Lance’s Travels - Does Cornwall

by Lance Leuven

Copyright 2012 Lance Leuven

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Kernow






I’ve long possessed a warm fondness for that southwest tip of Great Britain called Cornwall. It’s an exceptional and beautiful place. And in June 2012 I spent a(nother) delightful week travelling around in exploration. This mini book is the story of my trip interspersed with some interesting background topics regarding the unique story of this fascinating place. I begin with a brief introduction to the region before embarking upon the tale of my seven day trip. I follow each day with a look into some of the other interesting, and often surprising, subjects relating to Cornwall and the Cornish.

I hope you enjoy my story.

Lance – September 2012



Table of Contents
Cornwall
Day 1
A Brief History of Cornwall and the Cornish
Day 2
The People of Cornwall
Day 3
The Cornish Language
Day 4
The County of Cornwall?
Photos
Day 5
The Duchy of Cornwall
Day 6
St Piran’s Flag
Day 7


Cornwall

Cornwall (known locally as Kernow) is the most south westerly county in England. It’s famed for the many quaint towns and villages that scatter the great expanses of open landscape encompassing many nationally recognised areas of outstanding natural beauty. It possesses the longest stretch of continuous coastline in Britain and its history, along with the history of its people, has long been inextricably linked to the sea. Although fishing has struggled in recent years the county’s shores still display many remnants of its maritime heritage with many sleepy fishing villages, ports, and smuggler’s coves. 
It offers a dramatic coastline of spectacular beaches to explore with golden sanded sweeping bays, secluded coves, popular family beaches, and breathtaking cliff top walks. Further inland can be discovered the abundant wildlife inhabiting the beautiful moorland and quiet remote countryside. These natural attractions combined with the arrival of the train inspired a great growth of tourism during the 20th century that has continued unabated. This industry has now grown to become the biggest component of the local economy and the 535,000 population can often swell to over 750,000 in peak season. 
Historically the other big factor in the economy was tin mining. Since prehistoric times the tin in the area has been mined and exported to Europe and beyond. The effects of this vast industry have had a dramatic impact on the region. Signs of the activity litter the landscape and together comprise part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of their global importance to the history of the Industrial Revolution. But sadly, the mines entered a period of decline during the 19th century and by the late 20th century had essentially closed as the mineral wealth had been all but exhausted.
Although much of the old industry has faded and was followed by years of economic hardship the region is finally seeing a change of fortunes. It’s become a vibrant magnet for holiday makers, surfers, artists, food lovers, and walkers keen to embrace the many delights of this very special and unique region of Great Britain.


Day 1

On the first day of my little Cornwall adventure I was greeted with sporadic bursts of light rain. Not altogether the weather I would have chosen but it could have been worse. No real hitches on the way down except a little bit of traffic. My only goals of the day were to make it down in one piece and to go to the Calstock festival, so after setting up camp that’s exactly where I headed. And I’m very glad that I did.
The pretty village of Calstock is situated on the banks of the River Tamar close to the Devonshire border. The four day festival celebrated in and around the village was established in 1989 and has made the village famed for its eclectic mix of family friendly music, art, food, and comedy. Focused on a green and sustainable ideal the festival offers all who descend upon the village the opportunity to enjoy anything from local arts to locally brewed beer and ciders. I didn't encounter the bicycle powered cinema myself but apparently there is one. And there's also a big veggie breakfast served each morning as well.
A stage is constructed on the village green from which anything from punk to folk can be performed and stalls are set up around the village centre offering food and crafts. There are also opportunities for book and clothes swaps. The festival is a real community affair but all are warmly welcomed to the low key celebrations in this picturesque location. Self-described as “overflowing with peace, love, music, dance, light, joy, frolics, earthly delights and unbridled entertainment” the festival is certainly a highlight in the calendar for this part of east Cornwall.
As I descended into the Tamar Valley I was greeted, from a surprising distance away, by the sound of the music as it echoed up the hills. And upon arrival I found there to be quite a good turnout for the festivities. Everyone and their dog seemed to have turned out for it. And I mean that literally, there were dogs everywhere. But most importantly of all there was a good lively atmosphere, demonstrated for example by the ample cheering for the lady who for some reason desired to pose for a photo in front of the band while doing a handstand. I wasn't entirely sure what this was in aid of but it inspired the band to improvise a song about her. Another lady fulfilled the obligatory role of the incredibly drunk person dancing enthusiastically down the front. Fair play to her though. When the inevitable drunken stumble arrived, followed by an unceremonious muddy fall onto her bum, she simply lay on the ground and continued to dance for a while in order to try and style it out. I’m not convinced it worked to be honest but I suppose there’s no harm in trying.
I did take the opportunity to sample some of the local cider on offer which was nice (although when I sampled it and described it as “nice” I was chastised for not being generous enough!). I was offered medium or strong. After enquiring how strong the strong was I discovered it was 7.5%. The night was still young so I decided to only have the one of those before moving on to some tamer strengths.
While I was purchasing my cider I noticed a strange shaped tent set up in the next field. Keen to investigate I found two guys putting up a second smaller version. The tent was a dome similar in construction to the Eden Project domes. It was explained to me that it was all about geometry and was built by one of the gentlemen out of scrap metal he’d found at a dump and the fabric covering was an old army parachute. He’d also used a book on geometry that he’d found at the dump to work out all the angles. I thought it was pretty industrious of the guy to be honest. What amazed me more is that he went on to explain that he’d spent the last seven years living in it. He’d been homeless for many years but seemed quite comfortable about the situation. Even back in the seventies he’d been living in Brixton squats. He was certainly a bit of a free-spirited hippy type. This image was highlighted further when he explained that they’d actually used the position of the sun to help them get to Calstock, which made me laugh. Although they didn’t solely use the sun, they also pulled up beside a guy to ask directions. As they did so they realised the guy was standing next to a sign pointing to Calstock. I was told this story just before being told they’d accidentally managed to put petrol in the diesel van as well, clearly quite a couple of characters those two.
I had a really nice time at the Calstock Festival. And judging by the puddle of vomit I found myself next to at one point I wasn’t the only one who’d enjoyed the festivities. Unpleasant as this may seem it proved useful later as it meant I was well placed to help deter a stray toddler from venturing into the puddle. Her dad seemed pretty appreciative of my efforts.
As it got late I decided it was time to venture back to camp. But of course, this wasn't a task I could ever have completed without first getting a bit lost, despite the fact that my journey was essentially along a straight road. Personally I blame that 7.5% cider.


A Brief History of Cornwall and the Cornish

The colonisation of Cornwall began, along with the rest of Britain, around 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. As the climate warmed the vast ice sheets that had engulfed Europe for millennia finally began to loosen their grip. And as the ice sheets retreated they revealed new land and territories to exploit. At first the numbers were small but over time a steady drift of settlers made the journey across the land bridge with Europe into what would become Cornwall. This tail end of the ice age is a period dubbed the Palaeolithic. At around 10,000 years ago the ice age finally ended and the period known as the Mesolithic began. Much like the Palaeolithic, the people of the Mesolithic continued to use stone tools and lived a nomadic hunter-gatherer existence. 
Over the next few thousand years the ice continued to melt causing the seal levels to steadily rise. What was to one day become the North Sea gradually began to be inundated with the water that had long been locked up in the ice sheets. The last dry land bridge between Britain and the continent was turned to salt marsh by the encroaching waters around 8,200BC. And by 6,000 BC the last of the marshes had become consumed by the ever-growing sea, leaving Britain an island. 
The earliest examples of stone tools found in Cornwall date from around 4,500BC. It wasn’t long after this, around 4,000BC, that large social and agricultural developments brought dramatic changes to the people and their way of life. This is the start of what is referred to as the Neolithic period. The Neolithic is one of the most significant phases in human history as it's during this time that the hunter-gatherer lifestyle began to be gradually superseded by a lifestyle of permanent settlements. The prehistoric people began to clear the great forests, which had long dominated the land, to make way for pastureland to feed the animals they had begun to domesticate. And as time passed the arrival of a new skill, that of cultivating plants, completed the transition from a nomadic lifestyle to a farming-based subsistence. This was a gradual change that was not completed until the late third millennium BC. Once the transition was established people began to settle down and simple pottery began to be produced. The ability to make pottery arrived alongside the farming skills and is an important technological development. At first the pottery was undecorated but by around 3,500BC patterns began to be made in the clay before firing. At the same time stone tools began to become increasingly more sophisticated and house construction became more solid and permanent. Previous to this houses were light structures more suited to a transient nomadic lifestyle. The early houses were rectangular but by about 3,000BC round houses began to appear. It's interesting to note that throughout Britain these buildings were rarely defended, but in Cornwall they were, indicating ongoing conflict. 
A fact that may be significant, but may also simply be coincidence, is that at the same time houses moved from being rectangular in shape to circular people also began building circular ritual monuments, such as henges. Perhaps the shape of circles gained some kind of cultural or religious significance around this time. 
There are many examples of prehistoric remains that can be found throughout Cornwall and they take various forms such as standing stones, barrows, and hut circles. At the time that these early monuments were being constructed Cornwall was inhabited by the Dumnonii tribe and was part of the territory of Dumnonia, which included Devon and parts of Somerset. 
During the Bronze Age, about 2,500-800BC, Cornwall's large reserves of tin began to be exploited by people associated with the beaker culture – named for their distinctive “beaker” style pottery drinking vessels. This mining created a trade boom of exports to Europe. And as these people flourished so did the construction of ceremonial and burial monuments. Settlements continued to proliferate during this period indicating steady population growth but, despite developments in technology, life continued much as before. The ability to work metal was, along with the use of pottery, another significant technological advancement. Gold began to be used for ornaments and jewellery, bronze and copper for spearheads, axes, knives, and daggers. But flint continued to be used for the tools of everyday life.
During the late Bronze Age, 1,500-600BC, the climate became wetter. This resulted in the movement of settlements to more lowland sites such as Trethellan near Newquay. Farming shifted towards less intensive upland grazing and a more warlike society developed. Archaeological excavations have provided evidence indicating that the people living during this period were well organised, lived in small villages, practised farming, and were adept metal workers.
Around 500BC a group of warrior settlers arrived from Europe. These were the Celts, and they brought with them knowledge of forging iron into weapons. The best known of their settlements in Cornwall is Chysauster, near Penzance. Most of the Celts settlements were fortified hilltop villages and trading centres that could be easily defended. The word "Car" or "Caer" in many Cornish place names derives from the Celtic "ker", meaning fort. It was around this period that burial chambers such as the famous Trethevy Quoit were constructed. 
The Celtic culture spread throughout Britain during the Iron Age until it eventually reached all the way from the southern tip of England to the south shores of the Firth of Forth, where Edinburgh sits today. The Celts comprised a series of tribes with the Picts and Gael in the north and the Britons in the south. Although the Britons shared the Brythonic language they were still divided into many different tribal and regional societies. Cornwall continued to be part of the kingdom of Dumnonia which during this time stretched as far east as the River Parrett in Somerset and the River Axe in Dorset. Apart from fishing and agriculture tin mining was the main economic resource and was transported to Europe from the ancient port of Ictis.
The Romans arrived in Britain in 55BC. The Roman conquest of Britain radically changed the lives of most Britons, but contrastingly very little changed for the inhabitants of the southwest. For them, Roman occupation had little or no impact. There was a degree if tin trade but other than that their culture continued to flourish under the freedom of, essentially, self rule. The nearest major Roman settlement to the Dumnonia kingdom was at Exeter. And apart from involvement with tin trading, the wild moors of Dartmoor, Exmoor, and Bodmin combined with the lack of safe ports seem to have kept the Romans largely at bay. The Roman presence also kept other raiders away meaning the Dumnonii were left relatively undisturbed. The only known significant Roman sites are three forts, and only a few Roman milestones have been found. The region continued to be occupied by the Dumnonii Iron Age Celts and tin working continued throughout the Roman occupation, peaking during the 3rd century. 
The collapse of the Roman Empire resulted in a complete Roman withdrawal from Britain. Into the vacuum left by the Roman departure the Dumnonii experienced an influx of Celtic Christian missionaries from Ireland. This left a profound mark on the Dumnonii people, their culture, faith, and architecture. This was a significant cultural step leading to the abandonment of the ancient pagan gods and rituals. The most notable of these Irish missionaries is believed to have been St Piran.
Roman chroniclers indicate that the Cornovii tribe, who had earlier resided in Shropshire, had moved into the region and set up a power base in the area by the 5th century. This tribe is likely to be the origin of the “corn” in the regions name. The “wall” came from “wealas”, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning foreigner.
By the time the Romans withdrew from Britain, around the start of the 4th century, there was little distinction between the Kingdom of Cornwall (or Cornweal as it would have been spelt), the Cornovii, and Dumnonia and the terms were largely interchangeable. During this time trade links with Gaul and the Mediterranean continued, with tin most likely being central to this. 
Although the people of Dumnonia were left largely unaffected by the Roman occupation this was not to be the case for the next wave of invaders. With Rome's declining influence Britain was left exposed and undefended. As a result it experienced a great number of invasions from the Germanic people of Northern Europe. The Angles, Jutes, Frisii and Saxons began to arrive in the 5th century and spread throughout, what was to become, England and parts of southern Scotland. Successful military campaigns resulted in an expanding Anglo-Saxon territory that forced the native Celts to retreat into the northern and western fringes of Britain. The kingdom of Dumnonia was not immune to this effect and a series of significant military losses over the proceeding centuries led to the Saxons of Wessex seriously eroding the Dumnonia territory. It was during this period of intense battles with the Anglo-Saxons that the stories of King Arthur were based.
In 807AD Viking Danes formed an alliance with the Cornovii against the Saxons. This proved unsuccessful and in 814 Egbert of Wessex, a Saxon king, conquered Dumnonia. But despite laying the land to waste he failed in subjugating the people. As a consequence they soon rose up again and defeated him. In 838 a Cornish-Danish alliance held a pitched battle with Egbert's forces near Callington. They were defeated by Egbert and this became the last battle against the Saxons. Despite the defeat the substantially depleted territory of Dumnonia continued to exist as a Celtic nation separate from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms beyond its border. A culture, language, way of life, and people continued to flourish largely independent from the Anglo-Saxon world.
In 870 the Cornovii bishop of Bodmin acknowledged the authority of Canterbury bringing the Cornish church under Canterbury’s jurisdiction. This was a significant event as it was the first time that such an important Cornovii institution had accepted English authority. The first few bishops were native Cornishmen but from 953 onwards they were all English. 
The last known king of Cornwall is considered by some to be Doniert (or alternatively Dunyarth). He died by drowning in 875 and this death is said to represent the end of Dumnonia. By the 880s The Kingdom of Wessex maintained control over significant parts of Cornwall.
In 927 King Athelstan of England evicted the Cornish from Exeter and in 936 he officially fixed the east bank of the River Tamar as the boundary between Anglo-Saxon Wessex and Celtic Cornwall. This boundary still remains the dividing line between Cornwall and Devon today. 
After the Norman conquest of 1066 the whole of Cornwall was given to William the Conqueror’s half-brother, Robert. He built a castle in Launceston and made it his headquarters. Three more Norman castles were constructed across east Cornwall during different periods of Norman rule. For the next few centuries Cornwall was ruled by a succession of relatives of the Norman, and then the following Plantagenet, kings. In 1336 Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince, was named Duke of Cornwall. This title has been awarded to the eldest son of the Sovereign since 1421.
In 1497 Henry VII raised taxes on the Cornish miners in order to make war with Scotland. This intruded upon the special Cornish tax exemption and was resented due to the economic hardship it would bring. As a result it sparked the Cornish Rebellion of 1497. The tin miners marched on London gaining supporters as they went. The uprising was defeated at the Battle of Deptford Bridge. This rebellion was followed a century later by The Prayer Book rebellion of 1549. These two uprisings, and their swift reprisals, are considered key moments in the erosion of the Cornish culture and way of life.
During the English Civil War of 1642-1649 the people of Cornwall wholeheartedly supported the King - unlike many of the divided English counties. This is believed to be, at least partly, due to the monarch being regarded as British whereas the Parliamentarians were felt to represent solely English interests. Cornwall played a significant role in the war and several thousand Cornish soldiers lost their lives fighting for the King. Parliamentary forces invaded Cornwall three times including on one occasion when they burned the local archives. In 1645 Sir Richard Grenville, a Cornish Royalist leader, put a plan to the King which, if successful, could have created a semi-independent Cornwall. But the King was eventually defeated in 1646. This proved another devastating blow for Cornish culture and ethnic identity. By 1700 practically no one in Britain recognised the Cornish as a separate ethnic group any more.
A resurgence of interest in Cornish culture and history began in the early 20th century inspired by the work of Henry Jenner. This led to the building of links with the other Celtic nations of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, The Isle of Man, Brittany, and Galicia and Asturias in northern Spain. A political party was formed in 1951 in an attempt to support greater freedom and self-governance for the region. Despite local success the party has, as yet, had little national success, although it is accredited with the recent widespread use of the flag of St Piran. Use of this flag has become a popular symbol of Cornish culture and heritage.


