Haccombe on to Brixham
During a recent trip from Exmouth to Brixham , I noticed several shelduck flying close to the estuary and I felt privileged to have seen their probable nesting site when I was taking a tour of the picturesque valley of Haccombe. Before I checked into one of the Brixham Hotels , I made a stop at Haccombe because I watched an entertaining talk about wildlife in the West Country by Andrew Cooper .
As the touring group and I gathered by the Cooper farmhouse, he and his wife told us that they made the decision about 10 years ago to farm for wildlife, because they had so much love and concern of England’s natural heritage, and what has been lost due to intensive farming. They wanted to conserve and restore as much as they possibly could. They received help and support from the Countryside Stewardship.
The farm, which was a former coaching Inn, brought back memories of an earlier time. The sights and sounds made me actually believe I was back in an age where nature had an integral part in how we humans survived. A fox crept in and out of the woodlands edge, I saw swallows swoop down all around us to pick up straw and then go dip the straws in mud so they could make a nest. Bird songs filled the fresh air, woodpeckers yapped, and pheasants called, rabbits hopped in the meadows. I was standing in pristine nature, seemingly untouched by man. We strolled through ancient bluebell woods and I saw a roe deer scamper away from us. We learned how to estimate the age of a hedgerow. You count the number of different trees and shrubs along a 30 meter stretch and then multiply the total by a hundred. So, the hedges we walked by were approximately 600 years old!
Later over a cup of coffee at my hotel in Brixaham, I looked over a copy of a very old map, which I purchased at Haccombe, the original was on a skin of the hamlet of ‘Hackcombe’. I reflected on how Mr. Cooper and his wife became guardians of such a wonder place, but this uplifted my spirit, knowing there are people in this world who care about mother earth and all her creatures. A comforting thought.
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