Cornwall Country Tracks

Hello. Today I'm on a journey through one of the UK's most-visited counties, Cornwall.

Following this stunning coastline,

I'll be meeting some of the people and places

at the heart of this wonderful landscape.

My journey will take me around the southern tip of Cornwall,

discovering more about the land and the sea.

Starting out in Padstow, I'll peer into the hidden beach caves

that provide inspiration for a local painter.

This last little bit's a bit of a squeeze.

-OK, here we are.

-Oh, wow!

-It's beautiful, isn't it?

-This is quite something.

I'll then head along the coastal path, dotted with tin mines,

to Pendeen, to learn about a Cornish hero

who brought prosperity to Cornwall by supercharging the steam engine.

It's just a short drive to my next location near Madron,

where I'll delve into the mystical world of the standing stones.

-Ooh!

-And look at that. There you go!

That's ridiculous!

And my final destination is Falmouth, a famous harbour,

full of fantastic history and home to a very special little boat.

Are you telling me this little boat that's supposed to scuttle out

to the ships out there has been on the other side of the world?

Believe it or not, yes.

And, along the way, I'll be looking back at the very best

of the BBC's rural programmes from this part of the world.

Welcome to Country Tracks.

Cornwall has around 700 kilometres of coastline,

more than any other country in England,

which attracts five million tourists to the area each year,

at its peak boosting the population by 50%.

My journey focuses on the southern tip, where cliffs, beaches,

ancient sites and tin mines dominate the very beautiful landscape.

And it's this very landscape which has inspired local artist

Sarah Adams to capture it all on canvas.

Sarah has a lovely little studio in the centre of Padstow,

the perfect place to display her artwork to the bustling seaside resort.

She also sells her coastal paintings around the country,

where her creations are highly regarded and appreciated by many.

With her dog Fluke, she goes on mini-expeditions around the local coastline,

studying the tide times to see when it's safe

to go out to normally inaccessible secret caves.

She walks out onto rocks or kayaks around corners to discover hidden beauty spots

and, once there, Sarah will sit and paint for a couple of hours,

and then dash back to the safety of dry land before the tide returns

to cover the land with sea.

So, Sarah, where are we in relation to Padstow?

This is Trevone, Rocky Beach, Trevone,

although this is the sandy bit of Rocky Beach.

And we're a couple of miles away from Padstow and, as you can see,

it's a beautiful day here(!)

We're going to head across there, round the corner.

You can get there at low tide and have a certain amount of time to work,

and then we'll have to go and make our way back.

-Because normally all this would be covered, wouldn't it?

-Yes, absolutely.

So are there a few gems you can only make it to at low tide?

There are some places which you can only get to

two or three times a year.

This particular one you can get to at most low tides.

It's just how long you've got.

We've got a good spring tide today,

so we'll have a reasonable amount of time to work round there.

And this suits what you do perfectly, doesn't it?

-It's beautiful, it's rugged, it's slightly isolated...

-Lots of rocks.

Lots of rocks! So you must be, sort of, in your element here.

Yeah, it's a favourite place.

Trevone is fantastic and there are some quiet bits tucked away at the far side

which is New Train Bay end of Trevone, which are just beautiful.

It's very important geologically and really stunning,

even, you know, at the height of summer,

there are places tucked away which are quiet

and it's a very beautiful place.

-Fantastic! Well, time to scramble across the rocks. Shall we?

-Look, Fluke's there!

Oh, the dog's in the paddling pool!

Plenty of paddling pools for him.

'Sarah will often trek out for over an hour to get to her secret locations.

'It's a dangerous game and shouldn't be attempted without meticulous planning beforehand.

'Often, the caves she chooses are only revealed for an hour or two between tides.'

This last little bit's a bit of a squeeze.

-OK, here we are.

-Oh, wow!

-It's beautiful, isn't it?

-This is quite something.

-How on Earth did you find this place?

-Oh, just exploring really.

Just wanted to get round the corner and see what was here.

Share your trained artistic eye with me.

When you arrive, what would you look for?

What I'm really looking for is really strong shapes, strong, dynamic shapes

because lots of caves are a little bit amorphous, you know.

It's nice to have strong lines in it and lovely to have sand and water,

all the classic components, really, of our romantic idea of the seaside.

-And there's light flooding in from both sides.

-That's right.

That's really great.

It's very difficult to work in a proper cave with no other light source,

so these collapsed caves are marvellous from that point of view.

-Brilliant! Well, you set up, scope the place out.

-OK.

-I think I'll try and make us a cup of tea.

-Oh, excellent!

I think we deserve it after scrambling across the rocks.

-Yeah, you can come along every time!

-After you.

-Stay there, doggie! Now, Sarah, you found your spot.

-Yeah. Yeah.

What's special about this bit?

Well, I've worked in here quite a lot but, each time I come,

I find something new about it and I hadn't necessarily worked up

from the back here and what I'm going to try and do is

have the arch and then a little bit of skyline as well,

so you get the whole sense of the cave.

Fantastic. And we've got a few hours before the tide starts coming back in again,

so is that enough to make a start?

Low tide is at 1251 today, so I think we're pretty safe till two.

