Friday 3 July 2015

Cape Cornwall


We know this area well and it has a fascinating history.
The white house on the slope was once the home of 'Elephant Bill' a St Just man made famous by his actions in the Burma Campaign when he assisted the evacuation of women and children by means of elephants across hostile terrain.
Virginia Woolf stayed at the lower house when it was in use by the artist Duncan Grant. She knew this part of the country very well because she had enjoyed many childhood holidays in a house above Porthminster beach in St Ives that was rented each summer by her father. The Godrevy Lighthouse and those childhood holidays were the inspiration for her book, 'To the Lighthouse'. Everything about Cornwall was transposed to Scotland in the novel.  After publication people wrote in and complained that her research had been poor because the flora and fauna that she described did not exist in Scotland!
Large greenhouses used to occupy the lower slope above the harbour. Camellias were grown there and sent by train to Covent Garden in London. Since our last visit a beautiful new greenhouse has been constructed on part of the land. Private property - I had to peep nosily over the wall. I would have loved to have walked through the space!  The new greenhouse is painted grey, a very sensitive response to it's setting and intrudes on the area not one bit, but continues the history of what went before.
We came home with a drawing of Cape Cornwall that our friend had made years ago when he and Himself were running an annual landscape course for the Bristol Art School.
It captures a lot of memories.

9 comments:

  1. When I grow up I want to travel like you two. I love it when you do these posts, I have actually been to Cape Cornwall but it was so long ago that I would need a refresher trip.

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  2. Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful photos today.
    Just lovely.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. So glad you like this post, Parsnip, I can't tell how much is in my head and how much conveyed in what I've posted.

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  3. Wonderful! Thanks for sharing it. About six years ago we were in Cornwall and loved it very much. Now we have just returned from Herefordshire. England is full of beautiful places!

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    1. For a relatively small country it is certainly packed with great diversity and plenty of history. (And it always improves things when the sun is shining!)

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  4. Living in East Cornwall, Cape Cornwall is a regular destination whenever I have visitors; they never fail to be enchanted. With the children we have clambered all over the hill and played Boules on a grassy patch near to the ruins in the hollow below the Cape - on one memorable occasion having to gather up our picnic and scramble back to the car to escape the biting hordes of gnats!!!

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