― RickyT (RickyT), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 15:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
My opinions on Cornwall are well known and I shall air them no further, except to say I was drinking with a fantastic Cornishman last night, so I can forgive the place a bit.
― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 15:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 15:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 15:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
― chris (chris), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 16:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 16:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 16:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
http://www.cornwalltouristboard.co.uk/sitemakectb.asp?customtemplate=pages/ctb.txt
― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 16:12 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 16:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Matt (Matt), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 16:34 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 16:35 (twenty-one years ago) link
*steps gently away with hands over ears*
― chris (chris), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 16:37 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Matt (Matt), Friday, 14 February 2003 10:42 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tim (Tim), Friday, 14 February 2003 10:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Matt (Matt), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tim (Tim), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Matt (Matt), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tim (Tim), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:17 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Matt (Matt), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tim (Tim), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Alan (Alan), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:38 (twenty-one years ago) link
― chris (chris), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Matt (Matt), Friday, 14 February 2003 11:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Archel (Archel), Friday, 14 February 2003 12:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― chris (chris), Friday, 14 February 2003 12:06 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tim (Tim), Friday, 14 February 2003 12:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Archel (Archel), Friday, 14 February 2003 12:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Matt (Matt), Friday, 14 February 2003 16:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
Is grockles a Cornish term? or did it spring up in Devon?
― Anna (Anna), Friday, 14 February 2003 16:53 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tim (Tim), Friday, 14 February 2003 16:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anna (Anna), Friday, 14 February 2003 17:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Friday, 14 February 2003 20:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Tuesday, 18 February 2003 00:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
My Cornish niece got married recently. I appeared to be related to half the village.
― stevo (stevo), Tuesday, 18 February 2003 06:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Matt (Matt), Friday, 11 April 2003 00:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
then dr vick's brother's children threw a surprise finn family moomintroll party JUST FOR ME, with lamps in the trees and pancakes and jam and cups made out of leaves and the king's ruby in a suitcase (= a rear bikelight) and a blood red full moon rising out of the sea as the stunning unplanned climax!!!
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 10:42 (twenty years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 10:46 (twenty years ago) link
And yes, Dawlish is worthy of big cakes. I live at the top of that there cliff.
― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 10:51 (twenty years ago) link
apparently some mad people dive off the esplanade railing into the rock pools
plymouth council has put up signs saying "nuffink to do w.us guv it's your lookout"
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 10:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 11:00 (twenty years ago) link
Actually Tim, you're right, it sucks. Let 'em have it.
― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 11:01 (twenty years ago) link
(was walter potter related to beatrix potter? i hope so!!)
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 11:10 (twenty years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 11:15 (twenty years ago) link
Bet that ooky place fits rather nicely on Bodmin Moor (a place which always gives me the creeps).
From the train even Teignmouth looks nice.
― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 11:21 (twenty years ago) link
the museum is right next door to Jamaica Inn, which — in all the news stories abt potter — is described as the one which inspired D.Du Maurier, but may actually just have taken the name quite recently (so said the v.v.cynical local I wz visiting with). Anyway it is all souped up for OAP coach parties with a school-dinners type foodbar and would — I suspect — belong in Pumpkin Publog Hall of Infamy. The guy who served us had the best barman-as-cherry-lipped-poisoner manner and fake smile I have ever encountered: he said "What can I get you this lovely day?" but he fairly clearly meant "I shall kill you in the night and you shall see my face in your last agony"...
the outside wall is cornish tiling but the roof has been covered in this weird rubberised goop which looks like they're making a mould to recast it in plaster of paris
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 11:29 (twenty years ago) link
I've just looked at that Potter site again and it's the most horrible thing ever ever (though the photos of various siamese twin creatures are a bit compelling (haha SIAMESE CAT!) )
RAT WITH TUSKS!
Jamaica Inn = Authentic Tourist Trap = alright by me.
― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 11:39 (twenty years ago) link
cornish hamlets have nice names: HATT and GANG were two
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 11:43 (twenty years ago) link
it means ant! I suppose tourists do swarm.
― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 11:48 (twenty years ago) link
No worries at all, your suggestions looked great and I'm not the only ilxor in Cornwall this week so might be useful to others
― Colonel Poo, Sunday, 13 October 2019 16:21 (four years ago) link
There are both Devon and Cornwall threads but not a combined one, so I've revived this one BUT I'm really interested in both. My wife and I are doing a Devon/Dartmoor/Cornwall holiday in late July/early August. We've already done a fair amount of research, but I'm open to suggestions! We're planning to do some moor hikes, of course, but would take recommendations on specific ones. Interested in (in no particular order) pre-Christian sites, Arthurian mystique, Du Maurier sites, natural wonders, pastys, pubs, historical oddities, etc. We'll be staying a few days in St. Ives, with a night at Jamaica Inn, one outside Sidmouth, one night in Exeter, a few nights unplanned so far.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 17:46 (three months ago) link
We've timed the trip to culminate with seeing Steeleye Span play in Sidmouth, ahead of the Sidmouth Folk Fest.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 17:47 (three months ago) link
if you pass thru plymouth let me know!