Day 2

I would say that King Arthur was the general theme of my second day. I found myself in the area where he supposedly lived so I figured I’d find out a bit more about the man, the myth, and the legend. Although there’s a very good chance that all three of those attributes can be neatly summed up by one: the myth.
King Arthur is regarded as a legendary military leader who led the British defence against the Saxon invaders during the early 6th century. His father was King Uther Pendragon, the King of Britain, who had fallen in love with Lady Igraine. 
Lady Igraine was originally married to Gorlois, the Duke of Tintagel, who was Uther's sworn enemy. While Gorlois was away warring in Europe Uther solicited the magician Merlin to cast a spell such that he would appear to Igraine as Gorlois. He then used the spell to deceive Igraine into spending the night with him. As a result of this deception Igraine fell pregnant. Following Gorlois' death in battle King Uther then married Igraine. The young child conceived through the subterfuge was born at Tintagel Castle and named Arthur.
This was a very tumultuous time so Merlin advised Uther that Arthur, as heir to the throne, would be in grave danger if word of his birth was to spread. It was agreed that Arthur would be sent away to live in a secret place. Merlin decided that a worthy knight, named Sir Ector, could provide the ideal surrogate family for Arthur. And so, Arthur was raised in Sir Ector's family unaware of his true identity and falsely believing that Sir Ector was his father and that Ector's son, Kay, was his brother.
Just as Merlin had predicted, upon the death of King Uther great conflict broke out over who should be his successor. No one knew that Uther had sired an heir and many argued over who was the rightful king. After praying to god for a sign a mysterious stone magically appeared in the churchyard of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. A huge sword was set in the stone with an engraved message stating that whoever could pull the sword from the stone was the rightful heir to the crown. Of course many knights immediately attempted to draw the sword but all failed. The sword, of course, was under a magic spell of Merlin's. He’d cast the spell so that no one would be able to draw the sword. Well, almost no one...
Years later Arthur travelled to London with Sir Ector and Kay, as it was Kay's first jousting tournament. By this point Arthur was fifteen years old and was acting as Kay's squire. When Kay's sword couldn't be found Arthur searched for an alternative. Remembering the sword he had seen earlier in the churchyard he returned and effortlessly drew it from the stone. He then gave the sword to Kay who immediately recognised it by way of the engraving. Kay asked how Arthur had obtained the sword and Arthur explained the story. Sir Ector and Kay then took Arthur back to the stone and made him repeat the act. Upon seeing Arthur draw the sword they both realised he was the rightful king and immediately bowed down to him. Arthur was soon crowned the King of Britain. 
However, some of the local kings were unhappy about being ruled by a fifteen-year-old boy. They started a rebellion. Merlin took Arthur to a magical lake where the Lady of the Lake lived. She gave Arthur a magical sword named Excalibur with a magical sheath, a scabbard. It was explained to Arthur that so long as he retained the scabbard then it would be impossible for his enemies to harm him. With Excalibur in hand Arthur then went on to vanquish the rebellious kings in a series of famous battles. After his success he built a mighty castle in a place called Camelot which he used as his base of power.
Arthur later married the beautiful princess Guinevere, daughter of King Leodegrance of Cameliard. As a wedding present he was given a huge round table by her father. Because it was round all who sat at the table were considered equals as there was no favoured position at one end. The bravest knights from across the land were then invited by Arthur to join him around his table from where they ruled the country.
Arthur and his knights finally managed to defeat the Saxons at the Battle of Mount Badon. After peace spread Arthur's knights went on to have many adventures involving acts of chivalry, rescuing damsels in distress, fighting dragons and other magical beasts, searching for lost treasure, and of course the infamous Quest for the Holy Grail - the treasure that was believed to cure all ills.
During this time Sir Lancelot, the best and bravest of the Knights of the Round Table, fell in love with Guinevere. Unknown to Arthur the two embarked upon an affair. Mordred, King Arthur's evil nephew, learnt of Lancelot and Guinevere's relationship and told Arthur. Realising the severity of the situation Lancelot escaped, but Guinevere was captured and taken to court. It was ruled that she should be burnt to death for her infidelity. But before the sentence could be administered Lancelot rescued Guinevere and they fled to Brittany. Enraged, Arthur took his army across to Brittany leaving Mordred in charge. With no heir, Mordred knew that if Arthur were to be killed then he would become king. Mordred began to circulate news that Arthur had in fact died so that he could take the throne. He also gave away lots of money in order to win favour and gain support. Hearing of this treachery Arthur returned to fight Mordred and the army he'd managed to raise with his money. The two armies fought at the battle of Camlann. Unfortunately Arthur's wicked sister, Morgan Le Fay, had stolen Arthur's magical scabbard. Consequently he was unprotected against harm. At the end of the battle Mordred and Arthur were two of the last men standing. They both delivered simultaneous deathly blows. Mordred was killed at the scene. Arthur was not, but he knew he was mortally wounded. Three queens arrived in a boat and took Arthur to the Isle of Avalon. Some say that he died in Avalon. Some say he simply rests with his knights, awaiting the time that Britain needs him to come save her again.
Clearly the elements of Arthur's legend regarding dragons, magical swords, and Holy Grails are all fictional, but whether there is any truth in Arthur's existence at all is a hotly contested debate. Some see Arthur as a genuine historical figure who fought against the Anglo-Saxons around the 6th century and whose story has simply been embellished over time. But many cite the lack of solid evidence as any real case for this position. Other scholars suggest that Arthur was simply a fictional hero who became associated with real deeds and battles from the time. Due to this incertitude many modern historians exclude Arthur from their accounts of the period. This is actually a recent phenomenon as earlier generations of historians generally accepted his existence. It's interesting to note that the single contemporary source, by the British monk and historian Gildas, names someone else as the leader of the Britons during the time that Arthur supposedly lived.
It was Geoffrey of Monmouth's book The History of the Kings of Britain, written in 1138AD - six centuries after Arthur was thought to have lived - that really ignited interest in the tales of Arthur. Geoffrey claimed the work was based on ancient Celtic documents, but any original copies of these have since been lost. But even if this is true, how much of Geoffrey's work was adopted form earlier sources and how much was invented by himself is unknown. But what is known is that Geoffrey's account popularised Arthur and laid the foundation for the later stories. His account incorporated many of the recognised details such as Uther Pendragon, the magician Merlin, the story of Uther appearing to Igraine as Gorlois, Igraine conceiving Arthur, and the battles that ensued when the fifteen-year-old Arthur became king. Interestingly, Geoffrey doesn't mention Camelot. In Geoffrey's account Arthur holds court at Caerleon, "the City of the Legion," which is recorded as one of Britain's thirty-three cities.
In light of the political backdrop in Britain at the time Geoffrey's book was published it's easy to see why his tales may have proved appealing. Following the Norman invasion of 1066 an abundance of Celtic literature arose introducing the Normans to the culture of the past Celts. Much of this was based on themes of the Welsh and Celtic Britons rising up and defeating the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Happy for their predecessors to be portrayed unfavourably, stories of this nature would have suited the Normans well. And with stories of triumph and heroism requiring a main protagonist, it's no surprise that Arthur was employed to fulfil the role. Arthur had already appeared in such roles in 9th century Welsh poetry so it's little surprise that Geoffrey, a Welsh cleric, chose him to feature as the great Celtic warrior in his tales. 
Geoffrey's book was a spectacular success. So much so that over 200 manuscripts of it still exist today. His merging and blurring of myth and fact captivated readers from all across Britain as well as across Europe, where it proved just as popular. Although he himself originally intended for it to be a historical document it is not generally regarded that way today. And in this light it's interesting to note that the earlier Welsh and Breton tales, the ones to which Geoffrey claims to have used as reference, refer to Arthur as simply a great warrior defending Britain against human and supernatural forces, as opposed to a king.
During the 12th century the Norman King Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine. As a result the two worlds of French and English literature collided within the court. Within this melting pot of ideas and creativity the poets and troubadours transformed the Arthur legend incorporating medieval themes of gentlemanly knights and chivalrous behaviour. It was the French poet Maistre Wace who added The Round Table to the legend. And from then on much of the focus shifted from Arthur to tales of the other knights. Of the numerous French writers the most prominent was Chrétien de Troyes. It was he who added Lancelot and story of the Holy Grail turning the legend from courtly romance, which it had become, to a spiritual quest. One of the most significant details that Chrétien de Troyes added was Camelot. Although it's highly likely that the inspiration for this was the Caerleon described by Geoffrey. 
The story of King Arthur underwent such a great transformation under the influence of the 12th century writers that whatever traces of truth it may have originally contained were largely lost. As a result, by the end of the 12th century the story had truly entered the realm of myth.
Arthurian literature continued to thrive throughout the Middle Ages but began to fall out of favour in the centuries that followed. A major resurgence of popularity occurred in the 19th century which has continued ever since leading to many recent adaptations in theatre, TV, and cinema. One particularly notable detail in modern imaginings of the legend is that they invariably feature 13th century medieval knights wearing suits of armour and living in great stone castles. Things would have been very different to this during the 6th century. Any castles would have been simple wooden hillforts and the armour and weapons would have been much like that used by the earlier Romans. The reason for this disparity is that the stories we know today are mainly inspired by the accounts of Sir Arthur Malory's writings of 1470. Malory updated the tales and moved them into his own time. William Caxton, who invented the printing press, then began printing Malory's book making it one of the first printed books available. The book can still be brought today in updated English and is considered a great attempt at drawing together the various different strands and themes of the legend that abounded at the time.
Whether Arthur actually ever existed at all we will probably never know. But what we do know is that our view of him today is a composite of different legends and ideas added by various writers throughout the centuries. In fact the history of the changing stories probably says more about the times in which they were written than they do about Arthur himself. From the original ancient tales of fighting mythical creatures, to the later role of heroically holding back the Anglo-Saxons invasion, through to the age of chivalry and romance, until finally emerging through the gates of an imposing granite castle on the back of a galloping horse as a medieval knight dressed head to toe in shining armour.
The earliest known stories of Arthur actually describe him and his companions as possessing superhuman strength and abilities. They fought giants and dragons and other mythical creatures. For this reason some suggest that he was never a man at all but actually a god. A long lost deity who comforted the Celts with tales of vanquishing evil spirits from the world. And that's probably all he ever was.
So, with the intention of learning more about the story of King Arthur I decided the first item of my agenda for day two would be to visit the supposed site of King Arthur's last battle. The battle site was originally called Camlann, but in modern times it has the rather more romantic designation of Slaughterbridge. It’s also a rather romantic story that led to the battle - and one surprisingly similar to the story of Arthur's conception in fact. Morgan Le Fay, Arthur’s sister, used a spell so that she would appear as Guinevere. She then slept with Arthur, fell pregnant, and then gave birth to his nephew/son Mordred, very pleasant. So I think it’s fair to describe the relationship between Arthur and Mordred as “complicated”. But either way, after Mordred’s treachery during Arthur’s time in Brittany the two entered into battle. Although this battle could well have been avoided. Arthur had commanded his knights that under no circumstances should they draw their swords while he attempted to broker peace by offering Mordred titles and lands. Unfortunately, a snake came along and scared the horses. Forgetting Arthur’s stipulation, one of his knights unsheathed his sword in order to kill the snake. The situation was so tense that all hell immediately broke loose and the battle began. At the end only three soldiers remained including Arthur and Mordred. Arthur swung his sword at Mordred administering a lethal blow but not before Mordred managed to deliver a blow which would later go on to kill Arthur. This battle ended the fellowship of the Round Table. At the site is now an inscribed stone dating from the sixth century. Some believe the inscribed words to be about Arthur and that the stone itself marks the place of the battle.
Interestingly, I learnt that Arthur was considered by some to be the first British leader to use cavalry during battles, which proved very effective. Another interesting thing I learnt was that the Celts would sometimes burn captives alive in wicker men as offerings to the gods, much like the classic film depicted. I’d always assumed that they’d simply made that idea up for the film. It’s also interesting that the story of throwing Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake could well have arisen from the fact that Celts often made offerings of objects to the gods. The story could have simply originated with the idea of throwing swords into bodies of water to appease the gods and developed from there. Likewise, the legend of Arthur pulling Excalibur from the stone could well have been a metaphor for the incredibly important knowledge of how to obtain metal ore from rocks to smelt the swords with. So perhaps not literally, but metaphorically, you are still essentially pulling the sword from the rock.
Next I was off to Tintagel Castle. Some claim King Arthur was actually conceived at Tintagel Castle. But those who adhere to the laws of chronology are sceptical of this due to the castle having been built over 500 years after Arthur was supposedly born. The castle itself sits on an outcrop of rock in the beautiful village of Tintagel.
Tintagel has become a popular draw for tourists and day-trippers in recent times. As such it has become one of the most visited places in Britain. Attracting explorers from all over the world the village's population of 1,820 swells considerably during the holiday season as visitors flock to enjoy the many delights the village has to offer. Located close to the village of Boscastle on the Atlantic coast the stunning views of the beautifully rugged coastline make the village a popular destination for walkers, as well as those more enticed by the regions history and legends. During strong sunlight the waters surrounding Tintagel turn a light turquoise green colour due to the copper-rich slate/sand bedrock. This slate was once quarried extensively due to it forming an ideal hard-wearing roofing surface. 
Interestingly, the village was originally called Trevena until the local post office established the name Tintagel in the mid nineteenth century. The name Tintagel comes from the Cornish Dintagell where "din" means Fort and "Tagel" means a constriction, a name attributed to the limited access to the castle. Although there still remains some confusion over the name as historically the Cornish language would have lacked the soft “g”.
One of the biggest draws for visitors to Tintagel is the close association with the legends and myths of King Arthur. Besides being the supposed site of Arthur’s conception many other such myths and legends have grown up around the area. People flock to the village to walk through the vale of Avalon, visit the castle, and look down into Merlin's Cave where Merlin supposedly protected the future king from evil. One of the great tourist attractions is the annual re-enactment of Arthur's last battle. Another local association is "King Arthur's Footprint". The footprint is actually a hollow in a rock that has been partially shaped by human hands. It's thought that it may have been used for the inauguration of kings as far back as the Dark Ages. Although the reference to Arthur in the name was probably invented much later by nineteenth century castle guides. 
Archaeological excavations beginning in the 1930s have revealed that the village was once home to either a high status Celtic monastery or possibly a trading settlement during the 5th and 6th centuries. Also evidence of Mediterranean oil and wine jars have shown that sub-Roman Britain was not as isolated as many had previously thought. This evidence demonstrates that extensive trading with the people of the Mediterranean was taking place during this period. 
One of the most notable buildings in the village is the Old Post Office. This quaint 14th century building didn't actually become the post office until the nineteenth century but is now a grade I listed building and is owned and run by the National Trust. Another notable building is the Catholic church of St Paul, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2008 by staging a modern day re-enactment of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. The re-imagining, by local artist Nicholas St John Rosse, made international headlines due to its use of modern clothing and local people as apostles. 
At first I was somewhat unimpressed with the small size of Tintagel castle. This was before I went to leave and found a great deal more of it on the other side of the cliff. I was literally about to go without having seen half of the castle, although in fairness much less than half because some of it has fallen into the sea as the cliffs have eroded. The medieval builders clearly didn’t know a great deal about erosion because a large chunk of the castle fell into the sea not long after it was completed and had to be rebuilt.
There were some really nice views of the striking coastline from the castle which I took the time to appreciate. But beware! Tintagel Castle is not for those with a strong distaste for steps. There are hundreds of them. 
Next I wandered through Tintagel to King Arthur’s Hall.  This was created by a millionaire in the 1930’s at great cost to try and recreate how King Arthur’s great hall may have looked. It was a curious place to visit. I was unsure of whether to enter at first but outside was a sign with quotes from previous satisfied patrons. One of the quotes said “The best windows I’ve ever seen”. I figured that with compliments like that I’d be foolish to miss out so I went in. It turns out that they were referring to the stained glass windows of the hall, so it wasn’t as random a quote as I first thought. But the exhibition was interesting and explained a bit more of the story about Arthur. One thing that particularly made me laugh was a mug in the shop. It was branded in the same way as those “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters, mugs, tea-towels etc but instead it said “Now Panic and Freak Out”.
Lastly I was off to visit another beautiful village, Boscastle. 
On the 16th August 2004 a particularly rare combination of colliding winds led to the formation of a ten kilometre high anvil shaped thunder cloud over the Bodmin Moor area. Around mid-afternoon the unstable cloud formation burst leading to a violent four-hour long downpour during which 20cm of rain fell. At its peak 2.4cm of rain fell in the space of 15 minutes at Lesnewth. The high ground above Boscastle witnessed 18.5cm of rain, and during the course of one single hour Boscastle itself received 8.9cm. The total rain fall over the course of the day was equivalent to the average rainfall throughout the whole month of August. 
One of the many surprising characteristics of the downpour was how localised it was. In fact four of the nearest 10 rain gauges within a few miles of Boscastle measured less than 3mm over the course of the whole day. But the effects of this unusual rainfall went on to have devastating effects for the local people and wildlife.
The ground was already saturated from previous rain storms. With the ground unable to absorb any more water it simply flowed across the surface and straight into the local rivers. This sudden influx caused the two rivers of Valency and Jordan to swell dramatically - two rivers which converge just above Boscastle. Unable to cope with the sudden torrent both rivers quickly burst their banks. The resulting water surged down the river valley and straight into the village of Boscastle. The rush of water resulted in a 3m high wall of water hurtling down the village's main street. The water continued to flood through the village for many subsequent hours resulting in dramatic images that were beamed around the world. At its peak the flow of water was 140m3/s. It's estimated that in total 20 million cubic metres of water flowed through Boscastle. The annual chance of a flood on such scale is thought to be about 1 in 400. 
The sudden surge of water was so fast that residents were quickly overwhelmed. With little chance of escape they were forced to climb onto the roofs of the engulfed buildings. Over the course of the next few hours eighty people would be airlifted from rooftops by a fleet of 7 helicopters in a rescue operation that continued into the night. Many buildings were badly damaged as flood water gushed into houses, shops, and pubs. In total, approximately 100 homes and businesses were destroyed. And 75 cars, 5 caravans, 6 buildings, and several boats were washed out to sea. Many of the vehicles were never recovered and remain somewhere in the harbour. The local church filled with six feet of mud and water. Bridges were washed away and many trees were uprooted. The flood was later described by the Environment Agency as "among the most extreme ever recorded in Britain." But one of the most astonishing facts is that amazingly there was no loss of life. What's also surprising is that despite the heavy rain none of the rainfall measurements broke any records.
Tourist Alan Graham was in the visitors centre when the floods hit and was quoted as saying: “The front door of the visitors centre smashed through and torrents of water came in until, in the end, half the visitors' centre got smashed away…There were 60ft trees just going down the river like matchsticks - as soon as one of those hit the front of the visitors centre, it just wiped away all the structure of it.”
An often ignored fact is that there were actually two villages affected that day. The media chose to focus almost solely on Boscastle but the village of Crackington Haven also suffered extensive damage. The floods of Crackington Haven were in fact not mentioned beyond the local news.
The cause of the devastating flood is believed to be an extreme example of a local meteorological phenomenon called the Brown Willy Effect. Although others suggest the clearing of lands due to changing farming practices may well have contributed to the impact of the rains. Another suggestion is that the flood may have been caused by a phenomenon called a "blocking high": a large area of static high pressure. The high pressure has the effect of stalling the other weather systems around it.
After the flood construction began on a £800,000 defence scheme that was completed in April 2005. By this time most shops and restaurants had managed to rebuild and reopen. Later work began to widen and lower the river channel in order to increase capacity. In December of 2006 the new visitor centre opened as the building that housed the original was one of those destroyed by the torrent. A new lower bridge was constructed to replace the 100 year-old original that had been partially washed away. During the flood 14 cars became lodged behind the original bridge. This resulted in a huge build up of water and debris exacerbating the flooding. 
Ninety per cent of Boscastle's economy depends on tourism and as a consequence the local economy suffered greatly. Over half of the family-run bed and breakfasts were forced to close and the village’s Museum of Witchcraft lost half of its artefacts. It was nearly a year before the village was in a position to welcome visitors back once more. 
In June 2007 Boscastle flooded again, but the impact was minimal. This suggested the improvements to the flood defences had proved effective. 
I discovered upon arrival that Boscastle has seemingly made a full recovery from the 2004 flood. There was a display at the visitor centre that explained the story of that day. There I learnt that the flood led to the largest peacetime rescue ever on mainland Britain and caused 50 million pounds worth of damage. Amazingly one of the internal displays from the original visitors centre washed up on Barry beach in South Wales and still had some of the geological rock samples attached. My compliments to whoever manufactures that glue.


The People of Cornwall

Scientific studies investigating the genetic history of the British Isles have revealed that three-quarters of the population originate from hunter-gatherers who settled in Atlantic Europe during the Palaeolithic era. They arrived after the ice caps had begun to melt but before Britain had separated from mainland Europe. This evidence suggests that the British population broadly share a common ancestry with people from the Basque country of northern Spain. On account of this it's thought that the first people to arrive in Britain probably spoke an ancient derivative of the Basque language. 
Beyond this, further studies have found that the native Cornish population actually represent one of the most genetically “pure” groups in Britain. They have been found to possess a far higher degree of pre-Roman genetic history than those in other parts of England. In contrast, as you move beyond the Cornish border the DNA evidence reveals traces of Anglo-Saxon and Danish Viking heritage. As a consequence it’s recognised that the people of Cornwall are genetically different from those in the rest of England. They are in fact far more closely related to the native inhabitants of Wales than anywhere else. And together with the Welsh they comprise one of the most genetically distinct groups in the whole of Great Britain. 
One of the main explanations for this is that they can both trace their ancestry back to the Celtic tribes that inhabited Britain before Roman occupation. Both Cornwall and Wales were ancient Celtic kingdoms and the modern day inhabitants of these regions are descended from those ancient tribes. 
Around the time of the 5th century the Anglo-Saxons from northern Europe began to invade what would one day become England. Before this the Celtic tribes were spread all over England and southern Scotland but these invaders forced the native Celtic tribes to retreat west. Their last remaining strongholds became Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Mann, Western Scotland, and Ireland. The inhabitants of England beyond the Cornish border are largely descended from these Anglo-Saxons, and later Viking, invaders meaning that the Cornish and the English (and likewise the Welsh) have completely separate ancestry. Consequently, the Cornish are more closely related to the Welsh and the other Celtic nations than the English. Genetic evidence of this fact has been found through the existence of a particular gene variance that the Welsh and Cornish share.
This view is supported by the genetic similarities found not only between the Welsh and Cornish populations but also between other Celtic nations such as Brittany and Ireland. These genetic differences are even noticeable between people from Cornwall and the neighbouring county of Devon, adding credence to many Cornish inhabitants claim that they are part of a separate race to those from the rest of England. 
It was the Saxons from the Kingdom of Wessex who employed the Germanic word “wealas,” meaning stranger or foreigner, to describe the natives. The Battle of Deorham between the Britons and Saxons is believed to be the point at which the land link between the western and south-western tribes was lost. After this link was lost the Cornish began to be referred to as “westwealas” - western foreigners- separating them from the rest of the tribe who continued to be simply referred to as wealas. This word evolved over time and eventually became the modern word Wales. 
As a result of this ancient ancestry many in the county today continue to consider themselves as a people distinct from the rest of England. This feeling has increased greatly since the late 20th century, partly stimulated by the devolution of political power in some parts of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. But this feeling has struggled against the lack of recognition of independent Cornish heritage. The idea of the Cornwall as a separate nation - much like Wales - has almost completely vanished in the minds of those outside the county. The Cornish do not receive protection under the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities as they are not deemed to meet the definition of a “racial group” as defined by the Race Relations Act of 1976. Despite this many self identify as Cornish ahead of English or British. A survey in 2000 conducted by Plymouth University found that 30% of children described themselves as "Cornish not English". Likewise, a 2004 survey by the finance firm Morgan and Stanley found that 44% of respondents viewed themselves as Cornish rather than English or British. Since 2006 Cornish school children have been able to record themselves as ethnically Cornish on the Annual Schools Census. Over that period the number identifying as Cornish has increased from 24% to 41% in 2011. 
In November 2010 David Cameron said, ‘I think Cornish national identity is very powerful’ and announced his government would, ‘devolve a lot of power to Cornwall’. This was most likely welcome news to The Cornish self-government movement who have been calling for greater recognition of Cornish culture, language, and ethnicity. One of their big campaigns has been to see Cornish listed as a separate ethnic group in the UK census form. 
In the UK census of 2001 no explicit Cornish ethnic origin option was available. Despite this approximately 34,000 people in Cornwall and 3,500 people from outside of Cornwall identified themselves as Cornish by writing it in the "other" option. This amounted to nearly 7 percent of the population. A subsequent campaign was launched calling for Cornish to be listed in the 2011 census but failed to win the support of parliament. In response Cornish Councils published posters explaining others way in which people could identify themselves as Cornish. It is too early to know how effective this campaign was.


