119
Heritage Look up behind you to the right as you walk down Gould Road past Creek Car Park and you will see the chandlers and boat repair shops clustered along the creekside. In the 19th century the yards here built barges, 500- ton barquetine ships and the sleek Sal- combe clippers. These clippers brought citrus fruits from the Azores
back to the markets in London. Built for speed rather than safety, many of them didn’t make it home, foun- dering on the high seas. Across the creek as you walk out of Salcombe is an old lime kiln, still very much intact. Another one stands on the near bank at Batson. Limestone was brought up the creek in barges and burnt in the kilns, then spread as a powder on the fields to reduce the acidity of the soil, or used in lime mortar and in lime wash for painting cottages. The name Batson means ‘the place
where Bada laid his stone’. The vil- lage has been here since the Saxons came, and Bada must have been a chief in those times. Batson existed as a settlement well before Salcombe, which only began its rise after the Nor- man Conquest. The track down which you walk towards
Snapes Point was laid by one enterprising and optimistic Commander Mock in the 1800s. It as intended to carry an extension of the railway line from Kingsbridge to link with a bridge across Batson Creek to Salcombe. This ambi- tious scheme never came to anything, so the peace and quiet at Snapes Point persists. From this old carriageway there is a fine view of
Salcombe across the water. Around 1600 the town was reported as being “full of dissolute seafaring men, who murdered each other and buried them in the sands at night”. Salcombe soon pulled its socks up, however. It became a thriving fishing port and a famous centre of shipbuilding. By the time these trades began to decline, the well-to-do were building villas on hillsides here and the seeds of the modern- day tourist trade were being sown. The large boat you can see moored in the estuary
as you walk above the creek beyond Snapes Point is the Egremont. This was once one of the ferries across the Mersey, and now serves as the headquarters of the Island Cruising Club. The present day site of the boat yard down in the
valley at Lincombe is said to have been a favourite spot for smugglers to land their contraband in days gone by.
Up on the top of Lincombe Hill, nonconformist preacher John Hicks would address his flock back in
the 17th century. During one of his sermons, hench- men sent by the ‘official’ church arrived on horseback to attack him. The preacher fled to a nearby farm, where he just missed being pitchforked as he lay hid- den in the hay in a barn.
Wildlife Wading birds are often to be seen pottering around by the waterside at Batson. Look out for the Redshank, with brown plumage above and white below, a long straight bill and lanky red legs. Other likely sightings include the striking white, orange and black, red- beaked Shelduck and the black and white Oystercatch- er with its orange bill and piping call. Along the tideline all around the estuary you may spot a Common Sandpiper. This wader, with a dark stripe through the eye and a pene- trating ‘tyew’ call, is a summer visitor. Terns are also found on the estuary.
Cuckoo pint Tern
These are graceful birds are smaller than most gulls, though with similar colouring. They have pointed, swept- back wings, dark heads and sharp bills and catch fish in rapid little plunge dives from just above the water. Cuckoo Pint grows along both the lane from Batson to Snapes Manor and the green lane running up the hill behind the manor house. This curious plant also goes by var- ious other fancy names including ‘lords and ladies’, ‘parson in the pulpit’, ‘hobblegobbles’ and ‘Kitty-
come-down-the-lane-jump-and-kiss-me’. It has spade-shaped leaves and a finger- shaped
inflorescence within a leafy cowl. The plant gives off a faint smell of rotting meat. This attracts insects which the cuckoo pint traps in its sheath of leaves while they pollinate its flowers. Along this same lane you may also find the rare Balm-leaved Figwort. This tall, square stemmed plant with wrinkly leaves produces rust-red, two-lipped flowers in spring and early summer. The scrubby woodland above the tideline beyond
Snapes Point attracts birds such as the Blackcap whose name derives from its dark head, and the Chiffchaff whose name describes its steadily repeated song. This area is also home to a pride and joy of South Devon, the nationally rare Cirl Bunting. This traditional farmland bird has yellowish- green body plumage with red- brown patches, and a striking yellow- striped head. •
ChiffChaff
ChiffChaff photo © Copyright Mike Pennington. Cuckoo pint photo-by-M-J-Richardson. Tern © Copyright Rossographer and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