Excellent. OK, well, I'll let you get on with it.

The tea won't be too long.

'Sarah uses oil paint on smaller, portable canvases to capture

'the light and the shapes in these caves as she sees it on the day.

'And, of course, it's always changing,

'providing her with endless inspiration.'

OK, Sarah, tea break.

-Mmm!

-So I'll come and join you here.

-Oh, that's lovely!

-Is it?

-Yeah.

-And what is it about the area?

We've talked a bit about this location, tremendous light,

but there must be a lot for you to explore here.

Well, I'm a coastal painter, so obviously Cornwall's wonderful

and lots and lots of coasts going,

and the more I've got to know the north Cornwall coast particularly,

the more fascinated I've become because, you know,

rock formations like this are extraordinary and every corner

you go round, there's something else that's amazing.

So there's enough to keep me occupied.

Do you spend as much time exploring as you do painting?

Er, no. I tend to try and get a full day's work in but always,

if there's a little bit of time at the end of the day

when I'm on my way home, I just have a quick peep and plan the next thing.

Does the satisfaction come from the exploring?

Because, I mean, technically you could just sit and,

it's not what you do, but you could just paint a picture,

a photograph that someone else has taken, but the fact is,

you're scouting for little hidden gems, finding them,

choosing your angle and actually sitting here and getting the sketches done.

I don't work from photographs.

And when I become unable to come to places like this,

I don't know quite what I'll do

but there's nothing quite like being here and experiencing directly.

And, also, it's not just the painting that you do while you're here,

it's the fact that you're sitting and looking and being here.

And you carry that memory with you,

so that when I'm back in the studio,

I'm almost trying to piece together the sense of being there.

'And, as time is always tight on Sarah's trips,

'I'd best to leave her to finish her masterpiece

'while I explore the surroundings and capture some images of my own.'

-Right, Sarah.

-Hi.

-How you feeling about this? This is looking good.

It's not too bad. I've got quite a lot of water on it,

so... er, it's not too much of a problem though.

I think I've got enough there for today.

-We've got to move, because the tide is going to come in.

-Absolutely.

-In a matter of hours, the water will be past where we're sitting.

-Yes.

-This'll all be covered.

-Have you been caught out before?

Erm, I'm really careful, actually. You have to be.

A couple of times, I've cut it a little bit fine

but I don't really want to wade waist-deep around the corner

to go back to the car so, you know, I don't take chances.

-So you've got a tide timetable.

-Yeah.

-You know what you're doing.

Yep. And I write it on my hand.

It's faded a bit with all the wet!

-OK, great. Well, without more ado then, I think we should probably pack up and make our way back.

-OK.

'Once Sarah is happy with her creation,

'she nips back around the cliffs before the sea engulfs the beach once more.

'Then it's straight back to the studio, where she spends months

'transferring her paintings onto much bigger, beautiful canvases.'

As with Padstow, many other parts of Cornwall

catch the hearts and imaginations of artists.

St Ives, in particular, is famous for the people who paint,

sculpt and draw it.

And it's all because of the light.

Artists' love affair with St Ives goes back nearly 200 years.

It was a 19th-century fashion to paint the picture-postcard St Ives,

a tradition that still continues today.

But there are also those like Barbara Hepworth and artists today

who don't interpret St Ives quite so literally.

Apparently, it's not the scenery that attracts the artists here.

It's the special quality of the light.

Naomi Frears is one of the many artists who have fallen prey

to the charms of St Ives.

Naomi, as an artist, what drew you to St Ives?

What drew me to St Ives is what's drawn artists here for a long, long time.

The quality of the light, the incredible landscape.

The artist Patrick Heron called the dazzling light

the sort of light that goes around corners,

like the light in Greece.

You know, you perceive it before you actually get round the corner

and there's the sun, it's incredible light.

It definitely feels as though there's something rather special

about the light at St Ives.

But I don't know if I'm reacting to the rather beautiful scenery,

so I'd like to try something a little bit more scientific,

a bit more objective, to analyse the light here

and see if the St Ives light really is special.

Beau Lotto is a neuroscientist at University College London.

He thinks he may be able to provide the answer as to why St Ives

is such a lure for artists.

So, Beau, what are you doing? What have you got here?

OK, so what we have here is a vacuum pump.

And we're basically using this to filter the air in St Ives.

So right down here, what we have is

the filter paper that I just took out from there.

-Inside this little morsel.

-Inside that thing.

So what you see is the filter paper in London.

ALICE GASPS

-That was actually filtered for three hours outside my lab.

-Right.

And this is the filter paper that I just took out from there.

So this is now Cornish air.

-So it really is much cleaner down here.

-Yeah.

And what that means is that the quality of the light,

the intensity of the light, is going to be much brighter down here.

And the sky is going to be much bluer,

the sun is going to be much yellower.

And all of that is going to increase the colour of the light

that's coming off the surfaces.

They increase the contrast.

That is the perceived difference between the colours.

So, Beau, do you think this is it?

Do you think this is THE explanation why the Cornish light is different?

I think this is one of the main reasons.

But it's not the only reason.

The other reason will be that the light coming from the sun,

from the sky, will be bouncing off surfaces.

