93


Hallows Church Ringmore © AONB


Heritage A monastery once occupied Burgh Island, just off the shore from Bigbury. A small chapel was built on the highest point of the island in medieval times, and you can still see the remains of a building there today. This was a ‘huer’s hut’, occupied by a lookout who would scan the seas for shoals of pilchards. When he spied one, he would shout and holler, bringing fishermen running for their boats. At one time, local boats might land as many as a million fish in a day. The Pilchard Inn on the island dates from the 14th century. It was once the haunt of notorious Elizabethan smuggler Tom Crocker – and the place where he was eventually shot dead by the customs men. A tunnel - now bricked up – used to connect the inn to a cave on the beach where his smuggled goods were landed. In the 1920s, Burgh Island was a trendy destination


for the rich, famous and fashionable who came to stay at the hotel there. The hotel remains open, and is one the best survivors of the art deco era. The village of Ringmore is first mentioned as the manor of Reimora in the Domesday Book of 1086. In fact, there was probably a settlement there well before then. Ringmore’s pub, Journey’s End Inn, takes its


Bigbury-on-Sea © Philip Halling


name from the famous play by R.C. Sherriff about life in the WWI trenches, said to have been written at the inn. Before this, the pub – originally built to house the labourers who built the church – seems to have had a colourful history. Although described in a church document of 1685 as ‘a house of good order’, and used for meetings of the very respectable Town Council, it actually had a false wall concealing a secret room where smugglers hid their contraband. All Hallows Church, Ringmore, was built around 1240. By the 19th century it was in a sorry state, to the extent that its rotting pews occasionally collapsed under worshippers during services. However, the little church was pulled back from the brink by an energetic Victorian rector, Francis Hingeston, and today it is well kept and open to visitors. Another dynamic Ringmore rector, William Lane,


roused local men to fight for the king during the English Civil War. He fired a cannon at Roundhead soldiers crossing the bridge at nearby Aveton Gifford. Seeking revenge, Roundhead troops landed at Ayrmer Cove and came after him. However, the rector stayed hidden in the church tower in Ringmore for 3 months, before managing to escape to France.


Challaborough Bay © Hugh Venables


Toby’s Point and Ayrmer Cove © Derek Harper


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