Last night was good fun. In the centre of St. Just there is an odd shaped turfed depression with
raised sides creating something a bit like a doughnut. It also resembles a shallow amphitheatre. In Cornish they call
it a Plain-an-Gwarry, and in medieval times it might have been used to perform
mystery plays. This tradition has been revived, and the community at St. Just
gather here for all sorts of events. Last night it was a barbecue and Ceilidh
which turned out to be outdoor country dancing to a great little band and with
a very enthusiastic caller. The food was supplied by locals, including a farm
who were doing a great line in Burgers and hot dogs. People not dancing sat on the
raised banks with drinks and food.
Lafrowda Festival is now an annual event that began as a
music festival in the late 1990’s and has expanded to become a two week
community arts festival. The name
Lafrowda is the ancient name for the church lands where the village stands
today. Next weekend, the festival culminates in three spectacular
processions.
Helen took me to see the workshop where they are making
the lanterns to carry in the procession. Everything is made of withies and
tissue paper and lit up at night. Everything has to be manually portable – no
lorries or trucks allowed.
This year’s theme is Fast and Furious.
Only 4000 people live in this village. It punches well
above its weight in terms of community engagement. When I think of a carnival
this is what I think of, rather than endless lines of badly decorated lorries
that pass off for a carnival in many much bigger seaside towns including my
own. I find it creatively very frustrating. Google La Frowda Festival 2016 and you
will see what I mean.
Before I left Helen showed me a You Tube video of the St.Just Womens’ Institute Rag Rug exhibitions. The work is amazing and would be
fabulous displayed in any art gallery of National Trust property in the
country.
Today I am heading to Falmouth via Penzance. I passed the
bank in St. Just.
And then saw this one in Penzance.
But at least they have banking facilities at a time when
banks are becoming restaurants and everyone is expected to bank on line. All
well and good as long as you get the internet, and as I have discovered so many
coastal towns and mountain areas do not.
I liked Penzance. For a small market town it has a blend
of branded high street shops and
individual ones too. It’s known to be
the most major westerly town in Cornwall and is known as the capital. I think Prince
Charles and Camilla are due here for a visit next week.
The statue outside the bank is the town’s most famous
historical figure Sir Humphrey Davy who was the scientist who also invented the
Davy safety lamp. It was just what miners needed ,so that the flame would not
ignite any gases underground.
Don’t you just love the seagull on his head? I seem to remember that my photo of Captain James Cook in
Whitby weeks ago, also had a seagull on his head too.
Chapel Street in the old town is full of interesting buildings
but this one looks very odd and rather flamboyant. It has an ‘Egyptian’ facade and a royal coat of arms presumably to remind
us that we are actually in Britain not Cairo?
Apparently it was commissioned at a time in Europe when
people were fascinated by all things exotic and particularly exotic Egypt. Its
architect was John Foulston of Plymouth and it was intended to be a museum of
natural curiosities. Today it belongs to the Landmark Trust and it has retail
premises on the ground floor, and the top two floors comprise of holiday flats
available for renting.
Penzance has singing pirates I believe but I never saw or
heard any. (Sorry I couldn’t resist - attempt at a bad joke.)
My real reason for visiting was to get close to St.
Michael’s mount, a small island in Mount Bay. Failed miserably as Marazion was
so crowded I couldn’t park there at all.
At low tide one can walk along the causeway in Marazion to
reach St. Michael’s mount but today the tide was well and truly in so it was
off limits to me as I would have had to take a boat. The National Trust are
responsible for the upkeep of the gardens, the castle, and the medieval church on the island. I
think this landmark and the Minack theatre are the most famous of the Cornish
landmarks and the most recognisable. Visiting this one will have to be another
time and definitely not in July.
I liked Penzance but I LOVED Falmouth.
It’s on the river Fal on the south coast of Cornwall and
I thought it was quite beautiful. One of my favourite places I think. To begin
with I could park there!
It’s winding streets had a wonderful variety of shops and
good foodie places.
It is home to the
National maritime Museum on the waterfront
It has a castle called Pendennis Castle built by Henry
the Eighth, and great walks along the estuary.
While I have been away Eastbourne Council was proposing
that a new restaurant planned to replace the Wish Tower Restaurant was going to
be run by Rick Stein. How odd. How can he be in two places or even three
places, at once? Falmouth and Bridport
have Rick Stein restaurants.
In Falmouth I stayed with a lovely lady who was far more
travelled than me. An intrepid backpacker there were few places in the World
where she hasn’t set foot. Charlotte
travels with a small black dog called Sacha, and I had been in her home less
than twenty minutes when she was encouraging me to undertake the coast of
Ireland!! She had a VW transit van with
windows inserted and a normal sized bed in the back. That had served her well
for years all over the place but she has bitten the bullet and tomorrow she
becomes the sheepishly proud owner of a small neat Ford motor home with all mod
cons.
We drank a bottle
of good red wine to celebrate.
Mmmm food for thought. At least it is small and neat and a
Ford – unlike my bête noire the Monster Camper vans and if I were to do Ireland
sometime.......
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