If you've watched "Down to Earth" with Pauline Quirke and Warren Clarke on BBC One TV then you've already seen quite a lot of Great Torrington (there's a "Little" and a "Black" one too!).

Apart from being the home of some of North Devon's most famous visitor attractions - like Dartington Crystal, the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens at Rosemoor and new for 2000, the Civil War experience of "Torrington 1646", this pretty market town has much, much more to set it apart.

A random collection of reasons to visit my home town of Great Torrington might include any number of things - here are just one or two for you to choose from:

How about Great Torrington's pannier market - restored to its glass-roofed Victorian charm and bustle, full of local produce, craft stalls and curiosities.

Inside the pannier market

It's open every weekday with special events each Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Then there's the terrifyingly steep drop from Castle Hill down to the sparkle of the river Torridge as it flows down towards Bideford, beside the Tarka Trail cycle and footpath.

And what about the brooding stone obelisk half-way down the hill - erected to commemorate the heroes of Waterloo by "the ladies of Great Torrington" - now there's exercise for the imagination!

Charlie's garden army

Charlie Dimmock led a team of townsfolk to transform the Vicarage Gardens

Just away from the middle of town the walled Vicarage Garden has just become a "Garden Army" community makeover project, personally supervised for TV by the inimitable Charlie Dimmock. It's now supplying an increasing variety of organic traditional vegetables, fruit and herbs to the Pannier Market.

Then, over the road in the parish churchyard, there's a curious , cobble-covered mound said to contain the remains of Royalist prisoners killed when an accidental gunpowder explosion destroyed the church during one of the battles of the English Civil War. Dowsers claim there are over 60 bodies buried there!

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