Mortehoe
Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ N , 4 ° 13 ′ W
Mortehoe is a place of about 1,000 inhabitants on the north coast of the English county of Devon west of Ilfracombe . It lies on the hilly pastureland in front of the rocky cape Morte Point . South of the cape are the resorts of Woolacombe and Saunton .
history
Mortehoe can - as evidenced by canon law - trace its origins back to the times of the Domesday Book . In the area, which was often haunted by smugglers and castaways in the Middle Ages, a community based on agriculture and sheep farming developed over the centuries.
After the construction of the railway line from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe ( Ilfracombe Branch Line ) in 1874, to which Mortehoe and Woolacombe were connected, Mortehoe's economic focus shifted from agriculture to tourism. Campsites, holiday homes, pubs, shops and a small golf course have sprung up nearby. Nevertheless, due to the remote location, the place has retained much of its original rural character.
Infrastructure
The 19th century railway line was shut down in 1970. The train station was almost 4 km inland from the village. Until 2005 the children's amusement park Once upon a Time was located in it .
Two narrow single-lane back roads now connect Mortehoe with the main road (A 361) between Ilfracombe and Barnstaple. The coastal driveway from the north (Woolacombe) runs high over the rocks over the cultivated Castle Hill. The driveway from the east, however, leads through sheep pastures, which are protected by high hedges on both sides of the road, past some farms and the golf course.
There is also a bus service between Woolacombe, Mortehoe and Ilfracombe.
Worth seeing
St. Mary's Church
The oldest parts of St Mary's Anglican Church are of Norman origin; the building fabric has been supplemented and changed over the centuries. The bell tower is dated to the 13th century.
A tomb in the south transept today has given up a riddle. It is obviously composed of fragments of the high altar, which according to current knowledge was destroyed no later than 1559 - but possibly even earlier. On the grave slab made of black marble, a priest figure in regalia from the 14th century with a goblet on his chest is attached, under which a barely recognizable Central French inscription can be read: “SYRE --- LAME DE TRACE ----- ALME EYT MERCY ”. She has been linked to William de Tracy , one of the four hired killers of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket in 1170, but whose grave is unknown. Lord Sudeley 's thesis, made in 1987, that this was another William de Tracy, who was choirmaster in Mortehoe in 1307/08 and died in 1322, has not yet been proven. It seems plausible that the grave slab and the inscription obviously do not match.
The mosaic in the triumphal arch and the corner window depicting the archangels Michael, Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel in the south transept was designed by Selwyn Image , an Oxford student of John Ruskin's (19th century).
Mortehoe Heritage Center
The Mortehoe Heritage Center (also tourist information) in a restored barn ( Cart Linhay ) houses a small museum on the north-western tip of Devon on the upper floor. Exhibits documenting local agriculture and sheep breeding, the railway line and various ship accidents that have occurred on the treacherous rocks around the cape are on display.
Morte Point
The “Cape of Death” with its small rocky island Morte Stone (presumably named because of the numerous ship accidents) is about 2 kilometers from the village and can only be reached on foot via pastures, ferns and heather. The sheep graze in the open and often penetrate to the steep rocky peaks. Large parts of the country are owned by the National Trust . The British environmental agency Natural England , established in 2006, has the North Devon coast under its special protection as the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
The South West Coast Path , lined with spectacular rock formations, runs over Mortehoe and Morte Point and is the longest marked long-distance footpath in Great Britain at 1014 km; this coincides with the Tarka Trail , another 290 km long long-distance hiking trail through Devon's inland areas, moors and coasts with the logo of the animal protagonist in Henry Williamson's novel . The stretch of about 3 kilometers from Morte Point to the east to the Bull Point Lighthouse touches the small sandy cove of Rockham Beach , which is only accessible via a steep descent over high rock steps. Bathing is basically possible here, but the water rarely reaches temperatures above 16 ° C, even in midsummer.
swell
- Lord Sudeley: Becket's Murderer William de Tracy . In: The Sudeleys - Lords of Toddingston , London 1987
- St. Mary's Mortehoe Information Leaflet , ed. from the Mortehoe Heritage Center
Web links
- Mortehoe Parish Council , official website
- Pictures and descriptions of a private English webpage