Day 3

My first job of the day was to get some petrol. The dashboard warning light had been staring sternly at me for so long that I began to feel I should probably pay it some attention. Thankfully I managed to locate a petrol station before the engine spluttered into silence and I ground to a halt, which was a relief.  My next job was to head to Roughtor.
Situated on the north western edge of Bodmin Moor Roughtor, along with its companion Little Roughtor, forms part of a prominent ridge commanding extensive views across the bleak but beautiful Bodmin landscape.
Clearly the peak and its surrounding area were highly regarded landmarks during the Neolithic period. Ancient remains of walls, settlements, and monuments can be found scattered widely across the windswept landscape of moorland, bog, and rough pasture.
The summit itself is encircled by a series of stone walls that once formed a complete circle around the peak. Excavations have dated the works to the early Neolithic period, about 3,500-4,000BC. Although the walls once entirely enclosed the peak extensive sections of the original construction have long since disappeared. Presumably the long lost stone has been removed to be used elsewhere leaving isolated sections of wall. Within the enclosure itself can be found a number of smaller circular terraces. These are believed to have once formed homes. And the cleared ground around them may well indicate the remains of cultivated “garden plots”. 
Away from the peak a large number of small cairns can be found dotted around the surrounding area. The construction of these monuments is normally considered to be a Bronze Age activity associated with funeral practices suggesting the tor remained an important landmark for a long period. Archaeological evidence supports this view as the various finds found around the area date from a number of time periods. Although it seems the exact purpose of its use changed, the fact that it was used over such an extensive period indicates the continuing importance of Roughtor to prehistoric people. 
Use of the peak extended right up until the medieval period when a chapel dedicated to St Michael was constructed on the crest of the hill. This chapel remains the only known example of a medieval hilltop chapel on Bodmin Moor. First recorded in the 14th century its unusual position may well be due to it serving as a guide for travellers. It’s thought that a hermit may well have lived in or around the chapel maintaining a beacon. Evidence of this beacon still remains today. It’s easy to imagine that this may have provided a pleasing point of reference to inexperienced travellers who could easily find the rugged nature of this forbidding landscape daunting.
It’s a reasonably gentle walk to the top of the Tor and the effort awards you with a spectacular panorama of the surrounding desolate, rugged, beauty of the wondrous moor.
I was confused slightly at first between which peak was Roughtor, which was Little Roughtor, and which was Brown Willy - the highest point in Cornwall. It wasn’t until I got to the top of the ridge and saw another higher peak beyond that I got out the information I’d printed and realised that Brown Willy was in fact the further hill. My ultimate goal was to make it to this landmark so I realised I still had quite a distance to traverse. But the weather was nice so I was happy to press on. 
The prevailing Cornish wind generally blows from a westerly or south westerly direction. This mild moist wind moving in from the Atlantic Ocean slows, due to friction, as it hits the land. The narrowness of the Cornish peninsula results in the winds from the south coast being diverted northwards while the winds from the north are diverted southwards. These opposing winds then meet near the central spine of the peninsula. The convergence of these opposing winds results in uplift of the air. As the air rises it cools and the moisture condenses. This effect is particularly intense when the winds pass over Bodmin Moor due to a combination of its size and altitude. The level of this convergence is further intensified during the summer when the land is heated more than the sea leading to sea breezes during the day. When sea breeze fronts from the north and south coasts meet very rapid convection can develop over the moor resulting in heavy showers or thunderstorms. The area around Brown Willy results in the most severe convergences of these opposing winds leading to the heaviest showers developing over the high ground. For this reason the meteorological phenomenon has been dubbed the “Brown Willy Effect”. 
Once the showers have formed they will often travel in an easterly or north easterly direction (following the prevailing wind). Sometimes a thin line of showers can originate in the Brown Willy area and stretch all the way along the southwest peninsula. In 2006 a continuous line of showers developed that stretched 145 miles from Brown Willy to Burford in Oxfordshire.
Any towns or villages in the path of these showers are liable to experience very sudden heavy downpours, whilst nearby areas can remain completely dry. These sudden bursts of rain can sometimes overwhelm the small river basin of the southwest causing rivers to fill quickly and become saturated. In extreme cases this results in flash floods as the rivers cannot cope with the sudden surge in water volume during heavy downpours. Unable to contain the rush of water they burst their banks covering the floodplain with rain and river water. It is thought that the Boscastle flood of 2004 was the result of a particularly extreme example of this.
The unusual name of Brown Willy comes from the Cornish “Bron Wennyly” meaning Swallow’s Hill. The hill is 419 metres above sea level and upon arrival at the summit I was very glad to have put in the effort. It’s always breathtaking to witness those kinds of sights. With the Bodmin Moor rolling out towards the horizon in every direction you simply stop, take in the view, and are humbled by the spectacle. Due to the recent poor weather I felt very fortunate to have even got the chance to attempt it so witnessing the view felt quite a privilege, I was definitely captivated by the Brown Willy effect. Apparently, on particularly good days, you can see both coasts of Cornwall from the peak of Brown Willy. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t quite that good but you can’t have it all. I’ve still now walked to the highest peak in Cornwall which was worth doing. There were some really nice views from the top of both Roughtor and Brown Willy. One thing that really made me laugh was that when I reached the top of Roughtor I received a text from Vodafone asking if I was planning to go abroad. It seemed a rather odd and remote location at which to be receiving texts. It reminded me of the occasion when I was only minutes from the top of Ben Nevis and I walked past a girl who was busy sending a text message, which I found quite surprising.
Next I was off the Healey’s Cider Farm… 
Historically people would avoid drinking water as it was known to harbour dangerous diseases such as typhoid and cholera. As a safer alternative people would opt to drink alcohol instead as it was far purer, and probably far more fun! 
Farmhouses often used some of their apples to produce what was known as farmhouse scrumpy. This scrumpy was originally produced in order to pay the casual farm labourers for their work during harvest time. This practice was so commonplace that it was actually considered an insult to offer money! And farmers would even compete amongst themselves to produce the best cider in order to attract the best labourers. The cider would be drunk from a horn which the labourers would pass around, some of whom were able to drink 2 gallons per day.
Early brewers were unsure of how to control the wild yeast behaviour properly which resulted in great variations of cider quality. Some of the worst cider was known as “Pig Squeal Scrumpy” due to the noise people made when they drank it. Due to this unpredictable behaviour of yeast the fermentation process was a difficult one to control. To aid the process a leg of mutton was often thrown into the barrel. Some farmers even cut the throats of cocks and poured in the blood. It has been claimed that no traces of meat or bone would be found in the finished brew. This may well have been a good thing as it meant no remains were ever found of the rats that drank from the froth at the top, got drunk, and fell in.
The West Country has become synonymous with cider and cider production. This was partly down to the fact that it was difficult to get fresh fruit into major towns due to the distances and times involved. It was far less risky to process the apples into cider instead. As a result many cider breweries grew up around the region.
Healey’s Cider farm is the largest Cornish cider maker in Cornwall. The family run company owns approximately 20 acres of orchards and press approximately 1000 tonnes of apples per year creating roughly 200,000 gallons of juice. They are also the only distillers in the county making Cyder Brandy and Fruit spirits. Their distillery is actually the first in Cornwall for 300 years. And they are now the only commercial cider makers in Cornwall.  It’s a farm where you can actually have a look around as well and see how they make the cider. It was interesting and I enjoyed my little wander around. They even had a few farm animals to say hello to. Obviously I concluded that it would be incredibly rude of me to visit without purchasing some of their produce to sample. So, bound by social etiquette I begrudgingly obliged and, purely as an act of politeness, brought a couple of bottles of proper Cornish cider.
Next I was off to Porthreath. It was once one of the busiest ports in Cornwall and played a key role in the expansion of Cornish mining. It was in fact the copper capital of the world in the first half of the 19th century but little remains of its industrious past now. Due to this history it is part of the local UNESCO world heritage site. There are very few holiday homes in Porthreath so it supports a proper village community, unlike many villages in Cornwall. It also boasts a very nice beach which I greatly enjoyed exploring. Although it wasn’t the only beach I enjoyed on day three as I also ventured to Hayle and had a walk along the beach there. Well, I figured that seeing the sun had finally arrived it would be rude not to take advantage.


The Cornish Language

This may come as a surprise to some but Cornwall has long had its own distinct language that possesses a completely separate origin from English. It’s an ancient Brythonic (i.e. British) Celtic dialect that shares about 80% of its basic vocabulary with Breton (from Brittany), 75% with Welsh, 35% with Irish, and 35% with Scottish Gaelic. It evolved from the original Celtic languages that were spoken throughout central Europe for several thousand years preceding the rise of the Roman Empire. 
At the time that Rome began to expand her empire Britain, Ireland, France, parts of Spain, Belgium, Northern Italy, and parts of the Balkans all spoke Celtic languages. But despite their original prevalence the indigenous lexicons struggled under the dominance of Roman rule. France, part of the region of Gaul, for example, became heavily Latinised. It's this melding of Gaulish and Latin that eventually gave rise to the modern French language. Although Latin was also brought to Britain’s shores its effect was less oppressive. The first written record of the Cornish dialect was in fact a Cornish-Latin dictionary dating from the 9th century.
After Roman withdrawal from Britain the invading Anglo-Saxons forced the Celts and their language into the western fringes of the isles. In 577 defeat at the Battle of Deorham, and the subsequent loss of territory, resulted in the tribes of modern day Wales and those of the southwest becoming geographically isolated. It's been suggested that it was this separation that created the bifurcation of the two languages leading them to evolve independently. But despite this, the kingdom of Dumnonia still managed to maintain strong linguistic, cultural, and political links with the other Celtic nations, particularly the Breton Celts of Brittany in the northwest of modern day France. In fact, during this period the Cornish and Breton languages were so similar as to be almost indistinguishable.  
Although confined to its small regional area the dialect continued to flourish throughout the Middle Ages. It's thought that usage reached a peak during the 13th century when an estimated 39,000 people spoke the language. But after this point a marked decline occurred due to the gradual adoption of English. One significant factor was the adoption of English by much of the local gentry resulting in it being regarded as more “refined”.
Some historians point to two failed Cornish rebellions as significant turning points in the downfall of the language. The first, the "Cornish Rebellion of 1497", was a reaction to excessive taxes levied upon Cornwall to help finance King Henry VII's war with Scotland. The second rebellion was the "Prayer Book Rebellion".
The Prayer Book Rebellion occurred in 1549 when King Edward VI decreed that the familiar Latin liturgy should be replaced by an English prayer book. This generated a great deal of anger among the Cornish who recognised it as an attempt to undermine and erode their identity. They felt particularly betrayed by the church who had traditionally been supportive of Cornish language and culture. It was well known by the lawmakers that many throughout Cornwall could neither speak nor comprehend English but regardless the law was passed as a way to enforce the use of the language. 
A huge rebellion immediately broke out in the West Country. The uprising resulted in several large confrontations during which over 4,000 people were ruthlessly massacred by King Edward VI's army. It's believed that this amounted to an astonishing twenty percent of the Cornish population. The rebellion leaders were executed and the insurrection was brutally crushed. There may not be a finer example of the callousness of this brutality than that metered out to the Mayor of Bodmin, Nicholas Boyer. He’d taken part in the rebellion but had managed to escape and return to Bodmin. Provost Marshal Sir Anthony Kingston was tasked with travelling to Bodmin to punish the traitors who had escaped. He wrote Boyer a letter announcing his attention to dine with the mayor.  Honoured by the offer the mayor organised a fine feast for the distinguished guest. Before dinner commenced Sir Anthony mentioned that executions must take place that day and suggested the gallows be constructed outside the mayor’s house. Carpenters and builders then began work on the gallows as the two dined. After a friendly and enjoyable dinner the two then ventured outside to inspect the gallows. Sir Anthony asked Boyer whether he thought the gallows would be suitable for a stout man. The mayor confirmed that he felt they would be, ‘Well then’ said Sir Anthony, ‘get up speedily for they are prepared for you…for you have been a busy rebel!’ With no trial held the mayor was then executed outside his very own front door.
The failure to provide a liturgy in Cornish is believed to have greatly hastened the decline of the language. The Book of Common Prayer was never translated into Cornish, although it was later translated into Welsh. 
The extent of the rebellion's impact can be seen in a chronicler's noting of 1602 -only 53 years after the rebellion - that the language had almost totally disappeared. By 1640 the language was only found in the very far west of the peninsula and by 1700 there were thought to be only 5,000 remaining speakers. Despite the dramatic decline the language managed to survive as a common community language around the area of Land's End right up until the late 18th century. As a consequence the language was adopted for many technical terms in the vocabulary of Cornish industries. It became the source of terminology for fishermen and likewise for miners. It's within these industries that the language may have made its last stand. This fact may be particularly applicable in the case of mining where the Cornish mining terms emigrated around the world, along with the Cornish miners themselves, after the Cornish mining industry collapsed.
There is much debate as to who was the last native speaker of Cornish. A large part of the question lies in the interpretation of the word "last". Some measure the last to be the last "monoglot" speaker, a person whose only language is Cornish. The last "native speaker" is a term used to refer to someone who was bilingual in both Cornish and English. And there is a third consideration of those who simply had what's called "traditional knowledge" of the language. 
The last monoglot speaker is believed to have been Cheston Marchant who died in 1676. In 1768 a search was conducted for speakers of Cornish and, at Mousehole, Dolly Pentreath was found. Dolly was a fish seller of about 82 who was considered to speak the language fluently. She is popularly claimed to be the last native speaker. She died in 1777 and despite her famous words "Me ne vidn kewesel Sowsnek!" (I will not speak English!) she spoke at least some.
John Davey was a farmer who died in 1891. Many consider him to have been the last person with some traditional knowledge of Cornish but this is a hotly debated issue. There are many claims of various individuals who continued to speak Cornish throughout the 20th century. Any of whom could be considered to have "traditional knowledge" of the language. For example, during the 1920s the foreman supervising the launching of boats from St Ives would shout "Hunchi boree!” which means Heave away now! This has been suggested as the last recorded sentence of traditional Cornish. But even in 2007 a New Zealander named R. Salmon claimed that much Cornish had been passed down through his family. This gives rise to the possibility that other families around the world with Cornish roots may well also have traditional knowledge of the tongue. 
The UNESCO Atlas of World Languages came under fierce criticism from Cornish speakers when it classified the language as "extinct". In 2010 Rhisiart Tal-e-bot became one of the many people who disputed the idea that the language had ever died out. He referred to a student of his whose grandparents had spoken it stating, ‘It's a myth. There was never a time when the language completely died out; people always had some knowledge of the language although it went quite underground.’ UNESCO has since revised the status to "critically endangered". 
One way in which the language has most definitely survived is through the many Cornish place names found throughout west Cornwall. These names originate from a more modern form of the language - although still pre-1700 - as opposed to the medieval form. This modern form possesses slightly different rules of grammar and pronunciation which is considered to create a pleasing earthy sound. If nothing else these place names help maintain Cornwall's distinct identity.
In 1904 a Celtic language enthusiast, named Henry Jenner, published a book based on the language as it was in the 18th century. This sparked renewed interest in the language that eventually inspired a revival. This revival has spread rapidly and, while large debate has grown over which form of the language should be used, take up has grown exponentially. In 2002 the language became officially recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The revival was further aided when a standard written form was established in 2008 in order to unify the various different forms.
This renaissance has continued to gain momentum as more and more people are inspired to take up the language. Due to such an enthusiastic adoption of the language usage has flourished and it's now believed that over 3,000 people can hold a simple conversation in the dialect. Furthermore, some surveys estimate that around 2,000 people are now fluent. This rise is quite astounding considering the number was only 300 in the year 2000. And the number of people who know simple terms is now believed to have reached about 300,000. 
The language holds great symbolic significance for Cornish identity and heritage, much as any language does for any peoples. And as regional pride has increased so has recognition of this fact. As a result an increasing amount of Cornish language textbooks, literature, music, independent films, and poetry have begun to appear. The Cornish council policy has ruled that all replacement road-signs are to be replaced by bilingual ones. Regular periodical are now published solely in the language and BBC Radio Cornwall broadcasts a regular news update in Cornish. A number of schools have begun teaching the language. The growth of interest has led to many Cornish names being adopted for children, pets, houses, and boats. And even a number of children are now being raised as bilingual. And this is something that it seems is only likely to increase: the first Cornish language crèche opened in 2010.


