Ashburton

A very hot day today and I was leading our walking group on an exploration of Ashburton.  We started with a walk around the outskirts along the river and up into the hills with beautiful views of Dartmoor, see extra.  

Then it was back to the very interesting town which is one of 4 Stannary towns in Devon which relates to the mining of Tin and the administrative works associated with it.  It also had a large woollen industry and has a Portreeve (an ancient Saxon office from 820AD) which is still kept alive today.  We had an historic tour of the town noting all the interesting buildings including this Fishscale House with its incredibly intricate slates.  We also spotted the old Gaming House with its slates having suits from packs of cards ie hearts, clubs etc in the slates.  

An interesting day but very tiring due to the heat, just as well we managed to retire to the oldest pub in Ashburton the Exeter Inn built in 1130.