Salcombe's New Official Tourist Web Site

At last a decent web site for Salcombe. Virtual Salcombe is ok but no-one ever seems to update it. Hopefully as this is the Official Tourist Information site it will be kept up to date regularly.

Salcombe bags ANOTHER Clothes shop!

Where will it all end? Now Henri Lloyd have opened in Salcombe...

Can anyone remember when "Crew" was "Salcombe Chandlers" and actually sold shackles and rope??? Seems an age away now. I have heard a shackle can be bought on Island Street but be quick as the clothes shops are spreading there too!

Soon you wont only not be able to buy food in Salcombe but also chandlery...It will be a trip to Kingsbridge. Anyone visiting in a Yacht will up the creek! Literally!

Salcombe feels bite of "City" bonuses.

As if by magic there was an article on "Times Online" yesterday outlining exactly my last post!

Apparently the huge reduction in city bonuses expected this year, down from £5.5 billion to £2 billion (a 60% fall) is hitting the property market of trendy seaside towns like Salcombe, nicknamed "the red trouser belt", very hard...

Over the past 10 years the average house price rise in these seaside towns is a staggering 287%!

The Times goes on to say:

"Top-performing towns in the red trouser belt are seaside resorts, such as Padstow and Rock in Cornwall and Salcombe in Devon, that are within a four-hour drive for a Friday night commute, typically made by City husbands visiting families left in the holiday home for much of the long summer holidays. The areas have also earned some notoriety by attracting hordes of underage drinkers from public schools."

I think the under age drinking tag that they have given Salcombe is a bit unfair, it's nothing like it was in the summers when I was growing up there and the average age in The Ferry was 15 & the average number of pints of "Tally Ho" consumed was also 15!!! Good old Bob.....

Salcombe House Prices Fall

I am quite amazed by this, it is the first time I have seen any significant drop in house prices in Salcombe for 20 years?? (I could be wrong?). This data is accurate as it is from the National Land Registry and covers the last year. Strange how terraced houses have bucked the trend by rising.....flat prices have dropped by a quarter!!!!

Detached House
Price £641,999
Annual Price Change -15.16%
No. Of Sales 11
National Average £352,484

Semi-Detached House
Price £511,500
Annual Price Change n/a
No. Of Sales 6
National Average £204,306

Terraced
Price £384,666
Annual Price Change 16.7%
No. Of Sales 3
National Average £181,863

Flat/Maisonette
Price £413,000
Annual Price Change -24.49%
No. Of Sales 8
National Average £209,042

Could this be the end for the Salcombe property market?

Lasers in Salcombe

Lasers in Salcombe
Originally uploaded by oo.devon

ooops....not the best place to capsize!

Come and see all my Salcombe photos over on "flickr"...

Feel free to download for wallpapers or whatever you want.

Salcombe & Totnes, Parallel Universes

I have never really thought about it before but just how opposite are Totnes and Salcombe!! Both great places and I could happily live in either, but when you look at it there is a huge difference!

Totnes is all about alternative living, eco-friendly life styles and self sufficiency. Salcombe is all about MONEY, second homes and designer shops!

This weekends article in the Telegraph gives you a great insight into Totnes and what it has to offer.

You have to admire Totnes for the way it is embracing a greener lifestyle and showing the rest of the country up, however the free and easy lifestyle does mask what many locals know is a underlying alternative lifestyle that involves drugs and an acceptance of drugs in the "alternative" way they live.

The ONE similarity between Totnes and Salcombe is HOUSE PRICES! It always comes back to the same thing in the UK and especially Devon. The proliferation and blatant grabbing of celebrity residents is hilarious with Totnes boasting the same residents as Salcombe/East Portlemouth....where do these people really live? Actually who really cares anyway....

If pushed to chose?? Give me Salcombe any day, it may have it's pompous side but it's rural/seaside living at it's ultimate best!

House Prices Still Rising in Salcombe and South Hams

I know it's a constant theme on here but it's one that amazes me! How can Salcombe get anymore expensive? Now I love Salcombe as much as anyone having lived my entire childhood in the area and on the estuary but what is happening now is crazy!

