Inspiring People
Our Heritage
We are a group of adults with learning disabilities who live in the South West. We had an idea about visitng interesting places and called this project "Our Heritage". Some volunteers from Voices from the Margins helped us organise three trips to historical sites and places of interest.
The visits included a trip to Avebury in Wiltshire, a day out on Dartmoor and a look at Buckfast Abbey.
We used the "Charity mobile" to get to these places and had three brilliant days.
We took some photos and wrote short reviews about each place.
Have a look at how we got on.
Avebury Slideshow
Avebury has a stone circle surrounding the whole village. It is about five thousand years old and is one of the largest and the oldest stone monuments.
We don't know exactly why the stone ring was built. We do know that it must have been very hard to build it without the machinery we have now.
The disables access is OK. There is separate free disabled parking and a drop-off point. The museum galleries have ramps and the Tourist Information centre will provide a sign language interpreter and an RNID hearing loop. There are disabled toilets at the Avebury Chapel Tourist Information Centre.
The grounds are only partly accessible. There are slopes, cobbles and uneven ground. Only some parts of the stone ring are accessible to people with mobility problems and the chalk footpaths can be slippery when wet.
We all had a great day and everyone got to see some of the stones close up. We had a lovely lunch in the Circle restaurant which has level access and the food was delicious. Even though it gets busy, it is
a very peaceful and beautiful place and we would recommend Avebury as a place to visit.
Dartmoor Slideshow
We spent a day on Dartmoor and visited Princetown for our lunch. We went to the visitors centre and learnt some things about the moor.
Dartmoor is a national park and is about the same size as London - 20 miles from top to bottom. All the land is owned by somebody and the Prince of Wales (the Duchy of Cornwall) is the most famous landowner on Dartmoor.
Most of the open moorland is common land where people are allowed to walk and ride horses. Local farmers have ‘commoners rights’ on the common land, which means that they can let their animals graze there (feed off the grass and plants).
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was based in Dartmoor.
Dartmoor Prison is in Princetown and is very famous. It is very big and very old and many dangerous prisoners have spent time there.
We enjoyed our day on Dartmoor and would like to see some more of it. A lot if it would be difficult for wheelchairs but not all of it. There are some trails designed for wheelchairs and pushchairs and the visitor center has information about these.
Buckfast Abbey Slideshow
Buckfast Abbey is a famous Abbey which was founded in 1018.
The Abbey is part of a monastery where monks live. The monks run a farm with vegetables, bees, pigs and cattle. They have a shop which sells wine, honey beeswax, fudge and other items made by other religious communities from around the world. There is also a gift shop, book shop, and a restaurant.
Inside the Abbey is an amazing huge stained glass window. It was designed by the monks and it is 8 meters across. We all felt like we had to be quiet in the room with the big stained glass window. Some of us thought it was a very “holy” room and said some prayers.
The disability access was good. There are ramps where needed and there are some wheelchairs available to borrow. There are disabled parking spaces right next to the Church and there is level access to the shops and grounds. There are disabled toilets and there is a sound systems in the hall and the AV Room.
We recommend anyone to visit the Abbey. The people are really friendly and it's peaceful and thoughtful.
You are viewing the text version of this site.
To view the full version please install the Adobe Flash Player and ensure your web browser has JavaScript enabled.
Need help? check the requirements page.
