Tintagel
At first we hated Tintagel as an awful tourist trap. Now we know it better we find we can ignore the tat and concentrate on the interest. Most people come to seek King Arthur and his Tintagel Castle. For that, park in the designated car park, walk to the Island, climb it, enjoy the views and drink your fill of history, real or mythical. Dedicated Arthurians will also look almost opposite the National Trust's Old Post Office for King Arthur's Halls, an odd mix of Pre-Raphaelite mythology and modern audio-visual. The Old Post Office is really a small 14th century manor house, used in Victorian times as the local mail receiving office. Away from the village, high on cliffs to the west, St. Materiana's church is worth seeing in its own right; close by are ravishing coastal views. On the way there, look out for the Vicarage; enter its ancient gatehouse to find a simple chapel, once a 13th century cottage; look over its garden wall for a medieval dovecote. We enjoy Tintagel for all these things and now think it a shame that most people are unable to see beyond the tourist traps. The village has improved greatly (it cost �2.4 million) but shops, caf�s and restaurants are still mostly aimed at the worst end of the tourist trade and almost all rely on the Arthurian connection. Our preferred eating place is the Olde Malthouse Inn.
The Old Post Office, really a 14th century manor
From A39 at Camelford, take B3266 and B3263. More Tintagel
I was back in Tintagel at the end of January 2017, this time for a walk with Bob, my neighbour when we lived on the other side of the river. We did a walk that I have done many times before, though I have to admit that, in my 80th year, I no longer find the coast path as easy as I once did. I had remembered this particular section as fairly level and grassy. How memory plays tricks; it is quite up-and-down with some relatively rocky bits in one or two places. Nonetheless, I coped OK with the coastal bit and found the inland return no problem, though one or two stiles are by nor means entirely easy. The return route, past Trevillick Farm, brought us out on Church Road. Just a few yards down the hill I was able to show Bob, who used to live locally, a couple of things he didn't know existed - Fontevreux Chapel and the massive dovecot in the Vicarage garden. We then visited the Church of St. Materiana which, although I had been in it before, I had paid little attention to previously. Although they may have been there before, new to me were the St. Christopher, St. Materiana and Virgin and Child statues on the north wall. I was pleased to get a photo of the "Roman Stone" commemorating the Emperor Gaius Flavius Valerius Licinianus Licinius - quite a mouthful! Bob, away on his narrow boat much of the year, wants to visit Altarnun and East Moor next. More Tintagel images
Roman Stone
Approaching Tintagel on B3263, take rough track leading to church
St. Materiana Statue
Photographs
More in Towns & Villages
Tregony
Tregony is a less than 10 miles from Truro but a world apart. Rather like Grampound it is virtually a one-street village and is on a hill. However, its hill is a great deal steeper than Grampound's, climbing altogether about 200 feet in its half-mile length from the River Fal at the bottom to St. Cuby's Church and the Primary School at the top. At one time the River Fal was navigable all the way up to Tregony, 15 miles from the sea. In those times it was an important port. In the early 17th century King James I gave Tregony free borough status and it was entitled to return two elected representatives to Westminster; no longer of course. Tregony lost its importance thanks essentially to the silting up of the River Fal, due primarily to run off from the chia clay pits and tin mines It is however a delightful village; or is it a small town? It certainly has some of the attributes: Anglican church, Methodist chapel, post office, shop, primary school, and pub, the excellent Kings Arms. Fore Street is lined with attractive cottages, looking 18th century, and there are a few Victorian villas. Notable features include the clock tower, the small square with its parish water pump, and its galleried almshouses, pictured left. These were built in 1896 by M.P. Hugh Boscawen and greatly restored in 1995. Their purpose was "to house poor housekeepers, who must be over sixty and have lived in a 2 mile radius of Tregony for 2 years".
Tresillian
We drive through Tresillian every time we visit Truro or points west of there. As you approach from the east (our direction) what you see as you enter Tresillian, and prepare to turn sharp right across a bridge over the Tresillian River, is the formal, and normally unused, gates to the northern end of a four mile drive to Tregothnan, ancestral home of the Boscawens, Lords Falmouth. The village straggles along the main road. Along the way is the attractive Wheel Inn and some motor deakers on the left, a former toll house and an old maltings on the right. At the Truro end of the villlage a signed footpath takes you through a small marshy area and on to a firm path which follows the west side of the Tresillian River. The river itself, leading to attractive St. Clement is tidal; at low tide it is almost entirely mud. In spring daffodils line the south side of the road. Before you turn right over the river on the main road, to your left is the Anglican church, dull from the front but attractive from up the track alongside it. To my surprise, a Cornish Cross sits on the kerbside in front of the church. The Victorian church was firmly locked when I was there; I doubt if I missed much, Pevsner is not exactly complimentary. The lane alongside the church leads to St. Michael Penkevil and Tregothnan.
Treslothan
When I walked from Beacon to Clowance on the Land's End Trail, I was really surprised by Treslothan hamlet. All very grey and Victorian gothic but all most beautifully maintained. This was the estate village of nearby Pendarves House and survived intact when the Georgian home of the Pendarves family was demolished in 1955. All built in the 1840s by architect George Whitwick, the church, houses and former school are all of the same silvery grey granite and surround a war memorial. Contrast the number of names on the memorial with the smallness of the village; these must all have been workers on the large but dispersed Pendarves estate. Next to the church is the Pendarves Mausoleum. Buried in the churchyard is self-taught Camborne born poet John Harris. On a corner by woods is the former village well. From here a footpath heads roughly south, first passing the former village school, now a private home, then continuing through fields and woods to the road from Troon to Carwynnen. If you are visiting Carwynnen Quoit, re-erected in 2014 by the Sustainable Trust, this is as good a route to take as any, turning right on the road towards Carwynnen for a short distance, then right through a gate into a field. Immediately inside the gate is a good storyboard; the quoit is across the field.