Back to the Cornwall Page
- The Royal Connection
- Cornwall Eats
they have to be made in Cornwall, although not necessarily baked in Cornwall
they can only contain beef, potato, Swede, onion, salt and pepper. No other meat, no other vegetables, no other seasoning allowed.
there must be at least 12.5% beef and 25% vegetables in the whole pasty.
the ingredients must be raw when the pasties are assembled.
they should be shaped like a 'D' and crimped on one side, not on the top.
- Cornwall VIPs
- Richard Remembers
- Owlbut's Birdwatch
This piece was written
before the sad death of Queen Elizabeth II but I decided to leave it as written then. However, Prince William is now the Duke of Cornwll.
The Duchy of Cornwall
is a private estate, set up by Edward III in 1337 to provide independence to his son and heir, Prince Edward. It was the first duchy created
in England. By the way, a duchy is an area ruled by a duke. The Duke of Cornwall can only be the oldest living son of the monarch and the
heir to the throne. He must be both. Should that son die before the monarch, the title becomes part of the titles of the reigning monarch.
I thought I would make it easier for you to understand but then I got confused. If Prince Charles dies before the Queen, the
duchy should become part of the titles of the monarch but, as the title can only go to a male, it could not become part of the titles of
the reigning monarch. However the estates would come under Her Majesty's control.
Prince William would then be heir to the throne but he would not be Duke of Cornwall, as he is the monarch's grandson not son.
However, when William becomes King, Prince George would be Duke of Cornwall automatically at the same moment. However, if the Queen dies
before Charles, who then becomes King, William would immediately be Duke of Cornwall.
Just to destroy the idea that I was making this easier, if Charles had not had any children then, on his death before the Queen,
Prince Andrew would have become Duke of Cornwall as he would be the monarch's eldest living son and heir to the throne.
The new succession to the Crown Act of 2013
stated that those in line to the throne, born after 28th October 2011, would succeed
in age order with no preference to males. The charter granting the Duchy of Cornwall to the monarchs eldest living son and heir is not altered
by the new act.
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales is the 24th Duke of Cornwall and the longest serving. The shortest serving was Henry, son of
Henry VIII, who was born in November 1514, was the eldest son of Henry VIII and heir to the throne but died the same day.
The Duchy owns 126,000 acres (51,000 hectares) of land in 22 counties, roughly half of the land is on Dartmoor in Devon. Apart from
farms and small holdings, the Duchy also owns residential properties, shops and offices as well as stocks and shares. The property portfolio
includes Kennington Oval and 45 acres in Kennington itself. The Duchy is run by the Prince's Council, a non-executive board chaired by the
Prince of Wales. Day to day matters are handled by a staff of about 80 (including valets and private secretaries) and is headed by the
Secretary and Keeper of Records to the Duchy. Now you know.
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It didn't take much time to decide what food should go here. Cornwall is famous all over the world for the Cornish pasty. For those that don't know a pasty is a pastry package filled with meat and vegetables. However, to be a genuine Cornish pasty there are some rules to follow. In 2011 Cornish pasties were given Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status.
The rules are as follows-:
The pasties were taken for lunch
by Cornish miners and it is often said that the crimping allowed the miners to hold the pasty with dirty fingers and not touch the food they would eat. However
the pasties were often wrapped in muslin so this may or may not be true. Certainly the crimping made sure all the ingredients stayed inside the pasty. What is
more the folded pasty could stay warm for several hours, and if it did get cold, it could easily be warmed on a shovel over a lamp or even a candle. The type of
pastry used is not defined, as long as it is golden in colour, usually brushed with milk or egg, and will not crack during the cooking or cooling, although modern
pasties almost always use a shortcrust pastry.
Later on some wives would make a two-part pasty with one end
filled as standard and the other end filled with a sweet filling, maybe of fruit, to
provide a complete meal. This could be why it is also said that the miners initials could be engraved in pastry on one end of the pasty so they could find their
own pasty if they didn't finish it all in one go.
While the "genuine" Cornish pasty has its
set ingredients, and no others, in olden days they could be filled with all manner of scraps
and were a good source of cheap food for poor families.
Nowadays, certainly on my many visits to Cornwall, there are all manner of savoury and sweet pasties. A particular favourite of mine is chocolate
and banana although, to be honest, nothing beats a good old-fashioned, traditional Cornish pasty, providing the gulls of Padstow don't swoop down and carry it away.
At least 120 million genuine Cornish pasties are made each year.
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Seven random people who were born in Cornwall in the last 100 years:-
Mick Fleetwood (Musician), Dame Kristin Scott Thomas (Actor), William Golding (Author ‐ Lord of the Flies), Helen Glover (Rower ‐ Olympic
Gold Medallist), the late Charles Causley (Poet), Molly Hocking (Singer) and Nick Darke (Playwright).
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I may just have given a hint that I love Cornwall. You noticed? It is also a county with the longest coastline in England
and where I have visited on all 3 of my trips and spent a large number of holidays. In fact, I reckon I have spent a total time of nearly a year in Cornwall during
my life. There are also, to me, so many memorable places. In order for this not to turn into a novel I decided to limit myself to just seven; seven places that had
the "wow" factor the first time I saw them and have remained that way ever since. Let's start on the north west coast and head south.
