Find places to visit in Britain by name, location, type of attraction, or other keyword.
This listings directory of over 950 entries is being phased out.
It now excludes places and things of interest in the North of England, including Yorkshire.
These can be found in ABAB’s Places.
Places to visit in England’s East Midlands are currently being moved to ABAB’s Places.
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The picturesque and very unusual village of Clovelly, with its distinctly Celtic-sounding name, is situated on Devon’s beautiful north coast. A little frozen in time, with most of its buildings listed, it has been in private ownership since the time of Elizabeth I and home to the Rous family for over 400 years. A charge is payable for visitor access. The village is still a working fishing port, clinging to a 400 foot cliff overlooking Bideford Bay. There has been no motorised vehicular access to its steep, cobbled, street since the 1920’s – just donkeys and sledges. These days, donkeys are used to give children rides – all goods are moved using man-powered sledges. Access to the village is not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs.
Coleridge Cottage - this 17th century cottage (originally two) was rented by the romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) for about 3 years between 1797 and 1799. He was visited here by his friend, William Wordsworth, and it was here that he wrote 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', the interrupted/unfinished 'Kubla Khan' and other works. The National Trust has done a very good job presenting the cottage as the Coleridge family might have known it - and there's a cute garden.
Nether Stowey
Nr Bridgwater
Corfe Castle dominates the village of the same name and both are very popular visitor attractions. Originally a Saxon stronghold, the present castle dates from the 11th century and was built in a commanding gap in the hills, guarding the entrance to Purbeck. It became a Royal fortress and has a dark and murderous past! In 1203, King John had 22 knights starved to death there – a hideous crime, even in the medieval England. Corfe Castle is also the supposed location of the murder of the teenage King Edward the Martyr many years before, in 978, allegedly done away with on the orders of his wicked step-mother. During the English Civil War, it was a Royalist stronghold which eventually fell to Parliamentary forces, who 'slighted' (partly demolished) it. This partly explains the ruinous state it is in today. Some believe Corfe was Enid Blyton's inspiration for Kirrin Castle in the 'Famous Five' books.
Corfe
Be a giant! This is a delightful walk around model of Corfe Castle village as it was in 1946 at 1/20th scale. It opened in 1966 and is not only charming, but impressive. It appeals to children as well as adults.
Corfe
Cotswold Motoring Museum is located in the Old Mill at Bourton-on-the-Water. It was founded in 1978 by a private collector, Mike Cavanagh, who had amassed a substantial collection while living in South Africa over 20 years. He began with a 1929 Brooklands Riley that he bought for £30 in 1959 and went from there, including signs and memorabilia. He shipped his entire collection to Britain when returning home, found the Old Mill disused and for sale and established the museum. Mike retired in 1999 and the museum was sold. It now includes some 40 cars, several motorbikes, as a large collection of toys, an enormous amount of motoring memorabilia and even a couple of caravans.
Bourton-on-the-Water
Dartmoor is a place for walkers, geologists, history enthusiasts, campers – or anyone who likes being outside. It is a sometimes mysterious, sometimes beautiful, sometimes harsh landscape, an upland area of granite heather-covered moorland. Its most famous natural features are its tors - classic examples of exposed intrusive vulcanicity. It also boasts wild ponies and an extraordinary number of prehistoric remains – standing stones, stone circles, rows and settlements – such as those at Grimspound and Hound Tor. Remote Wistman’s Wood is a frankly weird oakwood, with stunted trees growing on a moss-covered landscape. There are pretty villages too, such as Lustleigh, Widecombe in the Moor and Postbridge (with its 13th century clapper bridge). Parts of Dartmoor are used by the armed forces for training, but there’s plenty of room for everyone else.
Dartmoor National Park in Devon was established in 1951 and covers an area of 368 square miles (953 sq kilometres). It is an upland area of granite heather-covered moorland, completely land-locked, famous for its tors - classic examples of exposed intrusive vulcanicity.
Principal settlements in Dartmoor National Park include: Ashburton, Bovey Tracey, Buckfastleigh, Chagford and Moretonhampstead.
Parke
Bovey Tracey
Newton Abbot
The Eden Project is an astonishing garden (or gardens) conceived by Tim Smit located in a former china clay pit. The focal points are two biomes, one tropical the other Mediterranean, housed inside two giant geodesic steel domes covered with EFTE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene). Outdoor gardens are dedicated to temperate regions.
St Austell
Exmoor National Park is in the north of Somerset and Devon and covers an area of 268 square miles (694 sq kilometres). The Park was established in 1954 and the highest point is Dunkery Beacon at 1702 feet (519 metres). It is a varied area of moorland, farmland, deep valleys, ancient woodland and high sea cliffs, tumbling into the Bristol Channel. Kites and kestrels wheel overhead, otters can be found in the gushing streams, while red deer and ponies roam wild. Man has left traces from prehistoric times and in the middle ages it was a royal hunting forest. Today, picturesque villages and hamlets nestle comfortably in its folds.
It is also famous for the fictional Lorna Doone, and the Beast of Exmoor – an elusive creature which, if it exists, may be some form of large wild cat, like a cougar, released or escaped from captivity.
Principal settlements in Exmoor include Lynton and Lynmouth, Dunster, Porlock and Dulverton.
Exmoor House
Dulverton
Fiddleford Manor House is a small, stone, medieval, manor house in North Dorset. It was built in c1370 by William Latimer, sheriff of Somerset and Dorset and, notwithstanding time and many alterations to the building, has a number of surviving features. There is an interesting solar, with a wonderful timbered roof the remnants of a wall painting of the Annunciation. The hall, though a little shorter than it once was, also has an impressive roof - and an attractive 16th C gallery.
The nearest town, Sturminster Newton, is just over a mile away on foot.
Photo credit: April Munday.
Sturminster Newton
The Fleet Air Arm Museum is Europe's largest naval aviation Museum and tells the story of the Royal Navy in the air. There are over 90 aircraft, from biplanes to supersonic jets, plus thousands of other artefacts, on show in four exhibition halls. In addition, it houses the first British Concorde, which you can go on board, and the 'Aircraft Carrier Experience', a fascinating tour round a realistic mocked-up carrier. The museum is exceptionally well laid out - one of the best.
Yeovilton
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