East Devon - Day 6, Wednesday, 22nd June : Bicton Park Botanical Gardens Part 2 - St Mary's Church and the Countryside Museum

Returning to the Botanical Gardens.....

There has been a church at Bicton since Saxon times but the present church is only 150 years old. It was built at the request of Lady Louisa Rolle (1794-1885), wife of Lord John Rolle who owned the Bicton Estate. She was reputedly the richest woman in Devon and had the church constructed at her own expense.

St Mary's was designed and built by famous Exeter architect, John Hayward - a pioneer of the Gothic Revival design. The walls are built from limestone which was quarried at Chudleigh near Newton Abbot. The church was consecrated in 1850 and it is thought that all five British monarchs from Victoria to George VI have visited the church.

It would have been nice to have seen the original medieval church in all its splendour but it was partially demolished in 1850 to give a "planned ruin" setting for the Rolle family mausoleum. You can see the ruins in this picture - sadly, I didn't have time to explore this part as I don't think the family were over impressed that I had found yet another church!

The stained glass was beautiful.

It wasn't until I read the guidebook to the Gardens that I found out about the stone faces in the photos below - dripstones have been carved to represent 50 English kings and queens and their spouses. If I had known at the time I would have fetched the Canon camera from D and taken more pictures.

A mysterious "Lady in Black" was seen in the church by a couple in the early 1970's. A little old lady dressed in a poker bonnet and long dress suddenly appeared next to the couple and just as suddenly disappeared. There was no sign of her when I visited thank goodness!






The Countryside Museum which contains farming and rural life displays and old farming equipment from the nineteenth century was superb - you could have spent hours there.



First of all you can visit the Reg Imray Motor Museum which contains a collection of cars and motor vehicles restored by Reg Imray who moved to Exmouth from Essex in 1967. He was often seen riding round East Devon on one of his classic vintage motorcycles.

Then into the Countryside Museum - apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos due to low light.


There were dozens of tractors, ploughs and traction engineers etc. including a Haywain, horse and cart, Dorset Wagon, Threshing Machines, Hay and Straw Elevator and a Straw Trusser.

Cider making

The Smithy

Devon Bow or Ship Wagon

My mother had a sewing machine just like this when I was little!

There is a man trap somewhere in the photo below :(

The Kitchen

The Estate

Clod Crusher

The Dairy

The displays really gave an insight into farming and country life in the past in the days before agricultural intensification and if anyone visits the Gardens in the future please don't miss the museum - it was the highlight of my visit.




Reference: Guide Book to Bicton Park Botanical Gardens



You'll probably be as relieved as I am that I won't get chance to do a post tomorrow - I am off to a certain tennis club in SW19 :)



Hopefully, I'll finish off the holiday posts over the weekend. Just one more post - on the final day we went on a cruise on the River Exe and paid a return visit to Beer.

East Devon - Day 6, Wednesday, 22nd June - Bicton Park Botanical Gardens Part 1

On Wednesday we visited the historic Bicton Park Botanical Gardens - it is easy to spend a day there as there is so much to see and do. The gardens date back to the early 18th century when in 1735 Henry, the first Baron Rolle, built an Italian Garden based on a plan thought to have been prepared by Andre Le Notre, Versailles designer.

Between 1800 and 1845 the park began to resemble the gardens and parkland we see today. The Temple, Orangery, Great Lake, Palm House, Arboretum, Pinetum, Hermitage, American Garden and Shell House were created. The Hon. Louise Trefusis, daughter of the 2nd Lord Clinton, became the second wife of Lord John Rolle in 1922. She had a huge influence in Bicton's development as an important botanical resource filling the park with trees and shrubs. The gardens now have a collection of more than 11,000 trees.

In 1963 the gardens were opened to the public by Gerard, 22nd Baron of Clinton. In 1986 the park was given to an independent charitable trust company and in 1998 it was sold to new owners Simon and Valerie Lister.

As you can see it was very misty when we arrived - in fact, the light was quite peculiar for taking photos.

The gardens contain several glasshouses - The Palm House, Temperate House, Tropical House and Arid House. Unfortunately I failed to keep a record of what photo was taken in which glasshouse!

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Then into the American Garden with its Shell House and super collection of trees.

The Stream Garden

The Italian Garden

Isn't this Peony gorgeous?

Path through the Mediterranean Garden

This looks like Beech Mast to me? - seems incredibly early!

I spotted a Red Admiral fluttering around the nurseries - sadly, very few butterflies were seen on the holiday.



We then returned to the car for lunch - shared by a friendly Robin!

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Pied Wagtail

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In the afternoon we went on a 30 minute train ride on the Bicton Woodland railway which takes you through the Pinetum and up to the Hermitage returning alongside the lake. The railway is one of only two 18 inch narrow gauge railways still operating in the UK.

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Apologies for the vast amount of photos again but I do tend to keep this as a personal record of our holidays/day's out. We also visited a superb Countryside Museum in the Gardens and I popped into the Church of St Mary also in the grounds but I will write about that in another post. The Gardens really were good value for money although you had to pay a little extra for the train ride!!


Moths

A Small Magpie Moth on the cottage wall spotted as we left in the morning. I had also seen a Blood Vein attracted to the porch light the evening before. I wish I could have taken the moth trap but with 4 of us travelling there is never room in the boot.

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Photos marked *D were taken by D with the Canon SX50