― mark s, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 17:49 (three months ago) link
There's a good chance we will! We were talking about staying a night there, but I'm not sure the current itinerary (my wife is more the planner).
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 17:51 (three months ago) link
I loved my visits to Bodmin Jail, it is a common-as-muck tourist attraction but the building is historically interesting and has a creepy aura that no amount of lottery funding spent on it could make it more or less creepier.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 18:09 (three months ago) link
I really love the coast between Zennor and Penzance - particularly St Just and Sennen Cove round to Logan Rock. There are loads of archaeological sites in West Penwith; many you can access just by driving around that area and looking for brown signs.
Julian Cope's site is great for sniffing this stuff out: https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/412/cornwall.html
Carn Euny is great and you have to go to Chysauster if you can: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/chysauster-ancient-village/
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 18:16 (three months ago) link
I started to learn a tiny bit of the zombie language Cornish but didn't want to mention lest Tom D mock me.
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 18:36 (three months ago) link
Not at all, that's a proper language.
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 18:37 (three months ago) link
There's a fair chance I'll be in Sidmouth during the festival, unfortunately I spend a lot of time there at present. Sidmouth during the Folk Festival is a very different prospect to normal Sidmouth, really the job is just to wander around, it's fun. In the old days every pub had some scratch folk stuff going on, these days not so much, sometimes you can find good stuff in The Swan. My other fave pub in Sidmouth is The Volunteer, but afaict their festival offer now is motley cover bands. There's a really good (quite bumpy) coastal walk from Sidmouth to Branscombe, recommended to finish for lunch in the excellent Fountain Head in Branscombe. Any part of the South West coastal path that's convenient is usually worth it.
St Ives is beautiful, I think it's a bit hollowed out by holiday homes these. days, AIUI the community mostly sold up and moved to Carbis and the edges of town. The Barbara Hepworth garden's unmissable, the Bernard Leach studio is missable but interesting.
I really like Penzance but haven't been there in years. I really like Falmouth and was there a few years ago.
There's a decent little run of standing stones just north of Liskeard: Trevethy quoit (which is an excellent quilt which sits oddly in what seems to e an unloved playing field out the back of a little row of unremarkable houses, but is atmospheric for all that), then the Hurlers Stone Circles and Craddock Moor stone circle (didn't make it to the Cheesewring, heard people like it).
Mark S is the best thing about Plymouth. Ivor Dewdney's (pron: dood-knee) pasties are the second best, it's not true that he killed his brother and turned him into a pasty. There's a good dusty old bookshop down by the Barbican.
There's supposed to be a very good gastropub in Tavistock. The Cider House in Newton Abbot is something of a natural wonder, proper old-fashioned cider pub, there are basically no places like that left anywhere.
Stone things I've enjoyed on Dartmoor: Nine Maidens stone circle, Mardon Down stone circle, Grimspound abandoned village. I should know more about neolithic shit on the moor than I do.
Exeter: the best and friendliest pub in Exeter by a mile is The Hour Glass, the food there is good too. The cathedral wouldn't be in my top 5 but would be in my top 10. There's a surprising number of decent East Asian places in Exeter, my favourite being Rogamo on Sidwell Street, which has no atmosphere, no licence, erratic service and some of the best hand-pulled Xi'an noodles I've ever had.
I've tried not to crap on about churches and / or modern architecture but I can crap on about either if you want.
― Tim, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 18:41 (three months ago) link
Sone of my favourite ever rambling in England was between Par and Looe via Fowey and Polperro (an odd little place), should be ideal that time of year.
― nashwan, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 19:44 (three months ago) link
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 20:36 (three months ago) link
Thanks for the thoughts! Keep 'em coming, we won't get to everything but love to know what's out there. (We do have the Julian Cope book and have marked a few places from that for sure.)
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 20:42 (three months ago) link
Also, my wife requests more info on "modern architecture" as mentioned upthread.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 21:07 (three months ago) link
don't start with grimspound abandoned village
― mark s, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 21:08 (three months ago) link
Trying to remember the Cornish language bookstore people like
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 21:26 (three months ago) link
Not quite what I said, but Rubicund in Falmouth.
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 21:35 (three months ago) link
That'll be those brisk sea breezes.
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 21:39 (three months ago) link
Okay, here's the one thing you'll want to know about the Cornish language if you want to know anything. The word for music is "ilow." Which is a ghost-word, based on a misunderstanding and a typo, but it has been accepted since there was no other good candidate.