So, bouncing off the sea, bouncing off the sand.

And, in particular, with St Ives being surrounded by sea,

much of the light, much of the quality light,

will be coming from the reflected light of the sea.

'So, let's try and analyse the light in St Ives

'under the watchful eyes of the holidaymakers.

'By taking a photo of a white piece of card

'reflecting light from the sand...

'..and then another photograph of a card reflecting light from the sea,

'we can measure the light as it bounces off different surfaces.'

I'm not sure you're dressed that this, Beau!

'Some people find our experiment interesting,

'whilst others aren't even remotely worried about the light of St Ives stopping play.'

So what you can see, this is the one that's taken from the sea.

And what you can see is that there is more blue than there is green or red.

And it's sort of coming in in the blue part of the spectrum.

In the blue part of the spectrum. So we actually have numbers to it.

We can sample the light coming from the card one of us held over the sand.

So if I just click that colour,

now we can look here again at the amount of blue, green and red.

And you see it again,

there's more blue light coming from the card than there is green or red.

I don't understand, because the sand is not blue!

-It's true. So the reason is because the sand's quite white-ish.

-Yeah.

And what that's doing is it's reflecting much of the sky light onto the card.

And because the sky light is blue, and because St Ives is facing north,

-and so much of the light that's coming on to St Ives is from the blueness of the sky.

-Yeah.

That blueness is hitting the sand and reflecting it back up.

The point is that the light coming off the sea

and the sand are both blue.

So it creates a sort of blueness in the air around St Ives?

That's right.

So there you have it,

an explanation as to why the light down here is just so good.

From Padstow, my next stop is on the cliff tops

along the Atlantic Ocean in Pendeen.

Tin mines adorn the landscape down here.

Everywhere you look, these fantastic structures are pushing skywards.

They are the remains of the lucrative mining that took place here for centuries.

The last one closed for business in 1998, but these structures live on,

representing this important Cornish past.

This particular structure is Levant mine,

occupying a stunning spot on the edge of the cliff tops.

It houses the only Cornish beam engine anywhere in the world

that's still in steam on its original mine site,

designed to pump flood water out of the mines.

But I'm not here to tell the story of tin mining.

I'm here because of a local man

whose inventions not only helped in the success of mining here,

but played a leading role in the entire Industrial Revolution.

His name? Richard Trevithick.

Cornish born in 1771, Trevithick did pretty badly at school,

described as a disobedient, slow and obstinate boy.

He grew into a big man, stocky and over six foot,

which gained him the nickname of the Cornish Giant.

It seemed that, once Trevithick put his mind to it,

he was capable of incredible things.

Some would even describe him as a genius.

Like his father before him,

he went to work in the tin mines as an engineer.

And this is what he focused on.

It was this that helped him make his mark in history.

The steam engine.

Trevithick was drawn to the mechanics of industry

and was soon looking at ways of improving the engine which,

at that time, was thought to be very inefficient.

Steam had been used in the mines for many years

but it was Trevithick's invention of high-pressure steam

at the beginning of the 1800s which really changed things.

Most steam engines at the time were basically a boiler with a fire underneath.

OK, but quite inefficient.

And what Trevithick did was design this, the Cornish boiler.

And the important feature is the hot air, the hot gases, are kept within.

They circulate below and around the side.

And that means the water on top is heated to an ever-greater temperature

so you get high-pressure steam,

which crucially means you get a much more powerful and efficient engine.

What he had actually developed was the potential for small,

powerful, self-contained engines, and, in particular,

self-propelled transport.

His work laid the foundation for the development of the steam locomotive.

It was now possible to take and use steam power anywhere.

Trevithick was prolific in his ideas and inventions

and left behind a legacy of various patents in different areas of engineering.

He was one of Britain's foremost inventors

and a true pioneer of the Industrial Revolution.

It's rare in our history that one person's idea or invention

can so radically alter the possibilities of what lies ahead.

Perhaps in that way,

few can match the achievements of Richard Trevithick.

No longer powered by steam,

modern trains now carry people around the world.

This particular journey from Truro to Penzance in Cornwall

provides its passengers with a visual treat,

as Michael Portillo found while following the journey

with George Bradshaw's Victorian railway guidebook in hand.

My first stop is Truro.

It's the nearest railway station to a very wild piece

of Cornish countryside called Perran Sands.

This amazing landscape has some of the largest sand dunes in Britain

and I'm here because, in 1835,

the sand parted to reveal an ancient church and Bradshaw was mesmerised.

He writes, "We come to Perran Sands, where may be seen

"an amphitheatre and the remains of an old Church of St Piran,

"an ancient British edifice which has been covered by the shifting sands for centuries."

It turned out not only to be the oldest church in Cornwall,

but one of the earliest Christian sites in Britain

and, before long, the railways were transporting pilgrims

and sightseers to witness the Wonder of St Piran's.

But, evidently, it's disappeared again.

I'm hoping that local resident Angela Penrose can help me to find it.

-Angela, hello.

-Hello.

-Michael.

-Nice to see you.

-What a lovely, tranquil spot.

-It's beautiful, isn't it?

