'Bovey' bees!

Beautiful morning waiting for the train

Due to being particularly busy bees recently doing lots of other things like going to Beautiful Days Festival, running our antique fairs and summer days out it had been ages since we last popped to Newton Abbot for a good look round the shops. This time though we decided to combine it with our first trip to Bovey Tracey for the Nourish Food Festival too.

Good pickings!

Up bright and early we caught the train from Dawlish to Newton and the gods were certainly looking after us on Saturday as picked up all kinds of goodies. Our picks included a Football Association annual dating from 1949 which has great graphics and tells you what the game was liked in the 1940s, a pair of very elegant black Karen Millen shoes still in their original box and a pair of Dolce & Gabanna designer jeans.

We visited our favourite stall in the market too and bought a letter from Bing Crosby (omg! someone was definitely looking out for us) and some very cool postcards from the 1960s which included some designed by Martin, the man behind the Mad Magazine look. 

Cowboy pulp fiction and 1960s postcards

We were both chuffed with what we'd picked and after a rainy interlude we popped on to the 39 bus to Bovey Tracey. As we hadn't been there before we didn't know what to expect. Bovey Tracey, 'Gateway to the Moor', is a very picturesque town full of pretty shops and houses. The streets were overflowing with the food festival and we were ecstatic when we saw our favourite Brimblecombe cider there.



Happiness = Brimblecombe cider and artisan scotch eggs

A pint of Brimblecombe washed down the delicious artisan scotch eggs we tried beautifully. We had a good look around Bovey and came across a great bric 'n' brac stall where we bought two lovely vintage handbags, one dating from the 1920s still in it's original box (incredible for a bag which is nearly 100 years old) and a pretty brown leather one. On the way we tried all the gins available for tasting (it would have been rude not to!), our joint favourite was Trevathan's Chaffeur gin from Cornwall, then we popped into Dartmoor's Whisky Distillery and the Courtenay Antiques Centre where we had a lovely long chat with its owner. We then popped back on the bus to Newton for one last dash around the shops and a quick cider in Spoons.



At Dartmoor's Whisky Distillery

Sunday saw BMAD come to Dawlish. BMAD (Bikers Make A Difference) are such a great charity and they've raised over £600k for sick, disabled and disadvantaged young people in the local area.  We love it when they make their annual visit to the Lawn in Dawlish and bring their fantastic bikes with them.  Our favourites are, of course, the vintage ones (BSAs, Nortons, Triumphs) but this year some of the modified bikes were just stunning.



BMAD comes to Dawlish

All in all a jam packed weekend, full of bikes, cider and rich pickings!