Can you visit Clovelly Deveon for free?

Justme29

Visited years ago with my family, when it was free.

A stunning village with lovely little tea rooms, and a lovely area to sit by the harbour.

We walked down and got a landrover back up, was quite hair raising as the back was open and I thought I would fall out at any time.

Would love to visit again, and would have no trouble paying.

roddydogs

pinkpig08 wrote: »

There was a bit about Clovelly on CountryWise last week - did anyone see it?

Obviously Millions did and will want to visit.........but silly question how did the original owner "Get it"? same question with any "Owned" land.

leveller2911

roddydogs wrote: »

Obviously Millions did and will want to visit.........but silly question how did the original owner "Get it"? same question with any "Owned" land.

Nepotism I would guess, gift from a King or fought over........

p00hsticks

roddydogs wrote: »

Obviously Millions did and will want to visit.........but silly question how did the original owner "Get it"? same question with any "Owned" land.

As leveller2911 says, it originally belonged to the king ....

http://www.clovelly.co.uk/history.php

Ian-H_4

roddydogs wrote: »

Obviously Millions did and will want to visit.........but silly question how did the original owner "Get it"? same question with any "Owned" land.

He inherited it, so it was always going to be his from the day he was born, and he didn't have to do anything to get it, apart from wait for his mother to die, which she duly did in 1980-something.

It's been in his family since the early 1700s, and only three families have owned it since the 11th century.

siderealxxx

I'd like to dispel the myths here once and for all because the practices of the Clovelly Estate are highly questionable from a legal point of view. The quick answer is, yes you can walk into Clovelly for free (legally) and here's what they don't want you to know:

Some of the land and most of the roads and paths (including the cobblestone path) are part of the public highways that are in fact owned by Torridge District Council. It is only the buildings and some of the land which forms the basis of the estate. Therefore anyone can walk down the streets as you can on any other highway.

The evidence? There are 2 signs at the entrance where the road forks to the visitor car park and to the village...

The first pointing to the left (village) says, "No Public Car Parks Beyond This Point" and is a legal highways sign and ONLY states that there are no public car parks beyond that point, NOT THAT IT IS A PRIVATE ROAD OR THAT YOU HAVE NO ACCESS.

The second pointing to the right (the visitor centre), states "All Vehicles For Clovelly" (with an arrow to the car park) and is a privately placed/owned sign written by the Clovelly Estate directing all traffic to it's car park WHICH SUBSEQUENTLY HAS NO COMPULSORY/LEGAL BASIS. It's literally the equivalent of putting a sign at the end of my road and telling people they have to park on my driveway and I'll subsequently charge them.

There are numerous LEGITIMATE public access points to Clovelly by foot (including the coastal path route and the main road) which you are entirely entitled to take and there are absolutely no signs to stop you from doing so because the estate knows they cannot enforce this. Sadly they do a good job of convincing their staff not to let on this information and subsequently people assume you HAVE to pay. Not true at all - just look at an OS map.

The only clauses are that you cannot park in the visitor car park as a result, and you cannot park within the village itself. Therefore the way around it is simply to park further up the road either near the church or at Higher Clovelly and walk down to Clovelly and straight in via the aforementioned road (or coastal path) thus avoiding the visitor centre: THIS IS ENTIRELY LEGAL AND THEY CANNOT STOP YOU FROM DOING SO! You are subsequently free to explore the village (without access to the museum etc).

I don't dispute some of the good work done by the estate to maintain the area, and if they want to charge to park there, or access museums etc then thats up to them (people can choose), but to convey that this village is entirely private and that you can only access it through the visitor centre at the compulsory price of £5.95 per person is frankly PREPOSTEROUS.

Go forth people... it's your land.

dazzling-darren

Nice One about the legal position - since this forum is about saving money here is how you do it....Legally!

1.) Park in Higher Clovelly Village and walk - go past entracnce and then follow, bear right by layby and this joins the cobbled street by the NT Garden.

2.) Park by Church and Clovelly Court Woodland Garden (for visitors of these). Go to the Woodland Garden (£2.00 for adulsts, kids free, it is nice,,,,and then walk out through the bottom near layby. The Court and Gardens are owned by the family of original owners of the Village.

3.) This works well if there are several of you..Drop off your passengers by the entrance and they walk down the road and meet you at the top of the cobbled street. You park up and pay to enter...this is perfectly acceptable since you get free parkling and it's your car...you just gave a lift to some people to the village. If you are like me you will just go to the car park and then drop them off - there is a small path fromthe left hand side of the car park to join the road just up from the layby.


Just remember; if you don't pay to enter you should not use the facilities...you can walk down the public road and cobbled street, visit the NT Garden at the top (free entry) and enter any shop since they pay rent to the Landlord (he is so skint the trys to charge you to enter the village) and they are inviting you to buy goods/services so you are not trespassing if they are open for buisness. As for the Quay, this is private but if you are considering a boat trip you can go and see what is on offer.

Please do the descent thing and spend the money you have saved on entry in the village - I hate all this talk about the landlord needing the money to help with the upkeep of the village...as landlord he charges rent which should pay for repairs - it is an asset after all and I'm sure it's worth a bit more now than when his family purchased it!

PS. The fish seller at the bottom is great - really good sized portion Crab and Prawn baguette for £4.50.

Morphthecat

The main privately owned car park is free. Passing through the visitor centre costs you £5.95 per adult.
However, if you walk back out of the car park and down the road to Clovelly it costs you nothing. The main road is a public right of way as is the path down to the harbour. The coastal footpath (another public right of way) crosses the road below the visitor centre, so access can be had by this path, also by other public rights of way leading to Clovelly. Look at an OS map for details.
If you are questioned by centre staff, be sure to tell them you are on a public right of way. If you want to pay so be it, but either way have a nice day!

F_Soper

Actually the cobbled street is owned by the local council so in fact a public highway.

dirtmother

Just thought I'd mention that you do not have to pay to enter the Chatsworth Estate as implied in this thread. You can get a lot of the fabulous views driving through on the B road. Yes if you want to park you do have to pay - IIRC it is £3 in the main car park near the house, and yes there are fair old charges to visit the house, the garden and the farm/adventure playground but there's no additional charge other than parking to walk in the woods, there are miles of public footpaths (so if you are up for a long walk you could park elsewhere for free) There's also no charge to park on the street in the model village of Edensor.