Despite forecasts of sunny days in the high twenties, the Moors when we woke up were covered in fog and it was cold and drizzling. But this inauspicious start did not dampen Jeanette’s spirits as we were off to visit Port Isaac, aka Port Wenn, the home of Doc Martin. However, our first stop of the day was the little village of Altarnun and the church of St Nonna, a lovely old building in beautiful surrounds.
The ends of its pews were 15th century wood carvings but its greatest claim to fame was that this was the venue of Doc Martin’s wedding. We went in and found that the mid week morning service was in progress. The congregation comprised the Vicar and two elderly gentlemen, one of whom had his elderly dog with him. They belted out the responses with great gusto – no mumbling here.
A bit embarrassed we withdrew quietly but the service was just finishing and Jeanette made friends with one of the elderly members of the congregation (the one with the elderly dog) as they were coming out and soon we were chatting with him and the Vicar. The dog apparently does not attend services on Sundays.
It was a snap shot of a vanishing way of village life. I was really taken by their sincerity and tried to imagine what it must be like walking up from your cottage in the village, over the little stone bridge past the graves of your ancestors to your church. That would have to be an incredible sense of belonging.
Our next stop was Port Isaac where we had great fun tracking down all the sites used in the Doc Martin series. The most obvious of course was the Doctor’s house.
One surprise is that Mrs Tishell’s Chemist shop is in fact in real life the town’s sweet shop.
While we were trying to find the Doctor’s aunt’s place we stumbled across the house he had to move to when he and Louisa separated. It was down the tiniest alley way you have ever seen and the doorway could not have been much over five feet high.
Our afternoon was very enjoyably spent on a long lunch at Rick Stein’s restaurant in Padstow. The number of his ventures in this town and his impact on bringing tourists in have lead some locals to rename the town “Padstein”
Our lunch finished around 4pm and we then headed to our home for the next two days: the Royal Duchy Hotel in Falmouth. This gracious hotel, a survivor from the Victorian era, was located on the Falmouth waterfront and amazingly seemed to be manned entirely by English staff. We had a very comfortable room, the food was great and the staff were very friendly and efficient. All in all a perfect base for the next two nights.
Hardys’ Travels 