Teignmouth, West Cliff House and the Pellew Memorial Carpet Shop

[anteros_lmc]

Last weekend nodbear and I visited Teignmouth, the Devon port town that was home to Sir Edward Pellew after he retired from active naval service, until his death in 1833. Following his retirement, Pellew lived at West Cliff House with his wife Susan and a veritable tribe of 22(!) grandchildren who came and went on a regular basis. West Cliff is now know as Bitton House and serves as Teignmouth's council offices and town hall, however many of the external features have survived, including Susan Pellew's orangerie and the cannon that Pellew took home from Algiers.

Teignmouth is a ridiculously picturesque town even on a stormy Sunday in January and it's impossible to avoid the town's maritime history and most famous naval resident. There are numerous houses, streets and buildings named after Pellew and anchor shaped benches commemorating the town's Trafalgar veterans. The fashionable marine artist Thomas Luny also lived in Teignmouth not far from West Cliff House and painted several commissions for Pellew of his most famous engagements. Thomas Luny's house is now a very smart guest house and nodbear and I aspire to stay there one day!

As befitting a port town, Teignmouth also has lots and lots of pubs, including some very old ones that have survived alongside the harbour. The Jolly Sailor is the town's oldest, the current building dates back to the early 17th century but there was an earlier licensed premises on the site dating back to the 12th century.

Unfortunately the museum that houses a number of artefacts associated with Pellew was closed the day we visited, but that just means we have another reason to go back!



West Cliff House
I wonder what Ned would think if he knew he had been commemorated by a carpet shop and a hair dresser?! And the less said about the Pellew memorial underpass the better :}

	Luckily this antique shop was closed :}
Bitton House, formerly West Cliff House, home of Admiral Lord Exmouth	A souvenir from Algiers!
Bitton House, front	Bitton House, rear
Bitton House, front	Bitton House loggia
The orangerie	The orangerie
The orangerie interior	Camelias in the orangerie
Thomas Luny's House...	...now a very swanky guest house
Teignmouth harbour	Teignmouth harbour inns
Another pub	Teignmouth Trafalgar Roll
The Jolly Sailor, Teignmouth's oldest pub	Trafalgar bench!
Brave surfers	The Victorian pier

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_likimeya/]

They're really milking the Pellew/navy inheritance in this town, aren't they? :D

Poor surfers; it's kind of cruel that the waves are always best in winter!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Not really. See comment to eglantine_br below. There's a lot more information about Trafalgar than about Pellew in the town

Cornish and Devon surfers pride themselves on being tough.

[katriona-s.livejournal.com]

Wow, the photos of the house and the orangerie are wonderful! Thank you for posting these. I love the signs of Trafalgar benches!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome! We were chuffed to bits to be able to see the house, and to find the orangerie still intact was just the icing on the cake :) We were there on a Sunday and the house was shut so we weren't able to see inside but it meant we had peace and quiet to walk around and take lots of photos.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

I can well imagine EP doing hair design! (Pigtails for everyone?)

His idea of flooring would probably be like the floor I grew up with, tarred rope driven in between wide boards. Watertight, or nearly so, and soft underfoot. Not at all level however.

I imagine that the seamen would be surprised and pleased to be remembered still and have those nice benches in their honor!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

We loved the idea of Pellew Hairdesign! Tbh all the pictures of the signs above are taken in one small area around Pellew House which is a large modern block of flats. There's very little to commemorate Ned up at Bitton House, just that one sign on the gatepost which I walked past twice without noticing!

[asthenie-vd.livejournal.com]

What a gorgeous house! And how much do I love the idea of there being a carpet shop named after Pellew! Thank you for sharing these, very interesting. :)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome! The house is lovely, it might not look it from the pictures, but it's really quite a modest home. It's certainly not a grand country seat! The town is very pretty too, just the sort of place for an admiral to retire to!

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

I blantantly need to go there at some point.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! You'd love it. And I'm sure you'd be able to take some fabulous pictures :)

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

great pictures - it was a grand outing even in the midst of a storm !

It is a lovely little town and some of those older streets must have been there when Ned and Susan walked them
In fact I have been thinking today that when we came down from Bitton House and reached the Luny house that we should have felt the benign ghost of a tall old man walking a couple of grandchildren down to see MR Luny's painting of grandpa's ships - it must have been more or less the route he took :)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I was thinking about Ned and Susan walking around the town just the other day! I'm sure you're right about the cubs being taken to visit Mr Luny :)

I'm so glad we were able to visit :D