23 July Great Fulford and Exeter

Today was a slow blog day. I decided to take most of the morning off to rest my back, and then I received an email from a Gentleman named Francis Fulford. His is the owner of Great Fulford, and has been doing the best he can to bring the ancient manor house back to its former glory days. Great Fulford may not look like much now, but there are signs everywhere that this was once an important place.



For those of you not sure about the difference between a manor house and a castle, a lot of castles started out as manor houses. When the owners felt like they needed a little more protection for their homes, they would have to petition the King of England for permission to "crenellate" the manor house. This means, that they would be given permission to build fortifications around the manor house, effectively turning it into a castle. Some castles started out with a keep, and then fortifications were built around them, but many manor houses were homes, that were fortified to protect the families of those who dwelt there.




I am going to share with you a screen shot of my genealogy software. This is a screenshot of all the people in my family tree associated with Great Fulford. This is really for the benefit of future family members who get bitten by the genealogy bug, and want to understand the importance of Great Fulford to our family history.

If you look close enough, you will see small improvements to it. There are also subtle reminders of how old the house is. This place was very hard to find. Nestled up in rolling hills and farmland, with hedges 10 feet high on either side of the road, you really don’t know you are there until you make one right turn around an old barn, and there it is.

After visiting with Mr. Fulford, I came back to Exeter. My back was feeling better, so I went to the Exeter Quay. It is an area next to the river that leads to the English Channel. A couple of shops, and a couple of pubs. I stopped by the Prospect, and had some Sunday Roast (roasted venison haunch with green beans and potatoes), followed by some Sticky Toffee Pudding. There will never be a time when I have the pudding and don’t think of sharing some with Alex, so I had to text her, and she texted with me while I enjoyed it. Just knowing that she was there on the other side of my phone made it taste 100% better!











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