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| Train crossing the Moorswater viaduct |
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| On the road |
Our next stop was the
Moorswater Viaduct near Liskeard in Cornwall. Moorswater lies in a valley which is spanned by Moorswater viaduct carrying the Cornish Main Line railway.
The single-track Looe Valley Line branches from the mainline at Liskeard railway station and descends into the valley allowing freights trains to access Moorswater Industrial Estate on the site of the former Moorswater railway station, once the centre of operations for the Liskeard and Caradon Railway
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| Moorswater Viaduct 1975 |
Travelling further west through the Roseland Heritage Coast farmland we arrived at the King Harry car ferry which took us across the mouth of the Truro River.
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| Truro River wharf |
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| From the King Harry car ferry |
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| On the King Harry car ferry |
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| Photo Daily Mail |
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| Photo Daily Mail |
While in Cornwall, our base was a small converted water mill owned by the Charltons, an old retired couple who had taken it over. He was addicted to snuff and made his own elderberry wine in his shed, she took up screen printing of cards made famous by the Gilbert & Sullivan opera.
It was near Penzance, and although it looked like a dump from the outside, it had a nicely finished studio apartment on the to level. We stayed a couple of days and explored the countryside and the town of Penzance.
We were told to be careful where we walked as this area of Britain was dotted with abandoned and unmarked
tin mines.
"During the late stages of the cooling of the mass of granite that makes up a lot of Cornwall, fissures opened up in the granite when it was still molten, and more hot molten rocks bubbled up through the granite from the earth's interior. These new rocks contained many minerals, and as they crystallized they formed mineral lodes - tin, copper, zinc, lead and iron with some silver.
Because the ore bearing rocks formed in this way, rather than being sedimentary rocks like coal (hence coal is laid down in great flat plates), they have to be mined vertically rather than horizontally. Each fissure has to be mined straight down into the earth. Each fissure needed a separate mine. Therefore a great many vertical shafts were needed, rather than the one shaft that was used in coal mining.
Inevitably the mine shafts dropped below the level of the water table, and the water had to be pumped out if mining was to continue any deeper. Hence pumps and the houses for the engines that drove the pumps were a necessary part of mining.
These engine houses were the sturdiest buildings in the mines, as they had both to house the machinery and support the massive beams that worked the pumps. It is not surprising that it is the engine houses that survive in Cornwall. In addition the closer to sea level the engine was sited, the less the height the water needed to be pumped to remove it from the mine. Therefore we find today some of these engine house perched on the sea cliffs.
"
Even further west, we arrive at the St Michael’s Mount near Marazion. St Michael's Mount (Cornish: Karrek Loos yn Koos, meaning "hoar rock in woodland") is a small tidal island in Mount's Bay, Cornwall. The island is linked to the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway of granite setts, passable between mid-tide and low water.
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| St Michael’s Mount at low tide in 1975 |
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| St Michael’s Mount viewed from Marazion (Internet Photo) |
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| Aerial photo of St Michael’s Mount (Internet Photo) |
Travelling further west, we stopped at Penzance, mad famous by the Gilbert & Sullivan opera, "The Pirates of Penzance".
The opera poked fun at grand opera conventions, sense of duty, family obligation, the "respectability" of civilisation and the peerage, and the relevance of a liberal education.
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| Looking back towards Penzance |
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| Edwards Newlyn Art Gallery |
A little further west at Newlyn, we stopped briefly at the Edwards Newlyn Art Gallery.
It was built by
John Passmore who, from his humble beginnings in Cornwall, became the "MP for Salisbury, Editor of a leading London newspaper, life-long champion of the working classes and is remembered as being a Benefactor Extraordinary".
Even further west we stopped at the
Minack Theatre (Cornish: Gwaryjy Minack) is an open-air theatre, constructed above a gully with a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea.
"The theatre was the brainchild of Rowena Cade (1893-1983), older sister of the feminist Katharine Burdekin, who moved to Cornwall after the First World War and built a house for herself and her mother on land at Minack Point for £100. Miss Cade and her gardener, Billy Rawlings, made a terrace and rough seating, hauling materials down from the house or up via the winding path from the beach below. In 1932, The Tempest was performed with the sea as a dramatic backdrop, to great success."
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| (Internet Photo) |
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| (Internet Photo) |
We finally visited Land's End, the most western point of the British Isles. It was pretty spectacular but unfortunately I have no photos, so here are a couple from the internet that show the scene. The date on the sign is changed each day by staff at the Visitor's Centre.
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| (Internet Photo) |
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| (Internet Photo) |
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| Postcard - JohnO'Groats to Lands End |
While in Cornwall, our base was a small converted water mill owned by the Charltons, an old retired couple who had taken it over. He was addicted to snuff and made his own elderberry wine in his shed, she took up screen printing of cards made famous by the Gilbert & Sullivan opera.
Travelling further west, we stopped at Penzance, mad famous by the Gilbert & Sullivan opera, "The Pirates of Penzance".
