cheerfulI have already posted that today is St Piran's day, so it is great that this post co-incides with it's Saint's Day celebrations.
As I have already stated Cornwall is technically a Duchy, but for many who are "native" they would call it a Country. It is (except for a few feet) surrounde by water - with the Atlantic Ocean on 2 sides and 2 rivers .... mostly the River Tamar on the other. Cornish is one of the Celtic languages and if you follow the link on my last post you will see more about the language and culture of this County/Duchy/Country.
This will probably be a long-ish post as it is the county I live in at present - and I do love living here. So read behind the cut to find out that the whole world actually uses something from North Cornwall every time they look at a clock!!
As you can see we are surrounded by the Atlantic - so when I say we get windy weather - we do!
REDRUTH
In the late 17th century, Redruth was the centre of the richest mining area in Britain, due to the large copper mine. By the 19th century, 2/3 of the world's copper came from here.
The first house in the world to be lit by gasis in Redruth. In 1794, William Murdock built a closed coal fire in his lounge, with a pipe that could be lit coming from it.
In 1784, he had devised a method of using steam pressure to drive a piston, that propelled a model carriage ... which was 20 years befor eTrevithick stepped in to take the accolade.
TRURO
This is the only Cathedral in the county - and amazingly the foundation stone was laid in 1880, with the final dedication occuring in 1910 - so it didn't take too long to build - and was built in a very traditional Gothic style
GWENNAP
On 5/01/1842 a Cornish engineer gave a demonstration of the world's first lift. It was powered by a water wheel and reached a depth of 150ft (46m) ... but was later extended to 1000ft (305m).
Cornwall had a huge industry of tin mining and the old wheel house scatter the landscape to this day. As well as tin there was a side line of arsenic!
This picture is of Gwennap, but is typical of the southern half of the county.
PORTHCURNO
The Minack Theatre is open-air, constructed above a gully with a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea (minack in Cornish means a stony or rocky place). The theatre is located 4 miles from Lands End, Cornwall.
It was built by Miss Rowena Cade in the 1920's in a meadow at the back of her house and was famously used as a location for the film "Love Story" in the 1940's with Stewart Granger and Margaeret Lockwood. I have never been there, but on a nice evening it is meant to be sensational - However, don't forget those prevailing winds!
LAND'S END
In Britain we are famous for saying that we will travel from John-O-Groats (in Scotland) to Land's End ... This is the most south-westerly point of the English mainland.
BUDE
Some of you may have seen the post I did last November in
wild_photos .... Yes, Bude is where I live!It is basically famous for its sandy beaches and amazing cliff scenery - but what a lot of people don't realise is that it has working lock gates from a canal into The Atlantic. There is only a small part of the original canal left - it used to go across the county to transport sand for building.
Bude has had one famous citizen (other than me!) - Sir Goldsworthy Gurney. He built the first permenant structure to be built on shifting sand - Bude Castle is built on a concrete platform, onto which the foundations were laid. This technique is now widely used.
In the foreground of this picture is The Millenium Light - using colours of Bude - and the top being the design if light that Gurney also invented - adding lime to the oxygen/hydrogen mixture to form a very bright light, called Limelight. Bude Castle only needed on light oin the building - and was the lighting that was used for many years to light The Houses Of Parliament.
Sir Goldsworthy also invented a passenger carriage, in 1829,called the Gurney Drag. It travelled at an average speed of 15 m.p.h.(24kph); and was the first practical road engine.
Due to the increased speed and ease of transport, uniform time was needed in Britain. It was therefore decided to set a standard time - Greenwich Mean Time. So Bude is actually famous world wide - and yet cvery few people realise that!