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.
The medieval bridge, only 13 of 17 arches now show
Signed from A39, or by A389 from Bodmin
Wadebridge Museum: The museum opened in 2007, closed in 2010 and was homeless for 3 years until it re-opened in a brand new building in September 2013. Put together and manned by enthusiastic volunteers, primary feature is a superb and surprisingly comprehensive collection of old photographs with a few old drawings and paintings. Major emphasis is on the famous bridge and on the railway which closed with the infamous Beeching cuts but once ran right through the centre of town. Museum web site.
Bridges: The 'bridge on wool' was built in 1468. It was more than 500 years before the town got another. Then it got two in quick succession. In 1991 a new road bridge crossed the River Camel downstream of the wool bridge as part of a welcome bypass Then Challenge Bridge was built in 1993 as a part of a 'Challenge Anneka' TV series. The Culverhouse, also known as the Culverhay or Culvery, is a dovecote, originally serving Trevanion Manor, now conserved by the Cornwall Heritage Trust.
More in Towns & Villages
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.
Warleggan
I first encountered the moorland village of Warleggan in June 2006 when Jane and I attended a flower festival there. It was a warm, sunny day and gardens were looking lovely and lush. I was next there in August 2011 in the course of a challenging 6� walk from a car park at the southern end of Colliford Lake, a walk that took me over Penkestle and Letter Moors, and by way of Lantewey, Warleggan and Carburrow Tor. Challenging for the stream crossing below Lantewey - the clapper bridge had collapsed in a flood - and the very steep, massively rocky track up between Lantewey and Warleggan. On this occasion, in late November 2016, I approached the village from the A38 at the Halfway House Inn and, on the way, discovered disused Tredinnick Chapel and an adjacent Cornish Cross. Warleggan is a fairly steep, one street village. There are some inaccessible big houses, accessible small cottages, the former village pump in front of Pixie Nook (ugh!) and the tiny church up a track off the lane. There is little to commend the church, which was (as so often) ruined by Victorian "restoration". The 15th century font of elvan stone bears no decoration. The poor box is old but stands on a modern column. There are no carved bench ends, done away with by the Victorians. To my mind about the only redeeming features are the Cornish Cross, once used as a gatepost, by the porch and the fact that you can park a car by the church.
Week St. Mary
I visited Week St. Mary (originally Wyke St. Mary, the Old English Wyke meaning a dairy farm, St. Mary added for the dedication of the church) in late January 2016. My purpose was essentially to seek out the bare remains of what is claimed to be a Noman castle ringwork just to the west of the church. Certainly you can see some kind of earthwork in the field adjacent to the church but just what it was is unclear from visual evidence, whether castle or perhaps manor house. The village will have been in existence since before the Norman Conquest, after which the land belonged to William the Conqueror's half brother, Robert of Mortain. The market square is attractive with a couple of thatched cottages, a colourful cottage next to the village shop, and a view of the church tower. St. Mary's church, largely of the 14th and 15th centuries, is typically Cornish in that it has nave and north and south aisles, the aisles with wagon roofs. In the porch the floor is of vertically set slate tiles, reminiscent of a Lutyens garden path; underneath a bench is the original village stocks. Inside, the Three Martyrs window is by Kempe; the octagonal font has unusual crude carving; the pulpit has linenfold panelling and a nearby stall looks as if it was made from the former rood screen. The 1814 memorial plaque to Joseph Burnett records the death of the the oldest known official peace officer killed on duty. Note how the word duty has been at first omitted but later added.