A room change.

Due to a little hiccup in booking (not by us, I hasten to add) we had to add an extra night onto our stay here at The Cornwall Hotel & Spa. So I thought I'd quickly show you the new room.

We have sadly left our 'woodland room' and are now in the main house. We have no door number, we have a name - Maud Smith. Wonder what that means!!

It took two big strong housekeeping guys 4 trips back & forward to move Hubster's months worth of luggage & gadgets (printers etc...) I carried my own :)

Here's some photos of the new room.

No balcony, but a nice view.

Much smaller so we are tripping over all his stuff, but it's just for one night :)

We are leaving Cornwall this morning, bye bye Cornwall, it's been lovely, hope to be back sometime soon.

Delabole

This post is a follow on post from my search about my ancestors, you may have read the Mousehole post where I was looking for the chapel and birth place of my Grandfather and Great Grandfather.

I called my Uncle while I was there who told me to try St Teath.  After a few emails to another relative I had some patchy information to work on.

Off we went to St Teath, where first of all I found a church, not a Methodist church but a Parish Church.  We are looking for "Brays" which annoyingly seems to be a common name down in Cornwall.  There was a list in the church with names of former vicars of St Teath on it.

And there, in 1948 is a Bray!  I have no idea about this name or information so I will be passing it onto someone who might.
Also in the graveyard I found another Bray, I wonder if these are relatives too.

We got talking to a bloke laying a path and he pointed out where the Methodist chapel was, so off we went to investigate that.

As we were photographing it, the lady next door was obviously wondering what we were up to, and came out to potter about in her garden.  I went and chatted to her and told her why I was there. I had an address as 227 High Lane, Medrose, but nothing showed up on Sat Nav. She said I was in the wrong village and sent me further up the road to the next village called Delabole.

Now this excited me somewhat as Uncle Bob had previously mentioned that Granddad and Great Granddad had both worked at the Delabole mine, we didn't realise there was a village called that too.  So off we went.

We discovered this information through Google:

Delabole village is situated approximately 1 mile inland on the North Coast of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.
The Home of the Delabole Slate Quarry and the First Commercial Wind Farm in the United Kingdom.
The Village only became Delabole after the railway arrived in 1893. Before this there were three hamlets
Rockhead, Medrose and Pengelly linked by a road called High Lane now known as the High Street.

Well would you believe it?  We were sitting in the car, on High Street in Medrose!  Where my Great Grandfather was born.  Just like that, we were there.  Sadly 227 is not there anymore, the numbers only go up to 150.  Where 227 might have been is a rugby field then a row of modern 1960's bungalows.  Could it be it was a miners cottage, or a slum dwelling that's been demolished now?  Who knows.

Interestingly though we found the Methodist Chapel - now this HAS to be the one doesn't it?  Right by the street he lived in.

Do you remember me telling you that G-Grandad was a minister (or it might have been Lay Preacher as I have since found out) but he was also involved in smuggling?  Well, right beside the church is a chip shop called "Smugglers Rest" . I wonder where that name come from, surely it must have some history.

From here it was off to visit the Delabole Slate Mine, which I didn't expect to be still there, a signpost said otherwise.  It was 7.00pm in the evening by now and of course it was shut, but there was an arrow pointing to a viewing platform so we took a walk down to it and got the shock of our lives!

The most enormous hole I have ever seen in my life!  I have since found out that it is one of the biggest holes in Europe.

The diggers looked like matchbox toys.

Found this image on Google, it's not a great photo but I think it shows the depth better.

Photo Credit: www.thisisnorthcornwall.com

I very naughtily took a couple of bits of slate from the ground, about the size of a 10p piece, as I thought my Mum and Uncle Bob might like one as a memento.

We went on from here to Port Issac, I wanted to see it because if the rumours about the smuggling are true, I would image Port Issac would be where the ships might come in.  A local chap told me a story of how the smugglers used to light fires on hillsides to confuse the ships and bring them onto the rocks, where the cargo would be plundered.

From this photo, taken from the car park at Port Issac, if you look centre photo, on the land, you can't see it but the windfarm at Delabole is there.  Not too far to walk from the coast is it?  Three miles in fact from sea to village, just enough for a smuggler to haul his wares.  :)

St Issac...aka Portwenn

Today we visited Port Isaac, more famously known as Portwenn from the TV show Doc Martin.

Wow, what a steep place, let me tell you the burn in my calf muscles went on for ages!

We parked at the top of the village between Port Issac and Port Gaverne.  Can you see the arrow?  That's the car park.

Photo Credit: www.beachhousecornwall.co.uk

The same pic with another arrow, this arrow is pointing at the house they use as the Dr's surgery in the TV show.

We headed towards Port Issac which is the little port on the right of the photo,  it was quite nice going downhill, quite relaxing, except for that fact that my brain was screaming "Gotta get back up!!"

