The Old Dissenting Meeting-House

This red-brick chapel on the edge of Budleigh Salterton is a proper piece of religious history - built in the 1820s for a congregation of Nonconformists who'd split from the established church. It's not flashy or touristy, which is precisely what makes it worth seeking out if you're into that sort of thing.

The building itself is straightforward Georgian architecture: honest proportions, those characteristic sash windows, a simple interior with a gallery and original fittings still in place. You're not walking into a grand cathedral here. This is intimate, almost austere - the kind of space where you can almost hear the sermons from two centuries back echoing off the walls.

Historically minded visitors will appreciate the context. Methodists and Baptists split from the Church of England partly over what they saw as excessive ceremony. This building represents that conviction - form follows function, nothing wasted on ornament. It tells you something real about 18th-century religious disagreement.

Access is the tricky bit - you'll need to check locally in Budleigh Salterton or ring ahead to arrange a visit, as it's not staffed regularly. That said, if you're basing yourself at Ladram Bay Holiday Park just down the road, or any of the other caravan parks dotted nearby, it's an easy diversion. Fifteen minutes inside, twenty if you're thorough. Not a half-day attraction, but a genuinely interesting stop that beats yet another beach walk in drizzle.