As a final blog about our time in Cornwall, we’ve decided to write about our Family Favorites, or those things that we most enjoyed while overseas. We came up with this list over dinner one night on one of our last days in Harrowbarrow. I’ve decided to supplement the favorites, which number five, with examples. These favorites are in no particular order.
2 Rose Cottages was the place that we lived in Harrowbarrow. It was built in the 1700s and served as the counting house for the Wheal Fortune silver mine whose remains still sit in the garden, next to the trampoline. One of the things that Christine and I particularly loved about this home was the view, especially from our bedroom. Here is a picture of one of the rainbows that we saw while there. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is in Harrowbarrow!
The cottage is small but was comfortable for us, at least for the seven months that we lived there. Our house in Boone seems huge to us now and so far we’re only using a portion of it. Here I am standing in the back garden, which for some reason was called the front garden by the Matchams.
One of the girls’ favorite things about Rose Cottages was the trampoline. Christine and I were happy to return home without any major injuries to the girls, but they sure loved jumping on it and really improved their skills while we were there. Here is Gwendolyn showing some nice form. She wants to be a gymnast.
Another family favorite about Rose Cottages was the football pitch. I played a lot of football with both girls out there. The weather is so mild, as well, that we were able to play our entire time there. Here was a particularly fun time on the pitch, playing a football match with the Campbells. Notice Christine and Gwendolyn playing in their Wellies!
Finally, how could we not include Steve and Liz Matcham. What great neighbors! We had some fun times with them and they helped us to adjust to life in Cornwall. We are going to miss them! We already do!
Harrowbarrow
We absolutely loved village life. Harrowbarrow is a wonderful place to live and our quality of life was high. The heart of the village lies in the school, which serves as the focal point of the town. Harrowbarrow comes to life each day when school begins and when it lets out. The girls learned quite a bit at this school – the UK curriculum seems to be about a year ahead of the US. I liked the school’s approach to learning – lots of hands-on exercises with plenty of enrichment activities like gardening, cookery, music, … I’m really going to miss this school and I think that the girls will, too.
We already miss the village shop. Adrian and Mandy Parkes were the proprietors of the shop and always made us feel welcome. The shop was only about 50 meters from our cottage, and we ended up running down there several times a day. We picked up our newspaper subscription to the abridged version of The Independent, called the i, each morning. We were also able to pick up any items that we needed. This wasn’t a US-style convenience store – they actually stocked real food! No soda or anything like that. We were able to buy local cheeses, local produce in season, milk, eggs, vegetarian sausages, coffee, you name it. We could even buy items for a vegetarian dinner. Try doing that at your local 7-11. The girls loved to go down there on their own to buy penny (pence?) candies with their allowances. It was also convenient to have a post office so close by.
Down at the village hall was another favorite – the Harrowbarrow and Metherell Woodland Park & Play Area. The girls particularly loved the zipline!
The Harrowbarrow and Metherell area has plenty of another favorite feature – Public Footpaths! I sure with that we had these in the US. There were several of these paths that led directly from the village. I would often incorporate them into my runs. In the picture below, Rebecca is standing on the public footpath that leads from an old house near Cotehele known, ironically, as Newhouses to Lower Metherell. As you can see, it goes in between two maize fields. These paths often go through farm fields and even farm yards. And, you don’t worry about being shot!
Christine’s favorite thing about the village, and also one of mine, were all of the flowers. They grew on hedges, in the woods, in people’s window boxes, you name the location. A lot of the flower presence is due to the former bustling market garden history of the area. We enjoyed watching the flowers change with the seasons.
Friday Night Pizza at the Carpenter’s Arms
This became a weekly ritual as we sought to get some routine into the girls’ lives in order to cope with the move to Cornwall. It proved to be a good decision. One of the best things about this ritual was that it gave us a chance to get some walking in. It was a mile each way, so the girls became excellent walkers. Here they are walking with Aunt Jenny on School Road, just down the hill from the school and the terminus of Harrowbarrow.
