"Widecombe, Fro ..." a Widecombe in the Moor Travel Page by johngayton

Hi!

Hi Gerry, done! Tx for excellent evening, good crack wasn't it?

I just love it when the Ruggle works like that, just brill!

If you haven't arrived here through my hompage, then I suppose I should tell you something about Widecombe, but first about the dog.

Bonnie is not my dog, she belongs ( if "belong" is the right word - and find myself digressing again, let's forget about the etemology of "belong" otherwise we'll be here for hours..........)

And Bonnie is a star, having been featured on Haldane's PoW, Bonnie reckoned it was better than winning at Crufts!

Bonnie is Edith's dog, and Edith is the cleaner at The Old Inn in Widecombe. Edith is 83 years young, cantakerous, opinionated, and one of life's real characters.

This is probably not being very helpful to anyone who wants to find out about Widecombe, but then it's the people who make a place.

That's what I love about Widecombe - there are some real characters.

I've only introduced Edith so far......others to follow will include Rod and Di from the Ruggle, Peter Hicks (the incomer - only been here 50-odd years, still a newbie!), Jones (who'se only name is "Jones") and others...........but let's get back to Widecombe as a place.

WHITE: You will have to go to travelogue for this:

Widecombe sits in a valley in the middle of Dartmoor, (visit freya_heaven for more Devon) and there are four roads out of the village - strangely enough they go North, South, East and West! The pic here is the main road coming in from Bovey Tracey (from east, going west) and is known as Widecombe Hill. This a steep hill, but not as steep as the one going out of the village south - through the Ventons - I'm going to have to work up the energy to do that one again (please don't hold your breath - it could be next year!)

Where I say in my summary below that "a few of the people who visit aren't very nice at all", that's because, during the "season" (when the schools are out) we seem to attract too many people and those people haven't visited us for us - they haven't visited because we're Devon, they don't seem to have visited to visit. I don't know their mindset - perhaps they found out about Dartmoor somewhere and thought that it would be an idyllic place to visit and their ideal is shattered by the fact that another 2000 people had the same, all on the same day at the same time.

The result seems to bring out the aggression in people - hey! there are only 50 people living in the village and the other 9 months of the year we get nice visitors, people who want to enjoy themselves, enjoy Devon, relax and chill out, and if you have to wait 10 minutes to get served in the pub, such is life!

This is me back in polemic mode!

Down The Ruggle last Tuesday, woman comes up to bar, "I suppose you expect me to pay for our meal - I was told that the food would be about 30 minutes and we had to wait almost an hour! If I'de known it was going to be that long I would have gone elsewhere!"

"Thank You Madame", replies Rod
(The Landlord) "I wish you had!"

At our pub, The Old Inn, one of the barman was in the middle of totalling a bill up in front of the customer, when some guy waves a £20 note in front of him and says, "Are you f.....in' servin or what?!"

These are just two examples. OK, as a tourist village we have to get used to it - but this is Devon, please don't come to Devon if you want everything yesterday.

Look at my Widecombe Fair log, try this link also: Widecombe Fair Hey this works!! I love U VT!!!! SERIOUS BIG TIME! Call me an old tart if you like but really mean this! And luv you whoever put Widecombe on map! LOL ALL