Post by Dave on Mar 14, 2010 19:53:02 GMT
I can’t remember the last time I laughed as much as I did this afternoon; I’m still chuckling away as I write this and it’s a good job Carol is the special person she is as she has laughed with me and it was something she came out with that was the cause of my fits of uncontrollable laughter, you know what? It’s really good to laugh and I’m going to try and make sure I start laughing a lot more in my life.
It has been one of those days when we could not get out of the house when we wanted too, constant visitors and we nearly made a break for at around 12.30 only to see two more visitors coming up the path just as we were about to lock the front door.
It was gone 2pm before we did escape and not much time to go very far as by the time we got there the sun would have gone in and darkness would have soon followed, so Carol just said lets go to Berry Head. A place we know well and love and the views looking over across the Bay are wonderful, even more so at the moment as the ugly balloon was taken down for a clean and to have some adverts put on it (going to look even worse) and the weather has delayed it being put back up.
So a nice short drive to Brixham and past the Brixham Rugby club, the road just before to get to the car park is only single track and care is needed to get safely to the car park, The fee starts at £1 for an hour and go ups by £1 for every hour after that, no fair price for say three hours parking as that will cost you £3 exactly.
Most people only ever go to the North Fort on Berry Head as at the end is the lighthouse and it can be seen at night from most parts of Torbay, but there is also the South Fort and it should not be missed as it does have the remains of three buildings in it. I should point out that access to both forts is free and the North Fort has a café inside the entrance that was once the main guardhouse.
We parked the car and filled up the meter and as we left the car park and headed for the North Fort Carol looked at the newly installed cattle grid and said “I can see why everyone is complaining about it” I asked her what she meant as there are goats roaming free at Berry Head to help keep the grass down etc. “ people have been complaining their dogs legs have gone down the holes between those bars and they do look to far apart for the dogs to walk on no wonder their legs are getting stuck between the bars”
I said to her they are set that way to stop animals walking over them and she replied “ what about the ones up on the moors, they are there for the cattle to use and the people have the gates on the side you use” It was at this point I cracked up and talking a bit more with Carol I discovered she has always thought the cattle grids were put there just so the animals could use then and did not know they are there to keep the animals from getting off the moors etc by using the road.
We then both burst out laughing and were getting a few looks from those passing us by, but we didn’t care, this was a magic fun moment and one that will give us a few laughs for years to come.
I don’t know how long it took to build both forts and can’t find anything that really lets you know what it would have looked like when it was finished. The amount of stone used is amazing and to think they were both abandoned after being used for only two years.
Below is a small piece about the forts and the lighthouse.
The Forts.
The two forts were built on the pre-existing Iron Age Hill fort site overlooking Torbay naval anchorage. Fortifications were erected on the headland in 1793 against threatened invasion by French armies and strengthened with limestone in 1803, when gun batteries were added to protect the anchorages. They were abandoned after two years when the War of American Independence finished, and the armaments were moved to Plymouth, but the ramparts remain.
Lighthouse
At the end of Berry Head, beyond the coastguard station, is the lighthouse, which forms part of the chain of south coast beacons. It is administered by Trinity House
. The lighthouse, which was built in 1906, was converted to unwatched acetylene
operation in 1921 and modernised and converted to mains electricity in 1994. The light being visible over 20 miles away, It gives a double flash every 15 secs. It came to be known as the smallest, highest and deepest light in the British Isles - the tower is diminutive, requiring no further elevation than that given by the headland itself, and the optic was originally turned by the action of a weight falling down a 45m deep shaft, now made redundant by a small motor. Semaphore signalling apparatus was on Berry Head before 1875 and acted as the Lloyds' Signal Station for Torbay.
Aproach to North Fort
The walls
Looking over to Torquay
The lighthouse
Looking toward the South Hams
Thick walls
On our way to South Fort
Remains of a few buildings and who's head can I see?
They did not want you to get across.
Looking over to the North Fort
Back inside South Fort
The Carol shot
Its a long way down.
It has been one of those days when we could not get out of the house when we wanted too, constant visitors and we nearly made a break for at around 12.30 only to see two more visitors coming up the path just as we were about to lock the front door.
It was gone 2pm before we did escape and not much time to go very far as by the time we got there the sun would have gone in and darkness would have soon followed, so Carol just said lets go to Berry Head. A place we know well and love and the views looking over across the Bay are wonderful, even more so at the moment as the ugly balloon was taken down for a clean and to have some adverts put on it (going to look even worse) and the weather has delayed it being put back up.
So a nice short drive to Brixham and past the Brixham Rugby club, the road just before to get to the car park is only single track and care is needed to get safely to the car park, The fee starts at £1 for an hour and go ups by £1 for every hour after that, no fair price for say three hours parking as that will cost you £3 exactly.
Most people only ever go to the North Fort on Berry Head as at the end is the lighthouse and it can be seen at night from most parts of Torbay, but there is also the South Fort and it should not be missed as it does have the remains of three buildings in it. I should point out that access to both forts is free and the North Fort has a café inside the entrance that was once the main guardhouse.
We parked the car and filled up the meter and as we left the car park and headed for the North Fort Carol looked at the newly installed cattle grid and said “I can see why everyone is complaining about it” I asked her what she meant as there are goats roaming free at Berry Head to help keep the grass down etc. “ people have been complaining their dogs legs have gone down the holes between those bars and they do look to far apart for the dogs to walk on no wonder their legs are getting stuck between the bars”
I said to her they are set that way to stop animals walking over them and she replied “ what about the ones up on the moors, they are there for the cattle to use and the people have the gates on the side you use” It was at this point I cracked up and talking a bit more with Carol I discovered she has always thought the cattle grids were put there just so the animals could use then and did not know they are there to keep the animals from getting off the moors etc by using the road.
We then both burst out laughing and were getting a few looks from those passing us by, but we didn’t care, this was a magic fun moment and one that will give us a few laughs for years to come.
I don’t know how long it took to build both forts and can’t find anything that really lets you know what it would have looked like when it was finished. The amount of stone used is amazing and to think they were both abandoned after being used for only two years.
Below is a small piece about the forts and the lighthouse.
The Forts.
The two forts were built on the pre-existing Iron Age Hill fort site overlooking Torbay naval anchorage. Fortifications were erected on the headland in 1793 against threatened invasion by French armies and strengthened with limestone in 1803, when gun batteries were added to protect the anchorages. They were abandoned after two years when the War of American Independence finished, and the armaments were moved to Plymouth, but the ramparts remain.
Lighthouse
At the end of Berry Head, beyond the coastguard station, is the lighthouse, which forms part of the chain of south coast beacons. It is administered by Trinity House
. The lighthouse, which was built in 1906, was converted to unwatched acetylene
operation in 1921 and modernised and converted to mains electricity in 1994. The light being visible over 20 miles away, It gives a double flash every 15 secs. It came to be known as the smallest, highest and deepest light in the British Isles - the tower is diminutive, requiring no further elevation than that given by the headland itself, and the optic was originally turned by the action of a weight falling down a 45m deep shaft, now made redundant by a small motor. Semaphore signalling apparatus was on Berry Head before 1875 and acted as the Lloyds' Signal Station for Torbay.
Aproach to North Fort
The walls
Looking over to Torquay
The lighthouse
Looking toward the South Hams
Thick walls
On our way to South Fort
Remains of a few buildings and who's head can I see?
They did not want you to get across.
Looking over to the North Fort
Back inside South Fort
The Carol shot
Its a long way down.
