SPANISH PLUME HITS THE COMBE

Isolated thunderstorms and flash floods hit Cornwall and Devon overnight, resulting in localised flooding and severe damage at Coverack.  They were initiated by a 'Spanish Plume' (very warm air pushing north from the Spanish plateau on a southerly airflow).
Maidencombe did not escape but was let off comparatively lightly after 35mm of rain fell in about ninety minutes.  Light rain together with sheet lightning at 11:30pm were the harbinger to a sustained downpour of heavy rain which fell just after midnight.

Sheet lightning captured from my porch last night.

My extension was flooded after the porch guttering was inundated by run-off from the conservatory.
I shot video of part of the thunderstorm from my porch:

MYSTERY AT MAIDENCOMBE CROSS

A blue Astra Sport Cdti was seen blocking the farm gate below the layby at Maidencombe Cross last Tuesday.  It was later moved by the police into the layby where it has remained for the past three days.  Strangely, the keys were still in the car and were removed by the police to Torquay police station. With the garage close by, it would appear that mechanically the car was sound.
The car remains in the layby with this notice taped to the windscreen:

The Astra has a cymru plate so presumably is not local.

The Astra abandoned with the keys inside.

SOLOMON'S POST CARAVAN PARK HISTORY

Research has been ongoing regarding the Solomon's Post Caravan Park off Ridge Road in Maidencombe. Photographic evidence is particularly hard to find but I have been able to locate an image taken circa 1960 when I first arrived in Maidencombe.

Caravans at Solomon's Post c1960

This was taken at the time when the site was unauthorized and living conditions were primitive and the winters hard to endure.  A few caravans had been present since about 1930 and word of mouth resulted in a steady accumulation of these most basic forerunners of 'affordable housing'.  In the photo (above) small, two wheeled caravans can be seen, cut into the slope of the field with the backdrop of the Stoke valley below. Tiny wooden sheds served as privies.  A few years later, larger, more permanent mobile homes moved onto the site and water and electricity installed. These upgrades ultimately would result in the demise of the caravan park. I can remember that these later homes were towed onto the site and had concrete footings, making them permanent dwellings.

By the early sixties, the authorities took an interest and the owners were forced to make an application to the local planning authority to license the field off Ridge Road as a legally permissible caravan park.  This was granted on March 4th 1963, but after objections and several legal rulings, the permission was withdrawn and the site was cleared in the late eighties.