I'm looking for the lost church of St Piran.

Believe it or not, it's here, right under this granite rock.

It was covered naturally by the sands.

This whole area of dunes shifts and, in the 6th century,

St Piran came here from Ireland,

he arrived here on the shores of Perranporth,

he built his little oratory and for almost 1,000 years

it was a centre of activity and pilgrimages.

And, in 1835, did they dig it out or was it that the sands shifted back again?

It was revealed, we think, by shifting sands

and then William Mitchell of Truro excavated it.

There was great excitement because it was - it is -

one of the oldest Christian four-walled edifices

in the mainland of Britain.

'By the 1970s, sand was overwhelming the church once more.

'The locals were advised that the most cost-effective way to preserve it was to bury it again.'

How important is what's underneath?

It has great significance for the Cornish

because St Piran, he was the patron saint of tin miners

and it connects to all this industrial and economic history,

and the diaspora of the Cornish miners who, in the 19th century,

had to go off to Mexico, the States, Chile, South Africa.

And it really has a significance. It's part of the Cornish identity.

The Cornish took St Piran to their hearts.

And I'm now heading to Truro,

the city most closely associated with him.

In Bradshaw's day, it was the centre for the tin trade.

Truro flourished with the emergence of the railways.

Many new tracks were laid to serve the tin mines.

The metals could be carried quickly around the country,

helping the industry to grow.

Bradshaw's guide says of Truro,

"It's the mining capital of Cornwall, covered by foundries, blast houses, pottery and tin works.

"The metal is stamped, previous to being exported.

"Bar tin is sent to the Mediterranean and ingots to the East Indies."

When the price of tin went up in the 19th century,

Truro became increasingly wealthy.

It attracted merchants and bankers, who built grand houses,

transforming it into a fashionable place to live.

But, today, even though Truro remains grand,

I've nowhere seen a hint of tin.

-Hello, are you from Truro?

-I most definitely am.

-Is Truro still associated with tin?

-Not so much now.

Of course, the money in Cornwall came from the tin mines,

huge amounts of money in the 17th century.

So, unfortunately now, no.

-So what's Truro's economy based on now?

-Tourism.

-Obviously you work in Truro.

-Indeed, yes.

-What do you think of the city?

-I love Truro, it's great.

-No more tin?

No, I don't think there's a lot more tin around.

They're trying to reopen South Crofty but otherwise, no.

Well, Cornwall's South Crofty mine is now functioning again

and aims to be extracting tin by 2014.

I've taken a short trip away from the coast,

close to the village of Madron.

This might be the most-visited county,

but out here on the moors, it feels wonderfully isolated.

I'm following this path to a mystical place

which has been here since the Bronze Age.

Men-an-Tol, or "holed stone", is just one of many impressive ancient sites in Cornwall.

This one is unusual because of the doughnut-shaped stone

which is still standing here.

This particular stone has been connected with much folklore and legend.

Andy Norfolk has studied this site

and has interest in looking after Cornish standing stones.

Andy, what an incredible stone! What is it and why is it here?

Well, isn't it wonderful?

And the short answer is, I don't think anybody really knows.

It's thought to be part of a stone circle.

I know it is a circular stone but it's supposed to be part of

a bigger circle of standing stones, most of which are now gone.

And it would have been put up in the Bronze Age,

so we're talking about 3,500 to 4,500 years ago, that sort of time.

And it's got quite a reputation for being a stone with special properties,

particularly of healing.

What do people believe?

An antiquarian, William Borlase, came here in 1749

and was told all about this stone by a local farmer

-and he was told that it was called the Crick Stone.

-The Crick Stone?

-It cured cricked backs.

-Oh, OK.

I think you'd get a crick in the back, going through it!

You might. You might.

My back's not that great and I've been through it a few times.

It doesn't seem to have fixed it, but I'm hoping. I might go through again.

It was also good for curing scrofulous children.

Scrofulous children?! What on Earth is scrofulous?

Scrofula was also known as the king's evil

and it seems to have been a disease that's now gone completely

and nobody's quite sure what it was.

-So, it worked.

-It worked. It's cured all the scrofula.

It seems to have been a tuberculosis that affected the lymph nodes of the neck.

-So the glands, yeah.

-And this was supposed to be the perfect cure for it.

You said there's a stone circle around. I can't actually see it!

Yeah, it seems to have been decommissioned.

And it looks as though the stones were broken off and taken away

and nobody knows why.

The idea that this was part of a stone circle

was really only confirmed in 1993 by the Cornwall archaeology unit,

as it was called then.

But you can see some of the stumps of stones still.

And it fits the dimensions of the other stones circles in the area,

and it probably had 19 stones, like a lot of the others do.

That was a key number, was it?

It seems to have been in west Cornwall here, yes.

So all these different beliefs and interpretations, what's your interest?

Why do you like this place? Why do you come here?

I like it because it's so complicated and because I don't understand it yet,

because it's still mysterious and I think that's rather wonderful.

So we're definitely in the middle of a stone circle. We've established that.

And I can see a couple of stones there.

I mean, how do you find the stones, if they're buried?

Well, you can do one of two things.

