Day 17 - Cornworthy and Dittisham

For today's adventure I hopped on the train to Totnes which is a delightful little town "an intriguing mix of historic market town and bohemian culture". IE there are hippies in them there towns as illustrated by the number of Indian and Nepalese artifacts shops and fair trade coffee purveyors. It also hosts a costume fair weekly and has a particularly historic residence - "The 16th-century Bogan House is the Devonshire Collection of Period Costume, another high-quality museum. Exhibitions on specific themes change every year. " As far as I am aware Bogan costumes don't change that much - perhaps a new pair of trackies if K-Mart has a special on but it was interesting to note that Bogan culture goes back to the 16th century.

Given that the bus to Cornworthy goes maybe twice a week I hailed a cab and asked the cabbie if he wouldn't mind driving me around the countryside for the next couple of hours. He seemed quite stoked at the idea and the price was reasonable so with my own personal chauffeur I headed off into the rolling green countryside.

Cornworthy is a tiny village in South Devon and the farms surrounding were the home of the Bulley line of our ancestors.



You have our grandmother Mary May (Smith).

Her mother was Rosetta Stewart

Her mother was Mary Jane Bulley

Mary Jane's parents were James Beavis Bulley and Janet Steel.

Janet's roots we will get to later in the journey but for several generations at least the Bulley's lived around the village of Cornworthy.

I started with the church ground but was unable to find any 'Bulley' headstones. Given that they were agricultural labourers I guess this is not so surprising.
The graveyard was home to sheep - who said hello and it was funny to see them grazing in between the headstones.




From here we drove through the countryside to Dittisham. I believe James' parents were married in the church at Dittisham so I took a look and was amazed to find it open with no one inside. No sheep in this church yard however.

Drove down to the 'beach' on the River Dart which is popular for boating during the summer months and there is a ferry that goes from here to Dartsham as well.


Took a look at the Abbey ruins on the way back through Cornworthy...

and some sheep posed. It's a beautiful part of the country and you can see why housing prices here are quite high and farmland a premium.

Finished back in Totnes and had a cup of tea in a very old fashioned tea house. Grey's Tea Rooms listening to the owners chat over their lunch.