A gorgeous visit to Topsham on Wednesday proved to be quite the surprise packed. A 20 minute drive from my village took us to other side of Exeter and to the banks of the River Exe estuary.

You’d never even know it was once a native Celtic settlement, before it became a Roman settlement… then a thriving village under Saxon rule.

But none of this is readily apparent when idling through the main street down the port’s edge. The high street is a mix of architectural styles, before it opens up to the quayside where The Strand provides the most beautiful display of village Georgian architecture I’ve seen.

The first part of The Strand consists of townhouses, many lucky enough to have a ground floor garage at their disposal. At the end of the row, the Georgian extravaganza begins. Two column porticos stand proudly in front of white and pastel rendered facades. One in particular with the pale sage green exterior and a red front door made me feel like I was living in Austen. I stood there imagining Jane Austen locking up and popping down the shops to get some more ink. Another literary masterpiece dependant on that last ink well.

However the odd gorgeous terracotta coloured brick number broke up the pastels, one in particular that resembled another classic Austen-esque building. BBC period dramas seem to have had an overwhelming influence of my experience of architecture I think.

As I was walking along, I could not help notice something unusual. Houses that looked as if they belong on the canals of Amsterdam. Their rooflines emulating the curves of many a Dutch row house. It got me thinking about who the people were that lived here, and where exactly they hailed from.

Topsham developed into quite a thriving and vital wool cotton port, exporting these vital materials to Holland. These same ships brought back Dutch ballast used to build their own bricks. I don’t know exactly what was wrong with British bricks at the time. It seems like for these wealthy Dutch merchants, money was no object when pursuing native authenticity.

More importantly, this Dutch influence is still in vogue. As a result new surrounding housing estates have kept this Dutch architectural heritage very much in mind.