Sussex Exclusive Magazine. Issue 7

TRAVEL
TRAVEL
St Agnes Troytown
Farm, lobster for sale
© Rachel Lewin
Gig rowing
© Rachel Lewin
tour with head gardener Andrew Lawson.
Don’t miss Pentle Bay, one of the best
beaches in the British Isles. Before
returning by boat taxi to Bryher.
At low water, you can also land at the
quay built by Anneka Rice in her 80s
TV show Challenge Anneka. One of
the first things you see is an honesty box
selling local succulents in the form of
inedible and not very frost-hardy “cliff
pasties”, fleshly evergreens and potted
Aeonium houseplants.
And on Duchy of Cornwall land, you can
buy the Duchess of Nuremburg for £10!
Bryher
At 330 acres, Bryher is the smallest of
the inhabited islands and boasts the best
luxury hotel in the Scillonian archipelago
and perhaps the best seaside hotel in the
whole of the British Isles.
One and a half miles long by half a mile
wide, Bryher doesn’t take long to explore,
and it’s best done with local naturalist and
former island bird recorder Will Wagstaff
who will get you down on your hands
and knees to introduce you to the local
pansies (viola only found in Scilly) and
show you some granny’s toenails.
The local naturalist is equally fond of
solar-powered slugs, orange peel and
boiled sweets. And cliff pasties and
succulent Scilly wall cabbages. And eager
to show off his orange bird feet.
On Bryher, he takes you past New
Zealand and South African crop field
windbreaks, tamarisk trees (once used for
lobster pots), abandoned daffodil farms
and gig sheds. Every April, along with its
walking festival, the Isles host the World
Gig racing regatta. Once, there were over
200 gig pilots on the islands.
Will points out the Bermuda buttercups,
Hottentot figs, Prides of Madeira and
three-cornered leeks which look like white
bluebells. But his tours don’t take in the
island’s museum in a telephone box.
The island’s museum
‘The Bryher Community Association
purchased the museum phone box from
BT for £1 when it was decided it would
Island hopping
© Richard Smith
Scilly Puffin © Flickr
Bryher, worlds
smallest Museum ©
Alex Barker, Flickr
no longer be used for its traditional use’
says its curator/ organizer Issy Tibbs, who
also works at the island’s Veronica Farm
making fudge and selling succulents.
‘Previous displays have included a
behind the scenes look at the 1988
film “When the Whales Came” which
was set on Bryher (where we tracked
down previous crew members to
find out their memories of making a
Hollywood film in a remote island) and
the 150th anniversary of the Wreck of
the Delaware where we tracked down a
relative of one of the two surviving crew
who were rescued in the most incredible
and dangerous circumstances.
This year’s display came about after I
bought a couple of old postcards on eBay
sent from Bryher in the 1930s. I then
built up quite a collection to compare
what people wrote 100 years ago and
what they wrote about now. The earliest
one is 1902. It turns out holidays haven’t
changed … the weather is beautiful or
misty, the scenery is fabulous, everyone is
friendly, and most people get a bit sea sick
now and again.
My favourite postcard is signed from
Mum, Dad and Hilda and is from
1956. “Weather perfect. Spent day here,
Tresco. We all weighed ourselves. Mum
11.6, Hilda 9.8, me 10.5. You should
see Mum getting in and out of the boat.
Cheerio Mum, Dad, Hilda.”
I don’t know why I love it so much.
I think it’s the fact they are doing
something as everyday as weighing
themselves but sound like they are having
the time of their lives. I also love the other
end of the spectrum where postcards are
giving essential information like their
train time has changed and they need
picking up at a different time. Something
that nowadays would be so simple with a
quick text.’
All money raised by the museum goes to
the Bryher Community Association and
The Island Haven.
The Hell Bay Hotel
The Hell Bay Hotel is named after a
notorious shipwrecking site. The hotel has
its own private art collection collected by
owner Robert Dorrien-Smith, a fifthgeneration
relative of Augustus Smith,
who first leased the Scilly Isles from the
Duchy of Cornwall in 1834, and semiseriously
took the title, Lord Protector.
It also has 25 suites, a spa, pool, seasonal
pitch ‘n’ putt course and acclaimed chef
Richard Kearsley whose restaurant is
decorated with seascapes by local artist,
Richard Pearce, whose studio is in front
of the hotel on Great Bar beach.
Rooms overlook a lagoon and afford views
of the Bishop Rock lighthouse on the
horizon as well as the hotel’s own wildlife
lagoon or Great Pool (grab the two chairs
on the Sunset Deck early). It looks out
towards Droppy Noise Point, the Gweal
Hill headland, the Northern or Norrard
rocks and the rollers and white horses of
the Atlantic.
And what was once considered the end of
the world.
Built around a courtyard, (the Emperor
and The Empress being the high end) all
suites have Lloyd Loom furniture, Lucy-
Tania soft furnishing and Egyptian cotton
beds to please those who like to turn over
their hotel room to check its makers. It
is probably the most strenuous exertion
staying at Hell Bay affords.
You’ll find Chef Richard Kearsley’s
seafood-dominated cuisine (from sardines
and scallops to John Dory to bream) in
the hotel 2 AA Rosette restaurant.
You can find more information about
The Isles of Scilly at:
www.hellbay.co.uk
www.stmaryshallhotel.co.uk
www.visitislesofscilly.com
www.islesofscilly-travel.co.uk
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