/digital-archive/ (the article is on pages 52-53). And, late last year you may have spotted comments in the Guardian magazine, by Frank and me, about what it’s like to live on Exmoor: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/dec/14/lets-move-to-exmoor-somerset-devon

If you need an inexpensive, easy to edit mobile website, do check out http://www.telnames.com/ and for loads of useful info including walking routes in many different areas, see http://www.walksaroundbritain.co.uk/

I mentioned http://www.westcountrywalks.co.uk/ (also known as Combe Walks). They produce a range of excellent pocket-sized walking and cycling books covering North Devon and Somerset, and they also organise the Exmoor Walking Festival, which this year has a particularly good range of walks for all tastes and abilities. It starts on 27th April: http://www.exmoorwalkingfestival.co.uk/

If any of this is making you feel that a visit to Exmoor is overdue, then we'd be delighted to see you! We've space for most dates at the moment, and there is even a special offer this month, if you hurry... take a look at our freshly-redesigned website for more details.

Snowdrop Valley 2013, Wheddon Cross, Exmoor, Somerset

Would you like to do something really special in February? How about a visit to Snowdrop Valley? It’s about a mile and a half from where we are and – as the name might suggest – is a place to see a host of snowdrops in a natural setting.
The snowdrops carpet the woodland floor and cover the banks of the river Avill, which flows through the valley. It’s a lovely, magical place at any time of year, whether or not it is the snowdrop season. You can walk from our place via a number of different routes, the quickest being straight down the winding path to the valley and back up again (aerobic exercise guaranteed; sensible footwear essential).

At snowdrops time, there is a park & ride bus service from Wheddon Cross, organised by our Parish Council. Parking is in the village car park (next to the pub), where there’s also a special information point with people to give directions and advice. The narrow road to Snowdrop Valley is closed during this time (otherwise there might be traffic problems as it’s single track and there are no passing places). So, you need to either walk or get the bus in order to see the snowdrops (people with disabilities can make special arrangements). In 2013 the park & ride operates from 2nd to 24th February and the road remains closed for an extra week after this.

For more details, including a bus timetable, an information leaflet to download and regular updates, visit the Wheddon Cross snowdrops page:
http://www.wheddoncross.org.uk/snowdropvalley.htm
Book dinner, bed and breakfast at Exmoor House and make a few days of it. You could stay over Valentine’s Day for a really romantic break (we’ll even order champagne and local chocolates for you if you like!).

As usual, we’ll be opening our lovely guest dining room (which has a great view of Dunkery Beacon, and by the way was once the village tailor’s shop) as a tea room for the whole of Snowdrop Valley season. Frank’s scones have become legendary and there’s a good choice of more substantial food too (e.g. mega ploughman’s lunches, hot soup, sandwiches. Everything is of course home-made, including all our bread. Home-smoked chicken and real corned beef are two popular sandwich fillings…

The West Somerset Railway’s Snowdrops and Steam excursion was such a success last year that they’re running it on more dates this time. Find more information at
http://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/section.php?xSec=58&xPage=1
If you are doing the train trip and would like to have lunch here at Exmoor House, it may be advisable to book, especially if there are four or more of you.

I was going to include some of my Snowdrop Valley photos in this post, but can't get them to upload: so here's a link so you can see them on our facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.224561347555559.66267.221803897831304&type=3

Food at Exmoor House: 'traditional with a twist'

One of the main things that makes Exmoor House a bit different is our food. Our guests tell us that it’s a highlight of their visit and a major reason why they come back and stay with us again. Generally about 80% of guests have dinner here; many book our multi-night dinner, bed & breakfast packages.


So, why is our food different? For a start it’s genuinely home-made, by an expert. Frank trained as a chef quite a few years ago but hadn’t cooked for a living for some time. He really enjoyed getting back in a professional kitchen again when we bought Exmoor House – something to get his teeth into, as it were.

We aim to be imaginative in our cooking without being too way out or fancy (traditional with a twist is how I describe it). Some recipes are our invention; others we’ve gleaned from various sources and adapted. Just a few of our specialities: proper pies; ice creams; breads; pickles and preserves. You’ll find a previous post about our pies here: http://exmoorhousewx.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/who-ate-all-pies.html

The menu changes every day. There are normally two or three choices for each course rather than a vast array of dishes (quality over quantity is the watchword). So that everybody has a good choice, we encourage guests to discuss any dietary needs and preferences with us when they book.

And that brings me to another Exmoor House difference: catering for special diets. Each day’s menu is designed around the guests who are eating with us that evening. We do some really good vegetarian food. To give you some examples, here’s a link to my summery guest post on Jane Alexander’s Exmoor Jane blog: http://exmoorjane.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/exmoor-house-vegetarian-barbecues-and.html

And other requirements? For example, if you don’t eat wheat, gluten, dairy, prefer to follow a low-fat diet, or there’s anything you are allergic to, let us know when you make your booking and we’ll see if we can devise menus to suit. Of course, do tell us if there’s something you’d really like to see on the menu, too! You can find a review by some of our regular guests here: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1370522-d1509595-r131599478-Exmoor_House_Wheddon_Cross-Exmoor_National_Park_Somerset_England.html

We insist on good quality ingredients, and wherever possible we use local producers and suppliers, both from an environmental point of view and because we want to support other local businesses. I blogged about this a while ago: http://exmoorhousewx.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/food-glorious-local-food.html

Most of the suppliers we use are the still the same people as in the above post (we have a good relationship with them and they’re consistent and reliable). There is one significant change, though – our previous wine merchant has retired and we now get most of our wine from the equally excellent Vitis Vinifera, based down the hill in Dunster.

