Odds and Sods September 2026

I am starting my monthly overview early this month as I will be otherwise occupied when the calendar flips into October. This means fewer subjects as there are still nine days to go as I start this.

This is the newly renovated Shoalstone seawater pool in Brixham, and a lovely job they have done too.

At the highest tides this collection of floats and buoys bob around.

At Torcross in Start Bay there is a small metal gizmo bolted to the sea wall. You drop your smart phone into the slot and it takes a shot of this same view. It is a citizen science project to record the beach changes. You can scan a QR code or go to a website to upload your photos to the project. When I have about 40 I'll make a separate post with them in sequence.

Gizmo - First emerged as an American military slang word in the early 20th century (circa 1918) to describe a gadget or mechanical device whose exact name was forgotten.

Looking in the other direction and a ship is anchored in the bay, which is unusual this close to shore.

My trusty Marine Traffic app tells me it is the Viking Sentinel. The Viking Sentinel is a 60-meter multi-role Emergency Response and Rescue Vessel (ERRV) built in 2022 and sailing under the UK flag. On long-term charter to the UK government, working with the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) for fisheries patrols and coastal water inspections.

At the other end of the bay, September still looks like summer.

It's interesting how scale can disappear when you get in close. I could be in a helicopter and this could be a cliff face with tiny mountain climbers hidden in the shadowy cracks, but I am only a foot or two away.

I am playing with your mind, slipping this image in between the rock closeups. It is rock though. It's a carved marble panel from the reredos or altar back, in Ugborough church.

This building has been looking sad, covered in scaffolding for most of 2026. Now though, it is reborn. Kingsbridge old town hall currently houses the cinema.

This is Ugborough church, nicknamed "The Cathedral of the South Hams". One of the largest ancient churches in the area. It is out of all proportion with It's contemporary location in a small village off a main road, because it is so old. It's location historically will explain everything and that will come in a later series of posts.

It has much beautiful Victorian stained glass, of which, here are some details.

On a sunny day the colours of the glass fill the ancient interior.

There is both more to this carved font and less. It's hundreds of years old, and history tells an uncertain tale. All will be revealed, or maybe less will be revealed.

The builders went the extra mile and to extra expense to decorate this interior, down to it's very stone core.

It has an unparalleled, unique collection of ancient paintings too. This chap is making a new Saint. Roman soldiers shot arrows into the troublemaker who later became St. Sebastian.

Who is this busty maiden?

How many faces survive?

Strange creatures represent a wealthy family.

In the roof are many ancient carved roof bosses. There are several fantastical images of faces and plants and even pigs. They are so far up in the dark that even churchgoing regulars may not have seen these details, captured by a long lens, a torch and a shaky hand. This suckling pig family has to be one of the finest.

Here is the local blacksmith making a horse shoe.

A couple in headgear of the time, look down on their descendants hundreds of years later.

I will finish with this classic view from Dartmouth at a high tide on a beautiful day. That is the original quayside, now set back from the later waterfront with what is called the boat float in front. That row of buildings are the old merchant houses including the Royal Castle hotel which was two houses merged behind a later castle inspired frontage.