It was so picturesque, like a pretty little postcard, and there was loads of people about so it is obviously a little touristy place.

You could see the Doc's cottage on the hill opposite, can you see it?  It's the little brown one nestled under the rather large brown one.  It actually doesn't look that steep from this angle, but trust me, it was a ligament stretcher.

We walked right down to the 'harbour'.

And we spotted the little shop that is used for the chemist in the show.  Now, I must explain, when I see "we" I mean "me", Hubster really couldn't be less interested, he doesn't watch much TV at all and although he does know who Martin Clunes is that's about as far as his interest goes, but I was being all excited enough for two of us.

Plus I bought him some naughty fudge at the "chemist" which made the miserable sod smile a bit  :)

Then we saw this sign..... well, just had to go didn't we?   :)

Aww, look at all those railings and privacy markers.  The only house in the area to sport them.  That's the price for letting your little home become a TV backdrop I suppose.
This is the photo I took with my back to the cottage, all the time thinking about how I had to get back up that other side.

Anyway, back down we go in search for dinner.  (That's Hubster there photographing a seagull)

We were planning on a nice pub/restaurant with a table overlooking the sea, but the cheapest meal price we found was £15 (it went up from there) and even though I am not one to gripe about pennies usually, I was NOT paying £15 each for a bar meal.  So chippy chips it was then  :)

And lip-smackingly gorgeous they were too, although the first half I could barely taste as we were walking uphill back to the car and I was concentrating on panting.  Still, it took my mind of the hill.

Why do chips taste so good outside ?  So much better than if you eat them inside.

Eden Project.

Being so close to Eden Project, a well documented eco visitor attraction, we thought it would have been most rude not to visit, it was only about 6 miles from where we were staying too.

Set in an old disused China clay pit it is almost hidden from view until you come out of the visitor centre where you pay  (£23.50 per adult)  then the vastness of it simply takes your breath away.

I did grumble at the £23.50 mind you, tight arse that I am, but you can go back for a whole year on that same ticket, so you can't really complain at that, and I could have saved 15% by booking online in advance.

Those domes your see above are actually massive greenhouses, or Biomes as they are called.  In one side is the Mediterranean area with olive groves and wineries, plus a section on chillies - grown in lines according to their place on the Scoville Scale.  This was a much cooler Biome than the Rainforest one which was very warm and humid.  In fact it was so warm that one of the walkways nearer to the top was closed off due to the heat.   There is a REAL rainforest growing in this dome and it is totally amazing.  Completed with colourful butterflies, amazing flowers and tall palm trees.  Oh, and banana trees too, with bananas on them!

If you would like to see some more photos, you can find them on my Facebook Photography Page.

In-between the Biomes is called the "link", where there are toilets, a shop and a cafe area, the best bit being you can walk around the top of the cafe and watch all the chefs preparing food.

Speaking of food, one of the nicest things I noticed was the lack of "crappy" offerings - ie:  Sausage and chips, burgers..... oh hang on, I had a burger, but it was a gourmet burger - chickpea and beetroot, with sweet potato fries.

You won't believe what I then agreed to do....... fly down a zip wire.  Not just an ordinary zip wire, but the longest zip wire in England!

Right, look hard, can you see the wire?  Probably not.  Look again, can you see a white splodge just leaving the edge of the third dome, just off centre of the photo?

Still no?  Here....

I painted that blob there as you couldn't see the person at all without zooming in massively.

I did that  :)  Yep, I was mad enough to do that.  Shona phoned be to say well done afterwards as she knows what a total wuss I usually am.

I was praying to be over the weight limit,  I wasn't. I then prayed to be not allowed due to blood pressure medication, I wasn't.  I prayed to be let off as I looked a total dweeb in the harness and one of their t-shirts, that was way too tight coz I only had a vest on, I wasn't.

The bloke at the top wired me in and said "In your own time"  I would have much rather he pushed me, he didn't.

So, I went. And I didn't scream.  It was all over too quick and I wanted to go again.

Do you want to see what it was like?  Click HERE to do a virtual flight.  (We were unable to fly 'flat' today though, so we flew sitting.

We were in Eden Project for hours, and although we thought it was expensive at the start, I actually didn't mind paying towards the work they do to highlight environmental issues.  I would be happy to pay and go again.

Have you ever been?

Mousehole & Penzance

After our trip to Lands End yesterday I wanted to head back to At Austells, where we are staying, via a little fishing village called Mousehole. (pronounce Mowzel)

The reason for this is that there is a family story that my Great-Grandfather on my Mother's side (her Father's Father) was a Methodist Minister.

Nothing unusual about this you might think, but he was also a ........SMUGGLER!

I know from relatives that there are two places that he could have possible lived, one is Mousehole, the other is St Teath (also in Cornwall)  After looking at the map and seeing Mousehole was right on the coast and St Teath was a little more inland, we decided that Mousehole might be the place to start.

