Boats of all shapes, sizes and decoration happily share a berth, some of them sporting the "oculus" or all-seeing eye which sailors hoped would ward off evil spirits. Its Victorian warehouses and port buildings lay derelict and unloved.Until 1969, that is, when an intrepid ex-Army man called Major David Goddard opened the Exeter Maritime Museum with a collection of 23 craft which he had lovingly gathered from all over the world. His interference forced ships to off-load their goods at the ancient port of Topsham which just happened to be owned by... the Earl of Devon.The people of Exeter fought back and a canal was begun in 1564 so that vessels could bypass Topsham. Over the centuries the canal was gradually enlarged, culminating in the completion of the Basin at Exeter in 1830. The dastardly deeds of the "Topsham-ites" were foiled and Topsham had to settle for being a small but delightful satellite of Exeter, full of characters with names - according to the local history - such as "Bird's Eye Pidsley", "Fishy Baker" and "Farty Bray".After the Second World War, changing patterns of trade meant that several ports up and down Britain were doomed to die Exeter was no exception.

Access to water was vital in medieval times, deciding whether a community would live or die. All over the country, rival landowners and towns would try and control river traffic to their own benefit. Here in Exeter a potentially fatal threat was posed by the decision of the then Earl of Devon to obstruct the flow of the Exe a few miles to the south. In fact, however, they are not exotic new designer drugs but rather the various sailing vessels to be seen moored in the unexotic city of Exeter. The prosperity of Devon's county town was founded on the river Exe which serviced the port that sprang up here.

Kolek, opepe and sambuk are not the kind of words which you expect to find in any respectable family newspaper. We might actually do something about Third World poverty, instead of making pious noises and dragging on with minute amounts of sticking-plaster aid.It won't happen, of course. What do the charity shops really sell? It looks like a load of shoddy old rubbish, but they are high-class purveyors of a rare commodity - the feel-good factor? And who's going to give that up in favour of the poor old Rights of Man?. If all those thousands of voluntary workers would pack their charity work in and put pressure on the Government to do something about the problem of poverty, we would no longer have a country where medical research has to depend on your cast-offs, where pensioners have to beg for charity to pay their heating bills. If all that time and energy lavished on sorting through old rayon jumpers and cracked lemon-squeezers were directed into political pressure just think how effective it would be. As for not being puffed up, the airs and graces some shops give themselves would disgrace Harrods.Ah, you say, but charity shops do good work Totally misguided.