As operators look forward to the summer season, our man on the English Riviera and mine of local knowledge Alan Payling considers the long and short of a couple of unlikely and wholly unsuitable destinations for day trips that sometimes appear on tour itineraries in the South West
It’s a question I often ask tour drivers when they’ve just landed in Torbay. Having handed them the information pack I distribute when they arrive at their hotel, I ask in a friendly and helpful manner: ‘So, where you off to this week then, driver? Going anywhere nice?’. Generally they are happy to tell me. Most of the time they’re going somewhere that is suitable for a coach. Even if it is suitable, but they haven’t been there before, I offer helpful advice on the best route to take, for example. But there are occasions when their answers do surprise me. Not that long ago Moretonhampstead
reared its unsuitable head a couple of times. But there was one destination for an excursion that really did surprise me: Buckfastleigh.
When I am told by a tour driver in a very new and very expensive tri-axle that he or she is heading to a place like Buckfastleigh, alarm bells start ringing. So being a diplomatic sort of chap, I try to ascertain why they are heading to such a place. There have been occasions in the past when a driver has a private group on board that has a specific reason for heading to a location that I would normally consider unsuitable for the average, and large, coach.
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On this occasion the driver was going to Buckfastleigh because ‘it’s on the itinerary.’ So I probed a bit further just in case something had happened in Buckfastleigh that I hadn’t heard about. “Where have you got to go in Buckfastleigh?” I asked. The reply was along the lines of ‘I’ve just got to take them there.’ So I probed a bit further. “Have you been there before?” The answer was quite clear: “No.” However, this particular driver had done a bit of research and was a bit worried about going to Buckfastleigh. He was right to be worried.
Buckfastleigh
Just in case you’re wondering why you have never sent an excursion to Buckfastleigh, there are good reasons. Your tours may well have been close to Buckfastleigh on many occasions but this tour was headed right into the town. For example, your tours have possibly included Buckfast Abbey many times. Fine, no problems for coaches there. You may have taken groups to the South Devon Railway, the Butterfly Farm or the Otter Sanctuary, all located on the outskirts of the town and all suitable for coach parties. But the town, no. Not suitable. At all. The very big (or should that be short) reason why it is not suitable for many coaches is the town centre’s 30 foot length limit. Also, the local road planners in their wisdom have altered the one way system that takes traffic through the town and made it as difficult as possible even for cars and light commercials. For coaches longer than 30 feet, it would probably be impossible if the driver stuck to the designated route and either didn’t see or ignored the signs.
So how did a visit to Buckfastleigh appear on such an itinerary? I have no idea. But when I got home I checked Buckfastleigh out on Google Streetview just to double check that the advice that I had given to the driver was correct. It didn’t take me long to confirm what I have said above about Buckfastleigh not being coach friendly insofar as access is concerned. Now, there may be some who will suggest that the coach driver could have parked in the car park/bus turning point just outside the town centre on Plymouth Road. I wouldn’t, and I didn’t. The passengers could then have walked into the centre of the town. Well, had the driver done that, when the passengers got back to the coach they would have been a bit puzzled, upset and mystified as to why on earth they had wasted their time visiting the dead centre of Buckfastleigh. There’s a clue there.
Moretonhampstead
This brings me back to the coach parties that were headed for Moretonhampstead recently. Firstly, I clarified why the drivers I spoke to were going to Moretonhampstead: that’s right, it’s because it was on their itinerary. They then asked me, not having visited before, “What’s there?” Well, it’s a pleasant enough little place on the eastern side of Dartmoor National Park, claimed by some to be the gateway to the high open moorland that sits to the west of the town. And that really is the best way to think about Moretonhampstead; as a gateway. When you get to a gate, what do you do? You go through it and keep going. You don’t stop. Best do that in Moretonhampstead.
Certainly that’s exactly what I’ve been doing as a driver and Dartmoor guide for twenty years, having never once stopped there with a coach party. Like Buckfastleigh, it’s a quiet little Devon town. There’s another clue there. It must be great to live there particularly now that the new link road has been built round Moretonhampstead taking traffic away from the town centre. This means that the locals can close the main street and have the occasional knees-up, reviving a very old custom when they used to jig around the ‘Dancing Tree’ in Cross Street. And it is a homely little place.
Given it’s fairly isolated location, it has a small but busy(ish) shopping centre that probably meets the needs of the locals. For them there is a Co-op mini market, a newsagent, a butcher/delicatessen, a post office, a chemist, a hardware store, a hairdressers, two estate agents, a greengrocers, a charity shop, a dentist, an osteopath and half a dozen empty shops, which tells its own story. Unusually, there isn’t a Chinese takeaway. Oh, and the mobile branch of Lloyds Bank makes an appearance on Tuesday mornings. As for chain stores or coffee shops, apart from the Co-op, they all avoid the place. That should give you an idea who this place caters for.
For tourists that travel there by car, and here I am really thinking about walkers, there is a tiny information centre, a tiny gallery and a couple of cafés. However, one of the cafés is the sort of place that is run more or less single handedly by its semi-retired owner to cater for the slow, steady stream of patient, local customers. 40 people turning up would cause chaos even if the passengers could find a seat as the place only seats 20. They are not geared up for coach passengers in a hurry. Then there are a couple of pubs but think upmarket gastro rather than pie and mash.
There is actually a very good car museum, the Moretonhampstead Motor Museum, in the old bus garage on the way out of the town, but that has never appeared on any itinerary that I have seen that includes the town, which is a shame, as that would be worth a visit.
