Gwennap
The name Gwennap occurs elsewhere. Gwennap Pit may make some sense as it is only about 2 miles away. Here it refers to St. Gwenap or Wenapa. Down on the south coast of West Penwith, the headland looming above the tiny Porthgwarra Cove, featured in the 2016 Poldark Series, is also Gwennap; the name thehe is a puzzle. After you turn off the Falmouth road, the church car park is straight ahead; up a drive to the left is the big house, Trevince. The graveyard is vast, the lych gate in the photo is halfway up it towards the church. Unusually you approach from the north side. The church consists of nave and two aisles. There is no tower but a separate bell tower stands to to south west. When I visited on a Saturday in early November 2016, when I also investigated Carharrack and re-visited St. Day and Gwennap Pit, I was disappointed to find the church locked, despite the usual 'Welcome' notice in the porch. Too often recently I have found churches locked; have those responsible wondered what God might think about his people being locked out of his house? I probably didn't miss much: Pevsner merely refers to rebuilding in 1862 and Cornish historian Charles Henderson took the view that "few Cornish churches are less interesting than Gwennap".
Gwennap Church from the north
From A393 Redruth to Falmouth, signed L at Comford
More in Towns & Villages
Gwithian
A tiny village on the road from Hayle to Godrevy, Hell's Mouth and Portreath, you are almost through Gwithian before you realise it. But it is worth stopping for a closer look. At the Hayle end of the village are the attractive Gwithian Farm, handsome Churchtown House, a thatched Methodist Chapel, recently restored and the rather ugly Red River Inn which (2015) has apparently had a makeover and is much improved with enterprising food. The inn, originally the Pendarves Arms, was renamed for the river that reaches the sea here, discoloured by mine spoil. At the Godrevy end is another handsome house, Churchtown Farm, and a charming church with a Cornish cross in the graveyard. The church remembers the 5th/6th century St. Gwithian or Gocianus. The saint's remains were said to have been found in the sands in the 19th century but lost again. The present church was originally built in the 15th century. It was rebuilt in 1866 though the tower is original. Gwithian Towans (dunes) lie between the village and the sea. The beach runs from just south of Godrevy Point for three miles to the mouth of the Hayle River. It is popular with surfers, swimmers and families.
Halsetown near St. Ives
I had driven past Halsetown many times, on the B3311 road from St. Ives to Penzance, but knew nothing about it except that it has a car park and a pub. Then, in November 2007, I took a walk, with my sisters Mary and Frances, that took in Rosewall Hill, Trink Hill and Halsetown. Fascinated by what seemed to be, unusually for Cornwall, a planned village, I did a little research and came up with the following (which I have re-interpreted somewhat) discovered on Genuki and St. Ives Trust web sites.
Hayle
We have a soft spot for run-down places - early industrial sites and shabby towns like Bude and Portreath. Despite proximity to colourful, lively St. Ives, Hayle has something of both. It takes its name from the estuary ('heyl') on which it stands. From prehistoric days of tin and copper trading it was a trans-shipment point, providing safe passage for men and materials across the peninsula to the port at St. Michael's Mount, avoiding the perils of Land's End. In early Christian times missionaries travelled through on their way from Ireland and Wales to Brittany. There was no town until the 18th century when copper smelting and heavy engineering, later explosives manufacture on Upton Towans created a boom town. The Cornish Copper Company is long gone but there are still remnants of Harvey's great foundry that built the massive beam engines for the mines, built Richard Trevithick's steam locomotives and later built ships. Harvey's remained in business well into the 20th century and Hayle continued as a port until the 1970s when the power station closed. The derelict former foundry buildings are now the centrepiece of a vast regeneration project going on in Hayle. In addition to the foundry, financial multi-national ING plans to regenerate the harbour area. King George V Memorial Walk, on the north side of Copperhouse Pool, has been colourfully restored. Walk to the head of North Quay to enjoy views of sweeping beaches, tall dunes, holiday shacks, St. Ives and Godrevy Lighthouse.