Costume Collection at Killerton House

 Entrance to the collection

 Start of the dress & costume collection

 Stunning 1920s dress

 (sorry about reflections they are behind glass)

 1920s Wedding dress

 1950s

More 1950s Dresses & Costumes

Another reason Ros loves Killerton is the costume collection. Every year there is always new dresses & costumes displayed. After the walk around the ground floor of the house you climb the stairs to the top floor to view the stunning costumes collection and displays.

Killerton dressed for Christmas

 In church grounds

 Family church

 Trees decorated by local school children

 Even decorations in the grounds

 Scrooge counting house

 Victorian toy shop

 Manger

December 2013 we have been in North Devon for 6 years. During this time we have enjoyed visiting National Trust Properties dressed for Christmas houses. Our favourite is Killerton House near Exeter it is the highlight of December and a lovely build up to the special day. The theme this year was Scrooge. Inside the house as you walk around there is a row of Victorian shops and every part of the house is decorated, my photos do not show the amount of work & dedication the staff & volunteers have put into it. Really was a stunning display. The weather was very kind to us and we had an enjoyable walk with our doggie Beau looking at the decorations within the grounds.

Our 5 year wood supply

 Fence repaired

 Made a start on stacking wood

Left a space for Beau to run through

Ex Pine tree

Thick slices & heavy

Beech slices

Bottom of meadow is looking better, I repaired the fence & made a start stacking wood. As you can see from the wood slices on commons side of fence, which is still our land the slices are too thick & heavy. Hopefully Monday 23rd December the tree guys are back to cut them up into manageable pieces. When cut they will be stacked meadow side of the fence. All of the wood will become seasoned & my project for the new year outdoors is to build a wood store close to the house to keep it all dry. The tree guys state it is best to leave it for a few months to let the rain wash it all down.

We have booked up the guy to give us a quote for the chimney liner & plate on the slate roof, sadly someone took one of the chimneys down on the house & this is the one above the study/shack! but the guy's firm has a cherry picker which will be able to park on the drive & make life easier. So hope in 2014 to start saving on heating bills at least for a few years to come.

Trees Cut Up

This is posting is a update about the wood being cut up & showing more of the damaged fence. Only trouble is the tree guys did leave us some very large slices which to me I call them hernia busters. We have asked them to come back but again that will cost us more money! it looks like we have enough wood for five years so going to put in a wood burner into the study/shack the heat will dissipate around the ground floor of the house that will be fitted in the new year. Last week I repaired the fence with new bearers & 8ft 4x4 post & 16 new uprights I spent an afternoon de-nailing the uprights which had been forced off with the tree fall. Even with the wood we have, at least four trailers loads went to the tree surgeons it was a huge beech tree but the view at the back of the house is so open & more light into the meadow.

200 Year Beech Down

Since our lovely three days away in Paignton we have had nothing but bad news with one after another. It all started with a close radio ham friend having a brain hemorrhage thankfully she survived the ordeal. Two ex work colleagues passed away very young one 47 the other 54. Then we had a phone call about a relation who also had a brain hemorrhage again thankfully he is also back home after many phone calls later & worrying about the situation.
To top it all we had a 200 year beech tree come down due to Ganoderma Applantum which is a fungi the trunk which came down caused a lot of damage to the fence & to a old pine tree. To completely cut it up has cost us a fortune as insurance does not cover trees or fencing! The tree surgeon stated all of the beech tree had to come down because it was rotting from the roots up! we also had another problem all the work had to be done from commons end which caused a few problems.
The damaged pine tree had a lot of beech wood sitting on it which they called Widow Makers so that had to come down in one.  

Oldway Mansion

 Horse exercise house with pool!

 Maids quarters?

 Side view

 A little closer to side view

 Stunning stone work

 Love the columns

 Rear View  (not my photo)

Fabulous interior (not my photo)

Display of Singer sewing machines (Photo taken with glass in door)

After the nostalgic Brixham Harbour visit we started to make our way back home & had to go back into Paignton. For some years we had heard about a Mansion call Oldway Mansion Ros noticed a sign for it so it was a short detour & we were not disappointed.

The original house was commissioned in the 1870s by Isaac Merritt Singer, founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Paris Eugene Singer, Isaac Singer’s third son, who supervised alterations to Isaac’s original house between 1904 and 1907. The rebuilding work was inspired by the Palace of Versailles. Please look at the link to the web site my photos does not do the place justice it is wonderful. Sadly ended up as council offices until recently!!

As I had just parked up we met a couple who relocated to South Devon 10 years ago from the Midlands yes I could tell by their accent! anyway struck up a conversation with them like all good Midlanders we talk to anyone :-) they told us yes it was council offices until recently & last week was a open day to the public which they visited  missed it by a week :( but the good news was the whole building is being restored to it's former glory the gardens had been maintained regularly & most of the interior was still original apart from the office strip lights!

We all had a nice walk around the house & gardens & because it is 24/7 security I was only able to take a photo of the sewing machine display from a distance through a glass door. Like Ros said maybe once the restoration has been done it will be again open for viewing fingers crossed it is. 

We then had lunch & was the start of the drive back home via the coast route via Teighmouth to Exeter then home.

Brixham Harbour

 Lobster pots ready to be loaded

 The main harbour

It was the last day of our three day two night stay, Ros & I as children had been to Brixham with our parents & it has been such a long time we had not visited. Brings back so many childhood memories & know why I love to live by the sea. Brixham is a true large fishing harbour with so many working boats yet it still holds the quaint coloured terraced houses which look into the small harbour the main one in over the sea wall. Just watching the guy repair his nets in the traditional way made me smile. The restaurants were full of fresh crab meals, shops were selling different variety of shell fish & the fish & chips shops were doing a roaring trade with sightseers & day trippers. We all had a walk around the town  but sadly we were running out of time & it was time to head back home.

Goodrington Sands & Steam Train

As a child stayed in Goodrington many time with my Mum & Dad but because Dad could not drive we stayed mainly on the beach so this was one place we had to visit. We travelled back home on this day & was a cloudy & a little colder with strong winds but what was a joy was seeing Hercules the South Devon steam train go by when sat having lunch.