Day 4

The Neolithic period dates from 4,000BC to 2,000BC. It's around this time that the first surviving monuments in Cornwall's landscape began to be constructed. Cornwall has more Neolithic sites and monuments than any other English county except Wiltshire, the home of Stone Henge. These constructions take many forms such as stone circles, cairns, enclosures (tors), and the small underground chambers called fogous.
Some of the earliest constructions were tor enclosures. These are simply large areas enclosed by stone banks around hilltops that began to be built around 4,000BC in the early Neolithic period. These specific types of enclosures are only found in the southwest. There are many tor enclosures that dot the Cornish landscape such as the remains of the one on Roughtor. There may well be many more have been lost to the ravages of time or are simply lying undiscovered. One of the most obvious features of these constructions is that only the most spectacular and distinctive hills in the area were chosen for their locations. It's highly likely that the placing of these enclosures on such prominent landmarks was a key element of their purpose. It may perhaps be to indicate ownership of the local territory. The monument building itself would have taken a great deal of work indicating that it required the coming together of a large community for its creation. This is particularly significant as it's likely they were places where community gatherings were held for feasting, religious rituals, and social events, as well as most probably being used as trading centres. This pattern of usage is supported by the fact that no conclusive evidence of contemporary permanent settlements within the enclosures has ever been uncovered.
One of the most famous of these tor enclosures is Carn Brea, near Redruth, which was occupied from around 3,700BC to 3,400BC. Archaeological research has discovered lots of everyday material such as axes, pots, and arrowheads. They have also uncovered evidence of violence in the form of scorched ground and a great number of arrowheads located in the vicinity of the walled perimeter. This attack may well have played a contributing factor to the eventual abandonment of the site as similar evidence of such warfare at other settlements elsewhere in Britain has been associated with subsequent abandonment. This evidence suggests that this was a period of great turmoil and unrest. Clearly long forgotten changes within Neolithic society were giving rise to great political and social upheaval.
Henges are in fact a uniquely British and Irish phenomenon. They generally consist of a circular ditch and bank surrounding a circular arrangement of standing stones. One of the most notable examples of these constructions in Cornwall is the Merry Maidens stone circle near Penzance.
Another cultural development around this time was the building of quoits. A quoit is the Cornish name for a common type of grave built using a number of large stones set upright with a capstone placed on top. It's believed that earth mounds were then built around the structure leaving the capstone exposed. The earth mounds have now disappeared leaving the stones free-standing. It's thought that these stone chambers were used for communal and dynastic burials. But the naturally acidic soil of Cornwall has long destroyed any organic remains. It's thought by some that the quoits are not simply places to venerate the dead but also statements of power and ownership of the landscape. Something that would have become increasingly important as people changed to a settled existence and ownership was necessary. There are many of these monuments found around Cornwall, one of the most famous being Trethevy Quoit.
Around 2,500BC Britain saw the beginning of the Bronze Age. It's believed that it was during this time that one of the most iconic and photogenic prehistoric sites in Britain was created. And my first task of day four was to track it down.
Despite its popularity little is know about Men-an-Tol, including its original purpose or indeed even its age. It’s considered to be Bronze Age but no definite evidence has been found to confirm this. The most significant detail of the site is that the biggest of the four stones that comprise the monument has a hole carved through its centre. This makes Men-an-Tol an apt name as it literally translates as “holed-stone”. Such holed stones are incredibly rare in Cornwall, there is only one other known example: the Tolvan Stone near Gweek. 
The monument's exact purpose has long been lost in time but it's believed to be part of a more extensive ritual ceremonial complex in the area. There are many other nearby standing stone sites that it may well have been linked to. Some have suggested the hole in the stone was used as a lens through which to view the other sites, or perhaps as a window into a different world. One thing that is known is that elements of the site have probably been rearranged on several occasions over time. 
I always find it incredibly interesting to visit such sites. To look around and wonder what it was about the location that inspired those people thousands of years ago.
After my visit to Men-a-Tol I decided to try and learn a bit more about an industry that had dominated Cornwall for millennia: mining. 
About 400 million years ago the lifeless remains of a Cyrtospirifer extensus began to disappear beneath the muddy sediment upon which it had made its home. Looking similar to a mussel this ancient brachiopod lived at the same time that the lobe-finned fish were evolving into the first four-legged creatures, the tetrapods. During this period, known as the Devonian, Cornwall was situated south of the equator under a shallow sea. 
Sediment washed from the surrounding landmasses settled upon the Cyrtospirifer extensus' remains burying it in mud. Over millions of years this action of deposition created layer upon layer of mud and sand.
Over the next 100 million years colliding land masses crumpled and lifted these layers up to form a mountain range. The extreme heat, stress, and pressure of this process slowly squeezed and compressed the mud converting the sediment to rock. The rock positioned at the lower part of the crust was forced so deep into the earth that the extreme temperatures melted it into molten magma. The heat of the hot magma caused it to slowly rise up forcing itself back up through the rocks above like a gigantic lava lamp - only with 800C temperatures and real molten lava. As the magma rose it cooled and crystallised into granite. The repetition of this process over millions of years created a complex pattern of granite bodies within the sedimentary rocks. 
Around the time that mammals began to evolve, 290 million years ago, the magma finally cooled completely solidifying into a large mass of granite deep underground called a batholith. This long stretch of granite forms a back bone upon which Cornwall rests. The cooling of the granite caused it to shrink opening up cracks between the granite and the surrounding rocks. As the radioactive uranium within the granite decayed it produced heat which heated the water trapped within the rocks. The heated water began to circulate through the cracks dissolving metals from the surrounding rocks as it flowed. When the water finally cooled it deposited these minerals in the cracks which became known later as veins or lodes.
During this time the motion of the earth’s tectonic plates caused the landmass to begin moving slowly north to where it sits today. During the 8,000 mile march the constant action of wind, rain, and weathering on the mountain range gradually flattened the mountains exposing the peaks of the underlying granite batholith.
As the first dinosaurs began to evolve during the Triassic, 236 million years ago, significant deposits of lead, silver, iron, and zinc also formed within the cracks. The abrasive action of the sea over the last 4 million years has worn the rocks away further bringing the mineral rich rock within the miner’s reach. And the melting of the ice after the recent ice ages carved massive river valleys into the land such as the River Tamar and the Fal estuary. During these periodic ice ages the waxing and waning of sea levels worked to further expose the mineral lodes.
There are tell-tale signs of mineralisation if you know how to recognise them. Oxidised copper minerals display a characteristic green colour. Iron-bearing rocks are betrayed by their rusting reds. Even the softening and erosion of other altered rocks can indicate the presence of valuable ores. Some plants thrive in soils resting on certain mineral rich rocks. And even the stunting or absence of common plants can alert the keen eyed to mineral wealth hidden just below the surface. A long time ago the local inhabitants of Cornwall learnt to recognise these signs. But more importantly they learnt to exploit them. They learnt the taste of mineral rich water and the smells of pyrite and mundic, indicating the presence of iron and copper ore respectively. With the growth of this knowledge came the growth of prehistoric Cornish mining. Strong archaeological evidence suggests that this practice has existed for at least 3,500 years, and possibly up to 4,000 years. 
Adding tin to copper makes bronze. Bronze can be used to forge weapons and other implements giving its accruement huge strategic importance for ancient rulers and tradesmen. It’s also vital for the production of pewter used since the Bronze Age for cups and plates. This importance led to trade routes developing between Cornwall, the eastern Mediterranean, and northern Europe. It was these rich resources that were probably instrumental in the Roman decision to enter this part of the ancient Celtic kingdom: a Roman fort near Bodmin is situated close to some early tin works. At this time the tin ore was extracted by tin streaming. 
Tin streaming is the process of digging mineral rich rock from river valleys. The action of the river flowing over mineral rich rock high in the hills erodes the rock and carries it down stream depositing it in rich accumulations on the river bed. This resulting concentration of ore then becomes buried under subsequent layers of sand and peat. The tin streaming miners would dig through these layers to reach the ore below. The Romans used these sources to supply countries across northern Europe. This extraction continued on into later medieval times. The evidence for ancient tin streaming sites litters the region in the shape of characteristic man made landforms. These tin streams managed to sustain an international medieval tin industry providing wealth and employment, very useful in a remote region which would ordinarily struggle on such poor agricultural ground. 
The importance of the tin industry was recognised in a charter drawn up for King John in 1202 to establish a legal framework providing privileges to tinners’ and the industry. In return for the privileges a special tax was paid called a “coinage”. When refined tin was brought to be weighed the quality would be tested by cutting a corner from the ingot. Known as a “coign” this corner is what gave rise to the term “coinage”. This tax was levied at double the rate in Cornwall as it was in Devon and this situation lasted up until the tax’s abolition in 1838.
By the early 16th century the easily accessible tin streams were becoming depleted. The miners were forced to turn their attention to the exploitation of outcrops. Outcrop mining is simply the act of finding the origin of the streamed minerals and digging them out in open caste mining. At first the shallow ore was mined but as this source also became increasingly scarce shafts began to be sunk reaching to deeper and deeper depths.
In the late 16th century German miners arrived and began attempting to mine copper ore. Although Cornwall had a great deal of copper wealth these early mines were unsuccessful as the required water pumps were inefficient at the time. Consequently, until 1700 tin remained the most important metal mined in Cornwall. In fact, at that time tin was the most important metal in the world and the southwest had Britain’s only resource. Around this time gunpowder began to be used in mining which brought deeper seams within reach, but the problems of water in the mines persisted.
A Devonshire man named Thomas Newcomen took the first major step towards solving the water problem when he invented the “atmospheric” engine. The first commercial demonstration of this new technology was installed at Great Wheal Vor in 1710. This is where the industrialisation of the mining process began. It was around this time that the first successful copper mines began to appear. 
Even though the Newcomen engine was a great leap forward the early engines were expensive and inefficient. It wasn’t until the late 18th century that the more efficient Boulton and Watt engine led to mass adoption of the fledgling technology. By 1790 there were 45 of these new engines in operation. This innovation meant that the deeper seams were truly within reach. But it wouldn’t be long before the last technological piece of the puzzle was added when, in 1800, Richard Trevithick, from Camborne, constructed his first engine. This used high-pressured steam and was even more efficient and powerful than the Boulton and Watt design.
Due to this flourish of ingenuity and technological advances, combined with the development of transport infrastructure, by the early 19th century Cornwall produced two-thirds of the world’s copper. At its height the world markets of copper, tin, and arsenic were dominated by Cornish and West Devon mines. As a consequence Cornwall became one of the richest mining economies in the world during the 18th and 19th century. This of course had a tremendous effect on the landscape, from deep mines to engine houses, foundries, and railways. Canals were dug, tram roads were laid. Ports and harbours flourished and of course opulent houses were built to house the new rich mine owners. 
The British industrial revolution had an insatiable appetite for copper and tin. Copper was used to sheath the hulls of the great ships that traded the world. The invention of tin-plated iron led to a revolution in the food industry. Arsenic, which was once considered just a waste product, was found to have medicinal uses as well as being useful in dyes and pigments.
But of course it was not to last. As the miners dug deeper the rich minerals became scarcer and more expensive to mine. Competition came from other mines around the world in places like Chile, North America, and Australia. In 1866 the abundance of copper caused a price crash. Many of the Cornish mines closed as a result. Many tin mines continued on until the price of tin also dropped and these mines too became unsustainable. As the mines closed and the work dried up the miners began to emigrate. Taking their skills, knowledge, technology, and culture with them the Cornish techniques were exported throughout the world. This greatly influenced 19th century mining the world over. As a consequence Cornish style beam-engine houses can be found from Spain to South Africa and from Mexico to Australia.
By the late 19th century only arsenic remained until the last mine, South Crofty, closed in 1998. Most of the remains that scatter the Cornish landscape date from around 1700 to 1914. The vast scale of the remains indicate the massive contribution Cornwall and West Devon made to the Industrial Revolution, to Britain, and the influence the area had on world mining. It was this development of industrialised mining in Cornwall and West Devon that gave rise to the industrialised society. And for this reason it has been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site to be protected forever.
But it wasn’t just metals that were mined in Cornwall. Those layers of mud laid down 400 million years ago in that Devonian sea had been pressed into slate which proved perfect roofing for the booming numbers of houses as the Industrial Revolution led to a surge in town and city populations. And when the Victorian quarrymen cracked open the slates and saw the remains of the Cyrtospirifer extensus they found the extreme pressures of deep earth had flattened and distorted the fossils making them elongated. To the quarrymen the two shells of the bivalve creatures looked much like a pair of wings. They concluded that they resembled butterflies. Due to so many of these being found in Delabole Quarry they became known as Delabole Butterflies.
So, with mining having long been so central to Cornwall and the Cornish way of life I decided to explore a bit of Cornwall’s mining past by visiting Levant Mine. 
At the height of the Cornish mining industry the Levant mine was one of the most important and productive of the Cornish mines. Central to its productivity was its 27" whim engine built in 1840 by the Harvey and Co company of nearby Hayle. The engine, believed to have been designed by Francis Michell, spent many years hoisting ore from deep within the extensive network of shafts until the famous mine finally closed in 1930. Initially, the engine was to be sold off as scrap metal. Recognising the historical importance of the engine the Cornish Engine Preservation Society was formed in order to try and preserve it. With limited resources there was little the society could initially do except coat it in grease, to protect it from rust, and seal up the site. And so that's how it was left for many decades. In fact, it would be almost sixty years before the engine would steam again. 
In 1967 governance of the engine was handed over to the National Trust to ensure its protection. But with the same problems of limited resources there was little the National Trust could do either. In the proceeding years the Cornish Engine Preservation Society was renamed the Trevithick Society and in 1984 they were finally in a position to begin the long and painstaking process of returning the engine to working order. Dubbed "The Greasy Gang" the group of local volunteers and enthusiasts worked hard for eight years until 1992 when the engine was finally in a condition at which it could be restarted again. By that point the National Trust had managed to restore the engine house. But there was still a great deal of work required before the site could be opened to the public. So the National Trust and the Trevithick Society jointly launched the Levant Beam Engine appeal in order to raise the necessary £128,000 to fully restore the site. Upon successfully completing this mammoth task they set about rebuilding the ruined boiler house, installing an electricity generator, and also installing an oil-fired boiler. And so, after many decades of hard work and dedication the Levant mine now has the honour of being the only working Cornish beam engine anywhere in the world. It is also the first British beam engine to have been preserved on its original working site. Spectacularly perched high upon the rugged cliffs in its remote rural location it now steams for several months a year offering visitors the opportunity to see a real working beam engine and learn more about the importance of the famous mine to the local people and to the Cornish Mining Heritage as a whole. And if it weren't for the foresight, hard work, and dedication of "The Greasy Gang" this irreplaceable piece of engineering heritage would have simply been sold off as scrap.
Although most mines in the area are regarded as tin mines Levant actually produced far more copper than tin, 28,000 tons of tin compared to 138,000 tons of copper. The network of shafts go down 1/3 of a mile and extend almost 1 ½ miles out to sea with over 70 miles of shafts. The seams run so close to the seabed that apparently on stormy days boulders could be heard being tossed around on the sea floor.
The mine was also found to contain high levels of arsenic. At first this was simply considered a waste product and was discarded through the chimneys during the rock treatment process. This was unfortunate for the local farmers as being highly poisonous it had a tendency to kill their crops and cattle. Eventually the mine owners were forced to find a less destructive way to deal with the arsenic. After doing so they found that the arsenic itself was actually a useful commodity, much to their delight no doubt. It was for a time shipped over to the US to be used in pesticides in the cotton fields before finding its way into a number of other products.
It certainly wasn’t an easy life for the Levant Mine miners. They had to work in heat up to 100F and almost 100% humidity. It was said that upon finishing their shifts some miners found their boots to be completely full of sweat. In the end the mine went so deep that it would take them up to 1 ½ hours simply to get to where they worked and another 2 hours to get back again. This was often after walking for a number of miles from the surrounding towns to get to work. This issue was eventually solved in 1857 by the construction of an innovative lift system called the Man Engine. This consisted of a central column which would rise and fall by 12 feet. The column had steps every 12 feet and the mineshaft had platforms every 12 feet. The men would start at the top and step onto the first step of the central column. The Man Engine would then lower the central column and the miners would step off on to the surrounding platform. The engine would then raise the column back up and the miners would then step onto the next step. The column would once again be lowered and the miners would continue down the shaft. This invention was very innovative for its time and decreased the time it took the miners to get to work to 25mins, greatly increasing the mine’s productivity.
Unfortunately this came at a price. In 1919 the Man Engine broke. A large chunk of the central column twisted and snapped off falling down the shaft and killing all 31 men on the lift and a 32nd at the bottom of the shaft killed by the falling debris. It was a disaster for the local community and left seventy children fatherless. The Man Engine was never repaired making the furthest depths of the mine unreachable. This decreased the productivity of the mine and it never recovered, finally closing in 1930.
While at the mine I heard a local joke commenting on the ubiquity of Cornish mining. The joke claimed that “wherever you find a hole in the ground, you'll find a Cornish miner” - or “Cousin Jacks” as they were called.
Next I was off to Porthcurno Telegraph Museum. The telegraph was in fact the first practical use found for electricity. And before its invention the fastest way to communicate over long distances was by sending letters. In 1839 The Great Western Railway became the first user of the new fledgling technology. At the time it was such a novelty that members of the public would pay five shillings to watch the technology work. It even helped catch a murderer who boarded a train in Slough and was no doubt very surprised to find police officers waiting for him when he arrived in London.
By 1855 the world network of telegraph wires stretched over 8,000 miles. But the key technological challenge to overcome was that of running cables under the ocean. The first problem was to find a suitable form of insulation. This issue was finally solved by use of a tree resin called gutta percha. Once the insulation was found it was a case of developing suitable techniques to both create and lay the cables. There were a number of key issues to overcome and many set-backs occurred, but after employing a number of innovative design advances engineers finally perfected the technique. The first successful cable was run from Dover to Calais in 1851. After that engineers set their sights on the even bigger challenge of running a cable across the Atlantic. On the fourth attempt this was finally completed in a technological feat that, for the time, is considered on par with the Apollo moon landing 100 years later. This success was soon followed by the laying of more cables resulting in thousands of miles of undersea cables bringing instant communication to far flung regions of the British Empire. 
In 1870 the secluded Cornish village of Porthcurno was propelled into the centre of the British Empire’s new high-tech global communications system when the remote sandy beach was chosen as the point at which the submarine telegraph cables would come ashore. This resulted in the small coastal village becoming home to the largest telegraph station in the world. These cables collectively formed what has been dubbed the “Victorian Internet”. 
With the onset of World War II the defence of the communication system became vital. The Porthcurno Telegraph station was recognised as being so important that it would become a target for Nazi bombing campaigns. In order to ensure its protection miners were employed to dig tunnels into the solid granite hillside. The station and its equipment were then moved underground into these secret tunnels as protection against attack.
The facility closed in 1970, 100 years after operations began, and the tunnels have now been adapted into an award-winning museum founded by former Cable and Wireless employees. The museum details the significant part the location played in Britain’s communication past while paying close attention to life during the war, explaining the social history of the telegraph, its development, technological advances, and its effect on the world. All in all, the museum is a thoroughly interesting place to visit.
Next up for my day was to visit the beautiful Sennen Cove. Thankfully I managed to catch the last of the sun rays and had a nice wander along the beach. It’s a long sandy beach providing the ideal place for an early evening stroll. 
Cornwall boasts the largest coastline of any English county offering over 300 miles of dramatic scenery encompassing over 200 beaches; many of which are regarded as some of the best in the UK. With such a spectacular back drop there’s little wonder that during the summer months over 2 million people flock to the region. In fact, Newquay alone is said to swell to five times her size during the holiday season. 
Being a thin peninsula you are never more than sixteen miles from a beach and nearly all are conveniently situated close to the South West Coast footpath. Alongside the quantity of seaside destinations Cornwall is also famed for both the quality and variety of its beaches. As a demonstration of beach cleanliness, water quality, and well-maintained facilities, Cornwall’s beaches have earned the county five 2011 Blue Flag awards. 
From isolated coves and small sandy bays to quaint fishing ports and busy bustling harbours, Cornwall is a cornucopia of delights. The region’s many rivers and estuaries have conspired with the sea’s punishing relentless abrasion to carve countless caves, inlets, islets and islands. Vast expanses of seemingly endless golden sands are overlooked by dramatic jaw-dropping cliff top scenery. Nestled alongside dreamy picture-perfect villages lay sublime seashore scenery awaiting exploration. And hidden behind rugged rocky outcrops resides serene, sun-drenched, seclusion begging for discovery. 
Whether seeking secluded sun traps or aiming to acquaint aquatic rock pool inhabitants, visitors are spoilt for choice in this varied, idyllic setting. Cornwall offers anything from thriving, vibrant, nightlife hotspots to deserted wildlife haven isolation. And Cornwall’s unforgiving, tempestuous seas have created an abundance of exciting shipwrecks overflowing with sea life for keen scuba divers to explore.
Beaches like Marazion, Polzeath, Sennen, and Porthtowen provide perfect locations for family orientated getaways offering great facilities, gentle sloping beaches, abundant rock pools, as well as nearby castles, shops, and restaurants. And for those excited by stories of treacherous pirates and piracy places like Polperro detail a colourful history of dastardly shipwrecks and smuggling. 
One of the most notable seaside draws in the county is the town of St Ives. Having long been a tourist favourite it entices its many visitors with both fine sandy beaches and quaint winding narrow streets overflowing with Cornish charm. But in amongst the tourists can also be found many artists attracted to the area for its combination of unusual light and stunning coastline. This potent mix has inspired a hotbed of artistic endeavour creating a thriving art scene in a town teeming with art galleries and artist workshops.
Ever since the 1960s when the UK’s first surfboards appeared on Newquay’s waves it’s maintained its position as the epicentre of the UK surf scene. Love of the sport quickly radiated out from the town conquering the length and breadth of the UK. But Newquay still managed to retain its dominance and is now home to world-class surfing venues, whilst also offering many other water sport activities. Fistral Beach in Newquay picks up plenty of Atlantic swell making it a magnet for those hoping for the perfect wave. And as a result it is one of the best known beaches in Europe and hosts a number of national and international surfing competitions. Its fame results in it often becoming busy during peak season encouraging many to seek out some of the other lesser known beaches also considered to be sources of some of the best surfing in the UK. 
In recent years Cornwall’s coast has also become a popular destination for food lovers. From the many celebrity chef restaurants of people like Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver to the less famous hidden gems focused on quality fresh local ingredients. Cornwall hosts a vast selection of beachside cafes and restaurant catering for all different tastes and price ranges.
And lastly of course is the scenery itself. Constantine Bay, for example, is not only designated a site of special scientific interest for it unique biology and geology but it’s also considered to be one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world. And beaches like Porthcurno, renowned for its stunning, clear, turquoise water set amongst spectacular high granite cliffs, have even helped launch the careers of a number of photographers. Villages like St Agnes have managed to retain their Victorian charm while places like Porthleven are perfect picturesque examples of the harbours which have adorned so many postcards sent homeward by well-wishing holiday makers.
The differing orientation of the two opposing north and south coasts of Cornwall has resulted in the creation of two notably different characters. The more exposed north coast is afforded little protection from the worst of the westerly Atlantic storms resulting in a more untamed wild nature. Under the fierce force of relentless crashing waves the sea has carved and sculpted dramatic scenery of steep marble cliffs, deep gorges, and countless caves and arches. Majestic granite cliffs have crumbled under the ferocious Atlantic onslaught into craggy awe-inspiring epic scenes of rugged beauty. The hand of the sea pulverising the granite into fine golden sands has created miles of spectacular silken coastline and gorgeously smooth beaches reaching out across miles of sand dunes and hidden coves. From long exposed stretches of sandy beaches to concealed private beaches, many of north Cornwall’s beautiful bays prove popular draws for both families and surfers. And the numerous meandering cliff-top walks offer the perfect escape for quiet walks in full sight of the spectacular headland landscapes.
The South Coast differs significantly from the north. Being sheltered from the worst of the Atlantic it offers a contrasting calmer feel. Dubbed the “Cornish Riviera” here sheltered estuaries offer safe anchorage in the many historic ports and harbours. The blanket of land creates hills that gently roll right down to the sandy shores and hug up against the calmly lapping clear waters. The beaches, which generally consist of coarser sand and shingle, can be found nestled against a myriad of market towns, secluded bays, lush gardens, and peaceful rivers. A variety of beaches can be found along this stretch of coast from the coarser shingle and pebbly beaches of places like Penzance to the fine golden sand of places like Porthchapel. But one of the most striking sights along this stretch of coast has to be the astonishing beauty of Kynance Cove, arguably the most spectacular, breath-taking, and awe-inspiring beach in all of Cornwall. A position supported by the many people who consider it to be one of the most beautiful beaches to be found anywhere in the world.
After my stroll along the beach there was one item left on my day’s agenda. A visit to one of Cornwall’s most iconic sites…
The rugged Cornish coastline has long posed a dangerous threat to passing ships. And when a Spanish freighter was wrecked upon the shore near the village of Porthcurno customs officers duly went out in search of the dashed timber. Encountering what they considered to be a frail looking old woman they asked if she’d seen the missing timber. The lady admitted that she had actually retrieved the beams herself that very morning and hauled them up the cliff. She even invited them up to her garden to inspect them. Unable to believe the aged lady could be talking about the same timbers the officers declined the offer and continued their search along the beach. But in truth the “frail looking woman” had single-handedly carried the twelve 15ft beams from the shoreline high up the cliffs. To Rowena the beams provided the perfect building material for some dressing rooms she was constructing. Dressing rooms she wished to add to the theatre she was building in her garden. A theatre, and labour of love, that would one day become one of Cornwall’s most famous landmarks. Commenting later about the incident to her Builder’s Mate Rowena simply remarked, ‘I didn’t tell them a lie now did I?’
And it is to this level of will power and determination that the Minack Theatre owes its existence. From 1931 until her passing in 1983 Rowena Cade planned, built, and financed the amazing spectacle almost single-handedly. Coming from the Cornish word meynek, meaning stony or rock outcrop, the name Minack couldn’t be more apt. Resembling a roman amphitheatre the granite and concrete open-air theatre juts out of the rock face staring out over the Atlantic.
The theatre’s story began in 1930 when a local village theatre company Rowena worked with decided to repeat their previous successful staging of open-air Shakespeare plays. Deciding to tackle The Tempest as their next project they set about searching for a suitable outdoor location. In keeping with the play’s theme it was felt that somewhere near the sea would be appropriate. Rowena considered offering her garden to stage the play but it lacked anywhere to seat the audience. While inspecting the opposite side of the bay she looked into the gully above the Minack Rock and questioned, ‘I wonder if we could make a stage here?’ And so the Minack Theatre was born.
It took six months during a harsh winter for Rowena and two local craftsmen to build a simple stage and seating area. But the hard work paid off and in 1932, under the light of battery powered car headlights, The Tempest was performed to great success. With the dramatic backdrop of the wild Atlantic Ocean adding an extra element of excitement the idyllic setting even prompted an article in The Times. Realising she had started something special Rowena vowed to spend the next winter toiling away in order to improve the theatre for the next season.
Employing the skills and knowledge of her two Cornish craftsmen granite was hand cut from tumbled boulders and inched into position to form terraces for rows of seating .The terraces were then in-filled with earth and pebbles shovelled from higher ledges. All completed perilously close to a sheer drop into the sea. Luckily, the only member of the workforce that ended up going over the edge was a hapless wheelbarrow.
Over the next seven winters the theatre was added to and modified ready for each summer’s performance. But alas, with the arrival of World War II it seemed that all the hard work and dedication might have been for nothing. The army took over the area building coastal defences and barbwire entanglements. Rowena found she was able to routinely crawl under the barbwire to cut the grass but there was little else she could do to halt the theatre’s destruction. Upon the return of peace the theatre had been ravaged. The clearing of the defences had reduced the area back to how it was in 1932. But determined as ever Rowena simply started again and worked to return the theatre to its former glory, even modifying the gun post into a new box office. Walls were erected along with access roads, car parks, and even a flight of steps up from the beach. All created on a shoestring by Rowena and her trusty craftsmen. Unable to afford granite Rowena developed her own technique for working cement. She even fetched sand from Porthcurno beach and carried the bags up to the theatre on her back. And that was the way it became every winter for the next fifty years.
Unfortunately the takings from the short seasons never covered the theatre’s running costs. But unperturbed Rowena made good any annual shortfall with her own money. In the 1950s Rowena approached both a London drama school and the National Trust in hope of financial assistance but was declined. Finally she convinced the Cornwall branch of the National Council of Social Services to take on the challenge. But this arrangement didn’t last long and after three years of losses they gave up, Rowena was left to carry on alone. So that is exactly what she did.
In 1976 assistance was finally found when the Minack Theatre was entrusted to a charitable trust that continues to run it to this day. The trustees extended the season of plays, built an all-year visitor centre, and enlarged the retailing operation. These changes led to bigger audiences resulting in the theatre finally managing to pay its way. It now serves as the most famous open-air theatre in Britain, and possibly the world. Visiting theatre companies from all over the UK, and even the US, come to stage productions at the internationally known theatre just a stone's throw from Land’s End. Michael York, Sheridan Morley, John Nettles, Sue Pollard, Sarah Brightman, Will Self, Jack Shepherd, Hugh Dancy and Charlotte Church have all appeared on its infamous stage. And in honour of reaching its 75th birthday in 2007 it once again played host to a production of The Tempest.
But despite finally passing the theatre into the hands of others Rowena never let go of her theatre completely. Even when she passed away, just short of her ninetieth birthday, she left behind detailed plans of how the open-air theatre may one day be covered for when it rains.
 
