Mylor is the name of the parish but there is not as such a village of Mylor. The closest thing to this are the separate villages of Mylor Bridge, which is the largest in the parish, and Mylor Churchtown which includes the harbour as well as the church.
The Restronguet Sailing Club (RSC) was founded in 1933 and had its first Olympic gold medallist in 1948. By 1965, it had become so popular that it outgrew its location on Restronguet Creek and was relocated to its current position near Mylor Harbour. More recently, Ben Ainslie learned to sail here and went on to win a number of Olympic medals and receive a knighthood.
Despite the illusion of being a French word, Restronguet is pronounced as if it contained no "u" and it was like any other Cornish place name: "re-stron-get", with the emphasis on the middle syllable. The reason is that it was originally a Cornish name, starting with ros, meaning "promontory". The other part has been suggested as coming from tron (literally "throne", also used to mean "elevated") and koes (meaning "wooded"). Alternatively it could be from the less glamorous stronk, meaning "dirty water". It's possible that the spelling gained its French appearance after the Norman invasion.
Native oyster beds lie off the point in the main river.
Native oysters were overfished in the 20th century, and in the 1960s, pacific rock oysters began to be imported into Britain. Native oysters can be distinguished from imported pacific oysters by the shape of their shell. Pacific oysters have pointed shells (a bit like knobbly mussel shells) whereas the shells of native oysters are round.
Burdock flowers in July and August with pink flowers which look a little like thistle flowers. However burdock's soft, broad, foxglove-like leaves make it easy to distinguish.
The "bur" in the name of the plant (and also the word for the rough edges on metal) comes from the Viking word for "bristle". The "dock" is a reference to the large leaves. It was known as butterdock in East Cornwall dialect, perhaps because the leaves were used to wrap butter as with butterbur leaves.
Burdock seeds contain small hooks which attach to passing animals or clothing. After a walk in the woods in 1941 that was followed by the lengthy process of removing these from clothing and dogs, a Swiss engineer realised that there was scope to apply this to something useful. The product inspired by nature (aka "biomimicry") was described as "the zipperless zipper". Today is it better known by the name of company he founded based on the French words for velvet (velour) and hook (crochet): Velcro.
The Trefusis family has a colourful ancestry which includes Sir Francis Drake, Robert the Bruce and even Lady Godiva! There had been a house on the same site on the Trefusis Estate in the parish of Mylor since the 13th century. When the present house was built in 1891, artefacts found from the previous house were incorporated, including a Tudor mantle piece.
Small sailing boats are still used in the estuary for fishing for shellfish.
The Lugger was a type of sailing boat widely used for fishing until the 20th Century, and was the principal vessel of the Cornish fishing industry. The type of sails it used were known as "lugsails", and were positioned asymmetrically with respect to the mast so more of the sail was behind than in front of the mast. The origin of the name is uncertain, but one suggestion is that it might be from "ear-shaped-sail", which a French name for the class of boats ("aurique") also points to.
In the early 20th Century, small petrol-paraffin engines became available which allowed the boats to enter a harbour more easily. At this point, the boats also began to last longer because oil spills from the engine soaked into the timber, both preventing rot and also killing off woodworm and woodlice that, formerly, had gradually devoured wooden vessels. Some of the vessels from this period have survived, converted to pleasure craft.
Falmouth harbour is one of the largest natural harbours in the world and the deepest in Western Europe. The large waterway of Carrick Roads, forming the junction of seven estuaries, was created after the Ice Age from an ancient valley which flooded with the rising sea levels as the ice caps melted.
St Anthony's Lighthouse overlooks the entrance to the estuary.
St Anthony's Lighthouse was built out of granite in 1835 on the eastern entrance to Falmouth Harbour to guide vessels clear of the Manacles rocks. In most directions, the light is white but a sector close to The Manacles rocks is coloured red, warning vessels to steer offshore. The lighthouse was featured in the UK version of the TV series "Fraggle Rock" as "Fraggle Rock Lighthouse". Until 1954, the lighthouse possessed a huge bell which hung outside the tower and was used as a fog signal. This was later replaced with a foghorn.
