Overbeck

A couple of years ago I reported on Dartmoor's Becky falls, named after our daughter Rebecca. And, yesterday, I visited Overbeck - a national trust property near the beautiful village or Salcombe in Devon. So Beck is associated with two venues in this country! In fact, it was the first time in 43 years that I had been to the Salcombe area!!

We got to Overbeck via a long series of winding country lanes in brilliant sunshine for once. The road took us past inviting little coves close to the entrance to the harbour at Salcombe

The house itself was not in the league of stately homes, but that of an upper middle class inventor, Otto Overbeck, who bought in 1928. Originally called Sharpitor, the house was a convalescent home in the first world war. Overbeck's family came from Holland several generations back.

The house was built high up on Sharp Tor - hence the first name - and had lovely views back to Salcombe to the north and east along the coast of south Devon. The inside of the house had the usual collections of memorabilia - art works, stuffed birds and animals, domestic furniture, childrens' toys, and seafaring items. By far the most interesting items was the Polyphon, a grandiose music box playing large circular disks with raised surfaces like this shown here. The music we heard was Weber's Invitation to the Dance.

The really beautiful think about Overbeek was its gardens, some of which are shown in the attached pictures. They were a riot of colour and also included some strange items for Britain and even perhaps south Devon. Would you believe there was a banana garden? The plants weren't exactly bearing bananas, but they were certainly banana plants. There were also lots of palm trees, and groves of bamboo - enough perhaps for a giant Panda or two. There were masses of flowers, like those shown in the Statue Garden - top of the next three photos

As we navigated the gardens we kept a look out for wildlife - there was a central board where visitors could tick the items they'd seen during the day. Well, we saw quite a few bits of wildlife and I rather liked the two items following who consented to pose for me. The rabbit, I imagine, was used to visitors to the Statue Garden and was very tame. The traditional English robin lingered a long time in the tree looking at us.



All told, it was a lovely day out. Dot would have loved were she here!

AS