2 x 2

March 26, 2013

Photo by Voley Farm Holiday Cottages, Parracombe

Letter from Exmoor: Life without Limits

March 25, 2013

Calvert Trust Exmoor have been accredited as FIVE STAR Quality by Quality in Tourism (The Assessment Service for VisitEngland) , becoming the only five star accredited activity accommodation in the Country.

Calvert Trust Exmoor runs an accessible 60 bed residential activity centre, catering for people with physical, sensory and learning disabilities of all ages and levels of ability, together with their families & friends. Activities on offer include canoeing, carriage driving, wheelchair abseiling, accessible cycling and archery. Over 3,500 guests took a break with Calvert Trust Exmoor last year.

Becky Endacott, Contract Services Coordinator at Quality in Tourism, confirmed yesterday that Calvert Trust Exmoor are the only organisation in England to have reached the five star standard for activity accommodation.

Tony Potter, Chief Executive of Calvert Trust Exmoor; “We are absolutely delighted to have been recognised in this way, it’s a great reflection on the hard work of our fantastic team, working together to achieve high standards of customer care. As a specialist accessibility centre its fantastic that we compare favourably with mainstream providers and are the only five star accredited activity accommodation in England”.

Quality in Tourism also assessed the centre against the National Accessible Scheme, and accredited CTE as being suitable for a range of disabilities including older and less mobile guests, Part-time wheelchair users, Assisted wheelchair users, Independent wheelchair users, Visually impaired guests and Hearing impaired guests.

For more information about Calvert Trust Exmoor please contact Rob Lott, Head of Communications on marketingexmoor@calvert-trust.org.uk or 01598 763221

Calvert Trust Exmoor is the South West’s premier outdoor activity destination for people with disabilities, welcoming over 3,500 guests a year, with the philosophy of “At Calvert Trust Exmoor its what you CAN do that counts”, which sums up our approach to what we do, we help people of all levels of ability to fulfil their potential and be all that they can be.

CalvertTrust Exmoor is the third Calvert Trust Centre, opened in 1996 to offer people with physical, sensory and learning disabilities, and their friends and families, the chance to achieve their potential through the challenge of outdoor adventure.

VISITOR QUOTES

Audry Hopkins, Heritage House School: “We’re so grateful for all of your help, support and guidance – its been awesome! All praises to a wonderful organisation that actually looks for the positive achievements of all people with physical and learning disabilities. In my twenty years of teaching both mainstream and special educational needs young people, this has easily been the best, most positive experience I have had the fortune to be part of. You deserve award after award.”

Martyn & Pauline Clark: “My wife suffers from MS and my grandson has ADHD & ODD, but despite their worries they took part in all the activities and did me proud. Can we just express our gratitude and thanks for the high standard of accommodation, catering and service that we received, everyone was exceptionally friendly and helpful. I would not hesitate to recommend your establishment to anyone, and the children were asking when they could come back as we were leaving!”

Pete Houghton, RNIB: “Can I say a big thank you to everyone at Calvert Trust Exmoor. It was a truly an inspiring weekend. The care shown by your staff to the visually impaired children was unbelievable and they even had time to help a 50 year old softy like me with a fear of heights.”

Web: www.calvert-trust.org.uk/exmoor

Blog: http://pilgrims-progress-exmoor.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CTExmoor

Twitter: www.twitter.com/calvertexmoor

YouTube: www.youtube.com/CalvertTrustExmoorUK

Images from the Calvert Trust Exmoor image bank are available for press use, please contact Rob Lott on marketingexmoor@calvert-trust.org.uk or 01598 763221 with your requirements.

Voices of Exmoor: Hope Bourne

March 25, 2013March 25, 2013

This post is the first of many “Voices of Exmoor” to come. Several years ago, Birdie Johnson went around Exmoor to record the oral history which is so much in danger of getting lost forever. The clips are available at the Somerset Archives as well as in Birdie’s book, “Reflections”.

Hope Bourne talked for the archive sitting in the shade of a hedge on Withypool Common, looking across to Ferny Ball. She lived in a remote caravan there, above the river Barle, for over 20 years. Getting up at 5am she’d do the farmer’s stock, write her journal, and then go for a 20 mile walk with her sketch pad, mapless, guided by an inner compass.

She followed the hunt on foot, shot and fished, never washed up, and ate 1lb of meat a day. Which, she says, is why she didn’t feel the cold. She believes that hunting and farming are the backbone of Exmoor.

With no money, she turned to journalism, writing a column for the local paper and several books which she illustrated herself. She sent her first book, written in pencil, to Anthony Dent. He returned it neatly typed and visited in person shortly afterwards.