Rowena Cade died on 26th March 1983 at the age of 89. The Minack Theatre lives on to thrill and entertain.




Tintagel Coast



Roughtor


Men-an-Tol



A proper Cornish pasty


Hayle Beach



Porthcurno Beach


St Michael's Mount



St Piran's Flag



The Charlotte Dymond Memorial



Trethevy Quoit (exhibiting the strange hole in the capstone)


The County of Cornwall?

It may come as a surprise to many but the exact nature of Cornwall's status as part of England is still a subject of much debate and discussion. As referenced previously, Cornwall began as a Celtic kingdom very much separate to the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. But there was actually no time at which it was officially incorporated into England. It was simply gradually assimilated over time. It’s even been - only half-jokingly - suggested that it never became part of England at all; it’s just that most people forgot that it was ever separate. 
In pre-Roman times Cornwall was part of the kingdom of Dumnonia, a territory that covered most of the southwest peninsula. Its separation from the rest of England was so significant that the later Anglo-Saxons referred to its inhabitants as “wealas”, meaning foreigner. But by the early 9th century, during the reign of Egbert of Wessex, the historical records show charters referencing the granting of lands within Cornwall. This suggests that, despite still being largely independent, some degree of Saxon encroachment had occurred by this point. But clearly this encroachment was only minimal as the locations of the grants, with the exception of Pawton, are all located in east Cornwall. This would suggest that Saxon influence had not reached much beyond the eastern fringes.
In 924 King Athelstan ascended the throne of England. After taking control of the Kingdom of Northumbria in 926 he set about establishing boundaries with the surrounding kingdoms, such as Scotland and Cornwall. This agreement supposedly ended the rights of Cornish subjects to reside in Exeter resulting in their eviction.  Athelstan, exhibiting unbridled warmth and affection for the Cornish people, reportedly described this by stating that, ‘Exeter was cleansed of its defilement by wiping out that filthy race’. This act of establishing boundaries also fixed the Cornish boundary at the east bank of the River Tamar. 
By 931 Athelstan had appointed a bishop for Cornwall within the English church. This was a significant moment in the history of Cornwall's relationship with England because the bishop was subject to the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who of course was an Englishman. But the assimilation was clearly still not total as, around the turn of the first millennium, Cornwall was described, by King Aethelred II, as a province, or client territory, as opposed to an English shire. 
Surviving charters issued during the first half of the 10th century record the granting of more Cornish lands. Interestingly these grants include exemptions from various expected obligations. This suggests the area was under the king's direct rule and implies that the legal and administrative relationship between the king and his subjects was the same in Cornwall as it was throughout the rest of his kingdom. Further to this, in 1051, Cornwall was granted to Earl Odda, along with Devon, Somerset and Dorset. This indicates that by this point Cornwall had been integrated into the normal English system of local government. 
After the Norman invasion of 1066 Cornwall was included in the Domesday Book and listed as being part of the Norman king's new domain. Henry of Huntingdon, writing in about 1129, included Cornwall in his list of shires of England in his History of the English, indicating it had gained the designation of a county in the eyes of some by this point. But even by 1480 William Caxton's Description of Britain debated whether or not Cornwall should be shown as separate to, or part of, England. This continuing dislocation was noted during the Tudor period by the French Ambassador in London who described England by saying it, ‘contains Wales and Cornwall, natural enemies of the rest of England, and speaking a different language’. Although his use of the phrase "rest of" implies Cornwall was indeed part of England, he also describes Wales in the same manner, so use of the term remains ambiguous. 
One map of England and Wales, published in 1595, names Cornwall specifically unlike most counties, but likewise it also mentions Kent in a similar respect. Some maps of the British Isles prior to the 17th century showed Cornwall as a separate territory on a par with Wales. However, most post-date the incorporation of Wales as a principality of England. 
Over the next couple of centuries the common use of the distinction "England and Cornwall" faded until by the late eighteenth century it had ceased completely. But popular Cornish sentiment appears to have remained strong well in to the 19th century. One notable story describes a school pupil who when asked to describe Cornwall's situation replied, ‘it's joined to a foreign country from the upper part’- spoken in the Cornish tongue of course. This response was reportedly heard and appreciated by the whole school, including the school-dame. Another telling example of the continuing distinction between Cornwall and England during the nineteenth century is the fact that even in 1856 the Westminster Parliament was still able to refer to the Cornish people as aboriginals. In fact, it wasn't actually until 1888 that Cornwall was truly established as an administrative county, along with other English counties. This act was later updated in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, which included Cornwall under the heading of "England". 
Wales was effectively annexed by England during the 16th century under the Laws in Wales Acts. But no such act has ever been created regarding Cornwall's status. Instead Cornwall has simply been gradually incorporated into England over time. For this reason, amongst others, some Cornish feel that Cornwall never truly became part of England at all and is still essentially independent, and should be recognised as such.


Day 5

First up on day five's menu was another sampling of the rich Neolithic heritage found in and around Cornwall. 
Carn Euny is one of the best preserved ancient villages in southwest Britain and its origins can be traced right back to the 5th century BC. It was used continually for 900 years until 400AD, around the time the Roman occupation of Britain was drawing to a close. The inhabitants of the village were probably tin traders but also farmed the surrounding 40 acres of the village growing oats, barley, and rye while also keeping a few animals such as goats, sheep, and cattle. The site is also notable for the presence of a fogou.
A fogou is a small underground stone chamber. They’re found solely in this far west region of Cornwall and their name derives from the Cornish word “ogu” meaning cave. Their purpose is unknown but it’s been suggested that they may have been used for ceremonial purposes, refuge, or perhaps simply as a cool underground chamber in which to store food.
I do always enjoy visiting places such as Carn Euny. It’s so easy to see them as simply a pile of old rocks. But if you just take a moment to really think about it, it becomes humbling to acknowledge that an astonishing 900 years of forgotten memories echo from those crumbling walls. They’ve seen everything you could imagine and much that you couldn’t. Good times and bad. From feasts and festivities full of laughter and joy to loss and grievance, suffering and pain, they’ve seen it all. Within those walls countless newborns have gasped their first breath and many respected elders have drawn their last. Life in all its varied acts has repeated its performance over and over to the granite audience of those walls. The specific details may have been forgotten but those stoic stone faces stand testament to the fact that long-lost dramas were acted out in that very place.
At one point as I clambered out through an entrance I naturally placed my hand upon the stone lintel above the doorway. I couldn’t help but wonder how many hands before mine have unthinkingly been placed in that exact same position to support crouching departees just like me, many no doubt. Those stone structures have long outlived all their previous occupants, and they will most probably long outlive me too.
Next up was a given for this part of the UK, I had to sample a proper Cornish pasty. The infamous Cornish pasty is a baked pastry possessing a history inextricably linked to the people of Cornwall, their culture, and their heritage. Today it’s regarded as Cornwall’s national dish and, with food being one of the three top reasons people visit Cornwall, it’s a dish that many visitors are likely to seek out. Fillings as diverse as chicken tikka, stilton, pork and apple, and of course vegetarian options can be found inside pasties of various shapes and sizes sold in shops throughout Cornwall. In addition, catering for the tastes of the more adventurous palates, there are even sweet pasties available with ingredients such as apple and fig or chocolate and banana. But, despite the potential for sweet fillings, there’s nothing sweet about the fiery and passionate debate this seemingly innocuous pastry based foodstuff can ignite. 
Although modern pasty makers enjoy experimenting with the contents and style of pasties there is in fact fierce debate as to which particular combination of ingredients and method of preparation constitutes a “true” Cornish pasty. Running parallel to this discussion is the long-held argument of whether “true” pasties have the crimp on the top or on the side. But, despite this attempt to formalise pasty practice, old Cornish recipe books show that they were historically made with whatever ingredients were available. And it seems the modern concept of the "traditional" pasty may not be as traditional as we assume. For example, the earliest recorded recipes use venison, as opposed to beef, for the meat constituent. This use has largely died out now and modern interpretations generally agree that they are filled with beef, sliced or diced potatoes, suede, onion, and with salt and pepper seasoning. Another recent tweaking of the recipe is likely to be the use of puff pastry. It’s unlikely that busy working class housewives would have traditionally employed this time consuming technique. It’s far more likely that they would have instead opted for the simpler shortcrust pastry, probably using lard. As for preparation, it’s generally agreed that traditionally the meat was chopped into small pieces, the vegetables were thinly sliced, and the ingredients were all raw when sealed inside the pastry. The addition of carrots is a practice frowned upon by many and likewise the modern fashion of over seasoning to the point of making the pasty spicy. As for the technique of chopping everything so finely as to be almost indistinguishable, for some this is considered nothing short of sacrilege.
The origins of the pasty are unclear and there remains great debate as to its true source. Some even go so far as to suggest that it may date right back to the time when cooking first moved beyond simply roasting a piece of meat on a stick and became more elaborate and sophisticated. 
A great controversy occurred in 2006 when a recipe for a pasty was found tucked inside an audit book dating from 1510. This greatly predated the previous record holder for the oldest recipe which dated to 1746. What was so controversial about the discovery is that it was actually made in the county of Devon. This sparked a bitter argument between the two counties. 
Despite the discovery of this recipe there are in fact many much earlier references to pasties from other parts of the country. In fact, the term “pasty” itself is an old English word for a pie filled with venison or other meat, vegetables or cheese, and baked without a dish. Historical records indicate that pasties have been made in England since at least 13th century. They were initially enjoyed solely by the upper class and the wealthy. In fact, one of the earliest references to pasties is in a charter, associated with Great Yarmouth, granted by Henry III in the 13th century. And Henry VIII’s wife Jane Seymour wrote him a letter expressing hope that a pasty had reached him in better shape than a previously sent one. In 1465 there were an astonishing 5,500 venison pasties served during a feast of the archbishop of York. There are also a great number of references to pasties in many old works of fiction. Some of the most notable references are the ones that occur in Shakespeare plays. But, out of all the references the earliest recorded mention of all dates as far back as 1300. 
But, despite once enjoying much popularity amongst the wealthy English, over time the pasty was gradually forgotten. And it wasn't until the 20th century that they were rediscovered by the English during holidays to Cornwall. Cornwall has been a hugely popular holiday destination since the 1940s and holiday makers would often return home with tales of the tasty snack. As a consequence their popularity began to spread. 
Although pasties have a long history in British cuisine it wasn’t until the expansion of Cornish mining during the 18th and 19th centuries that the Cornish variety came into existence. The pasty provided the perfect all-in-one handheld meal that was cheap to make and whose dense filling and unusual shape enabled it to stay hot for long periods. It constituted a welcomed, nutritious meal that could sustain the miners through long periods of gruelling work.
It has been claimed that the side crimp enabled the miners to have a thick edge to hold which could then be discarded due to their dirty, arsenic covered hands. But, photos from the era show the miners to be eating the pasties end to end and have them inside paper bags or covered in muslin. Other sources suggest the pasty pastry would be marked with the initial of the owner so that they could be put aside and finished later. The practice of eating pasties became so ubiquitous that later mines even built large ovens to help keep the pasties warm until it was time to eat them
When the Cornish mining industry collapsed the miners emigrated to other mining regions around the world. As they moved into new areas they took with them their skills and knowledge, as well as their pasties. With their expertise and mining knowledge they were often far more experienced and knowledgeable than the other ethnic groups, as a consequence they would often be looked up to and emulated. Many Cornish practices were copied by the other ethnic groups including their lunch. As a result, pasties are now known and celebrated in many places throughout the world including many parts of Australia, USA, Mexico, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. In some mining communities pasty rivalry would even occur between the different nationalities, all believing that they had found the perfect combination of filling and cooking technique. 
In Upper Peninsula, Michigan, a small wave of Finns arrived, in 1864, to work in the mines. At this time a Cornish community had long been established in the area. Thirty years later a second, larger, wave of Finns arrived. These Finns then adopted the practice of pasty making. It's likely that they learnt it from the first wave of Finns, as opposed to the long established Cornish. As a result they assumed the pasty was a Finnish dish and it now forms part of “ethnic” celebrations as a Finnish speciality.
Another example of the pasty’s migration around the world stems from the chant the Cornish miners would make upon delivery of their pasties. The Cornish word for pasty is “hogen” which became “hoggan”. When it was time for lunch the bal maidens, who worked at the mines, would supposedly shout down the shaft “'oggy 'oggy 'oggy” and in reply the miners would shout “oi oi oi”. When excited Aussie spectators were chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie!” in support of their team during the Sydney Olympics it seems unlikely that they were aware they were actually referencing the old Cornish chant brought to their shores through mining.  
Pasties have become a very popular take away option for both Cornish locals and visitors alike. In 2008 alone Members of the Cornish Pasty Association baked roughly 87 million. In sales this amounts to £60 million which roughly equates to 6% of the food economy of Cornwall. Over 1,800 people are employed in the industry and some 13,000 other jobs also benefit.  
The Cornish Pasty Association embarked upon what became a nine year campaign in order to try and protect the unique history of the Cornish pasty. They succeeded in their plan on 20 July 2011 when the term “Cornish Pasty” was awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status by the European Commission. This means that in order to be branded a Cornish Pasty the pasties have to have been prepared, although not baked, in Cornwall. Pasties which conform to these requirements will be stamped with an authentication logo, and those that don’t will be unable to use the term. 
Although this move was good for Cornish pasty makers it was unwelcome news for producers outside the county who saw it as unfair protectionism. Many businesses, small and large, say they will be affected by the ruling when it comes into force in 2014.
The agreed PGI recipe will include minced beef, onion, potato, and suede cut in rough chunks along with light seasoning. The type of pastry is not specified but it is to be tough enough to not crack during preparation and cooking. This ties in with the local Cornish joke that a pasty should be made strong enough to survive a drop down a mineshaft. The ruling dictates that the pasties must be made in the traditional “D” shape with the crimping along the side.
This PGI status will have unknown effects throughout the UK as pasties have become a staple snack item across the nation. They constitute big business with most supermarkets and grocery shops stocking them. But, what is known is that the Cornish are fiercely proud of their pasties, its traditions, and its history. Although the exact nature of the pasties origin is unknown and it probably doesn’t lie in Cornwall, the pasty still has a very long and famous history in Cornwall. And, as many in Cornwall will tell you, true pasties can only come from Cornwall. And can only be made the Cornish way.
Early on during my trip to Cornwall I unthinkingly found myself walking along the road munching on one of the mass produced stodgy examples of a pasty. All of a sudden I began to worry that I was performing some kind of cardinal sin in this part of the country. But thankfully, I didn’t find myself being chased by any pitchfork brandishing hordes or anything. But I knew I needed to do things properly so I popped in to Hayle to taste one of the award winners, and I have to say I was mightily impressed. Without doubt the best pasty I’ve ever had. I was surprised by the weight of it to start with, it was quite a beast. But then when I began to tuck in I could see why as it was packed full with quality minced beef, proper lavish. And I wasn’t the only one to think so. I chose to sit by Hayle’s harbour wall to enjoy my lunch and by the time I’d finished I’d acquired quite the avian fan club. There were at least three crows and half a dozen pigeons loitering around waiting for me to complete my feast. Fair play to their patience though as they did me the courtesy of waiting until I’d finished. But once I’d moved on they didn’t take much encouragement to dive in and begin feasting on what crumbs I’d left. Unfortunately for them the pasty was so good that I don’t think I’d left much. Oh well. Either way, they did better than the one legged seagull I found standing on the roof of my car upon my return. I felt a little guilty for scaring him away as I approached but there you go.
Next I was off to St Michael’s Mount… 
Positioned roughly a quarter of a mile off the coast of the pretty Cornish village of Marazion stands the striking sight of St Michael’s Mount. This small rocky island rises up majestically from the sea reaching almost 230 feet. Some believe St Michael’s Mount to be the ancient Roman tin trading centre of Ictis, if so it may well lay claim to being the oldest town in Britain. Other stories claim the island was once known as The Hoar Rock in the Wood, which some consider may indicate folk memory recalling a time when the sea level was lower and the island was a large hill surrounded by woodland. But an alternative theory of the island’s history revolves around a very common theme in ancient Cornish folk stories: giants.
It’s claimed that during the time of giants St Michael’s Mount was a full six miles from the sea and was known as The White Rock in the Wood. A local giant named Cormoran concluded the area would serve as the ideal location for a home he wished to build for him and his wife, Cormelian. He decided that a massive hill rising up amongst the woodland would allow him to keep a keen watch over the surrounding country providing plenty of warning of any would be attackers. 
Cormoran was very choosy about the specific rocks from which his home was to be constructed. He insisted on selecting only the finest white granite from the West Penwith Moors for the hill. Cormoran’s wife however, who assisted the labour by carrying the quarry in her apron, was a little less particular about which stones were chosen. She felt that a much closer collection of greenstone rock would serve as just as suitable a building material and would also involve a lot less effort. So, waiting until exhaustion induced sleep had overcome Cormoran, she quickly gathered up some of the greenstone rock in her apron and hurried back to the hill in the hope of duping her husband. Unfortunately, Cormoran awoke before Cormelian had completed the task. Enraged at his wife’s deceit Cormoran kicked the stones out of her apron and they scattered upon the ground. The largest of the rocks fell into the sea forming the island today known as Chapel Rock. 
After the construction of their new home was completed Cormoran set about the normal every day giant's duties of terrifying and terrorising the local people, or by some accounts all of Cornwall. He would often venture into the district of Penwith to steal oxen, sheep, and hogs. Being 5.5 metres tall he was able to carry as many as half a dozen oxen on his back in single trips. The sheep and hogs he would simply tie on strings and hang around his waist. But worst of all, much like many giants, he was also partial to the taste of human flesh and would feast upon men, women, and children.
There are a number of huge boulders that litter the landscape in the west of Cornwall. These are said to be the remains of battles between Cormoran and another giant on Trencrom Hill. It seems the two didn’t get along very well and consequently they would continually throw rocks at one another. But Cormoran didn’t find all the local giants so disagreeable. He was particularly friendly with a giant who lived on Trecrobben Hill, a giant imaginatively called Trecrobben. The two were so friendly that in that familiar neighbourly way they would lend each other tools. One day Cormoran wished to borrow a cobbling-hammer from Trecrobben. Obligingly Trecrobben threw the hammer across to Cormoran. Unfortunately, Cormelian was very near-sighted and in a disastrous case of bad luck she happened to leave their cave just as Trecrobben threw the hammer. A surprising note specified in this tale is that she wasn’t wearing her hat. The implication being, presumably, that her hat would have been expected to protect her from the force of a stray, flying giant’s hammer. But either way with her eyes requiring a moment to adjust to the light after departing the dark cave she failed to see the approaching hammer. This combined with the lack of protective headwear resulted in her being struck right between the eyes. She immediately fell dead at Cormoran’s feet. Apparently the cries of the two remaining giants were so loud as to produce a storm. But after the grieving had ceased, and as a fitting tribute, the giantess was buried under Chapel Rock, the island she inadvertently helped create. 
King Arthur caught wind of Cormoran’s antics and journeyed to the mount to investigate. Upon his arrival he found Cormoran in the middle of cooking his dinner, a dinner of roasted children. Unimpressed by both Cormoran’s culinary choice and generally brutish demeanour Arthur informed the giant that this would be the day that he died. The two then entered into a ferocious battle which supposedly ended when Arthur killed the giant with a dagger. I say supposedly because King Arthur wasn’t the only individual laying claim to having killed the giant. 
According to some accounts the councillors of Penzance convened to discuss the issue of Cormoran They resolved to encourage a would-be hero to end the giant’s reign of terror by generously offering Cormoran’s own treasure to anyone capable of disposing of the giant. A farmer’s boy named Jack took up the offer. Late one evening he swam across to the island and dug a trapping pit large enough to accommodate the giant. The following morning he blew a horn to attract his targets attention. Upon hearing the horn Cormoran angrily stormed out of his cave and threatened to cook and eat Jack. But as he approached the young boy he failed to notice the pit, hidden under a covering of sticks and straw, so he fell straight in. Jack then killed Cormoran with a blow to the head from a pickaxe and filled in the hole before retrieving the giant’s treasure. A rock was then placed over the hole to mark the spot and to this day the rock is known as the Giant’s Grave. 
After his success Jack was dubbed “Jack the Giant-Killer” and he went on to have a very successful career in giant killing. Many Cornish fairy stories arose about his exploits and many books were published detailing the accounts. The tales are all set during the reign of King Arthur and are generally characterised by violence and gore. He also became closely associated with eponymous Jack in the Jack and the Beanstalk folk tale. In more modern times he was also referenced in Roald Dahl’s BFG as Jack the Giant Killer, whom all the other giants were afraid of. 
Stories of giants are very prevalent in Cornish folklore and as time wore on Jack became synonymous with many of these tales. But some argue that Jack has actually no place in Cornish folklore. They claim he was simply a creation of early eighteenth century folk tales as a reaction to people growing weary of King Arthur’s tales. He was therefore created to fill King Arthur’s shoes. This may well be why both Jack and King Arthur are reported to have killed Cormoran. 
Stories of giants have long been recanted throughout Britain. In particular the tales have heavily been associated with Cornish and Welsh folklore. They are often represented as the original inhabitants of Britain. In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 1136 book The History of the Kings of Britain the giants were referred to as the indigenous people of Cornwall who were slaughtered by Brutus, reportedly the founder of Great Britain. Sometimes the giants are even represented as ancestors or gods of the island before the arrival of “civilised man”. Their gigantic stature is thought to reflect their other worldly nature. They are often attributed with the creation of the natural landscape and represent the force of nature. This is why the location of so many rocks and boulders are attributed to them such as the ones claimed to be the result of warring between Cormoran and the giant at Trencrom Hill mentioned above.
There’s a path you can walk at low tide that joins St Michael's Mount to the mainland. But at high tide boats ferry passengers across, which is the option I was left with. It was nice to have a look around the castle. One thing I found particularly interesting was the advice given by a previous butler of the house who’d written a book on how to be a butler. Apparently, footmen are ideally of equal height and the taller the better. In fact the tallest were even paid more on account of their stature!
I also read that once upon a time tourists wishing to visit such stately homes would simply turn up and hope the housekeeper would show them around, often the family were away so it wasn’t a problem. But one such visitor who must have come as quite a surprise was Queen Victoria who turned up unannounced while the family were away. I bet they were a little disappointed to be informed of that occurrence upon their return!
The family who own the estate are called the St Aubyn’s and their estate owns a lot of the surrounding area. Once such area is found on the other side of the beachfront road and has been leased by the RSPB who’ve turned it into a wetland sanctuary. They’ve clearly done a great job as over 1,000 species have now been recorded there, including one of the rarest moths in the UK. It’s also one of only a handful of sites in the UK where Grey Herons nest on the ground.
You can’t actually enter the area but this has clearly done wonders for the wildlife. I was particularly surprised at how relaxed the rabbits were. Even when I stopped, watched, and took a few photos they simply carried on completely unperturbed. I’m not used to such behaviour from wild rabbits. I’m used to them being in a constant state of perpetual terror and ready to run at any moment. It just goes to show what can be achieved by nature when you simply take humans away. I’m sure there’s a moral in there somewhere.
Lastly, I popped to Porthleven. I'd visited it on previous travels but wanted to go back and visit Giant’s Quoit, although it’s not the only stone with that name. As mentioned above Cornwall has a long and ancient tradition of tales and legends regarding myths and mythical creatures. From the Knockers to whom Cornish miners would leave the leftovers of their pasties as offerings to the Neolithic stone monument called The Hurlers that locals believed were the remains of men turned to stone after playing games on the Sabbath. And often these creatures were employed as explanations of the natural landscape. Much like the scattered rocks associated with Cormoran and the giant from Trencrom hill. Giant’s Quoit, however, is attributed to Cormoran’s wife, Cormelian.
Cormelian would carry rocks in her apron and she did this so much that the rocks eventually wore a hole in her apron through which some of them would fall. One of the most famous of these rocks is Giant’s Quoit. This particular rock landed on the shore of Porthleven and it’s no surprise that such stories as Cormelian’s would have arisen to explain the location of this rock. The ancients, being far more in touch with the natural world than we are, would doubtlessly have long ago recognised that it doesn’t resemble any of the rocks in the surrounding area. In fact it is of a type not found anywhere else in Britain: garnetiferous gneiss. And it’s quite a reasonably proportioned specimen, 20 tons in total. Countless Atlantic storms have beat down upon the rock but all have failed to move it even a single inch. There was a particularly memorable storm that struck Porthleven in December 1989. The storm was so severe that Porthleven became famous for the astonishing images of the seas destructive power. But still, the Giant’s Quoit didn’t move an inch.
So how did this alien object arrive on the shores of Porthleven? Well, it’s an erratic: a rock that doesn’t belong to its surroundings and has been transported to its location by the action of ice during that last ice age. This particular rock possibly came from Norway.
As the freeze deepened the ice sheets gradually spread out from the Arctic engulfing all in their path during the inexorable southward march. As they crept slowly over the land they would encounter, and then engulf, rocks that would subsequently become encased within the ice. Some were just pebbles; some were the size of houses. And as the ice sheets continued moving south these rocks would then get taken along within the ice. Eventually, of course, the ice age passed and the ice sheets retreated. And as the ice melted the rocky stowaways were left behind, often many miles from their original location. 
There are some particularly famous examples of erratics in the Yorkshire Dales, called the Norber Boulders. But there are also plenty of other examples around the UK. The largest one is considered to be the Merton Stone found near the village of Merton in Norfolk. But the award for the world’s biggest examples can generally be attributed to North America. The largest we know of is found near Okotoks, Alberta, Canada. Officially it’s called the Okotoks Erratic but generally it’s just referred to as “Big Rock”. An apt name as it weighs in at a staggering 15,000 tons. The Big Rock belongs to a band of erratics that stretch from Jasper National Park in Alberta all the way south and over the border to northern Montana.
Charles Darwin wrote extensively about this particular geologic phenomenon after encountering many such examples during his trip on the HMS Beagle. Darwin found many, of notable size, south of the Strait of Magellan on the southern tip of South America. Those particular examples would of course have come from ice sheets originating in Antarctica. Darwin attributed them to ice rafting, which is the transport of material deposited on top of the ice. And Darwin wasn’t alone in this suggestion. At one point many believed that the rocks were deposited upon glacial flows during landslides and rock falls. It was some time before geologists would finally realise that the rocks were in fact actually picked up by ice flows and carried within the ice.
Long ago it was considered that such rocks were evidence of the legendary floods that many ancient texts describe happening 10,000 years ago. Many ancient civilisations and cultures had legends of such epic floods such as the Mesoamerican, Sumerian, many Indian cultures, and of course the Hebrew story of Noah in the Old Testament. Coincidentally, the cultures were at least close with the dates of the deposits as it was roughly 10,000 years ago that the massive ice sheets finally receded and the erratics were deposited in their present locations. Well, apparently…
When it comes to the Giant’s Quoit things haven’t been explained entirely. There still remains one mystery with regards to the Giant’s Quoit’s location. The theory argues that the surrounding sea was full of icebergs that had calved from the great ice sheet. One of these then beached upon the shore of Porthleven, melted, and then deposited the Giant’s Quoit. The problem is that of course when the earth was engulfed in ice sheets the sea level would have been much lower than it is today. Consequently, the coastline would be substantially further out to sea than its present location. So any rocks encased within icebergs that washed up on the shore would now be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. So how did the Giant’s Quoit end up on the shore? Well, perhaps once upon a time long, long ago an ancient Giantess was out collecting rocks in her worn out apron when…
As I climbed back up the cliff face I was a little surprised to find a group of pensioners grinning at me. I think they’d watched my antics of running back and forth and jumping on the rock while trying to capture a picture of me on it using the timer on my camera. I didn’t realise anyone was watching me and thought they must have wondered what the heck I was doing. Oh well.

