|
OTTERHEAD ESTATE IN THE BLACKDOWN HILLS
THE OTTERHEAD ESTATE, AN ALMOST FORGOTTEN SOMERSET VICTORIAN LANDSCAPE CLOSE TO THE DEVON BORDER, IN THE BLACKDOWN HILLS AREA OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY, IS BEING REDISCOVERED, CONSERVED AND WHERE POSSIBLE, RESTORED; THIS IS THE HOME PAGE OF THE PROJECT'S WEBSITE.  Otterhead Back Drive The Estate surrounds the Otterhead Lakes, a one mile long chain of seven lakes and former lakes of various sizes fed by the River Otter as it flows through a steep-sided part of its valley. The two surviving lakes are excluded from the Otterhead Estate Trust Company's lease with Wessex Water. Pages on this website are listed in the column on the left; please click on the page titles for details of the Otterhead Estate Trust and of fishing at Otterhead Lakes with a link to the Taunton Fly Fishing Club, leasee of the Estate's fishing. Many visitors to Otterhead live in the surrounding Devon and Somerset towns and villages but few seem to know of the Estate's origins or of the former gardens and parkland. The Estate includes disused ponds and leats (water channels); old terraced walks and drives, derelict gardens and the remains of the demolished Otterhead House and other buildings. For the first time in several years, intending visitors can obtain a leaflet providing details, now updated, of the Nature Trail. Information about the Estate's history and currently accessible heritage features will be found in a newly produced second leaflet (see News page on this website for how to download both leaflets); these will be particularly helpful for visitors who do not live locally. Copies of both leaflets are usually available at the Axminster, Honiton and Taunton tourist information centres (check for opening times) but not at Otterhead. The Estate is situated in the Taunton Deane parishes of Churchstanton and Otterford (pages for both parishes are on this website) close to East Devon, Mid Devon and South Somerset, the three district councils that with Taunton Deane Borough, include land designated as the nationally recognised Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Otterhead is within walking distance for some residents of all four of those Council areas and can therefore claim with some justification to be the visitor attraction at the Heart of the Blackdown Hills. The new Estate Trust is reaching out beyond the Blackdown Hills to the wider community of the Estate's catchment area, by means of the information leaflets, the new Otterhead Friends Group (see page on this website for details of the Friends and how to join) and this website, provided free of charge by The Local Channel. The Trust will continue to ensure that work, essential if the Estate's heritage is to be conserved and restored, does not adversely affect its charm which attracts visitors back again and again. All Visitors please note that the whole Estate is a Wessex Water property that supplies, via reservoirs, etc., mains drinking water to the Taunton area. It is essential for public health reasons that no pollution of lakes, river, other water channels and ponds or of land draining thereto is allowed to occur. Please also keep to the visible paths as there are areas of very deep silt in the beds of former lakes, ponds and leats (water channels). Also very deep naturally occuring springline mires can be difficult to recognise and to escape from. Small children and dogs would seem to be particularly at risk if away from the visible paths.
|