Recording made: 2001

Length of recording: 2 hrs 7 mins (To read a summary of the contents of the oral history recordings click CD1 or CD2. )

Hope Bourne, who died on August 22 aged 91, was an author who celebrated life on Exmoor, where she lived for more than 60 years; her knowledge of this beautiful corner of England – of its flora and fauna and its traditional communities – was encyclopedic, and was gained by submission to a lifestyle which few in the 20th century would have dared even to contemplate.

Obiturary in THE TELEGRAPH, 27 August 2010

For more than two decades – between 1970 and the early 1990s – Hope Bourne lived in isolation in an old, leaking caravan in the ruins of a farm at Ferny Ball above Sherdon Water, about four miles from Withypool. To her, untamed nature was not just something she desired, it was also a means of testing human resilience and ingenuity.

At Ferny Ball she kept bantams. A small but wiry figure, she was often seen in pursuit of wood pigeon, deer, rabbit or hare, wielding her American-made .22 rifle or 12-bore shotgun – “What one didn’t get, t’other did,” she would say. To feed herself, as well as shooting for the pot, she fished and grew vegetables. She ate 1lb of meat a day (some of which was none too fresh) and drank from a stream.

Her caravan was 14ft long and 6ft wide, providing only one room which was festooned with the skins, antlers and hooves of animals she had slaughtered and gutted herself. At the centre was a wood-burning stove. She converted two of the three bunks into bookshelves and slept in the third.

Hope Bourne’s eating equipment was equally rudimentary. She had three mugs (one for tea, one for coffee, one for water or lemonade), and ate her enormous breakfast of meat and vegetables straight from the frying pan. There was thus no need to wash up.

Earlier Hope Bourne had lived on Exmoor in several remote and primitive cottages. There too she had lived off the land. Throughout her life she earned a small amount of money by helping farming friends, tending their stock and helping out during the lambing season. Her income was usually about £100 a year, of which she saved nearly half, claiming to live on £5 a month, most of which went on cartridges.

Although she chose geographical isolation, Hope Bourne had many friends, claiming to send out 100 Christmas cards each year. When out and about on the moor she would call in at the farms, and her visits were reciprocated by the local community. Neighbours, even though they lived miles away, would always come and help her if she was in need.

She spent 30 Christmases at Broomstreet Farm, the home of her oldest friend on Exmoor, Mary Richards. In the 1950s she enjoyed a year on a sheep station in New South Wales, and in the 1970s she spent three months with friends in Canada.

Hope Bourne taught herself to paint and draw. She also kept a diary, using this a resource to write her first book. She sent the manuscript (handwritten in pencil) to the publisher Anthony Dent, who returned it neatly typed and shortly afterwards visited her in person in Devon. The book, Living on Exmoor, published in 1963, is a month-by-month chronicle of her life and activities, illustrated by her own pen and ink drawings.

Continue reading →

Flying Goat

March 25, 2013

A feral goat in the Valley of the Rocks near Lynton. Photo by Rosie Schneider

Frosted Grass

March 25, 2013

Photo by Jim Winzer

Letter from Exmoor: Experiencing Exmoor Zoo Through a Lens

March 24, 2013

Not much more than a year into its life, the West of Exmoor Camera Club finally got around to its first field trip to Exmoor Zoo. I feel it won’t be the last.

After dreary, light-free shoots at Lynton and Arlington Court earlier in the year, the sun finally came out of hiding briefly above the wildlife haven that is the Exmoor Zoological Park. Its a bijou zoo, small but perfectly formed, with large pond (or small lake depending on how well travelled you are) in the middle, with a wonderful selection of wildfowl, ranging from Mandarin Ducks through penguins to Pelicans and all shades between, swimming on it, and crashing into it. The photographic opportunities were endless, with good viewing areas and obligingly nonchalant avians.

We also found Big cats, many monkeys, wonderful wolves and something that made an incredible racket, but was never quite identified. There were seemingly dozens of enclosures, and mums and dads with progeny present, were having a great time. The animals were well cared for and unstressed and I liked that. Some were only too happy to pose, whilst a surly minority were a bit sniffy and disdained the hapless photographer, brazenly displaying the wrong end to us. Can’t say I blame them.

We came away with some great images having enjoyed the day, the coffee and cake and the refreshingly positive attitude of any zoo staff that we encountered. Even the Zoo loos were up to scratch.

Pictures from the day can be seen online on our club website at www.westexmoorcameraclub.weebly.com and anyone reading this that is desperate to see more of our handiwork on paper as it were, can do so throughout the stairwells, top to bottom, of the North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple from:- (Thursday 22nd March – 30th June 2013 ). Go on, you know you want to….

And what the hell was it that was making all that racket?!

West of Exmoor Camera Club. Author. RB