Clovelly Street

Taranaki's association with Devonshire extends beyond the Plymouth Company and can celebrate the quaint and picturesque in that part of England.  Little changed in since the 19th Century, the tiny fishing village of Clovelly is cut into a 122 metre cliff on the North Devon coast above the Bristol Channel.

Today it is a major tourist attraction with a car park and visitor centre at the top of the cliff. Access is on foot from there along the extremely steep and narrow cobblestone streets. Clustered together in an almost random fashion, the cottages are whitewashed and set in rambling gardens. Apparently this provides enough shelter that it generates a microclimate, so unexpected exotic plants can be found there.

Such features have attracted the words and presence of some of England's finest authors.  Charles Dickens describes it in A Message from the Sea and it gets a mention in Rudyard Kipling's Stalky and Co. Clovelly's favorite son is Charles Kingsley, who spent his childhood there. Clovelly inspired his novel The Water Babies and also featured in his later novel Westward Ho. There is now a small museum to Kingsley in the village.

Not to be outdone, the visual artists have also been attracted to Clovelly. Whistler painted cameos of the village which were used on a china service by Wedgewood and Turner's painting of the Harbour hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Such difficult terrain makes for an interesting approach to deliveries in the main street. Since it is impossible to get vehicle access, goods are let down from the upper car park on a sledge and anything returned is again pulled up on the sledge.

There is little doubt that its remote location and steep topography have preserved Clovelly's picturesque and historic features. You are certainly left with the feeling that it will be just the same in another few hundred years.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

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Brooklands State Housing Subdivision DP6845, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)