These are the last 3 months figures for the South Hams, a near enough 5% rise! I thought house prices were supposed to be coming down?

South Hams
Average Cost: £325,909
Detached: £432,316
Semi-detached: £262,753
Terraced: £230,045
Flat: £296,421

Change in last quarter: 4.7%
Change in last year: 11.6%
Sales: 544

I think the wealth attracted to the area is great and has ensured that Salcombe has remained a buoyant place, anyone that thinks Salcombe would have survived on just fishing and chandlery is living in a dream world, but soon it will only be the super rich who can buy property here. What makes Salcombe special is the mix of people who live, holiday and own second homes here, if it becomes a haven for the rich and famous we can kiss it goodbye as we know it...

Powerboat Racing In Salcombe...

This is great! I missed it this year but it looks like it may become an annual event in Salcombe...fingers crossed!

Salcombe News...

At a recent Salcombe Regatta Meeting it was agreed to have the fireworks released from a barge next year, with permission from the Salcombe Harbour Master. I didn't see this years fireworks but were they not as good when being released from Snapes?

The Salcombe town council will apply for Whitestrand Car Park to be closed for one day during Salcombe Regatta Week to facilitate the raft race. They will also apply for Fore Street to be closed for the duration of Regatta week.

The possibility of the power boat race becoming an annual event was discussed by Salcombe town council and seems a real possibility! Fingers crossed on this one.

Salcombe's Robin Hood...

Isobel Waterhouse an East Portlemouth (Salcombe) resident since birth has donated her £2m worth of property, comprising 4 cottages to The Waterhouse Trust she has set-up in order to keep the property out of the hands of rich second home owners...

Salcombe's very own Robin Hood and good on her I say, although second home owners definitely have their place and I welcome their undoubted and much needed injection of cash into the community we don't want to become like our Cornish neighbours Rock -not for anything!

COME ON ENGLAND!

In preparation for Saturday!

Great Sailing for Solos and 12's In Salcombe

Well our late summer continues on and was able to provide some great light wind sailing conditions in Salcombe for the Solos and National 12's.
Results for Salcombe’s final Open Meeting of 2007...

Salcombe's Marine Hotel secures deal with Superstar Architect

The architect who is responsible for designing the replacement for the "Twin Towers" in New York has been commissioned to design the new Marine Hotel in Salcombe. Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, which is also behind the acclaimed Pompidou Centre in Paris, has been appointed to design a replacement for Salcombe's Marine Hotel.

The existing Marine Hotel will be demolished and an upmarket boutique-style hotel, which would include some waterside apartments, will be built.

If they get this right it could be great for Salcombe as it will create local jobs and add real weight to the local economy. At last we will have a hotel we can be proud of in the very heart of Salcombe. I doubt the apartments will be much under £1m so they will no doubt go to 2nd home owners but the days of Salcombe being a sleepy fishing town are long gone! We should just be happy that the whole place isn't going to be flats as Salcombe is in danger of losing it's identity much like Rock has done, we need these businesses to stay and thrive.

Holiday Cottages Devon Blog: Thinking of letting your holiday home?

Holiday Cottages Devon Blog: Thinking of letting your holiday home?

Salcombe's Most Desirable Views?

This has to be one of the best properties in Salcombe...all yours for a cool £1.75m!

See more pictures....

Battle of the Salcombe Jackets!

So it's the battle of Salcombe's 2 premier clothes outlets:

Quba vs Crew!

Round 1: Price
Quba: £375 (yes that's right £375)
Crew: £175

Winner by a country mile: Crew - in fact you can buy a white one a blue one and still have £25 left to spend in the KA!

Round 2 Robustness:
Quba: - Pretty heavy duty although the main zip has always been a problem and the pockets in my 3 year old one have started to come unsticthed
Crew: Brilliant, heavy duty zips with waterproof coverings and heavy duty stitching

Winner: Crew

Round 3 Waterproof abilities:

Quba: my 3 year old jacket is fairly waterproof in a quick shower but tends to soak up water in prolonged rain.
Crew: Excellent, you could chuck a bucket of water over me and I would stay dry!

