Salcombe Part 4

This set completes my Photo Walk around Salcombe in November 2021.

Now if you have read any of my posts before you will know that you have to take the rough with the smooth. On my Photo Walks I snap anything that catches my eye so having dealt in the other three posts with things great and good and strange we now plumb the depths. First I will ask you, does this make an intriguing shot? The latest deep space discovery from the Hubble Telescope? What do you think? Do you like it?

Well I did warn you. Now that I am back on the quayside and the seagulls are dive bombing me and missing, this momentary near hit landed in the water next to me and seconds later it was gone. It is just seagull poop. That raises lots of questions about the Hubble Telescope.

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There is going to be quite an eclectic mix of subjects coming up so be prepared. Things you would expect and things you wouldn't.

I was amused by the colour coordination of the dumped sofas and the fact that they blended in with the wall in quite a stylish manner. My other impression was that they seemed a bit too good to be throwing out.

Back to Hubblesque images and this is quite a constellation of empty buoys, patiently waiting for the summer to return while the normal occupants are all up on blocks in the car park for the winter.

These quayside former fisherman's cottages are now just for the holidaying super rich although if you have been here in summer you will know that this walkway is a buzzing throng of day-trippers standing in the way of your estuary view, and rubbernecking into your garden to check out what you are having for breakfast on the terrace.

I checked a quayside holiday let for you for this summer and I only found one available week, which will set you back £2573 or $3389 USD. That does include use of the mooring, although harbour dues will be extra. Your super yacht will have to be 13 feet/3.9 metres or less.

Hereby hangs a funny tale. This man below is a sculptor, a stonemason, so he taps away here chiselling art works and memorials out of lumps of otherwise uninteresting rock.

This type of sculpture has always fascinated me as the artist must have the ability to see through a solid object to what is underneath and inside, as it is a job of removal to a precise point and no further. The final piece of art is already inside but the sculptor needs the vision and the skill to reveal it. The sculptor is Jim Martins.

More than twenty years ago this workshop was occupied by another man, a Coppersmith. He has since retired and his name was AG Paul. At the same time he was working here Jim Martins mother also shared the workshop and she was a stone carver.

Jim's mother and AG Paul were both tap tap tapping away most days so as a joke Mr Paul made a small name plate, Tapper Close and placed it above the door.

This copper plaque is still there. Years later some developers were in the street to make plans for a new development of some warehouses at the end of the road by the quay. These were being made into apartments. The planners walked down to view the site and spotted this copper plaque. So they asked Mr Paul if that was the name of the lane, so he jokingly said yes. They said so is that part of the quay called Tappers Quay so he jokingly said yes.

So they built the apartments which are still there today and still called Tappers Quay. They also commissioned a slate carved plaque from Jim's mother which still hangs on the wall just to the left of the name.

Here is one of Jim's pieces just around the corner.

Because I took these photo back in November 2021 I am able to tell you that not only has this mural now gone, so has the building it was attached to. There is just a large vacant lot on a prime waterside location.

This is the sort of building which will probably replace it.

I'm travelling West now, on Island Street. Whether this was an island at one time I'm not sure, but it runs along a creek so it's possible. As you walk down Island Street there are mostly houses on the left, on the higher ground and what were once boat businesses on the right, as on that side the properties back onto the creek, and so have water access.

The houses on the left tend to be very small fishermen's cottages and the boat businesses on the right tend to be timber makeshift structures. There are still some boat repair shops but there are now other retail infill businesses as well. This view is between two of the more modern developments showing the creek at the back.

Here is the view from the creek facing the back of the properties. The tide is out and can be expected to come as high as the back doors on occasion. There is a good view of the church on the hill from here, which was featured in part 3.

In winter the car park on Batson Creek is used for boat storage. Here, maintenance work is also carried out, like de-fouling and painting the hulls.

Walking back into town to catch the ferry to East Portlemouth.

This street name refers to a long gone jubilee celebration could it be Victoria? In any case it is a rare enamel street sign. The flag being there added to the scene.

This window reveals the split level nature of many of the properties on the steep streets. Here you would be standing up and looking out at people's shoes as they walk past.

This shot perfectly indicates the multi layered street plan of the town.

Diving is a popular pastime along the coast here as there is a concentration of sunken wrecks going back a couple of thousand years.

This is the ferry, and I am a little early, as out of season, it only travels at specific times. In summer it is an on demand service so travels back and forth almost constantly.

Most of this wide channel is quite shallow so it's important to follow the markers.

This is the ferry.

This is the spare ferry and in summer they can both operate together at peak times.

In the distance is Salcombe Castle Ruin.

You don't get much redder than this. At East Portlemouth on the ferry steps a painter has been busy.

It's only a short drive back home unless you meet a scene like this. Having mostly driven in cities where people blow their horns and get agitated for a ten second delay it is now becoming a way of life where you feel quite relaxed about following a herd of cattle along a narrow lane for about two miles.

Luckily for me the cows were turning right at this point.