Dulverton

The Grand Western Canal was conceived during the great age of canal building as part of an ambitious scheme to create an inland waterway between the Bristol Channel and the English Channel, avoiding the long and hazardous sea passage around Land’s End. The plan was never completed in full, but the level section from Tiverton to Lowdwells opened in 1814. Its most important traffic was local: limestone from the quarries around Burlescombe, Holcombe Rogus and Westleigh was carried towards Tiverton for burning in limekilns, while coal and other goods also travelled along the canal. (The Inland Waterways Association)

The canal was eventually extended to Taunton in 1838, using an ingenious system of tub boats, vertical lifts and an inclined plane. Railway competition soon undermined the enterprise, however. The Somerset section closed in the 1860s, while commercial traffic lingered on the Devon section, principally carrying stone, until the early 20th century. Today the surviving Tiverton section is no longer an industrial waterway but a tranquil country park and wildlife corridor, its towpath providing an exceptionally attractive route through Mid Devon. (Fgwc)

One of the canal’s most striking historic settings is Ayshford Court and Chapel near Burlescombe. Ayshford was already recorded in a Saxon charter of 958 and appears in Domesday Book. It became the seat of the Ayshford, or Ashford, family, probably in the 12th century, and remained in their hands until 1689. The surviving manor house contains substantial work of the late 15th to 17th centuries, including impressive early-17th-century plasterwork bearing the family arms. (Historic England)

Beside it stands the remarkably substantial 15th-century family chapel, built as the Ayshfords’ private place of worship and still containing monuments to members of the family. After the estate passed by marriage to the Sanford family, the Court was largely occupied by farming tenants. The building of the Grand Western Canal dramatically altered the relationship between the old manor, its farm and the surrounding landscape, bringing the new industrial waterway almost to the doorstep of this much older medieval estate. (Historic England)

Today Ayshford Court survives as a Grade II* listed building and has been divided into two houses, while the Grade I listed chapel remains one of the most important surviving private medieval chapels in Devon. Together, set immediately beside the canal, they provide an unusually vivid meeting point between medieval landed society and the transport revolution of the Industrial Age. (Historic England)

Dulverton lies in the steeply wooded valley of the River Barle on the southern edge of Exmoor. An important crossing point from early times, it developed into a medieval market town with an economy based largely on wool, cloth and water-powered mills. Its old bridge, narrow streets and riverside setting still preserve much of that historic character, while today the town serves as one of the principal gateways to Exmoor National Park.

The countryside around Dulverton and the Exe valley makes excellent cycling country because of its striking contrasts. The River Exe forms a natural divide through the landscape: to the east the ground rises steeply onto high, open country, giving wide views across the surrounding farmland and, in clear weather, out towards the coast. The reward for the climbing is a series of long, fast descents back into the valleys.

Elsewhere there are gentler lanes and substantial stretches of comparatively level riding, particularly along the river valleys. The combination of steep climbs, open high ground, wooded valleys, long descents and easier sections makes for varied and satisfying riding rather than an unrelenting slog — altogether, excellent country for a full day on the bike.