The town of Hayle is a product of the Industrial Revolution. Prior to the industrialisation, a track and mediaeval bridge existed across the mouth of Copperhouse creek, linking the small settlement of Phillack (around the church) with the river crossing to Lelant. A quay was built in the 1740s and initially Hayle was little more than a small port to import coal and export ore from the more major industrial settlement at Angarrack.
In the 1750s the Cornish Copper Company moved from Camborne to Hayle and set up a smelter, giving its name to Copperhouse Creek. Smelting involved roasting and melting the ore eight times to increase the purity with each cycle.
Smelting continued until 1820 and was then moved to south Wales because vast amounts of coal were needed to smelt the copper and it was more economical to ship the copper ore to an area rich in coal than vice versa. After the smelting works closed, the buildings were converted into an iron foundry. This was demolished in the early 20th Century but a few fragments of the building survive within the properties along Copper Terrace.
A wave power test facility is located in a dedicated area of ocean more-or-less directly out from Godrevy Head. Undersea power cables run from the offshore site back to a substation hub in Hayle allowing tens of megawatts of power to be sold to the national grid from the test devices. Shipping lanes from Lands End into the Bristol Channel have been moved further offshore to make room for the wave energy pilot and consequently most large vessels are now seen close to the horizon along the north Cornish coast.
In 1779 John Harvey established a foundry and engineering works at Hayle which by 1800 was employing more than 50 people. The company worked with Cornish engineers including Richard Trevithick and Arthur Woolf to manufacture beam engines which were exported internationally. During the early-mid 19th Century, it was the main mining foundry in the world.
During a period of global warming before the Pliocene period (up to about 3 million years ago), rising sea levels flooded the dunes, turning West Penwith into an island. The Hayle valley was a narrow gulf separating the island from the mainland and the shallow sea depositing a layer of blue clay on top of the sand in the lagoons along the valley. As the climate cooled, sea levels dropped as water was tied up in the polar ice sheets, reuniting the island of West Penwith with the rest of Cornwall.
Pits were dug at St Erth initially to extract clay for affixing candles to the helmets of miners. The sand beneath the clay also found a use. As it was extracted from the water, each grain of sand would be coated in a thin film of clay. Under gentle pressure, this could be used to form moulds for casting molten metal. This was used by Harvey's Foundry at Hayle for casting beam engines and consequently one of the pits is known as Harvey's Pit. The sand was also exported throughout Cornwall and beyond for use in engineering castings.
As Harvey's and the Cornish Copper Company both grew, rivalry turned into open hostility with regular disputes over access to the sea. As the Copperhouse Pool was controlled by the Cornish Copper Company, Harvey's built their own pool (Carnsew) in the neighbouring Penpol creek and constructed a dock and tidal sluice there.
Harvey's operated a "Company Store policy" which forced all workers to buy their provisions from Harvey's Emporium and prohibited the development of any independent shops.
This area of the dunes is known as Riviere Towans, named after Riviere Farm which was originally built to accommodate packhorses, mules and horse-drawn carts used by the Cornish Copper Company.
The RNLI was founded in 1824 under the original name of the National Institution for Preservation of Life from Shipwreck. It was renamed to the RNLI in 1854. Until 1890 all the lifeboats were rowed with oars until some steam-powered boats were introduced. By 1905, petrol-powered boats were being trialled and fairly quickly replaced the bulky steam-powered predecessors. Today a fleet of over 340 lifeboats provide a 24/7 search and rescue service around the UK. The charity has saved over 140,000 lives since it was set up.
The carpets of yellow flowers on the coast in June and July are Kidney Vetch. The flowers are red when they open and then turn yellow, and appear to be on a woolly cushion. The plant gets its common name as it was used to treat kidney troubles. Its other name - woundwort - is because it was also used to treat wounds. It is the food plant of the small blue butterfly, which is consequently quite common on the coastal heath.
