Bridgetown and Exton

The Last Village Pub

Badgers Holt stands on the A396 in Bridgetown, in a building that goes back to the 1750s and was once called The Rock. Exmoor ponies being driven to Bampton market were gathered here, and old photographs of those droves still hang inside. Three cask beers pour as regulars — Exmoor Ale, Exmoor Stag and Otter Amber — three real ales in summer and two in winter, alongside a real fire, skittles, darts and a garden. Dogs are welcome, and there is a two-bedroom cottage to let out the back. It is close to bus routes. The village once had a shop, post office, garage, blacksmith and mill; only the pub remains.

For anything beyond a pint and a plate, Dulverton lies about three miles south, with independent shops, tearooms, restaurants and a farmers' market on the last Saturday of the month from April to September.

Two Settlements, One Valley

The two settlements sit in the deep, wooded Exe valley. Bridgetown runs in a line along the river and the road; Exton is a tighter knot of old buildings halfway up its own steep hill, gathered round St Peter's.

The church keeps Norman work in its nave, a 13th-century tower and a 15th-century north aisle, with windows mostly of the early 1500s. Inside are medieval tiles along the altar step, a Perpendicular font, a hagioscope cut through the north aisle and a glass-mosaic reredos. The memorial worth finding is a painted and gilded panel to Rose Pearse, who died in 1712, and Robert Pearse, who died in 1732 — cherubs, skulls and flowers set together on one board. A medieval cross stands a few paces south of the porch.

A Cricket Ground Like No Other

The reason to cross the river is the cricket ground. Roy Nesfield, a former Worcestershire player and land agent for the Milton Estate, founded the club in 1924 on a rare flat patch wrapped by the Exe on one side and backed by a steep slope. He built the footbridge you still cross to reach it, and a pavilion first thatched with moorland ferns. Balls hit into the river are fetched with a long-handled net, or by wading downstream after them; the early rules gave a six only for clearing the river, the hedges, the fences and the pavilion. William Ladds, writing the club's history, called it "one of the most picturesque grounds not only in England but worldwide".

The honours match the setting. The ground won Wisden's national competition for the most beautiful in 2002 and the Daily Telegraph's in 2008, and Vic Marks and Joel Garner have both played on it. During the war, American servicemen stationed nearby proposed cutting into the hill to make a baseball bowl; it was never done. Nesfield built himself a house in view of the pitch, shaped like three cricket stumps, and called it Wickets.

Walking Out and Getting Here

Walking runs straight out of both villages. A four-mile circuit follows a bridleway beside the Exe, climbs across farmland and loops back through Exton to Bridgetown; some fields may contain livestock. A longer eight-and-a-half-mile round takes in Brompton Regis. At Tarr Steps, the Hinds Pitt footbridge closure interrupts the usual 3.5 km circuit. Follow the River Barle upstream on either bank as far as Hinds Pitt, then return the same way.

There is no railway on Exmoor; the nearest useful station is Tiverton Parkway, from where it is bus or taxi to Tiverton bus station, then the 398 to Dulverton and the 198 on to Bridgetown. Drivers come off the M5 at junction 27 and follow the A396 up the valley from Tiverton towards Minehead.

Summer Beyond the Boundary

Swallows still nest in the cricket pavilion, buzzards work the slope above, and in summer the trout rise in the river beyond the boundary rope.