You can go round and poke the ground and see if you find the top of a stone.

-Or you can dowse for it.

-Dowse for it? How do you dowse for it?

Well, it's like water divining.

-Go on.

-Have you never tried that?

-No, I haven't!

-Oh, right.

Well, let's get out some dowsing rods and show you how it works.

-These are dowsing rods that most people use these days.

-Right.

They're quite sensitive.

When you walk over whatever you're looking for, they cross like that.

Ah.

-OK. Why would they do that?

-Are they picking up on...

Well, I think the best theory is that it's something to do with

a change in the Earth's geomagnetic field.

And the muscles in your arm respond to that

and the movement that they make causes the rods to cross.

Nobody would claim, I think, that this is magic,

although it looks like it. I think most people would think

that there is some physical explanation for it.

OK, so it is the power of the mind here.

We are sort of focusing the mind on the...

I suppose in a way it's more a case of tuning in to what you might be looking for.

I worked for Wiltshire County highways department some years ago

and they had a set of dowsing rods for use by people in the department.

-Really?

-Yes.

-So they were taking it very seriously? This is a modern-day organisation.

-Yes.

And, to help you tune in on what you were looking for, you had little samples,

and you could hold the sample onto the handle to help you concentrate.

But, if you just think about what you're looking for, you should be able to find it.

Right. Does it work with the novices?

I think everybody can do it

but some people are definitely better at it than others.

'Right, so it's obviously time for me

'to put my somewhat sceptical mind to the test and see if these dowsing rods

'really will work for me, as I track down these ancient stones.'

So if you come outside the circle and walk in till you....

Just think that you're just looking for the edge of the stone circle.

I'd get them a little bit up off your fingers, like that,

-so they can swing more easily.

-Oh, yeah.

And just walk gently forwards,

thinking that you're looking for the edge of the stone circle.

-Ooh!

-Ah, look at that. There you go.

-That's ridiculous!

-No, it's worked for you. Why is it ridiculous?

No, I just didn't expect that to happen.

I genuinely wasn't doing that myself.

OK, so we've... Oh, they're still...

Right, so if you say you want to follow the edge of the stone circle

and you just have one, you just follow where that points,

-thinking about the edge of the stone circle.

-OK.

And you just follow that, it should take you along the edge of the stone circle.

I'm going a bit cross-eyed here!

Ooh, it's bringing me round that way.

Yes, so it's bringing you slightly inside, which I think is right.

Oh, OK.

-It's still pointing the same way.

-So keep going.

-Still pointing this way.

-Now stop there a minute.

-OK.

-Hold that one.

Now, start thinking about where there might be a missing stone.

-Right.

-And walk in that direction.

-A missing stone, OK.

-And now look down.

-Yeah, I do appear to be standing on a stone.

Very good.

-How can that work? That's ridiculous!

-It's magic!

No, it's not. I think it is just down to the fact that

people are sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field.

I didn't realise I was that sensitive.

That's quite impressive, wow!

So, Andy, clearly it's a great place to practise dowsing and to learn about it

but most people come here for quite spiritual reasons, don't they?

I think they do.

You've heard about the healing properties of the stones.

You've seen that there are energies, if you like, that you can dowse for.

So people come for those things.

They also come because it's a place that our ancestors built

to make this a special and different place from the rest around it.

So they come here to commune with the ancestors in some ways.

So a place to communicate with other generations.

A spiritual link to those that have gone before.

Yes, I think so.

It's rooted in Cornwall's ancient history,

to which many Cornish people feel a deep connection,

but, also, so do the visitors.

They come to Cornwall partly because of its ancient landscape.

I feel I should give this stone a go before I move on.

Well, if you have a cricked back or scrofula, I think you should.

-OK.

-A lot of people go through it just for luck.

-OK, I might do that.

I've got a slightly tight hamstring, if that counts.

-It's not quite scrofula.

-Well, it'll either ruin it or heal it!

-OK.

-I think you should give it a go.

-So what's the legend, what are you supposed to do?

Well, one is that you should climb through nine times against the sun.

-So that would be from that side through towards the sun.

-OK.

And that should cure you of just about everything.

-The full nine? Definitely nine necessary?

-I think nine.

Not just two for good luck?

Well, I mean, strictly speaking, you should be naked but I think...

-Really?

-You'd probably get away with three.

-I'll do nine if I can keep my clothes on.

-OK.

-Never going to look glamorous, is it? Here we go.

-No, it doesn't.

There we go. That's one.

Have you got good luck? Are you not doing this as well, Andy?

-Oh, I've been through it more times than I can count.

-Two.

'Yeah, I think I'll be here for a while

'if I'm going to complete this strange ritual and hopefully cure my hamstring.

'Meanwhile, there are other secretive parts of Cornwall which Julia Bradbury went to visit.'

Mevagissey's sleepy suntrap of a harbour is picture-postcard Cornwall.

But on the outskirts of nearby St Austell,

the landscape unexpectedly transforms into something almost alien.

Something with a strange beauty all of its own.

This area has become a stunning wildlife haven.

Just look at the splash of lilac spotted across the crevices.

It's gorgeous!

These are known as the Cornish Alps.