So, we went on a tour of churches in Mousehole.

After asking a local, he pointed us to this place....

Apparently Mick Fleetwood's sister lives here now  (of Fleetwood Mac fame), but on talking to those people in the photo, we decided it was not the place we were looking for, they directed us to the other side of the village.

We found this chapel, which is still in service as a Methodist church.

Check out the gorgeous stained glass windows, which due to age are all bowed at the bottom.

Could this be it?  Maybe?  I phone my Uncle to ask - he reckons not, as he thinks they just lived in Mousehole but he preached in St Teath.  We shall visit there next week at some point.

Still, I bought some cute hand-made pewter buttons at a little jewellery workshop opposite the church.

We travelled on a few miles to Penzance ...

...where we stopped for a lovely meal at The Taj Mahal.  I had . Vegetable Special Biryani (Saffron flavoured rice cooked with seasonal vegetables, cottage cheese, chestnut mushroom, asparagus & dried nuts.(Served with a mixed vegetable curry on the side)

I think they forgot the cheese though ;)

Lands End

This week this blog is turning into something of a Travelogue, I hope you don't mind too much, I will be back to crafting very soon.  If you do mind then look away for a few more days  :)

Today we decided to take a trip to Lands End, just so we could have our photos taken with the famous signpost.

Just as we were getting there about 1/4 mile away, there was a pub serving food, it was 12.00noon and we were getting peckish and the pub boasted that it was "The First & Last Inn In England" so we didn't think there would be much past it.  However, we decided to go and have a look at the signpost and come back for lunch..... only when we got to Lands End we got a bit of a shock as it is a bit of a little touristy park kind of thing.

First of all it was £5.00 to park, but you could go back and visit again within the week, and they do use the money to look after the land that you park on, so it's not just going into some rich knobs pocket.

Then you get to the Lands End building, on entering it is not too dissimilar to a theme park entrance, only on a much smaller scale.

Entry was free, or you could pay for some small attractions, £10 per adult for the lot which was an..... 

Air Sea Rescue motion theatre experience.  Yeah, well this was interesting, you walk down a dark smelly (supposidly atmospheric) corridor and watch a bit of a video about a bloke getting stuck out at sea with stomach pains.  It must have been filmed in the 80's judging by the clothing (oh, and the colour of the Sea King Helicopter, says Hubster!).  Once we had stood in the corridor and watched the trailer we went into a room which was to resemble the inside of a lifeboat.  I absolutely hate motion rides so Hubster thought it was incredibly funny to laugh at me as I grimaced and wriggled about like a 6yr old, but once it got going it was ok, it just bumped about a bit.

Arthur's Quest. We did wonder why the bloke stamping the tickets had a little giggle when we went in, until we realised it was for children!  We were the only adults in there without a child, so we got back out quick. Kids would love it though.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.  This was fabulous, very Disneyworld with water squirting out of the moving seats, bubbles everywhere and air being pumped out from under the seats to represent crabs nipping - kids were screaming in terror which  made it even more fun!

Greeb Farm.  A cute little farmstead with a few animals, mostly chickens, but the odd bunny and a couple of small ponies.

We did all that, but first lunch!

There was this place.....

We went in this door....

And have to say, not at all what we expected.  Restaurant?  Canteen more like.  With school dinner type food, kept warm under hot plates, and serve yourself tea.

We had a pasty each and a drink which knocked us back nearly £15.

Of course mine was a veggie pasty, vegetables and cheese - I think they forgot the cheese.  Having said that, it was quite nice and I would have one again.  Hubster had a Cornish pasty, which surprised me somewhat as he is not at all adventurous and would normally never eat something like that.  We had had a chat the evening before about how I think he should try new things and this was him trying.

His face while he was eating it was a picture, you could so tell he wasn't enjoying it at all.  The worst thing was that the "beautiful sea view conservatory" was boiling hot, full of misbehaving kids throwing food about and one child that screamed so loudly I thought my ear drums might pop!

We ate up and got outa there.

Can you guess what happened next?

Well, we walked around the back of the 'restaurant' to find a.......RESTAURANT, yep, we had gone in the wrong one!  We looked at the menu on the door filled with the most gorgeous sounding food, white with annoyance Hubster waved at the menu and said "Bloody hell, would you look at that, I could have been eating nice food, instead I had to have a DOG FOOD PIE!"

Sorry to anyone who loves Cornish pasties, but I did laugh  :)

We wandered over to have a photo with the sign post only to find out it was roped off and there was a charge!  Yep, a charge to stand by the post to have your photo taken.  So we just grabbed on without either of us in it.

Then took my shoes off and stood at the most South Westerly point of the United Kingdom.

We finished the day off with a Cornish ice-cream, you just gotta don't ya?

(I must point out that the ice-creams were both the same size, I certainly have not go a two-scooper leaving him with a single, it's the angle of photography  :)  )