Nostalgic return to Dawlish

Seagull at Dawlish

When I was a kid we quite often went out for a drive on Sundays. In the winter we would wear our car coats, brought back from Singapore by Stamps (my dad.) Strange concept - did anyone else have a car coat?!

Stamps was nicknamed because of his temper so quite often when we arrived at our destination, we came straight home, either because he couldn't park (he would never pay to park) or we had had an argument en route.

For some reason Newquay was a particular hotspot. We went there at least twice without getting out of the car.

Dawlish, however, has happier memories. We used to go there, wander along the canal looking at the famous ducks and put money into the Sooty & Sweep machine.

This weekend I was down in Devon to see my mum and we planned to go to Ashburton for the first time, having read that it's a foodies' paradise. Even AA Gill has been there! But alas, there was a summer show on and we couldn't park anywhere - and I always seek out pay and display, unlike Stamps - so we drove on and went to Dawlish instead.

The place hasn't really changed. There was a funfair  (Anderton's, minus Rowland) and the Sooty & Sweep machine has gone. We found a nice tea room and had a savoury team - cheese scones with tea.

And I took some pictures of the famous livestock. One thing we were surprised about was the state of the canal. Very dirty.