The Vikings Seat Half-way down the cobbled street of Clovelly’s woodland blanketed village, where steep steps of lime washed cottages cling to the ivy-clad cliff, can be found one of very few flattened spaces that serve to ease the sharp descent. What better place could have been designed for a seat, which brings rest for the traveller and commands the most handsome views of the bay, the Bristol channel and the great Atlantic beyond. Here the fishermen would watch the trawlers setting sail from the centuries old pier, spreading their heavy tanned sails, mainsails, and mizzen’s, prepared for the bracing breeze and the salty billows. This is the place captains of old, sea salts, mariners and matelots would gather. Where the news was shared, gossip told, stories embellished. Where women may knit, and children mind their own business. As the village continued its daily trade, the fishermen tended to their pots and nets, or spliced hawsers on the jutting quay...