After yesterday’s drizzle is was good to wake up to sunshine. This was good news as we were going to be venturing away from the city today on a visit to the National Trust property Saltram.
Having said just a couple of days ago that one of the reasons I liked Reading Buses was because of their excellent app it was amusing to find that the app for Plymouth Buses was exactly the same save for the colours. This did at least mean that I had no problem in navigating it to find the best bus to reach our destination. The bus drops you off a mile away from Saltram outside a drab out-of-town shopping centre. Once you have crossed the main road, however, you find yourself on a very attractive path walking through open countryside leading to the entrance.
Saltram
Saltram was a house that was owned by the Parker family who, we were told, were farmers. If that was the case they must have been pretty rich ones given the size of the house and gardens. The house was left to the state in settlement of death duties and was then passed to the National Trust in 1957. It opened to the public in 1961 but members of the original family continued to live within rooms of the house until 1996.
The grounds are extensive with much of it being open to walk through without paying the National Trust. As members we went into the grounds and walked to the various follies and gardens. We found one lovely little garden with a small pool and very attractive flower beds and sat for a while enjoying the peace.
We don’t normally bother with house interiors preferring to be outside in the fresh air but we did on this occasion. There were some interesting rooms, the kitchen for example was well laid out to give you a sense of what it must have been like in its heyday, although I’m willing to bet the pots and pans weren’t as clean. There was also a huge rug in one room that had featured on a video in the cafe and, as I was told in the room itself, on the BBC’s Hidden Treasures of the National Trust. This was a reproduction that had been weaved by Axminster Carpets and allowed visitors to walk across the rug without damaging the original. It must have cost a fortune to do.
We left Saltram and walked back to Plymouth Barbican which was very attractive if you keep your eyes closed through the industrial estates!
Smeaton
Our final stop of the day was Smeaton’s Tower which is an old lighthouse that was so important it was moved from the rocks it was protecting to the headland where it now stands. This was because it was a template for lighthouses that followed it.
We paid to walk up the twisty stairs to visit the rooms at the top where three lighthouse keepers lived and then right to the very top where the lights were lit. It was a great view over the water but dizzying to look down. Clearly not a job for me!
