While the rest of us were huddled away hiding from Storm Ciara, Dilys was out and about visiting the House of Marbles in Newton Abbot. The House of Marbles is a fascinating place to visit, not only for humans, but for dogs too as Dilys discovered as they made their way around the various displays and learned how the team have been making a wide range of glass products since the 1970s.
House of Marbles has long been advertised as one of south Devon’s most dog friendly attractions and Dilys couldn’t agree more, it was well worth braving the storm for! Both she and her owners found the whole experience very interesting and Dilys loved all the fuss that the staff made of her during her visit.
Naturally, a visit to the Old Pottery Restaurant was in order for one of their delicious cream teas! The cream tea comes in two different sizes, a full or a half size and prices start at £5, making it a great value treat.
You can’t visit somewhere like the House of Marbles and not learn something about the art of glass blowing from the team there. In the glass shop, we met Vanessa who talked us through the various techniques and later on, Paul, a glass blower who preserved Dilys’ paw print in glass. He seemed pretty impressed that he got to do a large paw print for once and talked us through the whole process of how the glass needs to be slowly cooled for sixteen hours. It’s such a unique and wonderful gift, though Dilys wasn’t overly keen to show off her paws having been out in the storm earlier in the day!
If you’d like a paw print of your own doggo, make sure to visit on a Sunday as this service isn’t offered during the week due to how busy the team are with commissions and other orders and it’s easy to see why, everything is created with such precision and skill, it’s really quite amazing. Dilys will be back next week to pick up her paw print, you can have them delivered, but she’d rather go in and have a fuss made of her again and visit all the new friends she’s made. If you’re planning to go along at the weekend, keep an eye out for us, but please, no autographs.
Dilys really enjoyed walking around the shop, everyone was really friendly and attentive and the information about glass blowing was fascinating. This is a great place to visit with or without dogs and made for a fun rainy day out.
The House of Marbles gets four Dilys’ out of five, but only because Dilys is very insecure about her paws being on show.