In the '60s, there would have been about 50 of these cone-shaped mountains

scattered across the entire landscape,

the remains of a once-thriving mining industry.

Buried under this slice of Cornwall

is an especially fine layer of china clay.

For over 250 years,

this clay has been mined for the manufacture of porcelain and paper.

At its height, nearly one million tons of clay a year were being produced.

It was a lucrative industry

that radically remodelled the St Austell skyline.

For every ton of clay there were five tons of spoil,

spoil that piled into man-made mountains.

Cycling through this lunar landscape,

you get a sense of the sheer scale of the industry.

An industry that still continues today.

But once the miners move on, nature is allowed to take over

and the Alps take on a life of their own.

Made by man, reclaimed by Mother Nature.

An unexpected sort of wilderness,

the Cornish alps are a great escape

and a monument to a proud industrial past.

But I'm leaving St Austell and its secrets behind and moving on,

tracking the River Fowey inland,

until we reach the forbidding majesty of Bodmin Moor.

The moor is famed for the Bodmin Beast

and the smugglers of Jamaica Inn.

But there's a forgotten corner which harbours a secret

far older and more mysterious -

the final chapter in the legendary story of King Arthur.

It's a secret that's well worth a short detour

on my trip across the South.

According to legend, hidden in the depths of this bottomless pool

lies King Arthur's famous sword Excalibur,

guarded by the Lady of the Lake.

As Arthur lay mortally wounded after the Battle of Camlann,

he ordered Sir Bedevere to chuck his sword into the water.

What's a knight to do? Reluctantly, he agreed to his king's last wish.

But before Excalibur hit the water, a lady's hand rose up

and grabbed it before disappearing again beneath the surface.

The sword remains hidden, protected by its guardian

until such time as the country needs its help once more.

The so-called Bottomless Pool of Dozmary

has, in fact, dried out many times.

But just because nobody has yet found Excalibur lying in the mud,

doesn't mean it isn't there.

Many people come to Cornwall drawn by the legend of King Arthur,

yet few ever make it to Dozmary.

It's a precious piece of secret Britain.

Back on the Atlantic coast is a far more celebrated landmark

in Arthur's story.

Summer visitors flock to the dramatic ruins of Tintagel,

believing it to be the great king's birthplace.

But to find real secrets on this stunning stretch of coast,

you have to look beyond the tourists,

beyond the castle and beyond the cliff path.

Everyone has a special place

and one couple found theirs, tucked off Tintagel's beaten track.

Louise and David Osbourne loved Rocky Valley so much

that this is where they celebrated their wedding.

We came here about a year before the wedding

and we were just walking the Boscastle-Tintagel coast path.

We decided to turn left and go through the forest, really.

We just sort of went up there and discovered the ruins

and the maze and the whole of the valley.

Yeah, it wasn't in any of the guidebooks.

It was just something you just stumble across.

We got married not far down the road.

Then we came here, had a nice picnic with pasties and cheap fizz.

Then we took all our guests for a little walk through the valley

to show them our favourite place.

Rocky Valley, to me, is the number-one spot in the whole wide world.

Nothing ever would beat this. This is just the most perfect place.

-We'll definitely keep returning.

-Yes.

-As often as we can.

I've left Men-an-Tol behind

and I'm heading on my journey along the southern coast to Falmouth.

Falmouth is famous for its harbour.

It's a busy place with an amazing history.

It's thought to be the third-largest natural harbour in the world

and the deepest in western Europe.

This makes it a very popular place to sail from and to,

particularly with its position on the south coast,

facing out to Europe and beyond.

It became a port in the 1600s and thrived for many years,

becoming one of the most significant ports on the south coast.

Unfortunately, it would seem that our friend Trevithick,

who I learnt about earlier in my journey,

had an inadvertent role in the downfall of Falmouth.

You see, with the advent of steam engines,

ships could make it all the way to London in any weather

and Falmouth became sidelined.

It remains busy for the tourist and leisure trade

and I'll soon be joining the water-lovers on the estuary.

I'm here to see a very special little boat

which plays an important role in the maritime history of Falmouth.

This is the lady herself - Curlew, an original Falmouth quay punt,

used here in the harbour at the beginning of the 20th century.

Captain Pat Crockford and his shipmate Andy Wyke are already on board,

and ready to take me out on this small but remarkable boat.

The Curlew is now owned by the National Maritime Museum of Cornwall

after spending its working life out on the waters

since it was built in 1905.

The quay punt boats were originally created to work the waters here in the estuary.

They would ferry crew and provisions back and forth

from the larger merchant sea vessels which docked in the busy harbour.

Quay punts were built for speed, vital to gain work

in a tough and competitive first-come, first-served business.

Quay punts, I know, took cargo and went out to big boats,

what was special about them? How were they designed?

They were designed to be a sea boat. They had to be sea-kindly,

because they worked 52 weeks of the year, winter and summer.

So they had to be a very sea-kindly boat, able to carry

a certain amount of cargo and be managed, basically, by one man.

They were a single-handed boat, basically.

-What were they capable of?

-Anything.

They could go through any weather and do anything

because they were so draughty a boat and so built,

that the design was such

that weather didn't seem to make no difference to them.

