2MW Day 1 - Wembury to Ivybridge

Day 1 - Saturday 13 April 2024

Wembury to Ivybridge (15.2 miles)

With Fudge (and his Duck) at the start of The Two Moors Way, Wembury. We have both been here before many times, more recently walking the South West Coast Path.

Wembury Bay with the delightful Old Mill Cafe sitting below

The Gents at Wembury Bay - not sure which category I fall into

We were a bit early for a pre walk cuppa - if ever you get the chance then visit this lovely cafe right on the edge of the sea

Looking to the Great Mewstone with one of the Royal Navy's Type 23 Frigates providing the backdrop

The Great Mewstone has an interesting story to tell. In 1744 a convicted felon was 'deported' to the island along with his family, for 7 years. When he left, his daughter "Black Joan" decided to stay, only leaving the island when her husband fell off a rock and drowned. The last inhabitant left the island in 1850. Earlier, the artist J M W Turner immortalised the island in watercolour around 1813. After WW2 the island was bought by the War Office because it was in the line of fire from the Gunnery School at HMS Cambridge, formerly based at Wembury Point. They restricted public access to the island, a move that greatly benefitted the wildlife living there. Following the decommissioning of HMS Cambridge in 2001, the National Trust ran a successful fundraising campaign that resulted in the Trust acquiring both Wembury Point and the Great Mewstone. Once the Gunnery School was demolished, work started immediately into reclaiming and encouraging a natural coastal landscape and preserving the island to protect the birds and wildlife that have flourished there. The Great Mewstone gets its name from the Old English name for the herring gull which is one of the few species that inhabit the island.

J M W Turner's painting of the Great Mewstone

St Werburgh's Church, Wembury

The church sits a short way above the start point of the Two Moors Way and whilst ever so slightly off route is certainly worth a visit. The Church is one of four in the country dedicated to St Werburgh who was a 7th century Saxon Abbess and the daughter of Wulfhere, the first Christian King of Mercia. The main part of the present church was built by the Normans in 1088, replacing an earlier Saxon wooden oratory. In the 1880’s there was a substantial restoration, significantly funded by the Cory family of nearby Langdon Court.

The interior of St Werbergh's Church

From the church we dropped down to the main access road to Wembury Point and then joined a very muddy path

At the end of the muddy path the route crosses a minor road to join the access track to Higher Ford Farm

Fudge starts the first of many "sniffing sessions" as we pass through a V stile above Higher Ford Farm

The first section of the walk to Ivybridge was on the Erme Valley Trail

Fudge leads me down steep steps into a mature Sycamore woodland

Pine Cottage in the sleepy hamlet of Spriddlestone

Just as we were leaving Spriddlestone we enjoyed a welcome water stop with a small honesty box

He has always been good at limbo has Fudge

The ford and stone footbridge over Cofflete Creek. The name originates from the Old English "fleet" or "floet" meaning an arm or inlet of the sea, a tidal estuary.

The route passes under this substantial brick bridge. This bridge once carried the Great Western Railway branch line from Plymouth's Millbay Station to nearby Brixton & Yealmpton. The line opened in 1898 and closed in 1930 but did open again during WW2 to facilitate those moving out of Plymouth into the countryside.

At the western end of the village of Brixton, the route heads up Lodge Lane from the A379

St Mary's Church, Brixton. The Victorian lamp post on the right was erected to mark Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897.

Exiting Brixton the route passes through a large field. I can tell from his gob that Fudge is starting to get tired of our lack of progress over the ground due to me taking so many photographs.

At the end of the field we passed through Gorlofen Plantation into a patch of Wild Garlic

Gorlofen Lodge - the building was once a lodge gate for nearby Kitley House

Entering the village of Yealmpton

Yealmpton War Memorial with St Bartholemew's Church to the rear

St Bartholemew's Church in Yealmpton. Apart from the tower, the church was completely rebuilt between 1849 & 1851 and was said by the Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman to be "the most amazing Victorian Church in Devon".

The interior of St Bartholemew's Church. The screen, pillars & altar stone are all made of Kitley marble which was quarried in the parish.

Lunch time in Yealmpton where Angie joined Fudge and I whilst we rested up

The footbridge over the River Yealm

After crossing the bridge we headed to the left to pass along a delightful riverside path above the Yealm. Whilst it looks pretty benign, the river broke its banks and flooded Yealmpton and nearby Yealmbridge in 2012 when more than three inches of rain fell in 24 hours.

Set high up into the wall of Dunstone House in the village of the same name is a shrine to St Dunstan. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury from AD960-78 - the reason for the shrine is unknown as there is no confirmed connection with St Dunstan and the village of Dunstone.

Much as I would like to visit there Fudge, we are not going to Splatt

A quick chat with some interested locals as we exit Dunstone. Our path can be seen heading off in the distance however this curious but friendly lot would not budge from the gate - we diverted off to the left and rejoined the path further on.