The lighthouse on the island at the far end of the bay is Godrevy
The Stones Reef off Godrevy Point has always been a shipping hazard and a lighthouse had been considered for a long time, but nothing was done until in 1854, the SS Nile was wrecked with the loss of all on board. The lighthouse was finished in 1859 and is a 26m tall octagonal tower, located on the largest rock of the reef. The lighthouse inspired Virginia Woolfe's novel "To the Lighthouse", despite her setting the novel in The Hebrides. In 2012, the light was decommissioned and replaced with an LED light on a platform facing the sea. The tower is still maintained as a daytime navigation aid.
More about Godrevy Lighthouse and Virginia Woolfe in Cornwall
Dunes (called towans in Cornish) form when dry sand from the beach is blown by the wind, and initially lodges against an obstruction, eventually forming a ridge. More sand can then accumulate against the ridge and vegetation such as marram grass can then take hold, preventing the resulting sand hill from washing or blowing away.
The path to the left leads to Gwithian Beach.
The series of west-facing beaches running from Hayle to Godrevy are particularly favoured by kite surfers due to the large expanse of uncrowded waves. At high tide, the largest beach stretches over two miles from Black Cliff to rocks at Gwithian. North of this, St Gothian Sands lies between Strap Rocks and Magow Rocks at Gwithian. North of the Red River and smaller again is the Godrevy beach, which disappears into several small coves at the highest part of the tide. At low tide, all these beaches combine into one three mile stretch of sand from Godrevy point to the Hayle River.
This area of the dunes is the start of a Site of Special Scientific Interest which includes a number of nature reserves. Mexico Towans is named after Mexico Lane and Mexico Terrace in Phillack which are a reference to Cornish mine enterprises in Mexico.
In 1824, a complex of flooded Mexican silver mines were sold to a group of London investors who began recruiting miners and engineers in Cornwall. Beam engines were shipped out, and many Cornish emigrated to Mexico which had a cultural as well as industrial impact. Auténtico paste (pronounced pasty) is still on sale in shops with a St Piran's flag and there is even a pasty museum. Another cultural export from Cornwall was football, which also went on to become rather popular.
This area of the dunes is known as Common Towans, presumably from an area of Common Land.
The overhead power lines are the remnants of a coal-fired power station that was built beside the mouth of the River Hayle in the early 20th Century. This was in use until 1973. The site of the old power station has been used for the wave power test facility.
In the UK, Cordyline australis can often reach around five metres high. In New Zealand it normally reaches around 8 metres. The largest specimen of the plant is thought to be around 500 years old, is 17 metres tall and has a circumference of nine metres at the base!
The first record of the settlement and church of Phillack is from around 1150 as "Eccl de Egglosheil" but there is good evidence that the settlement dates back much earlier. Roman brooches and the remains of a bronze-age axe have been found on the dunes, for example. The saint's name, Felec, is first mentioned in a late 9th Century geographically-ordered list of Cornish saints which is consistent with the location of the church.
The black blocks used to construct the vestry building are made from waste material from the copper smelter.
During the copper smelting process, impurities such as fragments of rock and iron ore melt and float on the surface of the denser liquid copper metal. The molten slag from the initial melting of the ore was a waste material known as scoria containing little copper. For the subsequent seven cycles of roasting and melting the ore, the slag was sufficiently rich in copper to be worth recycling and so it was fed back into the earlier stages of the process.
Roughly 2 tons of scoria were produced for every one ton of copper. The molten slag was cast into blocks which were used as a cheap building material. They were given free to the employees of the Cornwall Copper Company to build their houses and sold for sixpence for 20 blocks. The gasses released during the smelting process made the slag layer quite frothy which is why the blocks are porous.
The church building is a Victorian rebuild which left few remains of the previous Norman church which had been extended in the 15th century, apart from the 15th Century tower.
Prior to the Norman church, there is strong evidence (including inscribed stones and fragments of pottery) that the churchyard was a Celtic religious site. The circular stone above the doorway carved with "XP" characters (Chi-Rho Greek letters for Christos) could date from around the 5th Century.