-And, being deep, they held their grip in the water.

-OK.

That was the secret, the depth was down in the bottom of the boat.

But with that depth, would they be quite slow boats?

No, they weren't slow.

They weren't slow boats, by any means.

They were as fast as modern boats.

These were as fast then.

I mean, the modern boats haven't gone a lot further ahead

in development of speed, unless you've got a mega-yacht,

than what these boats are.

You get a 28-foot boat the size of this, she'll have a job to catch it.

But why was speed so important?

Get to the job, first call, you had the business.

So if you got the business, you got a week's wages, or whatever it was.

It was all a matter of a living. You had to make a living.

It was such a business that they had to get there quick.

'As merchant sail declined, so too did the quay punts trade

'and in 1915, the Curlew was registered as a fishing boat.

'Then, in the '30s, she was altered and converted for the leisure market.

'Designed for their seaworthiness, they now make for great sailing

'and Pat has been out on these waters sailing them for most of his life.'

I know you've got one of these boats,

so what is it you love about the quay punt?

It's their ability... they look after you.

I mean, a lot of boats won't look after you.

But these boats will look after you.

It's something about them, it's the draught, the design.

They sort of fit the waves, fit the sea.

For people who aren't sailors, what do we mean by "look after you"?

Well, you could bring people out here who have done no sailing at all

and, for some reason, you would feel comfortable.

They don't roll over on their sides and go up and down and throw you about.

They're very gentle in their movement.

For some reason or other, you feel safe in them.

-So is this your spiritual home?

-It is, really.

I mean, I've been most places in the world but you can't beat Falmouth.

Why is that?

You've got a deepwater port. You can enter in all winds and all weathers.

And if you can't go outside to play, which I do now,

you've got plenty of places you can play.

And you're in your own water. What's better than Cornwall?

Look at it here today!

-Yeah.

-There's nothing better.

How do you feel when you come out with the boat,

you've got a good wind and you see that scenery?

Oh, where else can I be? What's better in the world than that?

I think that's another day for Pat Crawford!

The large cargo vessels that used to dock here brought foreign items

into the country, many of which established well in the UK.

In fact, you might say a little too well

when looking at some of the plant life

on the shores of the Lizard peninsula

just a bit further down the coast.

There, the cliff faces are covered in a menacing plant

called the Hottentot fig.

Chris Beardshaw went to find out more.

100 years ago,

a gardener brought the plant back from his travels around the world.

Admiring its beauty, he cultivated it and, today,

it's got a stranglehold over the Lizard's already fragile habitat.

It's come from South Africa, so, coming here,

it hasn't got any of its natural predators.

Nothing much eats it, certainly not the leaves.

It's a problem because we don't have the frost

that would keep it in check.

It's amazing stuff. If it's put into the sea, salt water doesn't kill it,

so it could wash up somewhere else and root again.

If the fig has completely smothered everything else

and there's just bare ground underneath,

it can take a quite considerable time for it to come back.

Do you introduce species or seed species to help them

move back into those areas?

No, we don't do that.

We get the management right and then allow things to come back of their own accord.

And, traditionally, coastal slopes would have been grazed

and the gorse would have been cut as fuel.

So grazing would have probably been the sheep, traditionally.

We, ourselves, have a herd of Shetland ponies

that we use to graze the cliff slopes.

The fig flowers at the height of the British holiday season

and its dramatic displays prove a real draw for the tourist trade.

For this reason, the National Trust aims to keep the plant in check,

rather than destroying it altogether.

But even to remove small areas requires a lot of patience

and a head for heights.

It's a very labour-intensive process. With a group of 12 people,

we might pull, I don't know, half a tennis court in a day.

We pull it by hand, bag it up and haul it to the top of the cliff slope,

into the trailer and then we take it to a site where we can compost it

without the risk of it spreading further.

And, eventually, it rots down to quite a nice garden mulch after three years or so.

We need another empty bag now, Dave.

You can see why it's such a good competitor, can't you?

Pull one small piece

and you get about five feet of it coming out at you.

I'm amazed, actually,

how much detritus there is underneath as well,

all this kind of leaf litter.

That's part of the problem too. That's so thick,

it stops anything else from germinating or coming through,

so when we clear, we have to make sure we get right back to soil level.

So once you've been through and cleared once, is that it?

Are you pretty sure of getting everything out or do you have to come back in?

It will germinate again from seed,

so in following years,

we have to come back and take out the seedlings.

The other thing that's really surprising is just how heavy it is.

Because it's succulent, its leaves are full of moisture

and it just makes the process really hard work,

especially hauling it back up the slope.

And there's the soil level. Two or three inches below

is that great mat of all this dead material

and it's that dead material that's swamping everything.

There are bits of campion in here.

This is the remains of a sea campion which is very gallantly trying to stick its head through,

which has been completely swamped.

Presumably spraying is the very last resort

because of the widespread damage that that could cause to plant populations as a whole?

Spraying would work. Some sorts of herbicides would kill off the fig.

But just killing it doesn't really solve the problem.

You've still got this thick mat of vegetation.

Until that's gone, there's no chance anything else can germinate.

