Sunday, July 05, 2015

England 2015: Day 4--The Bodmin Moor and 2 Parish Churches, Cornwall


By now it's Thursday, 18 July, our last day in Cornwall visiting Lisl's BFF (best friend forever), Pauline.  You could say we squeezed every drop out of our time together.

In the morning we drove to the Bodmin Moor, just 25 miles away from St. Austell.  Did I know what to expect?  NO.  For one thing, it's 80 sq. miles in size and is as old as time itself (from the Carboniferous period), housing 10,000 beef cows, 55,000 breeding ewes, and 1,000 horses and ponies.

To be honest, before I stepped onto the moor from the parking lot,
the first thing I saw was the belted cows.

And then the horses.  All of them up close and personal!

The foals were everywhere, nuzzling their mommies.


This one in particular caught my eye.
Can you hear the blustery wind and feel the sense and sensibility of the moor?

Then I started to breathe it all in.
In the distance we saw the Cheesewring granite tor, a natural geological formation.
But all the stones felt full of energy.  Thousands of years locked up in them, trying to get out.

As we walked amongst them, they felt as alive as the animals walking around them.

 The sheep reminded me of grizzly bears.
I'd look like that, too, after years on the moor.

The vegetation knows how to survive, of course.
The gorse, of course.  A thorny, evergreen shrub suited for the moor.

Back in the 1700s there were mining enterprises for the tin and silver.
Their long-abandoned structures reminded me of Wuthering Heights.

It was near this spot that we walked off the moor into the wee village of Minions, from 1613.


Call me delightfully shocked to see the sheep having the run of the village.
WE were THEIR guests, no question about it.

Once in the village, it was time for an ice cream (Cornish Vanilla, of course) and a rest.

Back at the car, many of the horses had come down to the parking lot.
Wild and free and not afraid of anyone.

And as we left the area, we made one last stop at a cross and King Doniert's stone,
2 pieces of a 9th century decorated cross.

Talk about history!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

From the Bodmin Moor we drove to the Halfway House Inn/Pub in nearby Liskeard to meet up with Pauline's husband Christopher for lunch.  It was Lisl's and my treat for such a lovely stay with them.

I made sure I treated myself to a steak pie and Doom Bar ale lunch.
More English you cannot get.

THANK YOU, dear Pauline and Christopher, for all your hospitality.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

After lunch, and with the afternoon still available to us before our train ride back to Bath, we 3 girls continued our search for parish churches from the previous Day 3.  These get added to the list: 

6.  St. Protus and St. Hyacinth Church, Blisland, Cornwall, 12th century.

Once again, the outside architecture looked like from a cookie cutter to the ones we saw earlier.

"Blisland church is the only one in the UK devoted to the pair of saints, who were 3rd century brothers,
martyred for their beliefs. The pair are locally known as 'Pratt and Hatt'."

The churchyards really are resting places!

And artwork is everywhere.

But once inside.  O.M.G.
This was the crowning glory of them all.

Why was this parish church...so much more?

Some of the cushions were the oldest I've seen to date.

And lest we forget, mixed in with the new is much of the old.

7.  St. Helena Church, Helland, Cornwall, 14th century.

Again, you almost have it memorized from the outside, don't you.

And yet how very different and unexpected on the inside!

But still...the old wood.  The hymnals.  The cushions.

It was as though the 2 parish churches of this day were the extremes of the gamut,
which I found quite fitting as Lisl and I headed to the train station for our trip back to Bath....

...and to Astrid, who was there waiting for us with Lisl's Michael!

15 comments:

  1. Ginnie, I get so much pleasure from your posts. This trip has been especially wonderful. I'd love to spend the kind of time in England (and Scotland) that you have. LOVE your photos of the animals being free and roaming about the villages. Belted cows! Who knew? I'd also love to know the names of the types of sheep. Great food picture--I've never had a real pub-style meat pie with an ale. (Just the ale!) So happy you had such a full and rich birthday journey and shared it with us-:)

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    1. You're so welcome, Susie. It's important to me to keep tabs on these trips for posterity, but to know others are enjoying them, too, means the world to us both. THANK YOU for joining the ride.

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  2. Stones, horses, sheep, churches, flowers — in fields equals heaven. I'm so happy you got to experience all this ecstasy.

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    1. Thank you, Sister. These trips to England are to die for, as you know. I'm glad you can see a bit of what we experience while there!

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  3. You post has made we want to go there. It is such a long time since I last visited Cornwall and even longer since I visited the the moor.

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    1. I'll never forget it, Cherry. Never! I'd go back again if I have the chance...maybe with Astrid.

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  4. What a wonderful journey to Cornwall - and how many churc hes did you see - I cannot count them! I especially love the belterd Gallowey cows and the horses - I can well understand your enthusiasm while staying there with Lisl and Pauline, the best hosts you can ever meet. Cornwall is also one of favourite counties in England! Your photos are great memories!

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    1. I know of your own love affair with England, Philine, let alone Cornwall. I totally understand why! I love the memories.

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  5. I have never seen that type of cow before with that unique b/w fat stripes. Would love to visit Cornwall and Cotswold.

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    1. I think I'm whetting your appetite, Maria!!! HA! One day you will go and you'll show me all YOUR pics! Just do it.

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  6. Love the moor and steak pie...and these churches are simple but have beautiful details.

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    1. There is so much to love about England, Donna, and little by little I'm starting to scratch the surface! Thanks.

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  7. I love those Belted Gallaways. Doesn’t everyone call them Oreo Cows, and for me the mine buildings were a special treat. Do you know how they were used? …why they were so tall and narrow? Any zinc mining? Yeah, and wild horses are pretty special too. However, you must tell me more about the Blisland Parish Church. You said very old, but to my eye parts looked almost c.1900 Arts & Craft. What am I seeing wrong?

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    1. My understanding, Ted, is that tin and silver were the main metals mined in the day. I have no clue about anything else. And the Blisland parish church...was just a perfect gem. Here's the link again, to see if it answers any of your questions? http://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=4308

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    2. Thanks. It’s not important, but I thought it might have been mentioned. The issue is that zinc is the key element in making brass. IT could be distilled from calamine, but there was no reliable way of smelting the zinc ore to obtain the pure metal until the 1780s. Since the brass industry’s center was Birmingham, England, I was wondering where they mined the ore for their zinc.

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