St Mawes castle is on the headland on the opposite side of the creek.
St Mawes Castle is part of the chain of coastal defences built during the reign of King Henry VIII to protect against an invasion threat from Catholic France and Spain after establishing the Church of England. St Mawes' clover-leaf shape was designed so that heavy "ship-sinking" guns could be mounted to face in three directions and together with Pendennis Castle could protect the important anchorage of Carrick Roads. Whereas Pendennis was further developed after Tudor times, St Mawes was not. Thus it is one of the best preserved of these fortresses and is also the most elaborately decorated of them all.
In Elizabethan times, the town of Falmouth did not exist, only a few small settlements around Carrick Roads which had been there since mediaeval times. A few castles had been built during the Tudor period to defend the river system and there was a manor house of Arwenack which was owned by Sir John Killigrew. When Sir Walter Raleigh visited Arwenack in 1598, he was so impressed with the natural harbour of Carrick Roads that he recommended that it should be developed as a port. Following this, the town of Falmouth was created in 1613.
The "corner" where the inlet to Falmouth begins is known as Trefusis Point.
King Henry VIII planned to build a castle in the field on Trefusis Point as part of the Falmouth coastal defences to go alongside the castles at St Mawes and Pendennis. However, the funds had to be diverted in order to finance the front line of his wars in France and Scotland, so the castle was never built.
The six-oared elm boats known as Pilot Gigs were general-purpose work boats, but one of their uses was to transport the pilot to and from a ship, which resulted in the name. The first boat to meet a ship gained the business of transporting the captain (and thus being paid) and thus a "race" came into being, with different boats competing for business. Today, Gig Racing is of a recreational nature, but the boats are still built to the exact well-documented specification of the originals. Elm wood is highly resistant to water, so much so, that town water mains were made of elm before the widespread availability of iron.
Flushing contains a number of grand houses from the 18th and 19th Centuries which were the residences of ship's captains and merchants. Some even include turrets from which the incoming ships could be identified.
The Harbour House (formerly Seven Stars Inn) dates back to at least the 18th Century, when there are records of it being leased by the Trefusis family for 99 years. It was rebuilt in the early 20th Century after it burnt down in 1900.
St Peter's Road is named after the church which lies a short distance along it and, in common with several in Cornwall, is dedicated to the patron saint of fishermen.
Flushing lies in the parish of Mylor so in the 17th and 18th Centuries there would have been a trek to Mylor church on Sundays. Flushing church was built in the 1840s and renovated/extended in 1871.
In Flushing Churchyard is the head of a Celtic wayside cross which is decorated with carvings on both sides. It was found in 1891 in a pigsty at Porloe farm (over the top of the hill from Flushing, towards Mylor Harbour) where it had been in use as the socket stone for a threshing machine. The brass socket is still visible in the neck of the cross head.
Flushing was originally known as Nankersey, meaning something along the lines of "valley of reeds"; a number of roads still contain the name Kersey. The village is recorded as being founded in 1661. The name Flushing was given to it by the Dutch engineers who built the quays, as they were from Flushing in the Netherlands.
Nettle fibres have been used to make clothing since at least the Bronze Age (textiles made from nettle fibre were found at a Bronze Age site in Denmark). During the First World War, almost all German army uniforms were made from nettles to avoid a shortage of cotton. In more recent years, some European countries have started modern commercial production of nettle-based textiles. A textiles student who produced "nettle knickers" for her university project commented that the fibres are coarser than cotton so it is probably more suited to workwear than underwear.
Whilst it's fairly obvious why cows are reluctant to cross a cattle grid, you might be surprised to learn that cows will also not cross a "virtual" cattle grid composed of dark and light lines painted on a completely solid surface. This even works with wild cattle who have never encountered a "real" cattle grid before and so is unlikely to be learned behaviour. It is thought that the reason is due to the limitations of cows' vision, specifically their limited depth perception means that they cannot discriminate between bars over a pit and a series of light and dark lines.