I saw an amusing car sticker in Penzance that made me chuckle: No Pasties Left in Vehicle Overnight.


The Duchy of Cornwall

A duchy is simply an area governed by a duke, a dukedom. The Duchy of Cornwall was created by Edward III in 1337 in order to provide income to his heir, Edward of Woodstock (later known as the Black Prince). The title was created from the former Earldom of Cornwall and was the first dukedom to be conferred in England. After Edward of Woodstock succeeded to the throne he then recreated the title for his son, the future Richard II. In 1421 a charter was created enshrining the title as a means to provide income for the heir to the throne. This is the role the title has fulfilled ever since.
The duchy consists of two parts: the title and the honour, and the landed estate which forms the source of income. Originally the estate consisted of the seventeen duchy manors found within Cornwall but today a significant proportion of the lands are situated beyond the county border. Although the duke owns the income from the estate he does not own the estate outright which restricts his ability to sell the assets for his own benefit. 
There are two titles that are held by the heir to the throne, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, but they are distinct. The title of Prince of Wales is the traditional title of the heir to the throne but is not restricted to the eldest son, whereas the Duke of Cornwall is. The title of duke is either inherited at birth or upon succession of a new monarch, with the eldest son automatically becoming duke. The title can only be held by the oldest living son of the monarch; women are also unable to hold the title. If the duke dies without leaving an heir the title reverts to the crown until an appropriate heir is born.
The title is one of two duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The duchy includes over 570 square kilometres of land, more than half of which resides in Devon. Other large holdings can be found in Hertfordshire, Somerset, and Wales. The duchy has been valued at around £650 million. In 2010 alone it earned the duke over seventeen million pounds. A sum that is not automatically subject to tax although the current duke, Prince Charles, has voluntarily paid tax on earnings at a rate of 40% since 1993. In modern times this represents the primary source of income for the Prince of Wales, although much of this income is not derived directly from the estate but is borne from additional financial investments.
There are a number of additional rights over Cornwall that form part of the title. The duke, for example, has the right to estates owned by those who die without leaving an heir. This rule applies throughout the whole of Cornwall. The duke also owns about three-fifths of the Cornish foreshore, the beds of navigable rivers, and has the right of wreck on all ships wrecked on Cornish shores. The duke also possesses special rights regarding the fishing of a number of species. Many of these rights and privileges would ordinarily be owned by the crown elsewhere in England.
In recognition of its special constitutional position the Royal Commission of the Constitution recommended, in 1969-1971, that official sources properly refer to Cornwall as a duchy, as opposed to simply a county. This was a result of its “special relationship” with the Crown. The special rights that the duke holds over the territory of Cornwall add, in the eyes of many, to the debate about the constitutional status of Cornwall.


Day 6

So first up on my plan of day six was a trip to the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro. 
The vibrant city of Truro is the centre for administration, commerce, and tourism within the county of Cornwall. With a modest 2001 census population of 17,431 Truronians, as they are known, the city status is owed to its well known cathedral. Aside from the cathedral the city is also well known for its cobbled streets and Georgian architecture. It is often said to exhibit "the finest examples of Georgian architecture west of the city of Bath". Truro is in fact the only city in the county of Cornwall and also holds the title of being the most southern city on mainland Britain. It is also considered to be both the commercial and retail centre of Cornwall. Although, like many towns and cities, the city fears for its future as it watches its character and individuality eroded away and replaced by national chain shops and pubs.
The historic market town's name is believed by some to come from the Cornish term Tri-veru meaning three rivers, referring to the confluence of the Rivers Kenwyn and Allen and the River Truro, but this origin is debated. The city's name has also been adopted by the towns of Truro in Nova Scotia, Canada, and the town of Truro in the US state of Massachusetts. 
Located in the centre of western Cornwall Truro is situated approximately nine miles from the south coast in a river valley that forms a bowl surrounding the city. This steep-sided bowl combined with swollen rivers after heavy rainfall were attributed to the flooding seen in 1998 which caused large scale damage. 
The earliest records of a permanent settlement at Truro date from the Norman period. Initially the city grew as an important trading centre due to its port and the local mineral wealth. Due to its strategic importance a castle was built during the reign of Henry II in the 12th century. But nothing remains of the castle today. Self-governance was awarded in 1589 by Elizabeth I, which included control over the nearby port of Falmouth. Later in the century Falmouth was awarded its own rights to its harbour. This began a long rivalry between the two towns. The dispute was eventually settled in 1709 when control of the river Fal was divided between the two.
Due to improved mining techniques during the 18th and 19th century the city prospered greatly and many of the great Georgian and Victorian townhouses were built to accommodate the wealthy mine owners. Becoming the centre of high-society in the county it was dubbed "the London of Cornwall".
Two noteworthy Truro inhabitants include Richard Lander, the explorer who discovered the source of the river Niger in Africa and was awarded the first gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and Humphry Davy, the inventor of the miner's safety lamp.
The Royal Cornwall Museum and Courtney Library was founded, in 1818, by the Royal Institution of Cornwall for “the promotion of knowledge in natural history, ethnology and the fine and industrial arts, especially in relation to Cornwall”. Located in the centre of Truro it is now the oldest museum in Cornwall, it is also considered to be the leading museum in Cornish culture. The museum has been housed in its imposing granite-fronted grade II listed building since 1919. The building originally comprised two separate buildings. One of which was the Truro Baptist Chapel, built in 1848, and the other was the Truro Savings Bank, built in 1845. Despite being two separate buildings they were in fact both designed by the same architect, local man Philip Sambell. The achievements of Philip Sambell should be considered even more remarkable for the fact that he was both deaf and without speech. 
The museum holds exceptional collections ranging through archaeology, fine art, biology, geology, mineralogy, social history, and world cultures. Many of these displays owe a great debt to a number of generous benefactors who have donated a dazzling array of objects to the museum over the years, not least of all the famous unwrapped 25th dynasty Egyptian mummy. Alongside this can be found the largest specimen ever found of liroconite, an extremely rare and beautiful local mineral, as well as a large gold nugget found nearby in the village of Perranarworthal.
One of the most notable of the offerings is the permanent display explaining the history of Cornwall and its people all the way from the Stone Age to the present day, something that I greatly enjoyed. The museum also has extensive information about the local natural history and the unique geology that led to Cornwall's mining heritage, as well as a world famous collection of minerals, many of which were found in the surrounding area.
The museum does a very good job of providing an overview of Cornwall and Cornish life. I learnt lots of interesting facts like, for example, some Cornish hedges are over 3,000 years old. This makes them amongst the world’s most ancient constructions still serving their intended purpose. I also learnt that caterpillars have over 4000 separate muscles, whereas humans have less than a puny 1000. Seal milk is 50% fat and the consistency of mayonnaise. Snails belong to a group of molluscs called gastropods, which literally means “stomach-foot” (I guess when Adam was dishing out names he’d clearly got a bit bored by that point). Butterflies can taste with their feet (but complain that everything tastes of cheese), and badgers make their beds before going out at night (except the teenage ones, obviously).
I also learnt a bit about the chough (pronounced "chuff"). The red-billed chough is an acrobatic member of the crow family. As well as a glossy black plumage they also exhibit a distinctive bright red bill and legs making them unique among the crow family. Their closest relatives are jackdaws with which they share a similar vocalisation, only louder and clearer. The chough vocalisation is a distinctive “chi-ow” sound that often draws attention. This provides onlookers an opportunity to witness their spectacular aerial displays of diving and swooping illustrating their mastery of flight. 
They mate for life after a courtship which involves the preening and feeding of the female by the male. After choosing a cave or cliff-face crevice suitable for a nest site they construct a wool-lined stick nest on a spot that they return to each year.
Choughs mainly feed on insect prey which they find amongst short grazed grass. For this reason they are often found near grazing livestock. They can even sometimes be found perched on the backs of sheep searching for ticks. 
They can be found throughout Ireland, western Great Britain, southern Europe, and the Mediterranean as well as mountainous regions across Central Asia, India and China as well as Ethiopia. But there is one particular region with which they share a particularly close association… 
The red-billed chough has long had strong links with the county of Cornwall. Chosen as the county bird they form part of the county coat of arms alongside a tin miner and a fisherman. The association goes back several hundred years to the extent that they were initially referred to as Cornish choughs. During the 17th century the chough was known as the Cornish crow in Scotland and Wales due to its close association to the county. And according to legend King Arthur did not in fact die at the end of his last battle but instead his soul migrated into the body of a chough, as a consequence it became unlucky to kill the birds. 
But sadly, even by the end of the 18th century naturalists were starting to notice its decline in the region. Despite the King Arthur association sportsmen and natural history specimen collectors were having a serious impact on numbers. The problems were compounded by the fact that its preferred habitat of grazed cliffs and heathland was suffering from steady degradation as livestock were moved inland for ease of management. The cliff slopes scrubbed over and by the mid 1800s nesting had almost disappeared in south Cornwall. The decline continued unabated until the last successful nesting attempt took place in 1947. A single aging pair maintained a presence in the area but failed to breed. The first of the pair passed away in 1967 after which the remaining bird maintained a lonely cliff top vigil until 1973 when it too was seen for the last time. For the next 28 years the county bird of Cornwall was absent from its cliffs. That was until a surprise occurrence in 2001.
Conservationists and landowners had been working together for more than 10 years to restore their habitat and encourage them back. In 2001 it all paid off when at least three wild chough individuals nested close to Lizard Point, possibly arriving from Wales. So far they have managed to successfully breed each year and have raised over twenty young, the beginnings of a fledgling population. Their numbers are now unknown but it looks like a healthy population is slowly beginning to return. So far it has proved to be one of the most successful conservationist stories in the UK to date. 
According to legend, upon the re-introduction of a chough population into Cornwall King Arthur will return. But, at the time of writing, there have been no reported sightings.
Another interesting fact I discovered in the museum was that between 1871 and 1881 it’s estimated that almost 1/3 of Cornwall’s mining population emigrated. As a consequence the population of Cornwall today is barely 100,000 more than in 1841. I doubt you could say that about many other regions in the UK.
Next up I visited the spectacular Truro Cathedral. It’s situated right in the centre of Truro and well worth the visit. Salisbury cathedral was started in 1220. Amazingly, it was over 650 years before a similar feat was attempted. And of course it was the ambitious Victorians who would be first to attempt to emulate the medieval period’s renowned cathedral builders. And so it was that Truro cathedral became the first cathedral to be built on a new site since Salisbury, but the site itself can trace its history almost all the way back to the time the Salisbury cathedral first opened its doors.
There has been a Parish Church of St Mary at the site of Truro cathedral since at least 1259, and probably before. It was initially assumed that when work commenced upon the new construction the original 16th century parish church would be completely demolished to make way for the new building. But architect John Loughborough Pearson fought hard for his innovative idea of incorporating the south aisle of the original church within the design of the new cathedral. Consequently this clever idea meant that metaphorically the mother church of the diocese reached a protective arm around one of her daughter churches. A sweet and romantic gesture that helped partially preserve a construction that had stood on the site for over three hundred years. 
And so it was that with much celebration the then Duke of Cornwall, who would later become King Edward VII, laid two foundation stones on 20th May 1880. Traditionally the first stone laid is the northeast corner stone but in addition the Duke also placed a second stone in what was then the churchyard of St Mary’s. This was an act of faith as at that time it was unknown whether enough money would be raised to complete the construction. But sure enough the money was found and the second stone eventually helped form one of the pillars in the nave of the Cathedral. 
The fearless Victorian trailblazers adapted the original medieval gothic architectural style while also taking advantage of more modern building techniques. In doing so they created a beautiful monument to their determination, as well as one of only three triple-spire cathedrals in the country. But the endeavour still took over thirty years to complete as the cathedral was finally completed in 1910.
Personally, I found the cathedral to be incredibly beautiful. But it was clearly a little too spooky for some. I overheard one Yorkshireman saying to his friends, ‘See, that just gives me the heebie-jeebies,’ while referring to a stained glassed window. And he must have been around forty so he wasn’t a kid either; I have no idea why it bothered him so, but there you go.
As I explored the cathedral I came across a painting of a bird’s eye view of Cornwall. Reading the notice I learnt that it had been presented to the cathedral by Prince Charles. This was done to mark the centenary of his great-great grandfather laying the first foundation stone of the cathedral. What piqued my interest the most was that Prince Charles unveiled the painting on the very day that I was born. Meaning construction of the cathedral began exactly 100 years before I was born, how about that.
Next I was off to Carn Brea. Carn Brea is perhaps the most important archaeological site in the county. It’s a hill upon which a series of massive stone walls were constructed during the early Neolithic (between 4,000 and 3,500 BC). These massive ramparts are estimated to have stood 2 metres high and been 2 metres thick. Sadly, little remains of these structures today but it was still interesting to go have a look, although incredibly windy, to the point that I was almost blown over at one point. Obviously I hadn’t picked the best day for it.
I had a little trouble finding Carn Brea at first as I didn’t have a definite location. In fact it wasn’t until I’d taken a wrong turn and then went to turn the car around that I spotted the 90-foot high Celtic cross that sits on top of it, which was a bit of luck. You wouldn’t think something like that would be difficult to find, but somehow I struggled anyway. The monument was erected in honour of a local mine owner called Francis Basset.
I was really in two minds over whether to venture out for the last part of my day’s plan, which was to attend the latest production of the Miracle Theatre Company. 
The Miracle Theatre Company is considered to be one of the UK’s foremost touring theatre companies. For the last 34 years they’ve travelled the southwest visiting ancient sites, gardens, castles, and beaches bringing their own brand of witty and highly visual outdoor theatre to whoever is willing to risk the weather. Mainly doing one night shows the touring company generally consists of 5-7 performers and crew taking their lights, sound, and staging with them. They focus on creating intelligent, entertaining, and original theatre set amongst spectacular outdoor backdrops. 
I’m sure this is great when the weather’s good but it really wasn’t on day six of my trip. It just wouldn’t stop raining. When I was at the Calstock festival I’d got chatting to a lady and discussed being unsure of whether to go on account of the weather. She dismissively assured me that they’d still do it whatever the weather was. I then pointed out that I wasn’t concerned over whether they’d do it; I was concerned over whether I wanted to sit through it in the pouring rain!
The infamous theatre company were presenting their interpretation of the Oscar Wilde classic The Importance of Being Earnest. A play that was “dashed off” by Wilde during the summer of 1894 while on holiday at a house in Worthing with his wife and two sons. Sadly, it was the last play he completed before being famously sent to Reading prison for homosexual “crimes”.
Anyway, time was getting the best of me so I wasn’t sure that I’d even make it in time. I decided to just have a go and if I made it then I’d see it, and if not then I wouldn’t. So I drove over to Redruth where it was to be performed. I got my coat and umbrella and wrapped up warm and walked over to the proposed site only to find a closed gate with a sign stating that it was now to be performed at the local school. Of course I had no idea where that was. I walked up the road a bit to see if I could see a school but couldn’t see anything. At that point I looked back and through the rain saw a lady walking towards the gate carrying a fold up chair. She stopped before getting to the gate and immediately turned around and began walking away. Not only was she carrying the chair but also she was covered head to toe in thick waterproofs. It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to guess that she was probably also there for the show. She also looked like she knew where she was going, so I decided to follow. She had quite a head start on me and walked quite quickly so I struggled to catch her up. This made me feel like a bit of a stalker but it was unavoidable. It wasn’t until we actually reached the school, which was a good few minutes away, that I finally caught up with her and was able to confirm that she was indeed there to see the play. In fact she received a number of complimentary comments about how well prepared she was in her waterproofs and was even awarded a free programme for her efforts. But thankfully with her help I managed to find the school and saw my first ever production of The Importance of Being Earnest, which I thoroughly enjoyed. And as a bonus it was in the warm and dry!
Due to it being one of the first performances of the new production we were granted the privilege of the cast and director making themselves available after the performance to answer questions and gauge audience response. Unfortunately, few of the audience had previously seen the play so were unable to give the type of educated feedback that I sensed the director was hoping for. Still, the audience were heavily schoolchildren-based and it seemed an interesting and enlightening experience for them. Except the one girl I passed in the corridor during the intermission who, phone in hand - no doubt updating her Facebook status or something - complained to her friend the play was ‘boor-in’.’ Well, you can’t please all the people all the time as they say. Personally, I greatly enjoyed the performance, “In a handbag?!!”
In the Royal Cornwall Museum I found the original quote of the joke about Cornish miners: “Wherever a hole is sunk in the ground …no matter in what corner of the globe…you will be sure to find a Cornishman at the bottom of it, searching for metal”. The amusing quote was supposedly of an early 20th century traveller and alludes to the interesting story about the degree to which Cornish miners emigrated around the world…
By the mid-nineteenth century the mining industry that had allowed Cornwall to thrive for so long was in decline. The miners were being forced to dig deeper and deeper to reach the metal rich ores making the mines increasingly less efficient. The copper deposits were beginning to run dry and in 1866 a further fatal blow occurred when the global copper price crashed. Decline through 1860 to the early 1900s left over a third of miners out of work. But in other parts of the world the discovery of new untapped mineral reserves created a hunger for experienced men with the necessary skills to exploit these new mineral riches. As a consequence Cornwall saw mass emigration on a scale never seen in the region before.
Although Cornish colonies could already be found in places like the United States and the Caribbean, the mass migration to the new world during the 19th century saw movement on an unprecedented scale. From 1861 to 1901 around 20% of the Cornish male population migrated, every single decade. This was three times the average for England and Wales. In total, over a quarter of a million people left. Most of these migrants were miners, but there were also many others such as farmers, merchants, and tradesmen. This mass-emigration had a dramatic effect on Cornwall, an effect that is still felt today. The movement was so significant that it earned itself its own designation: the Cornish diaspora. The Cornish miners spread throughout the world to places such as the United States, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and South America.
At the time that the new mineral reserves were being discovered, such as the gold rush in the American West, Cornish miners were ranked among the world's greatest hard-rock miners. This created a thirst for their skills and expertise which they were not slow to capitalise upon. Their skills often allowed them to quickly rise up through the ranks becoming managers and engineers, accumulating small fortunes in the process. Agents were employed by mining companies to seek out and recruit the Cornish miners. Meetings and lectures were organised to sell the merits of emigration to the miners. And with promises of better pay and conditions many took up the offer. Their experience was given so much preference that, in 1880, a consensus of Cromstock, an infamous seam under Virginia, listed 28 different nationalities, but despite such a high number of different ethnicities almost a quarter of the miners were from Cornwall.
But it wasn't only their digging skills that were in demand. Cornish invention and innovation had put Cornish mining technology at the forefront of the world. When Richard Trevithick exported his high-pressure steam engines to Peru in 1816 not only did it herald the beginning of the global mining economy, but it paved the way for the miners to follow as the skilled men were required to install and operate the sophisticated machinery.
And along with the engines came the buildings that housed them. The indelible marks of Cornish hands have been left on landscapes throughout the world in the form of Cornish design engine houses, some of which still stand today. And along with the engine houses came the houses themselves. Cornish style cottages can be found in many 19th century mining communities across the world. And even a number of house names and street names in the new world owe their origin to Cornish migration.
Mostly it was lone men that made the trip, particularly at first. Improvements in transport allowed them to work for short periods abroad before returning home to their families. Some left their families behind and simply sent back money to support them. This helped provide an appreciated boost to the struggling Cornish economy. In the late 19th Century it's thought that around £1m was being sent back every year from the Transvaal region of South Africa alone. Unwilling to face long periods of separation many sent for wives and families to join them once they had settled. Many single men simply left Cornwall behind forever, marrying into the local communities. And as the mining communities continued to grow, so did the population of Cornish immigrants. In the 1890s it was estimated that in Grass Valley, California, over 60% of the population were Cornish. And the "Copper Triangle" in Australia had such a substantial Cornish population that it became known as "Little Cornwall". 
But despite the wealth that could potentially be made it wasn't always easy. Unable to afford oxen many immigrants would pull handcarts for thousands of miles for months on end. Upon arrival their hands were so deformed as to appear as “eagle claws”. Not all immigrants even survived the trek. And for those who did, arrival wasn't always the respite they might have hoped. There were parts of Australia where the miners, unable to find suitable accommodation, were forced to live in shelters they had carved into the sides of river banks. And of course there was no such thing as a permanent position. If the mine's minerals ran dry they were forced to pack up and move on again in search of further employment. 
Along with their skills and technology the miners also exported their mining terminology. Cornish terms became the standard mining industry terms with shafts, levels, winzes, raises, and adits all being Cornish phrases that were adopted by the mining world. And of course beyond the mining world they also left an imprint of Cornwall on the communities in which they lived through their culture and way of life. Their tight knit communities continued to share and enjoy the same Cornish pastimes of sports, religion, cuisine, and music - but particularly music.
The mining life was harsh but the Cornish had long learnt that music could often help raise tired spirits. Their uplifting singing would echo around the mines, churches, and saloons. Brass bands enthusiastically sprung up providing great sources of entertainment. In some places even opera houses were constructed enticing professional singers to visit and help the workers escape from the hard grind of daily life.
And as is the case with any culture, when large enough quantities of its people are implanted in amongst outsiders, their ways and customs can often appear peculiar and quirky to the uninitiated. It’s thought that it was perhaps their habit of always asking if any jobs were available for their cousins back home, who invariably were called Jack, was what gave rise to the nickname, “Cousin Jacks”. An alternative explanation is that it arose due to the miner's tendency to greet each other as cousin combined with the fact that so many were called Jack. But whatever the origin, Cousin Jacks became notable personalities within the communities they adopted. They would often baffle their fellow miners with their distinctive impenetrable dialect. As a result Cousin Jack stories began to be shared detailing confusing situations that occurred when people were unable to decipher what the Cousin Jacks were saying. As if the thick accent, unusual grammar, and tendency to drop letters were not confusing enough, they also had many obscure and unique terms for things, only exacerbating the confusion further. 
The name Cousin Jack became a nickname for all men from Cornwall and likewise the women were called Cousin Jennies. But despite the odd struggle in comprehension they were often greatly admired and respected wherever they went. Their unique expertise, knowledge, skills, and tenacity for backbreaking work helped enamour them to their fellow miners and communities. A fact no less epitomised by the statue erected in Bendigo, Australia, honouring the Cornish miners with an inscription thanking those “who created the economy from which grew a beautiful city” and laid the foundations for the region of Victoria to become an industrial state.
In the Grass Valley of California the Cornish heritage has not been forgotten and the singing of traditional Cornish carols lives on. And in Moonta, Australia, the Kernewek Lowender (Cornish Happiness) festival attracts ten of thousands of visitors each year. It's the largest Cornish festival in the world and proved so popular that even in its very first year the local bakery almost ran out of flour as the pasties were so popular. 
And along with the culture, songs, and food another legacy of the Cornish miners is beginning to be celebrated: the people themselves. Many of the descendents of the Cornish miners are beginning to grow an interest in retracing their ancestry. A great number of Cornish family history genealogy groups have sprung up across America, Australia, and South Africa as renewed interest in heritage has inspired people to explore their roots, discover the history of their past, and retrace the steps their Cousin Jack ancestors took, leading them all the way back to Cornwall.


