Visiting Britain’s Grumpiest GP!
5 February 2022
ABOVE: Two Western Greyhound buses parked up in Padstow’s Bus Station, May 2012
It’s a Friday in Spring 2012, and I’m on the platform at Plymouth railway station, where I’m staying (in the city, not on the station platform), waiting for a train to Bodmin Parkway.
I’m on my way to visit a GP. Not my GP, who I won’t see again until 2019, but a GP with a reputation for being tactless, forthright and often downright rude. He won’t be there when I arrive, though, because he doesn’t exist. But it’s where he ‘lives’ that I want to see…
I’m looking for the 555 service to Wadebridge, operated by the much-missed Western Greyhound. It picks up right outside the station – in fact in the station car park, which it has to navigate to get to the pick-up point!
Some of my memories of this day may be a bit hazy after a decade, but my photos suggest that the bus is almost certainly a Plaxton Beaver 2 bodied Mercedes-Benz O814. These handy midi-buses were ideally suited to country routes such as the one I’m embarking on now.
At the scheduled time, which I recall might have been 10.25am, we are on our way. We reach the town centre of Bodmin (nearly four miles away from Bodmin Parkway station), after which we are into the countryside, squeezing down narrow country lanes with low-hanging trees; some of these roads are little more than single-track. I might have hoped for a double-decker, but I can see why it wouldn’t have been advisable to run one on this route!
This is holiday country, with hotels, B&Bs, campsites and tourist attractions everywhere. Wadebridge straddles the River Camel, and all of the river crossings in the area are very photogenic. There is a bus station of sorts, but I continue into the picturesque town, where I have about an hour to pass before my next bus. It’s a lovely spot at any time, I suspect, but it’s a warm, sunny day, which enhances its prettiness still further.
The 584, my next service, only runs every two hours, but it’s well worth the wait. Another MB O814, and some more very tight roads, until we emerge beside the beach at Polzeath, a delightful seaside spot on the North Cornwall coast, which is very popular surfing territory. I would stop off, but I’m on a very tight schedule.
I’ve been looking at a map to try and figure out the route my bus will have taken from Polzeath, but I’m really not sure. The bus network in this area has changed substantially since my visit so there’s no real way to verify now.
But the 584 is soon dropping me off at my intended destination, a North Cornwall fishing village called Port Isaac. This is a village so tiny that the bus can’t penetrate its narrow streets, and even Google Streetview has left some parts unvisited!
ABOVE: Just dropped off in Port Isaac, in May 2012. The bus will run a short distance more before it reaches its journey’s end.
But it’s another stunning place. The village has been built around the three sides of a cove, with a street down to a ‘slipway’ and another street climbing up the other side. It’s a significant gradient down and back up again – the houses tower over the cove.
ABOVE: Looking down on the Slipway at Port Isaac, May 2012. This is the opposite side to Roscarrock Hill, mentioned below. Parking a car on the beach is not that uncommon, but I wouldn’t risk it (watch Holiday on the Buses for reasons why)!
If you go all the way down and up the other side you will come to Roscarrock Hill, where you will be rewarded with an amazing view of the cove. You will also find the house which is used as the surgery in the ITV comedy-drama series "Doc Martin" – the GP I have come to ‘see’.
Doctor Martin Ellingham, played by the affable Martin Clunes, is grouchy, abrupt, direct and emotionless. But the residents of the fictional village of Portwenn love him, as do millions of TV viewers! Such is the popularity of the series that the house used as the surgery is roped off and labelled “Private Property”; presumably one visitor too many rang the doorbell seeking an appointment!
But there’s plenty else to see in the village centre, even if Bert Large’s restaurant doesn’t really exist (not sure if I would eat there if it did – some of the food he has served has seen his customers end up at the Doc’s)!
Whilst the Large Restaurant does not exist, some very clever marketing has been used to advertise a place that does…
I found this van, belonging to the fictional Large Restaurant in Portwenn, advertising a real Port Isaac restaurant as an alternative – a great bit of advertising for The Edge! As "Doc Martin" viewers, and residents of Portwenn all know, Bert Large and his son Al being missing from where they are supposed to be is not uncommon!
I have enjoyed two hours in Port Isaac, but am now heading back to Wadebridge on another 584, before taking a 556 to yet another pretty fishing port with an international reputation – the town of Padstow.
Apparently it’s a popular spot for people to bring their yachts in the summer (can’t recall where I left mine moored up). TV chef Rick Stein owns at least four restaurants in the town, which people come from far and wide to try out.
Again the streets are quite tight, and that might explain why the Bus Station seems to be half-way up a hill.
The walk into town is well worth it, with another lovely quay to appreciate in the warm sunshine. Whilst Port Isaac has visitors mulling about because of the "Doc Martin" connection, Padstow is a full-scale tourist spot and is heaving with people. Sadly, few of them seem to have come by bus, and my last MB O814 of the day (I think we leave at about 1630) is more than adequate to meet the demand.
Back to Bodmin Parkway station on the 555, and the train to my hotel in Plymouth is still some way off. There is a buffet bar on the platform though, and it’s open, with decent offerings.
As I noted above, Western Greyhound is long gone, and services have been reorganised since my visit. It appears that all of the trips I took are still possible, courtesy of Transport for Cornwall.
I think I need to go back to this area and have another look. Maybe the Doc could fit me in for a quick consultation as well. After such a lot of fishing ports and the like, I’m feeling quite seasick!
I have enjoyed two hours in Port Isaac, but am now heading back to Wadebridge on another 584, before taking a 556 to yet another pretty fishing port with an international reputation – the town of Padstow.
Apparently it’s a popular spot for people to bring their yachts in the summer (can’t recall where I left mine moored up). TV chef Rick Stein owns at least four restaurants in the town, which people come from far and wide to try out.
Again the streets are quite tight, and that might explain why the Bus Station seems to be half-way up a hill.
The walk into town is well worth it, with another lovely quay to appreciate in the warm sunshine. Whilst Port Isaac has visitors mulling about because of the "Doc Martin" connection, Padstow is a full-scale tourist spot and is heaving with people. Sadly, few of them seem to have come by bus, and my last MB O814 of the day (I think we leave at about 1630) is more than adequate to meet the demand.
Back to Bodmin Parkway station on the 555, and the train to my hotel in Plymouth is still some way off. There is a buffet bar on the platform though, and it’s open, with decent offerings.
As I noted above, Western Greyhound is long gone, and services have been reorganised since my visit. It appears that all of the trips I took are still possible, courtesy of Transport for Cornwall.
I think I need to go back to this area and have another look. Maybe the Doc could fit me in for a quick consultation as well. After such a lot of fishing ports and the like, I’m feeling quite seasick!