Since its reintroduction, sycamore has spread widely as the seeds are extremely fertile and able to grow just about anywhere where the ground is sufficiently wet. In particular they can grow within the shade of the parent tree, creating dense cover that crowds-out other species. In some areas it is regarded as an invasive weed.
Tannins are natural preservatives. The reason why red wine keeps much longer than white is that the grape skins that give the red colour also contain tannins. Oak leaves, wood and acorns all contain a high level of tannins. When wine is aged in oak, the wooden barrels release more preservative tannins into their contents.
Wild garlic can be preserved as a frozen paste for use as a cooking ingredient throughout the year. Simply whizz up roughly chopped leaves in a food processor with enough olive oil to make a fairly thick paste and then freeze this in an ice cube tray (or slightly larger silicone moulds if you have them). Standard cooking olive oil will do for this (it's a waste to use extra-virgin as the powerful garlic will mask its flavour). Turn out the frozen blocks into a bag and keep in the freezer. They can then be used as garlic "stock cubes", added just before the end of cooking.
Some mosses are able to absorb 20-30 times their own weight in liquid. Moss was used in several ancient cultures as nappies: babies were carried in a moss-lined bag to prevent leaks. Moss has also traditionally been used to line hanging baskets which are very prone to drying-out. Areas of moss help to protect soil from erosion by runoff and rivers from sediment and flooding by capturing rainfall and giving it chance to soak slowly into the soil.
During winter, from November to March, winter heliotrope is visible along the edges of roads and paths as carpets of rounded heart-shaped leaves.
From mid November to January, the plants produce spikes with pale pink flowers. The scent of the flowers resembles marzipan i.e. almond and vanilla. The chemical responsible for the scent (4-methoxybenzaldehyde) has been found to attract pollinators whilst also repelling ants. It is a very similar chemical compound to vanillin (hence the vanilla-like scent).
A large beech tree overhangs the track, dropping beechnuts in early autumn.
Beech trees can live up to 400 years but the normal range is 150-250 years. Beech trees respond well to pruning and the lifetime of the tree is extended when the tree is pollarded. This was once a common practice and involves cutting all the stems back to a height of about 6ft during the winter when the tree is dormant. The 6ft starting point kept the fresh new growth out of the range of grazing animals. When allowed to grow to full size, a beech tree can reach 80ft tall with a trunk diameter of around 3ft.
Chy is the Cornish word for "house", and noweth means "new". Both words crop up a lot in place names, such as Trenoweth (new farm) or Chypons (bridge house). chy usually mutates to -jy when placed at the end of a word such as bowjy (cow barn - literally "cow house") or melingy (millhouse).
Mylor Church is dedicated to St Melorus, who is said to have established an early religious settlement here and given the name to the parish. A few parts of the present church date back to Norman times, notably the North door; however, the majority of the building dates from a major reconstruction which took place around 1870.
The tall cross in Mylor churchyard is the largest in Cornwall: the stone is reported to be over 17 feet in length and protrudes 10 feet above the ground. It was recovered in 1870 when it was found buried upside down and in use as a gatepost. It is thought that it may have been in use as a sacred stone before Christian times.
The little egret - a white member of the heron family - can be seen on many of the creeks in Cornwall and yet is only a very recent settler in Britain. The birds first appeared in Britain in any number in 1989 and the first to breed was in 1996 in Dorset.
Britain lost most of its wild yew trees due to longbow production in the Middle Ages. Once the national supplies had been exhausted, Britain began importing yew wood from just about any European country that had any, rendering yew trees extinct or rare in many parts of Europe. Ironically, Britain now has possibly the world's greatest collection of yews and the majority of these are in churchyards where it was deemed inappropriate to fell them for longbows.
The yew trees in British churchyards are some of the oldest yew trees found anywhere in the world and yews can live for thousands of years: the Forestry Commission described them as "the toughest, most indestructible and longest lived tree we have". It is therefore possible that some of the ancient yews are older than the adjacent church buildings as Christianity took over many sacred places from the previous religious traditions: in AD 601, Pope Gregory advised his followers not to destroy places of Pagan worship but to convert them into Christian Churches.
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