Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Great Britian: Day 2 Torquay, Devon & Cornwall

Torquay - the Grand Hotel


Image result for pictures of the grand hotel torquay


This was a beautiful, restored hotel right on the seaside.  Originally built on the seafront in 1881, at the terminus of the Great Western Railway, it was named the Great Western Hotel after the railway. Unfortunately, I have no picture.  A note about that:  I took my camera and a video-cam (very new back then).  Unfortunately, I have the videos I took, but no way to view or print.  This picture is from the internet.

We had a room at the top of the hotel, which probably was originally a servants room, but beautifully refurbished as a guest room.  One of the best features I enjoyed in most all of the rooms we stayed was the heated towel bars.  Rinse out your undies and hang them on a towel bar & they were dry in the morning.

One of their most famous guests, Agatha Christie, was born in Torquay on September 15, 1890. She and Archibald Christie, a young army officer were married in 1914 and honeymooned at the hotel.   

After stowing our luggage in our rooms, we re-boarded the coach to travel to the village of Kenn in Devon. 



Kenn, St. Andrew Church & Ley Arms

We were given a tour of the Parish Church of St. Andrew, Kenn by the Bellringer a very old man (he was in his 90's and had been a bellringer since he was 7) his son and grandson are also bellringers. He let me ring the church bells!

The church was built over several different periods having been chartered by King Stephen in 1200, the baptismal font remains from this period, between 1280-1300 the first major changes were made to the church and extensive renovations were made and battlements erected in the 15th Century during the Wars of the Roses.

After our visit to St. Andrew's, we walked to the Ley Arms for a wonderful dinner.  The Ley (pronounced Lee) Arms was built in 1290 to house the stonemasons who were building the parish church.  Squire Ley and his family won the land & inn in a gambling debt and the pub has been called the Ley Arms ever since.  

My mom had her first mis-hap here.  She left her purse (including her passport) at the restaurant.  Our tour guide called the Inn and they made arrangements to meet us as we traveled by on our way to Plymouth and Cornwall.  Calamity averted this time!

17 comments:

  1. Sorry about your tapes. But's it's nice you still have momentous. LOVE all the history. It's so cool to think you stayed, walked in the same areas as some of these important people in history. Yikes on the passport and purse. Sounds like you and she were lucky for the hotel and tour people to take care of matters so nicely. Nice story about the bell tower. Makes me think of the cute little old guy that drove our Jaunting car in Ireland. He was 80 ish and said his father had always driven them, as had his father before him.

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  2. I'm out making blog rounds...shoot, nothing new to read.

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  3. Me out making blog rounds again, actually trying to catch up; as I've been away ....knock knock where are you?
    Traveling Suitcase

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    1. Sorry been so busy with everything else. Right now until I get through Christmas and the sale of the Condo, this is rather low on my list of to dos! Thanks for the decluttering calendar, saved it to photos & then printed from my computer. Will try to read your new posts today. Don't know how you do it all!

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  4. Blog walking and thought I'd pop in to say hi and see if you had a new post.
    Traveling Suitcase

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    1. Sandy, will probably not get started again until after March. Selling Cali Condo will close at end of Feb, lease back for 2 weeks to finish moving out if needed. Since I am single, it's ALL on me to get packed up, have an estate sale and get moved out. Sigh... sometimes it seems overwhelming.

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  5. Popping in to say hi, just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing anything. You are super busy. Later...((HUGS))

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  6. Popping in to say hi. I'm way behind on my travel blog, but did just write a post. Hopefully you'll get back to it as well.
    Traveling Suitcase

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  7. Haven't popped in a while and thought I would to say hi and encourage you to post again. Not sure how you've set up your setting's to know whether you'll get a notice of this comment in your email or not. Hope so.
    Traveling Suitcase

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  8. Waving hi, hope you'll find some time to come back to this; but I do know how busy you've been. Just out doing my blog walking...as you know with the Vertigo...right now that's all I can do, so no steps, bummer.
    Traveling Suitcase

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  9. Just waving hello, rounding as I always do after writing a new post.
    Traveling Suitcase

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  10. Me, blog walking and waving again.

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  11. Thought I'd pop back in to encourage you to write more blog posts.

    Sandy's Space

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  12. Been forever since I popped in, but decided to today, since I'm trying to get going again on my blog....thought I could encourage you to do the same.
    Traveling Suitcase

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  13. Waving hello, hoping you'll get back into blogging and share your travels.

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Great Britian: Day 2 Torquay, Devon & Cornwall

Torquay - the Grand Hotel This was a beautiful, restored hotel right on the seaside.  Originally built on the seafront in 1881, at t...