Tuesday 8 December 2015

Holnicote

Holnicote (pronounced "Hunnicutt") in the parish of Selworthy, West Somerset, England, is a historic estate consisting of 12,420 acres (5,026 hectares) of land, much situated within the Exmoor National Park.  We visited it in October.



This is the village of Selworthy.






Allerford is one of a number of hamlets within Selworthy.  One of the hamlet's main attractions is the much-photographed packhorse bridge. 


Built as a crossing over the River Aller (from which the village gets its name), it is thought to be medieval in origin.   Originally the bridge was 12 feet (3.7 m) wide but another 6 feet (1.8 m) was added in 1866.  The packhorse bridge is an Ancient monument and has been added to the Heritage at Risk register.




A sight that is getting increasingly rare is that of a forge but Allerford has a most active one.   Whilst we were there we replaced our much abused poker.  Other traditional sights in the village include thatched cottages and an old-fashioned red telephone box.  The nearby hamlet of Lynch also had one.


One of the thatched cottages at Allerford operated as the local Primary School between 1821 and 1981 and is now a museum containing the West Somerset Rural Life Museum and Victorian School. The museum houses the West Somerset Photographic Archive.

This area, around Porlock, and the town of Porlock itself, are well worth a visit.


5 comments:

  1. Just the kind of place you want to see when you wish you could go back in time for a little while. The pictures make me wax nostalgic (although i know having to live without modern conveniences for even a little while would cure me of that).

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a charming and slow peaceful place. Makes me want to travel there!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a picturesque place! I bet one of those thatched houses does not come cheap...
    October was probably a good time for your visit. I imagine the are is teeming with tourists in the summer.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So picturesque! & thanks for the pronounciation hint... :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Loved the cottages and remember the bridge from days gone by.

    ReplyDelete

Hello - thanks for dropping by to leave a comment. Your comments are much appreciated even if I don't always reply. They will appear as soon as they have been moderated.

Blog Archive