There’s a fair bit of hype about St Ives and we were happily surprised to find the hype fully justified. Sheltered from the wind, with the sun glistening on the water and a blue sky in an otherwise cloudy day, St Ives is impossibly pretty. Despite the rain and wind elsewhere in Cornwall, at 7.30pm the sun was shining brightly in St Ives and we soaked in the warmth and beauty for the couple of hours we spent on the cobbled streets and harbor of this ancient town.
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Cornwall
Cornwall was lovely and fully met my high expectations of beauty and atmosphere. Contrary to my weather expectations, it was wet and cold. In Dublin, Northern Ireland and the south-east of England, we were pleased we’d brought shorts. However, it was for our time in Cornwall that we’d included them in our luggage. Fortunately, we didn’t come to the U.K. to swim, and the sights of Cornwall were made even more beautiful by the rain.
My grasp of reality was obscured at times as I wondered about Ross, Demelza and Morwenna, and for this fixation I thank my cousin Allison without whom I would not have known the Poldark series existed. I regret that we left Perth when we had only finished series 3. Seeing many of the filming locations while watching the series made exploring Cornwall even more enjoyable.
St Michael’s Mount – Cornwall
St Michael’s Mount is a small island, just off the shore from Marazion. We walked across a pathway made visible by the low tide. The island has been inhabited for over 4000 years (iron age) but the current buildings date from the 12th century and include a priory and church. The island and monastic buildings were used as a fortress during the English Civil War and in 1660 were purchased by Sir John St Aubyn. The same family have lived on the island since that time and have made their beautiful home and gardens (maintained by three full-time gardeners) open to the public, with the support of the National Trust.
Bodmin Moors in Cornwall’s North – Churches and Methodism
We spent two nights north of Bodmin Moors in a lovely farmhouse Airbnb, reached by one of those lanes which require you to reverse about a kilometre if you see oncoming traffic. The desolate moors hold history, hope and stark beauty.
The 800-year-old Church of St Nonna is known as the Cathedral of the Moor. It is simple in form and beautiful. Our (fairly useless without the internet) guidebook had mentioned that John Wesley’s Cottage was close by, so we thought we’d inquire about it here. When we arrived at 3.00pm the church was locked but we were informed by some other tourists that the custodian was on the way from the next town. They had phoned the parish after making a special trip to see the church, and their interest in old churches was evident. After looking around the church we asked about the John Wesley Cottage. The custodian had a brochure but said we would probably be out of luck because it closed at 4 pm. As the cottage was indeed close, we thought we’d at least go and see the outside. Derek attended a Uniting Church with Methodist origin at the time we first met, and we have both enjoyed on occasion watching the Wesley Mission TV program with Rev Keith Garner. As we stood outside (well after 4pm), a gentleman came out and invited us in for a cup of tea, cake and conversation. Despite our concern for their staying late on the job, it was difficult to get away and we were given a full tour of the tiny cottage and an enthusiastic account of the history of Methodism in Cornwall. John Wesley and other itinerant preachers received free hospitality at Trewint Cottage (as it was then known) on many occasions, from 1743. At this time many poor people in Cornwall felt excluded from traditional churches. Wesley spoke in the open air, often to thousands of miners, fishermen and farmers who lived in poverty. His message that all were acceptable to God regardless of wealth or status, simply by trusting in Jesus’ death on their behalf, was eagerly accepted. In Cornwall (along with North Wales), Methodism became the religion of the masses, with more attendees than at Anglican churches. If you’ve watched the Poldark series, you will know the hardships faced by the uneducated and poor adherents of Methodism to build their own church or even attend existing Anglican churches. I know (sort of) that Poldark is fiction but the events in the series are consistent with the history of Methodism as related during our fascinating cup of tea and cake. John Wesley also started health and literacy programs in Cornwall and at the end of our special tour, we were invited to watch a video about how these issues are being tackled by the Methodist church today. To our amusement, it was presented by Keith Garner and we said we would watch it on our return to Australia.
Lyme Regis
We stopped here for an hour between Salisbury (base for Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral) and Cornwall. I’d have liked to spend longer. The sun was sparkling on the water, and people were swimming and pottering around the rocks. We walked along the wall and around the old buildings. A quiet place, I found it infinitely preferable to Brighton.
Persuasion is my favourite Jane Austen novel, and I take comfort in the knowledge that I am not alone in confusing fiction with reality. Apparently when the poet, Lord Alfred Tennyson was shown historical sites of Lyme Regis by his friends, he replied, “Don’t talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth; show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell.”