Winner: Easily Crew

Round 4 Buying Experience::

Quba: Really good, lovely shop, great staff.
Crew: Lack of staff in shop, lack of stock in shop. Had to order on the web, no stock, phone help was useless. I had to ring around shops myself to locate the one I wanted.

Winner: Quba - EASILY!

Round 5 Coolest jacket?
Quba: A real sailing image, although the jacket has become synonymous with rich people over Summer 2007. Still, they look good and have a great range of colours.
Crew: This is the original Salcombe brand! They have been through something of a revamp lately, ditching the awful pastel coloured, starched collar rugby shirts and becoming more of a outdoors clothing company. A move for the better. These new GBR 07 jackets are superb!

Winner: A close call but is it possibly just Crew? I am sitting on the fence here.


So the OVERALL WINNER is undoubtedly Crew, although they could learn a thing or two about customer service! Come on Alastair sort it out.

Salcombe's own McCann Story!

Will the Madeline McCann mystery ever be solved? Did they do it? Who knows....

Salcombe had it's very pwn McCann style mystery back in 1975 when John Allen killed his wife and 2 kids supposedly to start a new life and move in with his lover Eunice Yabsley, the then owner of The Galley restaurant. No-one ever found the bodies but Allen was convicted of their murders 27 years later. Local folklore has it that he dumped their bodies at sea but it was never proved...

Land's End to Salcombe....on a bike!

Get your wallets out and sponsor this bike ride. It's for a good cause in St Lukes Hospice in Plymouth. Organised by Kevin Favis who tragicaaly lost his wife to cancer a few months ago, they aim to raise £10k on the 3 day ride from Land's End to Salcombe.

More Salcombe Property Madness...

Anyone fancy a 2 bed flat with views of Salcombe estuary? Better get saving then....

I could understand it if it was nice inside but it's a bog standard flat like a first time buyer may look for in a city.

And has anyone noticed that new town that has sprung up next to Salcombe Primary school? It's like a small version of Milton Keynes!! I wonder which councilor took a nice backhander to approve that planning permission???

How big is your RIB?

If you havent got a RIB in Salcombe you arent worth knowing(?!) Everyone has a RIB it's a great indictor of wealth and stature and there's plenty of that in Salcombe.

"The bigger your RIB the": (choose from list)

luckier you are
bigger tosser you are
better public school you went to
bigger poser you are
posher you sound
richer your parents are
bigger your second home is
better looking you are (usually true)
more likley you are to be called Annabelle or Rupert

Please add to the list...

Facebook...OOdevon group..Join us!

One of my readers has set up a Facebook group for OOdevon.

Join us and lets make sure everyone knows how good Devon/Salcombe is!!!!

Salcombe raises the property bar...

Check this out...Salcombe must be in the top 5 property hot spots in the UK?
Salcombe property bargain!!!

You know you're from Devon when...

I found this on Facebook, It's brilliant!

If many of the following apply to you, then you're probably from Devon...

"You know you're from Devon when...

... you've bought stationery at Trago Mills

... you think Exeter's a big city

... you can tell sheep from goats

... and straw from hay (obviously!)*

... you once went to Totnes for the day and returned three weeks later, very happy, but with no idea why

... you think London's 'up north'

... you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Joss Stone

see the rest of this at:

Join; You know you're from Devon when...

Weather Added...

Just added the weather for Salcombe to the useful links on the right. Looks like Salcombe is going to finally see summer....for more than 1 day!

Salcombe in 1907 - pre Fat Face!

I found this great photo on t'internet, Salcombe in 1907...The wall facing you on the left is by the steps up to what used to be the church (now £1m apartments) and what was the Patisserie run by the Craters (Claire was gorgeous) until a few years ago ...I used to go to Bible Club in there (the church not the patisserie), I'm not at all religious but Courtenay Park was a great place to go with the girls after Bible Club!! Jees that makes me sound old!!! I am still in my 30's it wasn't that long ago!

Believe it or not Salcombe was once a place with only 2 clothes shops, Jons (still there) and Courtneys (now the second Musto shop)! Salcombe was a place where you used to be able to buy rope, shackles and other boating parts without having to go to Island Street (which is also now becoming commercialised pretty quickly)...I am not complaining as I still love the place and you can now get a pretty decent coffee too, which is a bonus!