After we started going to the Carpenter’s Arms, our friends in the villages knew that we would be there and started coming there as well. Soon, you could count on there being a group of kids for the girls to play with. Our friends Roland and Maria often came with their two year old, Rosa (in the middle below). Our Harrowbarrow School friends, Paul and Bev, often came with their two girls, Niamh and Erin, who are great friends of the girls. We often had other kids there, too.
On rainy days when we were confined to the inside of the pub, the girls enjoyed playing the giant Jenga game that the pub kept below the dart board. The girls had loads of fun with this game.
The pizza made by the chef, Robin, was always delicious. He made some pizzas that are typical of pizzas that you would find in the US, but he also made some others that were Cornish. One of our favorites was one called the Quattro Formaggi, which had four local cheeses on it including Cornish blue.
Finally, there was always a nice variety of real ales on draught that went perfectly with the pizza. The St. Austell Tribute was my favorite and as an added bonus, it was brewed in Cornwall.
South West Coast Path and Beaches
The upside-down acorn is the symbol of the South West Coast Path, a 600-plus mile trail that links the north and south coasts of Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. Our position in the middle of the Cornish Peninsula gave us fairly easy access to both shores. Also, our position near Devon made it relatively easy to get to Devon beaches. Lantic Bay, near Fowey, was the first beach that we explored with the girls using the South West Coast Path. We returned to this beach later in the summer because we liked it so much.
The beaches on the South Devon coast near my field site were also worth visiting. Here is my field site, Hallsands, with Start Bay and the Start Point Lighthouse in the distance. I spent much time here, of course, but Christine also joined me here two additional times and we brought the girls here once.
Just around Start Point to the west is a rather spectacular beach that requires some hiking to reach. Maceley Cove can be seen in the distance to the left of Christine. The relief here is 300 to 400 feet. It is really a special place.
As great as these beaches are, my favorites have to be on the north coast of Cornwall, where coastal relief reaches 600 feet. Here the South West Coast Path passes Tintagel, the ancient home of King Arthur,
the entrance to Boscastle Harbour, scene of great flooding in 2004,
and the spectacular Bedruthan Steps, placed, according to legend, by the giant Bedruthan.
There were other beaches and stretches of the South West Coast Path that we explored, of course, but these are the highlights. Crackington Haven would also have made the favorites list, but the death of our camera keeps it just a memory.
We also explored sites along the large peninsulas on the south coast of Cornwall, including Land’s End and Lamorna Cove (pictured) on the Penwith Peninsula,
and Kynance Cove on the Lizard. The South West Coast is well worth a visit.
National Trust and English Heritage Sites
We joined both the National Trust and English Heritage shortly after arriving in England. We like supporting these types of charities, just as we enjoy visiting National Parks and State Parks in the US. Our favorite and most visited National Trust site had to be the Cotehele Manor House, just a couple of miles from our cottage. We took all of our visitors to see both the house and the property. The house has never had electricity, so you get a good idea of what it would have been like to live in a dark stone house back in Medieval times.
The grounds around the house offered plenty of public footpaths, which we would use for walks and I would use for runs. We also enjoyed spending time quayside. One of our favorite sites on the property was the pasture leading to Prospect Tower, seen below in the distance.
We joined English Heritage mainly so that we could visit all of the castle keeps that they maintain, including Clifford’s Tower in York,
Tintagel on the North Cornwall coast,
Launceston Castle in the ancient Cornish capital of Launceston,
and Restormel Castle near Lostwithiel.
The National Trust also operates beautiful manor houses such as Cotehele, Lanhydrock, which is just up a Public Footpath from Restormel Castle,
and Buckland Abbey, just across the River Tamar in Devon and the former home of Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Francis Drake.
The National Trust also maintains natural areas and we explored many of these areas, including Lydford Gorge in Dartmoor National Park
and Rough Tor in the Bodmin Moor.
Well, that’s it for The Andersons in England blog. I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading it! Until we return to our beloved Cornwall …
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