By the way, you don’t have to be staying here to enjoy dinner at Exmoor House – although, for reasons which will be apparent from this article, you do need to book a few days in advance.

What are you doing this Christmas? How about a house party on Exmoor?

Christmas at Exmoor House is when we do something a bit different. At that time of year, the only bookings we take are for house parties. Each house party is for a group of up to 12 people with exclusive use of our guest house for two or more nights. We’ll provide all meals and will plan the menus around your group’s requirements to help really make it an event to remember.

Take a look at this piece about Christmas and New Year house parties at Exmoor House, which I wrote earlier this month for our local About My Area website:

http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/site/content.asp?area=133&type=3&story=231098
(Because this particular website focuses on the West Somerset area, the article was primarily aimed at people living locally; but of course we welcome guests from all over the world.)

Julie Dawson of The Wedding Genie has stayed at Exmoor House with her husband several times. Here’s a blog post she published last year, which will give you a feel for the atmosphere at Exmoor House and what we have to offer:

http://theweddinggenie.co.uk/venue/alternative-wedding-venue-exmoor-house/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%2BTheWeddingGenie%2B%28The%2BWedding%2BGenie%29

You can find more details about festive house parties on our website at http://www.exmoorhotel.co.uk/Houseparties.htm
…or do give us a call or drop us an email, we’d love to hear from you.

Exmoor walks with a railway theme

We recommend two excellent little books of walks from stations along the West Somerset Railway (see details below). Most of the walks are not particularly long, so are ideal for us when we have an afternoon off! Here are some we’ve done recently.



Moorland path, Woodcombe, North Hill

Minehead
The South West Coastal Path begins at Minehead (marked by a sculpture of a giant pair of hands holding an equally gigantic map) and there are several other good walks from the town too. This is an easy one of about 5 miles which you can start from the railway station or the centre of town; it goes through The Parks area, up past the ancient farmstead at Bratton Court, via woods and moorland to Woodcombe and back down the hill from Higher Town to the town centre.

On the beach near Blue Anchor

Blue Anchor, Carhampton and Dunster
We combined two walks from the books, to make one of approximately 6 miles. Starting from the station end of Blue Anchor Bay, we walked parallel to the railway line for a short way before branching off through the fields to Carhampton. Then up to the top of the village and via the Deer Park to Dunster. Through Dunster, down the hill to Dunster Station and the beach; follow the seafront path all the way back to Blue Anchor.



Near Chapel Cleeve



Washford, Old Cleeve and Kentsford
This one is a little over 4 miles. Starting from Washford station, you follow the route of the old Monk’s Path for part of the walk; there is also an old sunken lane, some road and track walking and a woodland path. Take some time to look around the church at Old Cleeve, which is utterly charming. Eventually you’ll end up on the trackbed of the Old Mineral Line, from where you can walk back to Washford or, if you prefer, on to Watchet.



These walks are all taken from:
Country Walks from West Somerset Railway Stations
Some more Country Walks from West Somerset Railway Stations
By Audrey & Ron Short; updated by Malcolm & Natalie Short
Pub. West Somerset Railway Association
Available from the Buffer Stop shop at Minehead station
We have a copy here of both books here at Exmoor House; guests are welcome to borrow them during their stay with us.

Summer on Exmoor and why we would take a holiday here

Here in the heart of Exmoor National Park we don’t really have what you might think of the as the normal ‘tourist season’. So there are no traffic jams on the roads and it’s unusual to see crowds of people. Exmoor is a lovely, relaxing destination for all seasons and could absorb many more visitors without seeming crowded at all. I keep banging the drum about this, and for good reason: quite a few people have told us that they’ve avoided visiting in July and August because they thought that everywhere would be too busy and all the Exmoor accommodation would be fully booked. It ain’t necessarily so, folks!


Would we holiday here, if we weren’t already lucky enough to live in this beautiful area? Well yes, we would. Here are just a few reasons why:

The pace of life is relaxed – Exmoor is a real escape from everyday stress.

There is a remarkable range of excellent accommodation (including Exmoor House Wheddon Cross) and great places to eat (including, again, Exmoor House Wheddon Cross!).

Exmoor is astoundingly lovely, with an incredible variety of scenery: from wild coastline, to rolling farmland, to pretty villages, to pleasingly bleak moorland.

There is plenty to do: visit National Trust and English Heritage properties, enjoy some fantastic walking, cycling and mountain biking (you can hire an electric bike from http://www.exmoorunplugged.co.uk/ if you want to make the ride a bit easier), fishing, golf, horse riding, some great attractions (although, hooray, no theme parks – who needs them when we’re surrounded by such real-life beauty?)… and a range of festivals and other events take place during the year. For more ideas, visit http://www.visit-exmoor.co.uk/must-see-and-do 

OK, so we know the English weather is never entirely predictable – but that’s just part of the fun. You can see some of my suggestions for things to do on a rainy day at http://exmoorhousewx.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/things-to-do-on-around-exmoor-when-its.html

If you need another reason to visit Exmoor, here’s a great incentive: the Exmoor Guineas promotion. Find some excellent special offers at http://www.visit-exmoor.co.uk/guinea - including some from - er – Exmoor House Wheddon Cross.

If you’ve never been to Exmoor, now is an excellent time to visit. If you have, then you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Take a look at our facebook page for photos of things to see and do on Exmoor, some of our favourite walks, and more: http://www.facebook.com/ExmoorHouse/photos