Second Home Owners Delight...

How good is this for wealthy second home owners (are there any other type?) Pebbles of Salcombe will look after your every need.

They:

"Have an excellent team of local cleaners, and a tried and tested network of local tradesmen including a handyman, window cleaner, gardener, electrician, plumber, painter & decorator, builder, chimney sweep, etc. So if you don’t have the time to search the Yellow Pages for good quality, value-for-money tradesmen, we can arrange it for you – with a recommendation that comes from experience!"

They can also arrange water skiing, personal trainers, catering and a lot more...

Bloody great idea!!!

Mixed Sailing...

Yacht club regatta passed with a bit of a whimper due to extremely light winds, there was one day of good winds otherwise it was very mixed. The Salcombe Yawl fleet was split into 3 starts comprising over 50 boats.

Town regatta was pretty much the opposite with high winds most days and a cancellation of all sailing on the Tuesday. Still this gave everyone a chance to go and see the 3 Fastnet boats towed into Salcombe over night during a fierce storm.

Results to follow...

Apologies....

to those of you who have enquired about the clothing on offer here at oodevon. I have been away with no access to the internet (which was unexpected). I will endeavour to get back to you all ASAP.

Lack of Blogging....

Sorry for the lack of blogging but I have been on hols...

Anyway Salcombe Yacht Club Regatta is well under way with what can only be described as mixed conditions...Monday was a perfect sailing day with a SW 4 giving excellent racing conditions. The rest of the week has been a challenge with light NE winds battling against a sea breeze.

Will upload some photos later...

The Great White visits Slapton....

The Sun have reported that a windsurfer was circled 3 times by a Great White of Slapton Sands beach in May last year!

Could there really be a Great White off the shores of Devon and Cornwall? I hope not as I am competing in a run/kyak event there next weekend!!!

If my blog doesn't get updated after the 12th of August you know why!!!

Regatta Week is Nearly Here...

Salcombe's annual regatta week is almost upon us - 12th-18th August - with another fun packed week of kids activities (most are great for adults too), fun run, fireworks rowing and sailing. Sunday 12th sees a spectacular fly past of a Spitfire, a Harrier and a Hurricane through the estuary and sounds like something not to be missed and the perfect opportunity to relax at the Yacht Club with a G&T!

The Regatta is totally self-financing and relies on support from businesses in the town and the financial contributions from Vice-Presidents. All the committee give their time voluntarily and gladly and enjoy doing it. Anyone who would like to make a donation or be involved, shaking a bucket or marshalling, please contact the Chairman, Jean Furness on tel. 01548 843799 or e-mail Ann Thompson at ann@thompson5902.freeserve.co.uk

Cornwall's Great White......HOAX!

So once again the infamous "Cornish Great White" shows itself in time for summer visitors....every year we have to go through this story which the media love and I presume locals push for tourism reasons, especially if the weather has been bad and visitor numbers down.

I think this comment left on the "This is Devon" web site sums it up:

The tiresome annual 'Cornish White Shark' story took a new editorial nose-dive with these latest flights of journalistic fancy - especially in The Sun. The original St Ives footage doesn't show a white shark whatsoever - period. Moreover, today's front-page lead in The Sun ('JAWS II') clearly pictures a basking shark with 100% certainty, yet is run without qualification. So to clarify this in plain language: There has been NO compelling record, sighting or otherwise, of a white shark in UK waters to-date. However, these highly-mobile sharks - probably the most wide-ranging and widely-distributed of all shark species - could (and sometimes do) appear in unlikely places worldwide. That's not to say they have, or currently do, occur in UK waters. In over 15 years of studying white sharks in eastern North Atlantic and Mediterranean waters, the most 'comtemporary' confirmed record in my dataset from Atlantic European waters north of Iberia remains a juvenile female caught off La Rochelle, Bay of Biscay, in 1977. The various UK 'records' of recent years remain in the realm of either media-fed mythology or well-meaning misidentifications. They do NOT qualify as occurrence records in any scientific sense.
Ian Fergusson, Shark Biologist, IUCN Shark Specialist Group, BBC Bristol

The Oyster Shack

This is the first season for the Salcombe Oyster Shack after the success of the Bigbury based one. First mutterings are of an over priced but nice restaurant....I did hear that the seafood platter was £80 a head!!!! YES!! I KNOW!! You only pay £80 a head for the taster menu at Ramsey's Claridges!!!!