The St Piran’s Flag

There are three saints that can potentially lay claim to the title of being the patron saint of Cornwall: St Piran, St Michael, and St Petroc. It's claimed that St Michael appeared to a boat of fishermen over St Michael's Mount in 495AD. St Petroc was known, amongst other things, for the far less pedestrian task of removing a splinter from the eye of a dragon. But the most popular and pervasive of the saints is without doubt St Piran. No one knows for sure who St Piran was but lots of tales, myths, and legends have grown up around his name. 
There were reportedly a number of Irish saints who made their way across to Cornwall, but Piran remains the most famous of them all. He is also one of the twelve most revered saints in the Irish calendar and, according to legend, was born in Ireland during the 6th century, perhaps on the island of Cape Clear off the coast of County Cork. He is thought to have ventured to Rome in order to study scripture for a period before returning to Ireland. Upon his return he was made a bishop at his monastic settlement, Saighir Kieran, in County Ossary. Legend has it that he went on to perform many miracles while there. As word of these miracles spread he became renowned within the region. He healed the sick and even managed to raise dead soldiers from battles. 
It would be natural to assume that possessing the ability to raise the dead and bring back lost friends and relatives would give rise to a certain degree of popularity, but this wasn’t the case for poor St Piran. Many of his fellow countrymen grew jealous of his miracle working and a group of kings became afraid of his powers, but not afraid enough that they weren’t prepared to try and kill him. Some might argue that if you plot to kill a man who possesses magical powers it might prove wise to dispose of him quickly before he can use his powers on you. But instead, surprisingly, the kings decided to tie a millstone around St Piran’s neck and roll it off of a cliff top into the Atlantic Ocean. 
On the chosen night there was a particularly mighty storm raging, which no doubt helped add a little drama to the proceedings. Not least of all when, just as St Piran was being rolled over the edge of the cliff, a massive bolt of lightening lit up the whole sky and was followed by a tremendous, deafening crash of thunder. As is often the case with these things as soon as St Piran plunged into the sea the storm suddenly subsided. The storm clouds miraculously parted and the sun’s rays began to beam down serenely. St Piran was then spotted peacefully floating away on the millstone which, no doubt much to everyone’s surprise, had fortuitously developed the ability to float. And so, St Piran gently sailed off towards the Cornish shores on a large piece of granite. 
After some time floating around on his rocky buoyancy aid St Piran washed up on a beach between Newquay and Perranporth. He gave his name to the beach and it became known as Perran Beach. After arrival he set about building a small chapel in the dunes of Penhale sands. His first disciples were said to be a badger, a fox, and a bear, although there is unfortunately no record of how deeply his Christian message resonated with the woodland creatures. But what is (supposedly) known is that at some point he lit a fire on a black hearthstone. The heat from the fire caused smelting to take place and the fire leaked a white liquid in the form of a white cross. The white metal was tin spilling from the black ore. As a consequence, St Piran was reportedly the first person to discover tin. Almost three millennia after people had begun mining it. He then adopted the black colour of the ore, the white colour of the tin, and the cross shape of the tin that spilt from his fire and used them for his flag. 
As word spread of his teachings the local Cornish people flocked to see him. He went on to become a Cornish abbot and taught the people how to extract tin from the rock. This caused mass celebrations which lasted for several days giving rise to the phrase “drunk as a Perraner”. He was supposedly very fond of drink himself. So much so that he reportedly met his end by falling down a well while drunk. One can only assume that sadly there were no large rocks to hand that he could adopt as floatation devices. No date has been recorded of his death but he supposedly lived for 200 years, which is a pretty good innings by anyone’s standards.
Over the years his reputation grew and his discovery of tin led to him being appointed the patron saint of tin miners. Later he became a patron saint of all of Cornwall and his flag became the flag of Cornwall. St Piran’s Day started as one of the many tinners’ holidays and is celebrated on March 5th. The modern observance of this started in the late 19th and early 20th century when Celtic revivalists raised its profile. St Piran’s day is now celebrated throughout Cornwall with many parades and festivities. The people of Perranporth take a procession to St Piran’s Oratory and the nearby 1000 year-old Celtic cross. 
Davies Gilbert recorded the earliest known description of the St Piran as the standard of Cornwall in 1838. But some people claim it was flown during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Some even believe the design dates to before 1188 claiming it was used in the Crusades. One of the oldest depictions of the St Piran can be found in a stained glass window of Westminster Abbey. This was placed there in 1888 in honour of Richard Trevithick, the famous Cornish inventor of the high-pressure steam engine. 
There are similarities between the St Piran flag and the old Breton flag of Brittany, Kroaz Du. A place with which Cornwall shares its ancient Celtic history. The Breton flag is a negative of the St Piran with a white background and black cross. The St Piran also shares similarities to the St David flag, a flag that has been used as an alternative to the Welsh flag, which has a black background with a gold cross. In light of the close connections between the Celtic nations of Wales, Brittany, and Cornwall it's very likely that there is influence between the flag designs. But, alongside these similarities there are also many other claims for the designs origin. It’s been suggested the design was based on the arms of the Earl of Cornwall, the Duchy of Cornwall, the arms of other Cornish families, or linked to the black and white livery of St John. Another suggestion is that the white cross represents the igneous/metamorphic rocks such as granite mainly found in southwest of Cornwall, while the black represents the Devonian slate and Carboniferous sandstone which are mainly black-greyish in appearance in northern Cornwall. But these days it is commonly understood to represent the white of tin metal in the black tin ore as well as being symbolic of the truth shining through the blackness/darkness of evil. 
The flag is now a popular adornment to many cars and buildings amongst the Cornish. The flag was also represented on the Royal Barge as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant along the Thames when it was flown along with flags representing England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the City of London. Due to its recent popularity it has now become a recognised symbol of Cornish identity all over the world.


Day 7

I didn’t actually visit it on this particular trip - although I’ve visited before and highly recommend it – but it seems folly to discuss this part of the Cornwall and not mention arguably its most famous attraction…
The Eden Project is located four miles from the town of St Austell and holds the record for the world's two biggest greenhouses. Created with the intention of educating its visitors about the relationship between people and plants the projects brief was “To create a spectacular theatre in which to tell the story of human dependence on plants.” And the phrase “spectacular theatre” couldn't be more apt.
The image of the two massive geodesic biomes at the Eden Project has become a world famous sight. Each of the two adjoining biomes emulates a different environment to provide the ideal conditions for plants from different regions. The first dome, the larger of the two, is the Humid Tropics Biome and emulates a tropical environment. The climate of this dome is designed to mimic regions such as Malaysia, West Africa, tropical South America and the tropical islands. It measures a staggering 55 metres high, 100 metres wide, 200 metres long, and covers 3.9 acres.  It's in fact so large that 11 double-decker buses could be stacked up inside it. This makes it the largest greenhouse in the world and even allows the tropical rainforest trees to grow to their full height. It plays home to rainforest plants such as bananas, rubber, cocoa, coffee, teak, and mahogany. The air temperature is maintained between 18C and 35C and is kept moist with automatic misters and even a waterfall. 
The smaller dome is the Temperate Biome containing plants from the Mediterranean regions of the world like South Africa, California, and of course the Mediterranean itself. Although the smaller of the two it still measures 35 metres high, 65 metres wide, 135 metres long, and covers 1.6 acres. The air temperature in this dome is kept between 15C and 25C in the summer and at least 10C in the winter. 
The domes are constructed from hundreds of hexagonal and pentagonal plastic panels supported by a tubular steel frame. The panels vary in size with the largest being up to 9 metres across. The structure is completely self-supporting and takes the form of a geodesic structure. Alongside the plants, the domes also provide a home for a great number of insects, butterflies, and even some lizards.
There is also a third uncovered biome in the surrounding area that represents the temperate regions. Here can be found plants such as tea, lavender, hops, and sunflowers. Amongst the meandering paths can also be found sculptures including a giant bee and a robot constructed from old electrical appliances.
The idea for the Eden Project was conceived in 1994 by Tim Smit and was designed by Nicholas Grimshaw and the engineering firm Anthony Hunt and Associates. Construction started in October 1998 and took 2½ years to complete. The first part of the Eden Project, the visitor centre, opened to the public in May 2000 with the full site opening on 17th March 2001. The total cost of the development was £86m. 
The location of the Eden Project is in an old 60 metre deep disused clay pit. The pit was mined for over 160 years but by the mid 1990s had been all but exhausted. The crater is 15 metres below the water table and is consequently prone to collecting water. This water is itself then collected and recycled to create the humid conditions of the Tropical Biome as well as serving the toilet facilities. 
Aside from the biomes there are other facilities such as The Core. The Core is an education facility that opened in September 2005. Incorporating classrooms and exhibition spaces its aim is to help communicate Eden's central message about the relationship between people and plants. The building is particularly notable for its unusually shaped timber roof. The geometry of the roof is derived from phyllotaxis -the arrangement of leaves on a stem- which is the mathematical basis for nearly all plant growth.
In 2002 the Eden Project launched the Eden Sessions. The Eden Sessions are a series of musical performances hosted at the site. Artists including Amy Winehouse, Muse, The Verve, KT Tunstall, Pendulum, Tim Minchin, Chase & Status, Plan B and Noah and the Whale have all performed at the site.
Another novel project developed at the Eden project was to enter the site on Google Street View. The idea was commissioned in order to put the Eden Project grounds online. A series of photographs were taken enabling web users to remotely visit the site, even going so far as to view inside the biomes.

Other interesting facts:

The Eden Project houses more than 135,000 plants of around 4,500 species.
On average it attracts between 6,000 and 14,000 visitors everyday.
About 30% of Eden Project visitors have never been to Cornwall before.
In June 2001 the one millionth visitor walked through the doors, three months after the site fully opened.
Nearly two million people visited in its first year.
The Eden Project is the third most popular charging tourist attraction in the UK.
The Eden Project won the "Project of the Decade" award in 2006.
The Eden Project has been described as the 8th Wonder of the World.
The home of the Eden Project is the size of 30 football pitches.
The toilets at the Eden Project won the Best Loo in Britain award in 2003.
In 1981 the clay pit in which the project is situated appeared in a BBC adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as the surface of the planet Magrathea.
Some scenes in the James Bond movie Die Another Day were filmed in the grounds of the Eden Project
The two biomes weigh only slightly more than the air they contain.
22 litres of water are collected every second, which is about 20,000 baths every day.
The largest biome, the Humid Tropics, is large enough to house the Tower of London.
The largest hexagon is big enough to contain a London taxi.
Putting up the biomes required the largest birdcage scaffolding in the world - 12 levels, 25 metres across, containing 46,000 poles. In all, 230 miles of scaffolding was erected earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
If laid end to end the 46,000 scaffolding poles used during construction would run from St Austell to London.
The biomes are made up of 625 hexagons, 16 pentagons, and 190 triangles. In each one there are 667 tonnes of steelwork, and 536 tonnes of air.
The domes are covered in Ethyl Tetra Fluoroethylene (ETFE) which is about 1% the weight of glass.
The bubbles are made of inflated hexagonal transparent windows each being tough enough to take the weight of a rugby team.
A total of 85,000 tonnes of soil was made for the project, the equivalent in weight of 616 blue whales.
It took 12 dumper trucks and eight bulldozers six months to clear 1.8 million tonnes of dirt from the site.


