Hatherleigh

This medieval market town, which has held a market every Tuesday since 1693, has been populr for many years as a holiday base for fishermen trying their luck on the nearby River Torridge and its tributary, which runs alongside the small town.

A good starting point for an exploration of this attractive town with its cob and thatch cottages is the Tarka Country Information Point at  Hatherleigh Pottery (see panel on page 149) where there are exhibits detailing the life and countryside in and around this 1000-year-old town. You can also pick up leaflets to guide you around Hatherleigh’s narrow streets. The Pottery itself has showrooms displaying colourful hand-thrown ceramics, textile items, original prints and greetings cards.

Hatherleigh was owned by Tavistock Abbey from the late AD900s until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1540s, and the picturesquely thatched George Hotel is believed to have been built around 1450 as the abbot’s court house. The London Inn also dates from around that time and the Old Church House is thought to be even older.

The town would have possessed an even finer stock of early buildings were it not for a devastating fire in 1840 that destroyed much of the old centre. Fortunately, the 15th-century Church of St John the Baptist escaped the flames. Set high above the Lew valley, the church’s red sandstone walls and sturdy tower still provide a striking focus for this pleasant rural community. Although the church survived the great fire of 1840, a century-and-a-half later hurricane force winds, generated during the storms of January 1990, swashed against its spindly tower and tossed it through the roof of the nave. Thankfully, nobody was in the church at the time.

In mid-July, the  Hatherleigh Arts Festival takes place, consisting of four days of contemporary arts, including theatre, concerts, art exhibitions, street theatre and workshops. All year round art is visible in the various sculptures scattered around the town, notably the arger than life Sheep sculpture in the town’s car park.

For a superb view of the surrounding countryside, make your way to the Monument erected in memory of Colonel William Morris, a hero of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Until 1966, the Okehampton to Bude railway ran through Hatherleigh. In that year it was closed as part of the notorious Beeching Cuts. The last train on the Hatherleigh to Bude line, a prized local amenity, steamed its way into Cornwall on 16 May 1966, then to a siding, and then to rust. Long stretches of the old track bed of the railway now provide some attractive walking.

There’s more good walking at  Abbeyford Woods, about a mile to the east of the village, with a particularly lovely stretch running alongside the River Okement.