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 21:41 (three months ago) link
I love ilow
Also this storefront: https://cornish-language.org/kowsva-shop-at-heartlands/
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 21:46 (three months ago) link
Maybe you can bring me back a souvenir;)
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 21:51 (three months ago) link
Although I might just order online
Could get you one of those Cornish alphabet books.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 21:52 (three months ago) link
We'll be down there in the summer, but taking kids to beaches mainly.Jam before cream, btw, and I say that having grown up in Devon...
― kinder, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 22:04 (three months ago) link
What are the good beaches?
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 22:08 (three months ago) link
Mark S is the best thing about Plymouth.
― Tim, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 18:41 (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
no longer true, they just found a v large unexploded ww2 bomb in a garden in keyham up beyond stoke village: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-68156374
― mark s, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 22:26 (three months ago) link
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339093341_Haunting_Vocabulary_and_Celtic_Lexicography_Towards_a_Taxonomy_of_Ghost_Words
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 22:36 (three months ago) link
With small people we have tended to minimise driving (and see friends nearby) so have only been to Rock, Harlyn, Mawgan Porth sort of areas, which were perfectly lovely but I imagine it's more lush the deeper into Cornwall you go - would love to explore more, and also revisit the Isles Of Scilly one day. My one memory of Land's End is my brother throwing up from car-sickness when we were kids...
― kinder, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 22:38 (three months ago) link
I'd recommend any of the four great beaches at Newquay, but I'm a crude pleb who can't stand Julian Cope and don't gaf about cosmic leylines or whatever bollox he has wrote about. Get to the fucking chip shop at Towan after walking across all of them, tides permitting, and get attacked by seagulls while you eat - that's the real england!
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 22:53 (three months ago) link
lol taken under advisement
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 21 February 2024 03:44 (three months ago) link
There's a great bookshop in Falmouth called Beermoth (iirc) that has a bar and sells wonderful Cornish beer.
― fetter, Wednesday, 21 February 2024 09:26 (three months ago) link
For coastal walks I can recommend Fowey > Polpero, finishing off at the Three Pilchards Inn for fish and chips and cider. It's a pretty tough up-and-down walk but with beautiful views.
If you really want to push the boat out, go to Burgh Island Hotel for a night or two, it's full-on 20s Art Deco opulence. Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" was set on a fictionalised version of the island. You get there on a Sea Tractor and there's a pub owned by the hotel on the island.
― Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Wednesday, 21 February 2024 09:41 (three months ago) link
My only advice is not to bother with Land's End, one of the most disappointing tourist spots in the world.
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 21 February 2024 09:45 (three months ago) link
do not trust satnavs if driving near Polperro, speaking from experience
― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 21 February 2024 09:48 (three months ago) link
Tim - if I'm driving down the m5 and want to make it just past Exeter before stopping for dinner with kids early on a Friday evening, is there anywhere you'd recommend that's not too far of a detour? pretty much any pub with food and room to stretch legs...
― kinder, Wednesday, 21 February 2024 10:18 (three months ago) link
Sennen and Gwynver beaches are gorgeous - particularly out of season. There are loads along the north coast that are beautiful though - Harlyn, Holywell, Constantine, Porthcothan.
I'm not mad on the ley lines bollocks either but there's something about West Penwith. You can stand on headlands or alongside menhirs and look at 3000 years of history where little has changed. Not many places left like that in England.
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Wednesday, 21 February 2024 10:36 (three months ago) link
Kinder - would I be right in thinking you’re planning to go north around Dartmoor rather than south? If so the Old Thatch at Cheriton Bishop was alright the last time I went, which was probably 20 years ago now. These days I rarely make it west of the river Exe, mostly for special occasions like seeing Mark S and his UXBs. I’ll ask around a bit, see if friends or colleagues know any gems.
― Tim, Wednesday, 21 February 2024 14:55 (three months ago) link
Recommendations from a local friend with kids: If you’re taking the southern route (ie A38 towards Plymouth) the Ley Arms at Kenn. If the northern (ie A30 skirting Okehampton) the Huntsman Inn at Ide. I haven’t been to either but can advise that Ide is pronounced to rhyme with deed rather than died (the latter is how I pronounced it for many years).
― Tim, Wednesday, 21 February 2024 22:34 (three months ago) link
thank you! yeah it'll be northern!
― kinder, Thursday, 22 February 2024 10:29 (three months ago) link
I’m told by other friends that the bit of the M5 near Exeter (esp the roundabout at Sowton) can get absurdly congested round about close of play on Friday nights FYI. I couldn’t say whether their definition of absurd congestion and my London-centric ones are the same.
― Tim, Thursday, 22 February 2024 12:09 (three months ago) link
Urgh, thanks....
― kinder, Friday, 23 February 2024 10:00 (three months ago) link