Autumn at Buckland Abbey

Autumn has come to Buckland Abbey.

Sheep graze peacefully in the field watching us walk past.

The river flows quickly.

A pheasant, startled, flys up and away.

Leaves fall like confetti across the woodland walk.

An oak tree over 400 years laden with moss and lichen.

A rustle in the brush and a deer escapes away.

History echoes around the Cart pond.

Cistercian monks originally founded the Abbey hundreds of years ago as a place of worship but also one for farm and trade. The great medieval barn remains along with the community growing areas. The remains of the apple orchard still grows and the Cider House presses the produce for juice.

With the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII the Abbey passed into other more secular hands.

Sir Francis Drake took ownership of Buckland Abbey and it became a comfortable and productive Tudor family home. The rooms are remarkably homely and even the Great Hall and other public rooms are modest by Tudor standards. I looked down at the original tiled floors and wondered who else had stood near the old stone fireplace and had walked these floors, gazed from these windows.

In the display rooms upstairs there is a portrait of Sir Francis Drake (including his two warts) for realistic portraiture was not the sole preserve of Oliver Cromwell. It is an imposing portrait and though he commands one's attention, he seems very finely drawn and not the hard sailor he is thought of by history.

His drum which when played struck fear into the heart of the Spanish so many years ago sits silent behind glass. They say it will play of its own accord if Britain is ever under threat.....

His statue stands at the top of the staircase reassuring us that he is ever at the ready.

I had not planned to walk in Sir Francis Drake's footsteps but I have discovered I have as I have wandered around Devon. I followed his gaze out to sea at Plymouth Hoe, I have gazed through his windows and visited his chamber at Buckland Abbey. In Exeter I have visited The Ship's Inn, his favourite pub in Exeter. It has been a treat to be so close to such an iconic and revered Tudor gentleman and has added another level of appreciation of Tudor times and lives for me.