Derek and I compared theories on this but it’s hard to know. The wall has probably changed in 200 years.
Brighton
Brighton is a great fun place to go to once. There’s loads of action in the evenings with many different types of people on display, having fun, despite the rain. It’s oversized and overpriced and very brash. The Gold Coast pales in comparison. If I wasn’t on a budget I would have bought a giant fairy floss stick and played an arcade game.
Brighton’s Royal Pavilion (built by King George IV as a summer palace) is horrific. The guidebooks did not do justice to its degree of garishness (and this was without going inside). How did the English people end up so refined?
The White Cliffs of Southern England
The White Cliffs of Dover exceeded my expectations. Truly white and chalky, there were many people having evening picnics after the heat of the day.
The white cliffs stretch across much of southern England and are magnificent. We did the Seven Sisters cliff-top walk from Birling Gap to Seaford (13km). The day before we arrived, part of Birling Gap collapsed due to dryness from the summer’s drought, and we kept well away from the edge. We had no trouble believing England was in drought at this point – it was hot, and while green compared to Western Australia, it was not the emerald isle. However, the blast of colours was incredible, from the deep blue of the sea, to the light blue of the sky, the white and the orange of the cliffs, and the light green and deep green of the moss on the hills against the black of the rocks.
1066 and all that
I haven’t done any formal study of British history, although I have a smattering of disjointed information from reading historical novels. Research before we left Australia included some audiobooks on medieval English history, but it is still a jumble I haven’t sorted out in my head. Nevertheless, I think I’m a lot more sorted on 1066. The Battle Abbey and Battlefield museum was excellent.
I have often wondered how the Normans were able to take England when they came over by boat but now I have a much better understanding, which I started trying to explain in this post. After a while I decided if you are as (weirdly) interested as I was (and why should you be?) you can google it.
William the Conqueror built an abbey at the site of the Battle of Hastings partly to atone for the terrible bloodshed which appalled even the people at the time who were used to such atrocities. Unfortunately, this was destroyed in the reign of Henry VIII by Cromwell.
Dover Castle
I made a few wrong directions to Dover Castle. It took a while to get used to the roads in the South of England. Google maps and the car navigator weren’t as helpful as in other regions. Even the road signs worked against me. We saw brown road signs with a picture of a castle, so thought we’d follow this in preference to google. I realised after having trouble finding several castles, that the images were of sandcastles (signs to beaches).
Dover Castle is huge, well-preserved but not as pretty as other castles we have seen. The cliff on which it is situated (opposite France) has been used for defense since 800BC and the Romans built a lighthouse here in AD43. Dover Castle was built by the Normans in the 12th century and has been adapted since that time to new weapons and strategies of warfare, including secret war tunnels built in WWII. We did a tour through the war tunnels (built into the cliffs) and walked through the medieval tunnels built at the base of the hill.
We could have spent far longer than the three hours we explored Dover Castle. Derek (tired from the early start and the introduction to driving on the motorway) was persuaded by the National Trust volunteers to buy a guide book, despite not giving in to this pressure throughout Ireland. I think a reasonable proportion of people in Perth must be from the south of England – there is a strong similarity in driving styles.
I have never seen a castle before this trip, so I didn’t understand it when people said they got tired of looking at castles. I understand it now and I’m relieved I think there’s only Edinburgh Castle to go. I felt over-whelmed with historical content as we went to museums and castles in England’s south. Imagining life in past times sometimes gave me a slightly disconnected feeling as though my own life was part of an apocalyptic futuristic novel /movie.
Arrival in England
We arrived at Heathrow after a very early flight from Dublin, collected a car, and drove to Dover. Dover as a deliberate destination is apparently original and a source of hilarity to some of our English hosts. When asked about the places we have visited in England, we’ve found it best to be vague. This avoids a blank look, or even an incredulous. “You came to London and drove straight to Dover?” In Hexham, a delightful medieval city on Hadrian’s Wall, our host said, “I’ll dine out on this for weeks!”. I said she could stretch it as much as she wished so she said, “I’ll tell everyone you spent your nine weeks in Dover!”
Derek has long wanted to see The White Cliffs of Dover. Sometimes we hear about places in our childhood and they retain a place in our hearts. Our afternoon in Dover was interesting and with its iconic white cliffs, and fascinating Dover Castle, we are glad we included this destination. However, having subsequently been to Cornwall, Cotswolds, Snowdonia, Lakes District and Scotland, I’m very pleased we went to Dover at the start of our time in England, and not the end.