The churchyard wall along the road is also built with black scoria blocks. As you approach the bottom of the hill, the causeway crossing the creek was built with them, as are many of the walls alongside the pool. The iron content in the blocks makes them very heavy despite the porous structure.
Copperhouse Pool was modified in around 1785 from a natural tidal creek. In 1788 a weir and flood gates were added at the mouth of the creek to form a tidal reservoir. This was both so ships could travel up to the dock and so that the main channel could be flushed of sand and silt by releasing the reservoir at low tide. The old wooden sluice gates are resting against the wall within the memorial gardens. The sea wall along the edge of the pool was built in around 1800.
A Site of Special Scientific Interest extends from pools of the Hayle Estuary to Carrack Gladden, including the beach and dunes of Porth Kidney Sands. Hayle is Britain’s most southwesterly estuary and due to the mild maritime climate, it never freezes. Up to 18,000 birds have been seen here in the winter. During the spring and autumn, its far westerly location makes it a very important site for migratory birds to stop and rest. Ospreys have been seen here in a number of years.
Philps Pasties spans 4 generations of the Philps family, starting with cousins Everet (the baker) and Sammy Philp (the business brains) baking pasties to sell to the local pubs in the 1950s. The word got around and demand grew. Despite weighing around 7 stone, Everet could make nearly 3000 by hand in a day. The business is now run by Sammy Philps' grandchildren and their children maintain the family tradition of peeling vegetables and crimping pasties before they go to school.
Before Victorian times, travellers wishing to cross the Hayle River between Hayle and St Ives were faced with either a long diversion inland via St Erth, or to risk crossing the sands. Guides were available to assist with the latter, but even so the shifting sands and racing tides claimed several lives.
As this was a barrier to trade, a turnpike trust was formed to build a causeway over which the road now runs to the Old Quay House. The causeway was completed in 1825 at a cost of £5000 and a toll was charged to recoup the capital raised from investors.
The Hayle River is 12 miles long and has its source near Crowan. The river's course initially runs west for 5 miles into what was once the lagoon separating Penwith from the mainland when sea levels were higher. The river then follows this valley north for the remainder of its course. The river flows through a number of old mining sites and consequently there are quite high concentrations of metals in the water. The river and the settlement near its mouth get their name from the Cornish word for estuary.
The Birdsfoot Trefoil has yellow flowers tinged with red that look like little slippers and appear in small clusters. They are followed by seed pods that look distinctly like bird's feet or claws. Common names referring to the flowers include "Butter and Eggs", "Eggs and Bacon" and "Hen and Chickens", and to the seed pods, the delightful "Granny's Toenails".
It is a member of the pea family and is poisonous to humans (containing glycosides of cyanide) but not to grazing animals and can be grown as a fodder plant. It is the larval food plant of many butterflies and moths including the common blue and silver-studded blue, and an important nectar plant for many bumblebee species.
The striking magenta flowers seen in Cornish hedgerows and gardens in May and June are known as Whistling Jacks, Mad Jacks, Cornish Jacks or Corn Flag. The "whistling" is thought to be from children using the leaves as a reed between their fingers and blowing. The plant is a species of Gladioli originally from the Mediterranean but has been naturalised in Cornwall for some time. Opinions differ on exactly when it first arrived but numerous opportunities have existed during the trade that has taken with Cornwall over the centuries, and the great gardens and cut flower industries in more recent times.
The name "buttercup" is thought to have come from a mediaeval belief that cows eating the flowers gave butter its yellow colour. In fact this couldn't be further from the truth as the plant contains toxins which make it taste acrid and is therefore avoided by grazing animals.
The Latin name of the buttercup, Ranunculus, means "little frog" and said to be because the plants like wet conditions. It is thought it may have come via a derogatory name for people who lived near marshes!