Boscastle is a perfect, picturesque Cornish village and the third of my 10 memorable, wow-giving views in England. It has a stream running through it down to the sea but I gather that on the very day but 52 years later that 34 people
died in the Lynmouth floods, (see the Devon pages) Boscastle had its own flood. Luckily no one died but there was a fair amount of devastation. When I returned
in 2016 it looked just as beautiful as it did when I first saw it in 1969. You can look down the stream toward the open sea, walk down to it as well and when you
get there you find high cliffs creating a natural harbour. Then you use your imagination to see tall masted 16th century sailing ships threading their way
between the cliffs. Two of my own pictures let you do just that.
Just a little down the coast is
Tintagel, always linked to King Arthur but I have spotted from the photograph I googled that there has been a change since my last visit. In all my
previous visits you had to walk down a path to the shore and then climb the steps you can see in the photo. Now it seems they have built a bridge
to take people across to the site of the castle. Despite my age, and providing it is still possible, I think next time I'll stick to the walk and
the climb. That bridge seems a little bit high for my liking. Meanwhile, right down on the shore, where the water
is white in the bottom centre, at low tide you can walk into Merlin's cave.
Then comes Padstow and
everything you could ever want in one place. Freshly caught fish, a superb harbour, cafes, restaurants, pasty shops, Rick Stein and if you walk through the town
and round the headland a superb stretch of sand and water. I love Padstow. Further south, Newquay is far bigger and has the huer's house (look it up), St Ives was the hippie
capital of England for a while and the sands at Perranporth are at least 2 miles long but Padstow has something else and I think it's an atmosphere. It's busy
in the summer but it's so self-contained. One word of warning. It's a long walk uphill from the harbour to the car parks. Nice houses to pass, narrow streets to
enjoy but please make sure, unlike my son in 2016, that you haven't left your car key down in the village with your wife. It's not quite such a nice walk the
second time.
The next two "wows"
occurred in the space of a few minutes. This was on my second coastal trip and we decided to visit the Minack theatre, more in a minute. Before going in I
took a walk past the entrance and came across one of the most stunning views I have ever seen. Seriously, I was amazed. The photo to the left of Porthcurno
Cove was taken on my latest visit to Cornwall in 2016 and the view is still as jaw-dropping as ever. The colour of the water, the backdrop of the cliffs,
the sand, the people, it's idyllic. As one person commented when they saw a similar photo from that second trip, "I thought you'd gone to the Caribbean".
Porthcurno has its own story to tell as the place that submarine telegraph cables laid across the Atlantic Ocean first came ashore in 1870 and is the third in
my list of 5 favourite beaches.
I then left this incredible
view and almost immediately found another but this one had not been created by nature. In simple terms the Minack theatre is an open-air theatre carved into the
side of the cliffs. In itself that's a quite remarkable feat but when you learn it was the brainchild of one women and much of the work was carried out by her
and her gardener it takes on a whole new perspective. It is also the second of my 10 memorable, wow-giving views in England. I know the second has come after the third but on
this trip we are really going clockwise while I wrote this piece from my memories which were anti-clockwise.
Rowena Cade was born in 1893. She moved to Cornwall in the early 1920s and bought the Minack headland for £100. She got involved with an
open-air production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and when the company wanted to next stage The Tempest she offered them her cliff garden. For the rest
of her life, she died in 1983, Rowena spent building the theatre you can see today. She and her helpers used mainly hand tools to make the theatre.
A most definite "wow" and a testimony to what hard work and a vision can achieve. By the way, the Tempest was first performed there in 1932.
Two to go and it's not looking good for number 7. If you travel down to Cornwall by train, your final possible destination would be Penzance. If you go east a few
miles from the town, you come across a small island out in the bay called St Michael's Mount. You can reach the island by boat or, if the tide is out, by walking
the causeway. It would appear from the photo below that some people ignore the tidal changes. It was a must visit on my earliest trips to Cornwall but imagine my
surprise when, in 1997 while on holiday in northern France, I came across the castle atop an island over there, which is the third photo in the pic below. It is
known as Mont Saint Michel. Coincidence or what.
So what is my final choice. Well, it's not the delightfully named Squeezebelly Alley in Port Isaac nor the small cove at Poldhu where I got sunstroke and the first
wireless message was transmitted across the Atlantic to Marconi (different years). It's not the unspoilt ruggedness of the Lizard, England's most southerly point,
nor the Seal Sanctuary at Gweek. It's not the two castles of Pendennis and St Mawes at Falmouth, the quaint and beautiful village of Mevagissey nor the old-fashioned
chain-driven ferry at Fowey. It's not even the white china clay landscape around St Austell or the very modern Eden Project nearby. It's my second favourite
beach in England at Kynance Cove.
It's not a large beach, it's a good mile to walk to get there if I remember correctly but, once there, it is just beautiful.
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The peregrine falcon is a large powerful bird of the falcon family. It has long, pointed wings and a short tail. It is fast in
flight and very agile. Peregrines can be seen all year round, especially on rocky sea cliffs around the UK. They can be seen in winter hunting above the East
Coast marshes. They can also be seen around farmland and grassland.
Their feathers are black, grey and white. Young birds also have brown and cream colouring. They have a blackish head and a white face. Their legs are
yellow and their beaks are black and yellow, short and hooked, powerful and chunky. They eat medium-sized birds such as pigeons and small ducks,
Peregrines have been seriously endangered although they are now better protected. They have been killed because they can catch and kill game birds and
racing pigeons. People also steal their eggs for collections. Peregrines are a Schedule 1 listed species of The Wildlife and Countryside Act. There are about 1,500
breeding pairs in the UK
Peregrines are between 40 and 50 cms in length, have a wingspan between 95 and 115 cms and can weigh between 600 and 1,300 grams.
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Two extra sections, "It Happened Here" and "Now That's Weird", will appear on 25 November 2024
