There’s more to the south coast than cream teas and coast! Victor Charles discovers hidden tunnels and a donkey sanctuary among Devonshire’s delights
IT WAS A blustery autumn day when we arrived at Castle Brake Holiday Park, near Exmouth. Our first impressions were good. The campsite is big, with a very friendly reception team, a shop, a restaurant and powerful hot showers.
We took a first look around Exmouth in high winds and rain, to see its sandy beaches and stock up on food for the days ahead. It’s probably lovely in the sunshine!
Exeter’s mighty cathedral
The following morning, we visited Exeter. The Park & Ride into the city centre has free parking, with buses running roughly every 20 minutes or so.
The cathedral is glorious. It costs £7.50 each to enter, but we had found a leaflet with a ‘two for one’ voucher in the site’s information room. We joined a guided tour at noon and were taken around the highlights by an enthusiastic, informative guide. You can see recently painted bosses on the ceiling, beside some that still have their medieval paintwork.
We also learned about the cathedral cat, which lost an eye after a bird of prey snatched a rat from his mouth. The world’s earliest cat flap was pointed out, where the cat went to catch the mice that used to damage the astronomical clock. After the cat flap was introduced, the clock worked much better, because the cat was catching all the pesky mice that kept breaking it.
These stories are all highly entertaining, and our guide pointed out the charming animals carved into the choir stalls.
Going underground
After a leisurely lunch, we headed for the Underground Passages, donning hard hats for a guided tour. The first tunnels were built in the 14th century, with more added later, so lead piping could be run through the city as a way of transporting water from a natural spring in the countryside.
The first tunnels were to deliver water to the cathedral, but as demand and the population grew, the tunnel network was expanded, until the whole city had access to piped water. This helped to eradicate waterborne diseases, such as cholera.
We could hear noises overhead. “We’re under John Lewis now,” said our guide. “Don’t worry about the bangs – it’s the delivery man unloading goods!”
The tunnels were originally built some 1.5m underground, but now they’re more than 6m deep, because th
