Cornwall's Hidden History Blog
Winter, 1811 A gull’s wing tip topped the wave and just for a moment the air currents caught hold of its white feathers and the bird swung in the air, weightless as thistle-down. The sea twisted, turned and undulated but the stark unmoving line of the horizon didn’t alter. It was empty, a deep […]
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Carwynnen quoit has fallen more than once. It’s giant stones have been raised up again and again, the first time 5000 years ago, then again in the 19th century and the last time in 2014. Yes, unfortunately it has taken me this long to get around to visiting but the twisting back roads led me to a impressive […]
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One of my favourite walks takes me on a lovely loop from Trevalga along a stunning stretch of coastline up through Rocky Valley and back to Trevalga via Trethevy. The Rocky Valley walk is quite famous in these parts and it’s close proximity to the surfing mecca of Newquay means that it gets plenty of […]
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Isn’t it strange that you can see something a thousand times in your life and never really question what it is or why it is there? That was how I felt when one day I actually stopped and looked at the Killigrew Monument in the centre of Falmouth. When I got home I had a […]
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John Knill loved St Ives. And more than 2oo years after his death St Ives is still remembering him. This rather eccentric philanthropist (sometimes smuggler) wanted to provide for the people he had grown so fond of. And to also guarantee that his name would be remembered for all time in the town that he made […]
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No one these days really knows what a collar stud is, let alone wears one but King George V certainly did and he is said to have kept his in a rather special place. Cornwall is not really known for its treasure troves, we live in hope of a discovery like Sutton Hoo to put […]
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Old buildings, I feel, always have a certain presence but ruined places somehow even more so. There is a special kind of mystery in a ruined place and I find myself drawn in and pisky-led. My rather over-active imagination can fill these ivy-clad, tumble-down spaces with life and lives that are entirely of my own invention. Maybe […]
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Living as I do in Mid Cornwall sometimes it can feel that I am a long way from anywhere in either direction. If I take a trip ‘down west’ then I like to make a day of it and take a picnic. And the same must be said for the other direction too. There would […]
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Walking out in to the silence of Bodmin moor when the sky is bright blue and the air is still there is a kind of rare peacefulness for me. The whisper of the breeze though the dried grasses. The buzz of various flying beasties seems so loud in that vast open space. Tricked by the recent […]
Read MoreTrencrom offers one of the finest views in Cornwall. This ancient Iron Age Hill Fort gives you a 360 degree panorama of the Penwith. It is one of the few places from which you can see both the north and the south coast at the same time. St Ives bay on one side . . […]
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