CLOVELLY NORTH DEVON
Clovelly is a village on the North Devon coast. Although Clovelly is a tourist attraction, it's still a real village where people live and work.
Famous for its history with links to Charles Kingsley, Turner, Dickens and the Spanish Armada.
The cobbled, traffic-free, high street called both "up-Along" and "Down- Along" depending on which way you are going, is very steep and is not suitable for everyone.
Donkeys traditionally carry goods up the hill; sledges bring things down. With its panoramic views out over the Bristol Channel, thick woods shelter it and render the climate so mild that even tender plants flourish.
The village itself is not accessible by motor vehicle and space at the harbour is limited to hotel residents and locals with permits.
Visitors park at the Visitor Centre car park above the village, at the end of the B3237 road. Entrance to the village is through the visitor centre. A taxi service operates in summer using Land Rover vehicles, between the car park and the harbour. There is a public road down to the harbour although parking at the bottom is private, and there is a sign warning visitors against going down that road.
You may be surprised when you first discover that Clovelly village is privately owned, and tourists are charged an admission fee to enter the village.
The estate is run by the Clovelly Estate Company, under the leadership of The "Hon." John Rous. He is the son of Mary Rous and Keith Rous, the of 5th Earl of Stradbrooke. The village and has been associated with only three families since the middle of the 13th century, nearly 800 years.
Clovelly used to be a fishing village and in 1901 had a population of 621. It is a cluster of wattle and daub cottages on the sides of a rocky cleft; its steep main street descends 400 feet to the pier. The quaint street is lined with houses, a small number of shops, a cafe and a public house.
All Saints' Church, restored in 1866, is late Norman, containing several monuments to the Cary family, Lords of the Manor for 600 years.
The scenery is famous for its richness of colour, especially in the grounds of Clovelly Court and along The Hobby, a road cut through the woods and overlooking the sea.
The South West Coast Path National Trail runs past the village and the section from Clovelly to Hartland Quay is particularly spectacular.
The novelist Charles Kingsley lived in Clovelly as a child from 1831 to 1836, while his father, the Reverend Charles Kingsley served first as Senior Curate then as Rector. Later, in 1855, his novel Westward Ho! did much to stimulate interest in Clovelly and to boost its tourist trade.
Clovelly is also described by Charles Dickens in A Message from the Sea and was painted by Rex Whistler, whose cameos of the village were used on a china service by Wedgwood.
The surgeon Campbell De Morgan (1811–1876), who first speculated that cancer arose locally and then spread more widely in the body, was born here.
J.M.W.Turner 1775 - 1851 his painting of Clovelly harbour hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.
