Colyton by tram.

One of the big attractions round these parts is the Seaton Tramway.  This is a 2 ft 9 in (838 mm) narrow gauge electric tramway.  It starts at a very grand station in Seaton itself and the runs for around three miles through East Devon's Axe Valley, end up at the village of Colyford, and the ancient town of Colyton.

You'll remember from the last post that we had come across Colyton before - we saw the window from the church there which had come from Beer Quarry (and ended up there too!)  So we though it'd be a nice day out to go and see the church and the best way to get there would be the tram, wouldn't it.

Seaton station  is very grand and it has quite a lot to offer, including a little cafe and of course a souvenir shop.  It's still very new and fresh - but they haven't messed with the "feel" of an old-fashioned tram station.  You buy your ticket which comes as a wristband so that you can have unlimited travel, jumping on and off at the various stations.  In fairness, there aren't many intermediate stops but on our journey people did use them.

The line goes through some spectacular scenery and two nature reserves.  They've thoughtfully labelled stuff in the field round about, which is nice.

Now for some advice.  Take heed of the weather.  This was early April and the wind cut across those nature reserves like a knife.  On the way out, we chose an open carriage which would have been lovely in the summer but not today.  We were reasonably well wrapped up but still got cold.

The tram works on a single-line, so there is lots of excitement when two trams pass.  Of course, like in the north of Scotland, they do so at a passing loop, but still go quite close together.

When we got to the end of the line, we went and had an excellent lunch at the cafe there. It's a much nicer cafe than the one at the other end ... very good chips!

We'd expected there to be signposts to guide us to the local landmarks, but there were none.  However, a very helpful member of staff gave us excellent directions to the church, which was just in sight from the platform ... so long as you knew what you were looking for and looked in the right direction!

Colyton is lovely - one of those little picturebook villages that time has passed by. Our mission (which we have chosen to accept, Jim) was to see where the window we'd seen in the caves had been removed from.  We did. 

If you thought that the village was picturesque, the church is even more so.  It's lovely and the inside is SO light.  The church has one of the best wall-window rations around, so it's really nice inside.  We're not sure which of the windows the tracery in the quarry came from, unfortunately.  We'll need another visit!  We really enjoyed our visit here.

We then wandered back for the return journey by tram.  This time, however, we took a closed-in carriage and enjoyed it a whole-lot more!