There's no doubt that, sprawling across the cliffs like this,

you just pick the flowers of the Hottentot fig and it looks quite attractive.

You can understand why gardeners were interested in introducing it.

You know, who wouldn't be attracted to it?

But when you bear in mind that the vast majority of the really problem weeds in this country,

things like ground elder, sycamore, Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam, Hottentot fig,

they were all introduced by horticulturalists as exotics

and they've all leapt the garden fence and they're now running riot in the landscape,

largely because the biological controls

that would have helped curtail their action in their native lands

just don't exist here.

All of which means that, in order to guarantee success

in getting rid of the Hottentot fig on the Lizard, you need the boons.

Now there's a thought.

Any non-native, whether it's fig or Himalayan balsam or Japanese knotweed,

every area that it covers is one less area for our native species,

so if those species are gone, then the whole food chain is affected, right the way up through.

As with most of Britain's landscape,

what we have here is the result of human management over centuries

and that management here has resulted in us being able to keep

some of the very rare species that the Lizard is famous for.

I'm ending my journey here in the Falmouth estuary.

I'm on board this original quay punt boat, the Curlew.

I've heard of her early history

but there's a lot more to her than meets the eye.

This incredible vessel landed back in its home town in 2003

after travelling around the world -

not a simple task for a small boat without an engine!

After a bit of a face-lift,

she now lives again in the harbour where she was built

and proudly represents the history of these waters.

After the Country Tracks weather for the week ahead,

I'll be learning more about her incredible journey.

.

Today, my journey has taken me around the stunning coastline

of the southern tip of Cornwall.

Near Padstow, I went to a secret cave to witness an artist at work,

then I headed along the coastal path, dotted with tin mines,

to Pendeen to learn about Richard Trevithick

and the invention of high-pressure steam.

It was a short drive to my next location in Madron,

where I stepped into the mystical world

of the standing stones at Men-an-Tol

and attempted to cure my tight hamstring

and my final destination is here in Falmouth,

a famous harbour full of history

and home to the Curlew,

an amazing quay punt boat.

I've already heard from local sailor Pat Crockford

about the Curlew's early working days. Now, he's filling me in

on her more far-flung adventures to Antarctica and beyond.

Are you telling me that this little boat

that's supposed to scuttle out to the ships out there

has been to the other side of the world?

Believe it or not, yes, she has been there.

Sailed all the way, engine-less with two people aboard,

took whatever was going to be thrown at it,

lived down there for several years

and then she came back on the deck of a ship.

Unfortunately, she didn't come back under her own steam

but she got there, no problem.

I mean, I remember when she came went what she looked like

and she's the same now as when she went,

you wouldn't believe she'd done those thousands of miles

and come back as intact as when she went.

So, who were those two people? Who took this vessel down there?

Tim and Pauline Carr were the owners at the time.

They rebuilt the boat, she had a serious accent before that.

They rebuilt the boat

and then they went globetrotting with the boat all over the world,

racing everywhere with it and beating all opponents,

nobody could ever catch them. JOE LAUGHS

Tim and Pauline Carr lived aboard the Curlew

for an incredible 30 years after buying her in 1967.

They sailed around the world and were awarded many medals

for their remarkable explorations at sea.

They settled for a while in south Georgia, where they sailed her

until the Curlew returned to her home in Falmouth Harbour.

I mean, this kind of boat... Is it sort of mind-boggling for you -

you're a guy that's lived on the waves all your life -

that this could go all over the world?

It is, when you think about it.

You've got to pay great tribute to the builder, the designer,

the man who had a piece of wood and a penknife

and just chipped out a model out of the block of wood

and that looked right to him.

It was the men that put love and care into building it.

They put feeling into the building of it.

It was wood, it lived, it was a living thing.

Then the main thing is the ability of the people to sail it.

When you've got to cross thousands of miles of ocean,

you've got to always...

You've got to believe in yourself.

You've got to believe in the boat.

How important is it now that this boat is back in Falmouth?

It's been everywhere, but this is where it rests now.

I think it was of great importance to Falmouth,

because it was built here, local builders, local men built it,

it worked here, traded here, became a yacht,

it went away and sailed all around the world in all sorts of conditions

and then it's come back again and it's back where it was born.

She's part of Falmouth history. A lot of people look for her in Falmouth.

Funnily enough, although she's a different rig, she's still THE Curlew.

That's amazing! She must be one of the most well-travelled vessels in the whole harbour!

You've even got a cruise ship out there.

She's probably been to half the places that cruise ship's been to!

And she didn't have to get away at six o'clock in the evenings,

you could stay with her all day! THEY LAUGH

-It's its own master and it's travelled the world.

-Yeah.

I've explored the secret caves around the Padstow coastline

and witnessed how inspirational the scenery can be.

I visited the tin mines

and learnt of the history of local hero Richard Trevithick

and his revolutionary invention of high-pressure steam

and I was very surprised by the technique of dowsing

at the mystical Men-an-Tol standing stones near Madron.

My journey around Cornwall of course in no way compares to

the incredible voyages the Curlew has been on over the years,

but even so, it's given me a beautiful insight

into the Cornish coast.

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