Clovelly

Clovelly is a village in Devon, near Bideford and Barnstaple. It is a major English tourist attraction famous for its history, extremely steep car-free cobbled main street, donkeys, and beautiful location looking out over the Bristol Channel. Thick woods shelter it and render the climate so mild that fuchsias and other delicate plants flourish.

Charles Kingsley was born here.

Clovelly used to be a herring-fishing village and in 1901 had a population of 621. It is a cluster of old-fashioned cottages in a unique position on the sides of a rocky cleft in the north coast; its main street resembles a cobbled staircase which descends 400 feet (120 metres) to the pier, too steeply to allow wheeled traffic. The street is lined with dwelling houses, shops and eating-places. To accommodate the huge number of visitors a car park and Visitor Centre have been built at the top of the village.

All Saints church, restored in 1866, is late Norman, containing several monuments to the Carys, lords of the manor for 600 years. The surrounding scenery is famous for its richness of color, especially in the grounds of Cary Court, and along The Hobby, a road cut through the woods and overlooking the sea. Clovelly is described by Charles Dickens in A Message from the Sea .

External link

Official web site