From a quaint and quiet village to the contrast of a bustling town of Weston Super Mare, which is where we were headed. Most of the route for the day was along the roadside, which was as I have said before, is not my ideal walking conditions. However, as we were not in familiar territory and we were lacking an O/S map walking along the roadside seemed the logical way to reach our goal! The views along the way did not disappoint 🙂
We were tempted off our route with one footpath, which would have taken us across lush green fields to another village and Church for us explore. We, however, continued on regardless with our chosen route into Weston. We finally reached the end of this extremely busy road, when I spotted a sign which seemed to be hidden away, for a Bed & Breakfast. Why would would a Bed & Breakfast be of interest? Well the entrance was a gothic building which reminded me of the buildings which I had seen in Stanmore and Gunnersbury Park.
In fact the Bed & Breakfast was “Uphill Manor”, but when it was built in 1805 it was known “Uphill Castle”. The title “Castle” does make it sounds rather grand, I would have like to have seen it! The building was purchased in 1853 by Thomas Tutton-Knyfton, he made additions to the building including a new drawing room, octagonal hall and tower in the victorian “High-Gothic” style. The wallpaper which was hung in the drawing room, was designed by Augustus Pugin during the 1840s, was also used in the Palace of Westminster. The Manor remained in the same family until the early 1990’s when it was purchased by the current owners who use it for B & B 🙂
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| From 2012 – 08.09.2012 – Bleadon – Weston Super Mare Walk |
As we turned the corner from the Manor house, we could see the see in the distance beyond the Golf Course. I have come across quite a few Golf Courses in my time but most of them have had walking paths across them. Unfortunately, this one didn’t so we were unable to walk across the links to the seafront.**I have now been informed by a local source that there was footpath across golf course to beach opposite to the entrance uphill manor adjacent to the Golf practice field & bluebell wood, shame we missed it :-(** The Golf Club has been in Weston since 1892 and is still going strong today. In it history it faced the challenge of a offering a separate links for women, as their course should be “perfectly separate from the men’s”, I am not sure how that would be received in this day and age 🙂 It does go to show how sport and the attitudes have altered over the years!
We continued on past the Golf club to pass a lovely Church. Actually, it was not a church, the building had been converted into use of flats. I am still struggling to find out what the original use of the building was? I can see that a chapel was attached as there was a bell which had been removed from its housing and the stained glass windows were still intact. However, the rest of the building looked like it may have been either a school or convent? If anyone would care to enlighten me I would be very grateful!
Our route was to finally take us off the road, to the large Sandy Seafront! Weston Super Mare’s extensive Beach was rather a joy to walk along on a September day 🙂 , it was so lovely and warm, I was able to indulge by walking along in bare feet and feel the sand beneath my feet. However, I did not go as far as paddling in the sea on this occasion, not because the sea may be cold, but because the sea was quite far out. Weston tides have a reputation of having a very *large* tidal range and when the tide is out that means the sea goes out quite a long way! Although Weston has a fantastic sandy beach, it has earned the title “Weston Super Mud” because of the lack of sea due to the tide! I did not want to venture out and experience any mud myself!
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| From 2012 – 08.09.2012 – Bleadon – Weston Super Mare Walk |
As we strolled along the Sandy Beach we came across a Beach Volleyball net. I highlight this, because if anyone is interested in training for the Olympics in Rio 2016 or even the 2020 games this the place to do it 🙂 Don’t panic if you don’t know the rules they were available on the wall near the net! Wandering away from the Beach Volleyball, we found the beach had the more traditional activities that are associated with the seaside, donkey rides and swings 🙂 . Although Donkey riding is not an Olympic Sport like Beach Volleyball, it is great to know that the Gold Medalist and Paralympic Champion Lee Pearson started out his amazing career on a Donkey!
In the distance I spotted an unusual Shaped Elephant? Actually it was a sculpture! I was unable to tell exactly what it was, but it did look good! If we had time to investigate further the sculpture was actually part of the “Weston Sand Sculpture Festival”. The festival has been on Weston beach for the last 6 years and has been visited by approximately 250,000 people! It certainly looks like we missed a treat, as these sculptures were more than just the average sandcastles! It was here we decided to leave the beach, to join the seafront as we thought we may take a stroll along Weston Super Mare’s “Grand Pier”
The “Grand Pier” was built and opened in the early C20th, when it had a large pavilion to house entertainment such as ballet, plays, music hall and even boxing. The Pier has suffered at the hands of fire twice in its life time, once in 1930 and in 2008. In 1932 the pavilion was rebuilt to house a funfair rather than a theatre and the pavilion was restored after the 2008 fire and reopened once more in 2010. We decided to visit the pier later that afternoon as we wanted to explore Weston further after we had a break for some tea!
Feel free to browse through the photos for the first walk of the day –
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| 2012 – 08.09.2012 – Bleadon – Weston Super Mare Walk |
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