Teignmouth, a old family favourite (Devon Valley Holiday Village)

Member Name: topp99

Product:	Devon Valley Holiday Village
Date:	23/08/02 (1760 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great for familes, Good base to visit the rest of Devon, Weather

Disadvantages: Not really aimed at lone teenagers, Occasional bed weather, Everything shut's down round about 10pm depending on the tourists

Teignmouth I think is one of the last of the old bygone family holiday towns, in the South of Devon. I went to stay there last June and it was quite pleasant seeing it again, as the last time I visited there was when I was 12yrs old.

We caught the South Western train from Salisbury on an Apex ticket, which is about £20 in advance. We had to change at Bristol Temple Meads, then there is an hour’s wait for the following train.

Bristol Temple Meads has lot's of platforms, there is a newsagents and a café where you can grab a coffee or a magazine. The guards are a bit elusive, it’s worth checking to make sure that you are catching the right train, as they sometimes put u on the wrong one! The train we caught was an old slam door type; we managed to get a seat in the end.

Passed through Starcross which is a small fishing village with a large mud plain and loads of fish and chip shops, Dawlish is the last stop before Teignmouth, which I will describe, in another opinion. There is also a large concrete sign on the side of a grassy bank by the front facing the railway line with the words "Teignmouth", which is in need of paint. It’s been there since god knows when, but I know the local children climb all over it including me when I was young.

Arrived in Teignmouth station, which I don’t think has changed since the 60's! It’s rather quiet with seagulls cruising about the station yelling at one another, there is only the one platform, Paignton is the next stop. Occasionally a train will come through without stopping, but there is usually a mumbled warning first on the tannoy. There are little computer signs hung from the ceiling telling you which train is coming, but I don’t think there is a telephone althrough there is a visitor lounge & ticket box.

We stayed at a hotel called the Mellons (01626-773134), it is in Orchard Gardens which is about 5 minutes from the
seafront. If you ring in advance, they will come and pick you up from the station and drive you over to the hotel for free. The Mellons look's a welcoming sight with its bright yellow blinds & sunshields, there are 10 rooms altogether, with 2 being on the ground floor. All the rooms have en-suit bathrooms with tea and coffee facilities, cleaned every morning at 8.30am when breakfast begins. The room we stayed in was a double room with 2 single beds. There is also a lounge on the second floor with TV, video's & books, and a dining room downstairs with decorative plates all over the walls showing steam trains, plus a fish tank in the corner; they said they do fresh food!

To stay at the Mellons is about £150 a wk with a deposit of £20. Breakfast & an evening meal are included in the price, £6 4 brekkie. Breakfast starts at 8.30 dinner is at 6pm, although you have to let them know if you would like one in advance. There is also a sunday lunch at 1pm, but no evening meal on Sundays.

Teignmouth seafront is quite picturesque with palm tree’s & flower beds, there is a café on the front called the Beach Comber which does yummy cream teas and meals. You can sit indoors or out, if you don’t mind being gawped at by an audience of seagulls with dripping beaks. There is a rest room in side, it’s a bit cramped; couldn’t even swing a seagull in there.

The pier dates from 1865 is free to enter, they don’t charge, but you can make a donation if you wish. There are many old fashioned amusements mixed with the up to date things, they still have the old palm reading ball which runs across your hand & tells you your fortune. Some of the one arm-bandit fruit machines must be over 40 years old, the end one must have dementia because it keeps spilling out prize money whether you have won it or not! There are several pinball machines, one of them is called Hook, which is nicknamed the Scrooge, as it nicks your
fifty pence and refuses to play. There is also an outside area which still has the old car ride which I used to play on, it costs 50p to run a small car on a even smaller circuits round round in circles. There is also a ladybirds ride, small rollar coaster & power boats.

Walk along the seafront & look out to sea in the evening, & you can see the lights of the fishing boats. They usually go out at 10pm in the evening, a flare used to warn the smaller boats that they were coming; now they just wake up the neighbourhood by firing a cannon or a gun. Teignmouth still has its Lifeboat hut which is now a RNLI shop, it sells thing to do with the lifeboat like key rings, towels, models, note books, pens etc.

A good place to end the day is an area that is behind some houses facing the rd of the seafront, called the Back water. Here it is like a car park except there are no cars, only boats so it is really a boat park, it is very peaceful with only the sound of the boats knocking together. During the day you can watch the fishing boats shovelling their catch into a big trawler which goes up the River Dart, in the evening they go out all night following a tug which leads them out safely. Over the water you can see Sheldon, that is also nice. There is a pub here called the Ferry Boat Inn.

There is a ferry which runs over to Sheldon between 7am-6pm (passenger amount permitting), it is the oldest ferry service in this part of England used by the children who attend the school over there instead of taking the bridge. It costs £1 to take a ride, to get on there is a long gang plank to go up and a man helps you on. Sheldon has a café called the Clipper that does reasonable meals & drinks; there is an outside area where we watched some children getting pinced by a bucketful of crabs they'd caught. Next door is a fishing shop & public toilets too. Sheldon has some pretty homes & some of the back gardens r private beaches, there is a pub to
o although I can’t remember the name. There is a smugglers tunnel that leads down to a secluded beach, it is quite windy going down the tunnel, & there is a long flight of sandy spattered stairs. Orange lights illuminate everything, it's quite spooky.

Teignmouth has a small shopping centre that is worth a look. There is a co-op shop for all your shopping needs, QS, a shoe shop Pritchards, plus all the usual gifty shops. There isn’t really a lot of nightlife in Teignmouth; there is a crazy golf & tennis area & a play park for children where they can have a go on motorised modal boats for 20p. The beach is usually full by mid morning, through they are charging for deck chairs now.

The local bus service is Stagecoach and there are local services out to Exeter, Newton Abbot, Brixham & Sheldon. If you get a Rover Ticket for £15, this will last you for three or four days.

Teignmouth has a museum which was once featured on the "Time Team programme" when they did a documentary on a sunken Spanish ship. Costs about £1 to get in, & there are 3 floors, through not a lot of access for wheelchairs I'm afraid. There is also a yachting & diving club in Teignmouth. Tourist Info can arrange coach tours.

Update:
There is a train at round about 7.30am from Salisbury that will take you streight to Teignmouth passing through Exeter St Davids. Everything usually closes at 10am in Teignmouth.

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