Tywardreath
On a sunny day in late April 2016 I had an outing to the south coast to visit Carlyon Bay - to look at progress on "The Beach" (none) - Par Beach and Polkerris. On the way I stopped off in Tywardreath which, when passing through I had always liked the look of, but had never spent time in. The name, borrowed by Daphne du Maurier, translates as "The House on the Beach (or Strand)". As with most Cornich villages, the main feature is the church. St. Andrew's is set in a large sloping churchyard, full of wild flowers when I saw it. Consecrated in 1347, the tower and south aisle were added in 1480. Outside, to the left of the porch, loose stones include remains of a column that guided travellers across the estuary. Inside are Rashleigh memorials, a wagon roof with carved bosses, a decorated 14th century font, a carved pulpit which seems to have been made from either bench ends or part of the former screen, small remains of that screen and some fine bench ends (see the church's Visitors Guide for interesting explanations of these. The village has wide streets with some handsome houses and a pub, the New Inn. Halfway down Well Lane, the well has been sealed off. A little way down the lane on the right is the handsome, and quite unusual, Methodist chapel, still in use. Further down, another former chapel is now a day nursery.
Tywardreath's active Wesleyan Chapel
Just north of A3082 St. Austell to Fowey road
More in Towns & Villages
Veryan
A charming little village on the Roseland peninsula, not far from tiny Portloe harbour, Veryan comes in two parts. Veryan itself has a pub, a church, a post office and stores and a lovely garden. Half-a-mile north-east is Veryan Green. Both are notable for their pairs of thatched round houses. They were built around 1815 by Veryan vicar Jeremiah Trist, as homes for his daughters. They are round to ensure there are no corners for the devil to hide in. Jeremiah's son Samuel built Trist House as his vicarage; its lovely garden used to be open daily from April to July, serving good cream teas. I have been unable to ascertain whether it still opens; pity if not. Veryan's church is dedicated to St. Symphorian and consists of nave and aisle with the tower standing alongside the nave. There seems to be some Norman work, otherwise the church is mainly of the 13t and 14th centuries witrh later Perpendicular window insertions. Inside, unusually, the floor slopes upwards towards the altar. A round walk from Carne Beach includes Veryan and Portloe
Wadebridge
This is my own hometown. Nothing very much special about it but a very pleasant, convenient place to live. We chose Wadebridge because we wanted a good small town close to where Jane was raised in Trebetherick. It has everything we want: good local shops, a cinema, plenty of activities and, most importantly for me, it's fairly centrally situated giving easy access to the rest of Cornwall for my explorations. The town grew up on both sides of the lowest *fordable crossing of the River Camel (the original name was Wade from the Saxon gwaed meaning ford) and had a market by 1312. One of Britain's finest medieval bridges was built in 1468. Known as the Bridge on Wool, the popular story is that woolsacks were used as foundations, the truth is almost certainly that it was financed by wool merchants. Across the river, where we used to live, is Egloshayle (the name means The Church on the Estuary), once a separate village and probably older than Wadebridge. Until the 18th century Wadebridge was an important port, exporting corn and granite; apartments now line that part of the waterside. The railway once ran through here, linking the town with Bodmin in 1834 and later extended to Padstow. The railway is long gone but the trackbed is now the Camel Trail, a cycle route so popular that, in summer, it can be almost impossible to walk along it. *The Camel is still easily fordable in Wadebridge at low tides.
Warbstow
This expedition, in late February 2016, started as a revisit to Warbstowbury, a vast iron-age hill-fort not far from Camelford in North Cornwall, and Cornwall's second largest after Castle-an-Dinas near St. Columb. I enjoyed walking the circuit of the banks and ditches of the hill-fort and got some good photos of the views from there, taking advantage of the 800 foot height of the location to include such landmarks as the dishes and radomes of GCHQ Steeple Point north of Bude. I then moved on to Warbstow, passing through Warbstow Cross, a village of no interest. Warbstow itself is tiny, consisting just of farmhouse, ancillary buildings, church and a formerly occupied house, for sale when I was there in 2016. The farm's old barns, mostly no longer in use, are attractively ramshackle. One low building, which might have been a small piggery, has a small double-headed round window opening. The farmer describes it as Norman but it looks Saxon to me. Oddly, the village's name means "the holy place of St. Werburg", a saint normally associated with Chester. I was unable to gain access to the church but underatand it originally to have been 12th century cruciform, an aisle and tower added in the 15th Century and the south transept removed in 1861. Note the coffen stile through the hedge to the churchyard from a lane on the south side.