There are a few different species of buttercup. One of most common is meadow buttercup (unsurprisingly found in meadows!) which is the tallest member of the family. Another common one is creeping buttercup which as the name suggests spreads through rhizomes so is more likely to be found in dense clumps in damp places. Its leaves are also more golden and glossy.
Meadow buttercups spread across a field relatively slowly as most seeds fall quite close to the parent and although it has a creeping root system capable of propagating new plants, this only extends a fairly short distance from each plant (unlike creeping buttercup which has a much more extensive root system). Because grazing animals avoid buttercups due to their acrid taste, this allows them to accumulate over time. The combination of these factors allows the number of meadow buttercups in a field to be used as an indicator of how long it's been used for grazing.
Buttercups produce a toxin called protoanemonin, which is at its highest concentration when flowering. It is thought that buttercups may be partly responsible for Equine Grass Sickness. Fortunately the toxin is quite unstable and drying of the plant in haymaking leads to polymerisation into non-toxic anemonin. Buttercups are also toxic to dogs, cats and humans. They have a bitter taste which puts dogs off eating the plants but pollen can collect on fur and be ingested, particularly by cats when they clean themselves. A man in France who drank a glass of juice made from buttercups suffered severe colic after four hours and was dead the next day!
Originally from the Mediterranean, fennel has naturalised in the UK, particularly in coastal areas and is recorded as far back as the 10th century.
The Greek word for fennel is "marathon"; the name of the sporting event originates from a battle which took place in a field of fennel.
The leaves, seeds and also flowers of the wild fennel can be used in cooking. Of these, the flowers are the most potent and also the most expensive to purchase.
Whizz half a red onion, a couple of sprigs of wild fennel leaves and a clove of garlic in a (small) food processor. Whizz in one fillet of smoked mackerel (skinned), juice of half a lemon and a pinch of salt + freshly ground black pepper. Finally whizz in some cream cheese (for a paté) or crème fraîche (for a dip) a spoonful at a time until the desired consistency (thickness) is reached.
The National Cycle Network is coordinated by the charity Sustrans. It began with one route in Bristol in 1984 and now consists of around 15,000 miles of signposted cycle routes known as National Cycle Routes. These each have a number and are constructed using a combination of roads typically chosen to have light traffic and some traffic-free tracks which are open to cycles.
National Cycle Route 2 runs for 361 miles along the south coast from St Austell to Dover but at the time of writing, several sections including the one between Par and Plymouth (using the Cremyll ferry to cross the Tamar) haven't been completed yet.
National Cycle Route 3 runs 338 miles from Bristol to Land's End. The route is a mixture of lanes, byways and some tracks not open to road traffic including the upper section of the Camel Trail from Wenfordbridge to Dunmere.
National Cycle Route 304 provides a more direct and less hilly alternative to the coastal section of National Cycle Route 3 between Marhamchurch and Hallworthy.
National Cycle Route 327 runs from Trelash near Warbstow via Launceston to near Tavistock. It forms a link between cycle routes 3 (Bristol to Lands End) and 27 (Plymouth and Tavistock) hence 327.
National Cycle Route 32 splits off Route 3 at Dunmere and rejoins it again at Truro. Using the lower half of the Camel Trail and then predominantly lanes, the route runs through Padstow, St Columb Major and Newquay for a total of 51 miles.
Between Bude and Land's End, National Cycle Routes 3 and 32 are collectively known as the Cornish Way, stretching for 123 miles.
The salt-laden breeze coming off the sea dries out leaf buds and inhibits growth so the plants end up growing most vigorously in the lee of the wind. In the direction facing the prevailing wind, the growth is therefore more compact and stunted whereas in the lee of the wind, the branches are much more straggly. The result is that the trees appear to point away from the prevailing wind. Where there are no obstacles interfering with the wind direction, the shape of the trees can be used as a compass. Prevailing winds come from the southwest, so in general, trees in Cornwall point northeast.
1000 Millennium Mileposts were funded by the Royal Bank of Scotland for the National Cycle Network. The cast iron signposts come in four designs:
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