The town does have some claims to fame being proud of the fact that Moretonhampstead is the longest single-word place name in England. I know there are longer place names in Wales, but at least the locals in Devon can pronounce theirs. There is a short terrace of 15th century almshouses and the church of St Andrew’s is noteworthy. In the porch there are the gravestones of two French officers who died in Moretonhampstead when it was a parole town during the Napoleonic Wars. St Andrew’s is also noteworthy because of the positive reviews on Tripadvisor. Yes, really. And doesn’t that tell you something about the town? There is also a thriving community of artists whose work is on display throughout the town. But none of that would really keep 40 people happy for an hour even if they knew where to look which it sounds like they wouldn’t.
Time please, drink up now!
Insofar as Buckfastleigh is concerned, there is an ‘attraction’ in the town, the Valiant Soldier. This is is a pub that the then owners closed in the 1960s leaving it looking like the Marie Celeste for the next half century. It has now re-opened as a museum and is an example of what a pub looked like in the middle of the last century. But the fact that the original owners shut it down decades ago speaks volumes about Buckfastleigh. And that’s what has subsequently happened to the bulk of the retail premises in the town. Without re-opening. However, Buckfastleigh does have a Chinese takeaway and even a chippy.
Now I don’t want this piece to sound like I’m maligning either Moretonhampstead or Buckfastleigh or the people that live there. They have vibrant communities that live quietly in small country towns. It’s worth noting that Moretonhampstead and Buckfastleigh are surrounded by beautiful countryside so as part of a drive going somewhere else, they won’t disappoint. Insofar as coach tourism is concerned in Moretonhampstead, then most of it passes through en route to the high open moor, Princetown and Tavistock, or as part of a scenic drive over Dartmoor and then on to Plymouth. If it’s a scenic village that coach parties are looking for, then they are really supposed to go to Widecombe-in-the-Moor. That’s the tourist trap in this part of the world and happy they will be to cater for your party. But Moretonhampstead, no, not really. It’s not ideal. And it must be said, in comparison, to Buckfastleigh, Moretonhampstead is real a hive of activity, almost a metropolis.
A market? Not for centuries!
So how did these places end up on an itinerary for anything bigger than a taxi? I can’t say for sure.
Perhaps the operators looked at the page for Moretonhampstead on the Visit Devon website. This claims that it is a ‘market town.’ Hmmm. Not quite. When I spoke to the local tourist information centre I was told that Moretonhampstead is ‘officially’ a market town, having a Royal Charter granted by King John in 1207 apparently. On the signpost outside the town it says that it is an ‘Ancient Market Town.’ But as the helpful tourism advisor told me: “There hasn’t been a weekly market in the town for a few centuries.” Now I don’t know about you, but if a tourist body described a town as a ‘coastal resort,’ I would expect to see a bit of salt water, unless I was going to Weston-super-Mare that is. Suffice to say, insofar as visiting the market in Moretonhampstead is concerned, you’ll be a few hundred years too late.
The Visit Devon site also says: “The National Trust now manage a number of the buildings in the town, making them tourist attractions.” Again, not quite. There is one National Trust property in the town, the almshouses I mentioned above. But they are rented out. Whether the private tenants welcome visitors is uncertain. The chap in the information centre said: “You could try knocking on the door,” but I think he was joking. And do correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t most people visiting National Trust properties usually expect to be allowed inside to have a look round? Not here. The only other National Trust property nearby is Castle Drogo, five and a half miles away. Great place to visit and look round as the residents there moved out years ago, but sorry, the roads to the castle are not suitable for full size coaches. Now, if this sort of stuff was being published by a politician it would be called ‘spin’ or ‘fake news.’ I’ll be polite and call it inaccurate rather than a complete exaggeration. But it’s certainly not reliable information.
Perhaps the operators visiting Moretonhampstead and Buckfastleigh were looking for something new. Nothing wrong with that. In fact that is the whole idea behind my occasional columns looking at tour opportunities the South West (look out for them in future issues!) is to come up with new(ish) ideas. But I make sure that the places I suggest actually want coach parties, are accessible and can cater for them. And new places do appear in frequently visited locations.
For example, as I write, a whisky distillery is being built in Princetown in the middle of Dartmoor – watch this space for somewhere new to visit and enjoy a wee dram in the future when you’re heading over Dartmoor. But as for visiting Moretonhampstead and Buckfastleigh, did someone stick a pin in a map? Well, if they did, there is a high tech way of doing that these days via Google Streetview. It would take five minutes tops to get a very good idea what Moretonhampstead and Buckfastleigh are like. A careful look on Google Streetview clearly shows the 30 foot length restriction signs in Buckfastleigh that I referred to above.
But there are other reasons for my concern here. Taking a coach full of passengers somewhere that is largely unsuited for them does not do anyone any favours. Also, visiting a place without anyone knowing the first thing about it, is again a missed opportunity. But then, even when you do want accurate information, it might not always be available. Plus, we often get lorry drivers in this part of the world who take their vehicles to places that are wholly unsuited for artics. Why? Satnav. With so many tour drivers now relying on satnav, there is always the risk of a coach ending up somewhere unsuitable in Devon. And there are a lot of really unsuitable places to choose from, I can assure you of that. So referring to modern technology like Google Streetview while an itinerary is being compiled could avoid £300,000 worth of tri-axle ending up as the big story on the local news because it got stuck somewhere it shouldn’t have gone. Because that really would be a big story in Moretonhampstead and Buckfastleigh, believe me. It would be the biggest story since the local market and the pub closed down.
Alan Payling invites drivers or operators planning to head to the South West to contact him on [email protected]
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