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The visitor to Tiverton may well wish to spend some time on Exmoor. The National Park serves the visitor well with plenty of way marks and guides to encourage the walker to this barren open moor where there is so much to be seen and much more to be understood.

The highest point on Exmoor is Dunkery Beacon, which is 1705 feet above sea level and below it are woods, lakes, remote cottages and farm houses and a range of industries, often of the cottage variety.

The medieval Exmoor Forest was once a royal hunting preserve. The cantering hooves took over from where primitive man had scratched a living for centuries.

The National Park maintains a fine balance between the demands of aggressive farming and the conservationist.

The sound of a steam train struggling to get up speed can easily emerge from the folds of the green valley between Bishops Lydeard and Minehead. The line started its life catering for the once busy harbour of Watchet, and is now the longest preserved railway in the country and well worth a visit or even a trip.

Watchet was the home of the Ancient Mariner, the seafarer in Coleridge’s famous poem, so it is claimed, but the little port has watched as many of its locals have made their way on to the waters of the world.

Dunster Castle tries to hide in a green forest overlooking the busy streets, but it really dominates when fully in view.

Parish churches always tell of the past. One in particular at Old Cleeve has a tower built with the help of a pair of clothier’s shears and is worthy of some time to admire. St Decumens stands as a beacon overlooking Watchet. It is said that Saint Decumens was a holy man who came across the Bristol Channel from Wales with a cow, both accompanied on a raft.