Overview of North Devon's designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Trevor Beer is a naturalist, and wildlife and countryside writer and broadcaster for several newspapers and magazines including a daily column in the Western Morning News, now in its 15th year. He is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (FRES), a member of the British Ornithological Union (MBOU), a Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society (FZS), and was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Honours list in 2002.

Trevor received the Gavin Maxwell Award for the conservation of otters in the wild in 1979, the David Bellamy Award for Nature Conservation in 2003, and has won the John Mejor Award for nature conservation twice. The British Naturalist's Association bestowed life membership on Trevor for his ongoing work for wildlife, including bringing 7,000 acres of land into the WMN Wildlife Havens Millennium Scheme, to create a chain of Havens to help destroy habitat fragmentation in the South West region.

Select the link above to hear Trevor describe the aims and importance of North Devon's Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

Sheep Farming in North Devon

Shepherd David Kennard farms on the beautiful and rugged coast of North Devon, a coastline that is renowned as one of the most spectacular in Britain. Working with his team of sheepdogs, he looks after a flock of 800 ewes together with their 1200 lambs.

In 2002 he made a video about a year in the life of his farm, focussing on his team of working collies. An instant success, the video sold over 20,000 copies in the West Country and was taken up by a national distribution company.

Here David introduces Morte Point, talks about sheep farming, sheep dogs and their working environment, and describes the birdlife of Morte Hoe and the heather growing there.

Visit David's website

Doubloons, Jewels and Ivory

Chris Millington is a musician based in North Devon. Having been dragged up through the Manchester Indie scene and various bands, Chris has now found his niche. Inspired by the beautiful North Devon coastline and local stories of smuggling, wrecking and piracy along the North Devon coast, Chris has penned some moving songs in the hope and with the passion of keeping some of these stories alive.

Recently described as the ..'wild eyed boy of Exmoor..', Chris combines the traditional with the contempory singing songs of the sea, the past and the heart.

Here Chris sings a rousing song set in Rappery Cove, Ilfracombe

Visit Chris's website

The River Taw

ReCyc is an eco-friendly junk band formed by young people from the Barnstaple area. All the music is played on instruments made from recycled materials hence the name ReCyc!

Their repertoire covers a wide range of styles from blues and samba to contemporary music.

For this project the band presents a new piece of music that grew out of improvisations on soundscapes and rhythmic patterns. In 4 parts, it represents the River Taw as it winds its way from source to sea.

Ilfracombe

Born in 1946, local poet Sam was raised in Stoke Gabriel, South Devon, went to sea, traveled widely, raised a family in Somerset, then moved back to Devon, this time to the North.

He is now a freelance writer, as well as being editor and publisher of The Journal (once 'of Contemporary Anglo-Scandinavian Poetry') and the Original Plus books, the Poetry Editor of The Select Six website, and occasional editor for other publishers. Sam has several poetry collections and novels to his name.

Here Sam Smith recites his poetry inspired by Ilfracombe

Visit Sam's website

Combe Martin

Geologist Kester Webb has been walking the coastal footpaths and exploring the sea cliffs of North Devon since the 1950s, taking photographs and drawing the dramatic scenery in order to create geo-morphic landscape paintings.

Inspired by E.A.Newell Arber's challenge in The Coast Scenery of North Devon, 1910:- 'It would be a proud accomplishment to have traversed the whole of the shoreline from Porlock westwards' - Kester Webb is the creator of The Hidden Edge of Exmoor Project.

He has now scrambled, boulder-hopped and rock-climbed the entire length of North Devon's beaches and given numerous illustrated talks of his exploration for charities and groups throughout the region. He is involved with the Combe Martin Museum through his practical experience in local silver-lead mineral mining.

Here Kester imparts his knowledge of Combe Martin.