I haven't been so I will reserve my judgement, although I suspect it is already fully booked for most of the summer holiday season...if any of you have been please let us know.

Useful Links

I have added a panel of usful links on the right hand side of the blog; so far tide times for the next 7 days and a couple of links to useful Salcombe info.

Property Prices.....

As this is the hot topic I thought I would post a link to this article.

Times Article on Salcombe Property Prices

It's kind of ridiculous really, Salcombe has become a elite town for "city bonuses" and Home County "yummy mummies"....which is all very nice unless you are local (apart form the ones making money from this influx of cash) who probably earn £8-10k a year and so would need a mortgage of 35 times their salary to even afford a decent 2 bed flat in the town.

I can understand why they all come here as its an incredible place and a throw back to the 60's in terms of being safe and a great place to raise kids....no ASBO's, graffiti or gangs....in Salcombe "happy slapping" is only associated with the regatta week morris dancers!

Can property prices carry on rising?

Charging For Whitestrand!!!!!

INCREDIBLE!!! Once again the local idiots who run the council/harbour office have come up with a new gem. £25 week for visitors (£25 for residents) to be able to leave their boats overnight. If you don't pay there is a £100 tow away fee.

Maybe I am wrong but I have never seen a problem at whitestrand even in the height of summer!? yes it gets very busy but its manageable and an absolutely vital option in a tidal estuary such as salcombe.

We are not allowed to use Normandy pontoon, which is hardly ever full, as its only for visiting yachts but they want to charge us for using whitestrand overnight. What other options do we have if we don't have a mooring or at least use of one. Taking our boats out at Batson? That is a joke in itself as it is the worst facility ever and always chaos for the 12 seconds of tide we get down there!!

Come on harbour authority WAKE UP....dont join the shopkeepers in ripping us all off!

A "reef" in Salcombe

Wow I thought a reef in Salcombe....watch out Newquay...

Turns out it is a nature reef...:-(

Imagine Salcombe with a surfing reef, property would be even more expensive and instead of the 2nd homers saying "yar, absolutley" it would be all "hey dude, spiffing wotto"...hilarious.

We could have a beach bar and not have to puit up with the dirty/manky KA beer garden...how good would that be!!!!

Tell us something we didn't already know!

Property Crisis!

Is this a bad thing? Obviously it is for locals looking to buy houses, but in this day and age property is the easiest means of making money and places like Devon are an obvious target for the rich to buy second homes safe in the knowledge that they are also a sound investment.

I think the bigger problem is the extent to which they are changing look and feel of these coastal towns. Many are becoming an array of boutiques and designer shops. If you need something for sailing or boating forget it!

Great Beaches

Who needs the med? All we need now is some decent weather...
If we had the weather would the French and Spanish come to Devon?

Devon clothing.....

Everyone should have one! You dont have to have Salcombe written on it, you can just have the flag if you want! Email for details...


Look at these....

Anyone enjoy summer? It arrived on Saturday and left late last night....

However the Guardian on Satruday confidently informs us that August will be a scorcher! Fingers crossed....

Summer Weather...

Post your summer vids...

why not post your summer vids to www.youtube.com and then link (or imbed in a comment) from this blog! Pub, beach, water skiing, wakeboarding lets see them all....this is a great one and exactly what I am looking for...

What a beauty!! This is the devon flag...

Fancy a Hoody or Tee with the flag on? Watch this space...

First Post!

This is the first post on the OOdevon blog. What I want this to be is a place where we can all share our thougts and experiences on undoubtedly the best "county" in England.

Salcombe is probably the best town/village but many of you will have your own views.

Gotta run but will keep posting and hopefully provide video and pics soon too....