I started my final day at Shire Hall in Bodmin where I uncovered a few interesting facts about local crime and punishment. For example, the locals used to very much enjoy public hangings. So much so that when William and James Lightfoot were hung for murder over 20,000 people flocked to Bodmin to see the spectacle.
Back in those days strangulation was a slow process and friends were allowed to hasten death by pulling on the victim’s legs. This is where the saying “You’re pulling my leg” came from. Although how the macabre act of pulling on your friends legs in order to hasten death became associated with humour I do not know.
Along those lines I also found out that when people were placed in stocks and pillories the crowds would sometimes tie ugly faces or false animal ears on them for amusement. This is where the phrase “To be made a laughing stock of” came from. Although I’d rather have an ugly mask tied to my face to be honest because I also learnt that it wasn’t just rotten veg that was thrown. Stones were often used as well, so put me down for a nice protective facemask any day.
In 1405 it actually became law that every town and village had to have a set of stocks. And any place too small or poor to own any wasn’t allowed to call itself a village and was instead designated a hamlet. And pillory-less towns were not allowed to hold markets either. Offenders placed in stocks could be left there for days or even weeks at a time. And surprisingly, this form of punishment was never formally abolished and was used right up until the 1870s.
Another form of punishment that was metered out in prisons was the dreaded tread wheel. This consisted of a set of revolving wooden steps that once the prisoner had stepped upon was compelled to keep treading. On average prisoners had to tread forty steps per minute for four hours. Some prisoners would collapse from exhaustion trapping and breaking their legs in the revolving steps.
But why am I focusing so much on crime and punishment? Well, day seven was the last of my days in Cornwall so I decided to finish on an uplifting note and learn about an infamous, grisly local murder.
In the mid 19th century Cornwall was a largely rural county dotted with farms and villages. One such farm was Penhale Farm on the edge of Bodmin Moor. Penhale was run by a Mrs Peters and, amongst others, employed a servant girl named Charlotte Dymond and a farmhand by the name of Matthew Weeks.
Charlotte had lived and worked at Penhale for eighteen months. She was an attractive girl of about eighteen who was smartly dressed and reputed to be a flirt. Matthew weeks, contrastingly, had a pock-marked face and heavy brows giving him a sullen look. His lack of teeth in his top left gum made him appear to smirk when he smiled. He was about twenty-three, 5ft 4 inches, and was lame in his right leg, which caused him to walk with a limp. The two were in a relationship and had been seeing each other for about two years. There was however a rival for Charlotte's affection in the shape of Thomas Prout. Thomas had in fact visited Penhale and told Matthew that he intended to move there and that he would take Charlotte away from Matthew.
At about 4 o'clock on Sunday 14th April 1844 Charlotte and Matthew both changed into their best clothes and left Penhale Farm. Charlotte indicated that she would not be back in time to milk the cows. In truth, she would never come back at all.
Later that evening a fellow farmer, Isaac Corey, visited Penhale. He mentioned that he'd seen Matthew on the moors with a young woman. He'd recognised Matthew due to his limping gait but was unable to identify the woman, although he did describe her as wearing the clothes Charlotte had wore when she departed. 
Eventually Matthew returned home, alone. Mrs Peters questioned Matthew as to Charlotte's whereabouts but he denied any knowledge. Over the coming days Matthew was repeatedly questioned about her disappearance but denied any involvement. Eventually he admitted that he'd accompanied Charlotte to a gate on the edge of the moors but had gone no further claiming that Charlotte had continued alone. This puzzled Mrs Peters as it contradicted Isaac Corey's story of having seen him on the moor with a girl matching Charlotte's description. Suspicions began to grow about Matthew's involvement in the strange disappearance. After repeated questioning he finally revealed that Charlotte had left Penhale to take up a position at a different farm ten miles away after Mrs Peters had given Charlotte her notice. Matthew further explained that it was too far for Charlotte to get there that night so she had planned to stay the night at the house of one Hezekiah Spear. This confused Mrs Peters further as she claimed that no notice had ever been given. By Wednesday Charlotte still hadn't appeared and Mrs Peters began to openly accuse Matthew of making away with her. But Matthew continued to deny having anything to do with the disappearance. Despite his protests suspicions continued to grow until the whole of the household, and a number of neighbours, began to question Matthew's innocence. It was decided that Matthew's story needed to be verified. But, after enquiries had been made, it transpired that Matthew's story simply didn't add up. Charlotte had never stayed at Hezekiah Spear's house and there was no offer of an alternative job. On the Sunday, a week after Charlotte's disappearance, Matthew put on his best clothes and left Penhale farm, never to return. 
On Tuesday a search party was organised to search the moors. Near a stream on the moor, not far from Roughtor, Charlotte's body was found. Her throat had been cut. The wound was eight and a half inches in length and two and a half inches deep. It had been inflicted with such force that the windpipe had been completely divided and the instrument had gone between two vertebrae partially separating them. The doctor who performed the post mortem concluded that it was unlikely Charlotte would have been able to inflict such a wound upon herself. No other injuries were found and there was no evidence of rape. A murder investigation began.
At the subsequent inquest Isaac Corey described having seen Matthew and an unknown woman on the moor. Two other witnesses came forward also testifying to having seen a man and a woman on the moor. One of them noted that the man was lame. 
A warrant was issued for Matthew's arrest. He was later found staying at his sister's house in Plymouth. His best boots were taken to the moor and it was concluded that they sufficiently matched the footprints found near Charlotte's body.
On August 2nd 1844 the trial opened. Matthew entered a plea of “not guilty” to the charges. But after a twelve hour trial and only 35 minutes of deliberation the jurors found Matthew guilty of murder. In accordance with the law he was sentenced to be hanged. 
At noon on 12th August 1844 Matthew Weeks was taken from the gaol and hanged. The violent killing of such a young girl had shocked the county and the press had avidly followed the story. The brutality of the crime had seized the county's imagination so much so that 20,000 people turned out to watch the execution. But 160 years on the tragic death of the young girl and the subsequent trial is still much talked about.
In the 1970s a book was published, by Cornish author and historian Pat Munn, which raised doubts about the validity of the conviction. It came to light that there were a number of details that undermined the credibility of the case. Not least of all the doctor who performed the autopsy who'd listed the cause of death on the death certificate as murder by Matthew Weeks. A stone monument had been hastily erected by local people on the spot that Charlotte's body had been found - a monument I visited while visiting Roughtor and Brown Willy. An inscription on the stone described Charlotte as having been killed by Matthew, despite the stone being erected a month before Matthew's trial had begun. It was clear that the public had already decided upon Matthew's guilt. Other questionable details also emerged, such as the fact that a number of the key witnesses were related. The jury had not been informed of this potentially important detail. 
The jury is still out on whether Matthew did in fact kill Charlotte, but what is known for sure is that such a trial would never have even reached court today. Having Matthew implicated on the death certificate alone would have led to the case being thrown out. The murder of Charlotte Dymond is now considered to be one of the greatest examples of miscarriage of justice in Cornwall's history. The case was is so famous in the local area that it now forms the basis of an attraction called “The Courtroom Experience”. Here you are offered the opportunity to play the part of one of the jurors and listen to a condensed version of the court case in the very court that the case was first heard. At the end of the hearing you are given the opportunity to vote on whether you think Matthew was actually guilty or not.
Due to the time of day of my attendance I shared the attraction with a group of young school children and their teachers. It amused me no end that when the guilty verdict was read out many of children excitedly hissed, ‘Yes!’ in appreciation of the grisly outcome. The person running the attraction then re-entered the room and explained to us how much the case represented a massive miscarriage of justice and that Matthew should never have been found guilty. She explained the fact that there was no concrete evidence against him and that there were also many inconsistencies about the case that were never queried. All in all I found it to be a thoroughly interesting experience. 
But murder isn’t the only type of infamous crime associated with this region…
Cornwall and its coastline have long been synonymous with the illegal practice of smuggling. What may be surprising is that despite its reputation it's unlikely that smuggling was any worse in Cornwall than some of the other notorious counties - like Kent and Sussex. It was actually probably at lower levels in comparison due to the European coast being so much further away and the market for smuggled goods being so much more local and consequently smaller. 
The majority of the trade was mainly focused along a stretch of the south coast between Cawsand in the east and Mousehole in the west. It was so prevalent that almost all the coastal towns and villages within the locality have some kind of connection to the operation. Despite their reputation of treachery and barbarity most smugglers were simple ordinary folk. It's thought that, for many, involvement was rooted far more in concerns about feeding families during tough economic times than amassing great personal fortunes. Many tin miners, for example, became involved in the trade during the summer when restrictions on the supply of water to mines meant they were laid off and were forced to seek alternative sources of income. But it wasn't just miners. People from all echelons of society, from farmers to clergymen, became involved in the trade. Clearly the wealth that could potentially be accrued proved too tempting for many to resist. But the risk, if caught, was high. At minimum it meant transportation to colonies such as Australia, at maximum, the death penalty. But despite the dangers smuggling boomed in the region throughout the 18th century and into the early 19th century.
The smugglers referred to themselves as "free traders" as they landed their goods such as tea, brandy, gin, rum, and tobacco duty free upon Cornish shores. And they prided themselves on their ability to outsmart the revenue men, developing increasingly sophisticated methods of delivery in order to stay one step ahead of the law. 
Cornwall's rocky coast greatly aided the smugglers. It provided large expanses of virtually uninhabited coast on which to land their vessels. Teeming with hundreds of tiny inlets and quiet shores the contraband could easily be unloaded unnoticed. The regions remoteness left the revenues and excise men at a major disadvantage greatly undermining their enforcement abilities. This problem was compounded by the lack of staff and overstretched resources. Many revenue men were so poorly paid that they simply took bribes from the smugglers, or even joined them. In response the trade, particularly at first, was free to flourish relatively unhindered. Local support for the smugglers, and for the cheap goods, added to enforcement difficulties as the local population would often help safeguard the goods. As a consequence involvement in the trade permeated all levels of society, so much so that there were occasions when even the Lord Mayor's office was implicated. 
Some sources estimate that around 500,000 gallons of French Bandy were smuggled into Cornwall each year during the 18th century. During the year of 1804 alone revenue services estimated that both Cawsand and Kingsand had each landed 17,000 kegs of spirits.
To begin with the smugglers were incredibly blasé. Ships and their cargoes would simply land directly on the shore. This resulted in the 18th century becoming a boom time for smuggling. But by around 1800 the revenue men began to become more organised. This forced the smugglers to become more covert in their operations. Goods began to be dropped off in remote coves to be retrieved later, or even at sea. And it was during this period that the smugglers began to resort to the now infamous practice of digging tunnels and passages. Many cliffs and caves are believed to still harbour long forgotten tunnels dug specifically for the trade. And there are possibly house owners in the region completely oblivious to the fact that their homes hide forgotten entrances to secret passageways and storage areas.
One of the key aids to the smuggler's ability to avoid capture was the level of local support. On one occasion some contraband was confiscated off the coast of Mullion Cove by a government brig. Local support for the smugglers was so strong that after news of the seizing spread local people raided a local armoury for weapons and then brazenly opened fire on the brig as it sat in the bay demanding the cargo be returned.
Another story from the same area recounts how one prominent local smuggler, called the Spotsman, landed a cargo of brandy on the shore. He encountered some friends who informed him that the local customs officers were on their way. Together they quickly scrambled back to the beach and moved the tubs from the rocks and into a mineshaft. By the time the customs men arrived the scene was deserted except for the smuggler's abandoned boat. After the revenue men had departed the smugglers then clambered back down the cliff and recovered the brandy from the mine. Two tubs that had managed to work free and float out to sea were later picked up and returned by a friendly fishing boat.
But on another occasion the Spotsman wasn't so lucky. He was slow to respond to a challenge by a fellow smuggler. Fearing that he might be a revenue man the smuggler shot the Spotsman. Fortunately, he only lost his thumb.
In Mousehole the smuggling operation was so blatant that contraband was openly transported around the village during the day. Questioned as to why the local excise authorities were not doing anything to stop the practice the local preventative explained that he'd been pelted with stones and was laid up in bed recovering. Later, charges of bribes and corruption were brought against a number of Mousehole officials, unsurprising in light of the fact that the customs collector was described by a local as “an honest man in all his dealings, though a notorious smuggler.”
One local smuggler, in Redruth, drove a cartload of silk up to The Angel Inn pub. The landlady warned him that customs officers were awaiting his arrival. So the smuggler sent his son to the yard, at the rear of the pub, with his cart while he brazenly walked into the bar and offered to buy the crowd of searchers a drink. Relieved they'd found their man the officers duly accepted. The smuggler then proceeded to draw the men into a very long conversation, even adding compliments to their skills and insights in catching him, in order to stall their imminent search. Eventually they heard the rumble of cart wheels from outside. They rushed to the window only to see the departure of an old horse-drawn hearse that they dismissed as a pauper's funeral procession. Of course, by the time they finally went to inspect the cart all the contraband had been swapped for purely innocent goods.
A visitor to the village of Cawsand once described encountering several ladies described as “so grotesque and extraordinary, that I could not imagine in what manner they had contrived to alter their natural shapes so completely.” Upon enquiry it was explained that the ladies were smugglers who used bladders full of liquor fastened under their petticoats. They were so heavily laden that their ability to walk had been reduced to a peculiar kind of waddle. This was apparently a common practice that required avoiding drunken sailors who it's claimed gained great delight from puncturing the bladders.
Another form of smuggling was that of wrecking. Any goods that washed ashore from ships that were dashed upon the fierce Cornish coastline were subject to seizure by excise men. But by the time the excise men had heard of the wrecking the local villagers had often made off with the goods. One infamous story describes a particularly dry sermon at a local parish being interrupted by a man opening the church door and approaching the pulpit. He then whispered words into the ear of the vicar beyond the congregation's comprehension. Immediately roused by the strange occurrence they were well poised to respond when the vicar bellowed, ‘There's a ship ashore between Prawle and Pear Tree Point!’ The congregation then rose and charged towards the beach, led by the vicar.
Another vicar implicated in smuggling tales was Rev Richard Dodge, the vicar of Talland. He had a reputation for an ability to raise ghosts, scaring the parishioners and causing them to be wary of him. Although it's believed that he was in fact just a smuggler who happily fostered the rumours so that people would avoid him during his smuggling activities.
In 1839 a schooner docked in Falmouth harbour. The excise men had suspected the vessel was employed in the illegal trade for some time but so far evidence had evaded them. So when it docked it immediately attracted their attention. But after the crew began unloading a shipment of coal completely unperturbed by the excise men's presence they began to wonder if their information was wrong. It wasn't until a customs officer decided to start boring a hole into the hull with a gimlet that the crew began to quietly melt away. As the customs officer withdrew the gimlet from the hole he received a face-full of brandy. The brandy was stored in tubs stowed away in a cavity between the outside of the ship and a false interior. There were 276 barrels recovered in total. Probably a drop in the ocean of what the ship had transported over its three years in operation.
One of the most famous, if not the most famous, Cornish gangs hailed from Prussia Cove. They were a family gang led by John Carter who had dubbed himself “The King of Prussia,” a name he'd adopted during childhood games. The cove was formerly called Porthleath but association with the smuggling gang gradually superseded the name. The cove was such a secluded well chosen spot that it was impossible to spot any boats in the harbour without leaning right over the edge of the cliff. 
During one smuggling trip John Carter guided his boat into the harbour and assumed the two boats coming alongside were there to unload the contraband. By the time he realised they were in fact revenue men it was too late and a gun battle ensued. He was shot and left for dead, but some hours later awoke and was able to crawl across the deck and drop into the water. He then pulled himself along the ship's ropes until he made it to shore. A local man found him, half dead, and picked him up and took him away. Three months later, after having removed several bits of skull, he miraculously survived.
One of the gang, Harry Carter, eventually gave up his criminal life and joined the clergy. But even before this he was a godly man and would often hold Sunday church services for the group of smugglers. Despite their criminal activities they still maintained a strict code of ethics and were renowned for their honest dealings. Even swearing and unseemly conversation was banned upon their ships. One famous story details a daring raid performed by John Carter and the gang on the Penzance customs house. A cargo of tea had been confiscated and he went to retrieve it. His comrades were reluctant to assist on such a risky operation but he argued that he had no choice. He'd promised to deliver the tea by a certain date and couldn't risk losing his honest reputation by not fulfilling the promise.
When the excise men returned to the house and found it ransacked they reportedly realised who the perpetrator was and commented, ‘John Carter has been here, and we know it because he is an upright man, and has taken away nothing which was not his own.’ This wasn't the only such daring escapade by John Carter for such a reason. On another occasion he actually boarded a revenue ship and took back some confiscated goods as he was determined not to displease his customers. 
But despite the gentlemanly behaviour of John Carter he wasn't afraid to use violence when deemed necessary. He had a battery of cannons set up on a cliff above a landing site and on one occasion used them on an excise scutter when it was deemed to get too close to the smugglers. But some smugglers were reported to have no principles whatsoever.
Cruel Coppinger is thought to have been one of the most violent of the smugglers. He was reputedly a Dane who was shipwrecked on the shores of Cornwall before moving into smuggling. He was said to have coerced other villagers into aiding his operation through fear and intimidation. It's also said that his son inherited his murderous ways when, as a young child, he laughed after killing his playmate.
But, with the end of the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century the government refocused its efforts on curbing the activity. New measures were employed to halt the illegal traffic. Heavy penalties were imposed and the introduction of riding officers on the coast made it increasingly difficult for goods to be landed. As a result the once mighty trade withered and, largely, died out.
The next part of my day was an incredibly tedious chore but unfortunately I just had to reluctantly get my head down and plough on through. I went on a tour of the St Austell Brewery complete with free samples. As I’m sure you could imagine, the pain was truly unbearable.
The St Austell Brewery has over 150 years of brewing history within the area. Originating in 1851 the brewery has grown to the point that they now also run over 170 of the most popular pubs in the southwest, as well as some traditional inns and hotels in Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset. Aiming to simply focus on good beer, great food, and a warm Cornish welcome they offer many of the famous St Austell beers such as Tribute, Proper Job, Smuggler’s Ale, Admiral’s Ale, and HSD. 
Admiral’s Ale was originally brewed to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar in 1805. Uniquely brewed using Cornish Gold Malt and locally grown barley, combined with a special kilning process, the result is a rich biscuit flavour with a spicy aroma. The expertly balanced flavours earned the beer a bronze medal in the Brewing Industry International Awards as well as a “Supreme Champion” award in the 2008 International Beer Challenge. 
Another notable brew from St Austell brewery is Tribute. Originally brewed to celebrate the 1999 solar eclipse the beer was renamed and re-invented due to popular demand. Subsequently voted by CAMRA as the supreme champion ale of Cornwall and the southwest’s favourite cask beer in 2004. It was also awarded a silver medal at the Taste of the West Awards in 2009 and was a winner of the SIBA South West awards 2007. It has also become a much sought after guest ale amongst pubs nationwide.
The brewery has now opened its doors and offers tours for anyone interested to learn more about the brewery and the brewing process. Although those focussed more on the end result than the process can simply just take a visit the shop to purchase the beers or even just visit the resident bar “Hick’s Bar”.
The St Austell Brewery brews 150,000 pints a day, as I believe the guide told us. And amazingly this is done using only seven brewers. I also found out that Tribute has been so successful for the brewery that within only a month it had become their best seller. They even had to introduce a second brewing shift in order to keep up with demand. And I learnt that whiskey is essentially just distilled beer and that St Austell Brewery is currently distilling the first ever batch of Cornish malt whiskey.
I found it very interesting to have a look around, and I even learnt a bit about how beer is brewed:
Firstly, malt, made from carefully selected barley, is measured and then crushed using a mill into a substance called grist. The milled malt (grist) is then mixed with water. This creates a thick porridge like mixture called the mash. The mash rests at 65C for 90 minutes while the natural enzymes in the malt convert the starch from the grain into fermentable sugars. The fermentable extract is then drained from the grain bed using hot water and results in something called wort. The wort is then boiled with hops in something called the copper. The hops are what give the beer its pleasant tangy flavour. The wort is then cooled and is pitched with yeast where it remains for one week. The yeast feeds on the malt sugars to yield alcohol and carbon dioxide.  The resultant beer is gently cooled down and becomes ready to be put into casks. And that’s how the world’s greatest invention is made!
Afterwards, we all had to endure the incredibly painful tasting experience. Unfortunately this included the 2008 international beer of the year and Walter Hicks 125 Navy Rum which, at 125 proof (71.4%), is the strongest UK bottled rum available, but nice at the same time. Personally I really liked their Black Prince dark beer but unfortunately they don’t bottle or sell it. Still, I begrudgingly picked up a few other bottles from the shop to take home with me as it simply seemed incredibly rude not to.
Next I popped in at St Catherine’s castle, which was built in 1540 as part of Henry VIII’s south coast defence. I really like Henry VIII’s castles. After he’d irritated the Pope by getting divorced he was concerned that some of the catholic countries, specifically Spain, might invade. So he commissioned a series of castles to be built along the south coast. St Catherine’s is one such castle. It’s mostly derelict now but it was nice to have a quick look around all the same. While there I found out that during the Second World War the beach below the castle was defended with barbed wire and metal poles. But determined for a swim the locals simply climbed through the defences to get to the sea. And in 1865 a storm swept away the beach’s pebbles revealing the remains of a primeval forest. Some of the trunks were a foot wide but are now covered with sand.
Lastly, as I began my journey home I decided to call in on a few ancient monuments along the way.
King Doniert’s Stone consists of two granite cross bases decorated in late 9th century style. They probably once carried wooden crosses that have since disappeared. King Doniert drowned in the river Fowey in 872AD and the inscription on one of the stones asks for prayers for his soul. He is considered by some to be the last king of Cornwall.
Next I stopped off to look at The Long Stone or Long Tom Cross, which may have been a standing stone that was later Christianised with the carving of a cross on its face. 
Lastly I visited another infamous ancient site, Trethevy Quoit. Trethevy Quoit is an impressive 2.7 metre high burial chamber. It’s constructed of five large granite slabs with a capstone on top. It’s considered to be the best preserved quoit in the whole of Cornwall and one of the most impressive throughout the whole of Britain. Quoits were probably used to hold the bones of dead chieftains. Although they probably also served to mark boundaries and provide gathering places for ceremonies. Due to the acidic Cornish soil no organic remains have ever been found, but in other sites around the country such remains have. Quoits were originally covered in earth and stone mounds but these have since worn away leaving the stones exposed. Curiously a round hole has been drilled through one of corners of Trethevy Quoit’s capstone. But no one has any idea as to why this might have been done. There have been studies conducted that indicate the location of such sites were carefully chosen in relation to local hills and bodies of water. The entrances were often aligned with horizon features or celestial events. This is probably why Trethevy Quoit is situated overlooking a confluence of streams which become the River Seaton.

And after that, I headed home!



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I’ve greatly enjoyed writing this book, and I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed reading it. Perhaps you’d like to let me know your thoughts by submitting a review back at Smashwords? I would love to hear your feedback.

If you’d like to read more then perhaps you’d enjoy my blog, which can be found here:

http://lancestravels.wordpress.com/

Or feel free to connect with me on Facebook here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lances-Travels-Does-Cornwall/454290671275902


If nothing else then perhaps this book has at least inspired you to explore more of Cornwall yourself. It’s a wonderful place that I highly recommend visiting if you haven’t, visiting again if you have, and exploring more if you live there!

Thanks again for reading.

Lance