The first record of the settlement of Newlyn is from 1279 as nulyn. As there are also records of the name as "lulyn", it is thought that the name is based on the Cornish word lyn for "pool" and that the initial part of the name was originally lu which is a Cornish word meaning "army" but here could have been used to mean "fleet".
Newlyn is still the harbour with Cornwall's largest fishing fleet. The majority of the harbour piers date from Victorian times but the oldest part dates from before 1435.
Even as recently as the 19th Century, a system of dairy farming was used in Cornwall which involved grazing cattle on the moorland during the summer and then moving them to the coast for the winter. This had been going on for centuries and is reflected in Cornish language place names such as Gwavas on the coast (meaning the cattle's "winter dwelling") and moorland places with the name Laity, meaning "dairy" (which took place during the summer after calving).
Bowjey Hill is from the Cornish word for cowshed (bow means "cow", from the same roots as bovine, and chy is "house", where the "ch" has mutated to a softer "j" sound).
During late winter or early spring, if you encounter a patch of plants with white bell-shaped flowers, smelling strongly of onions, and with long, narrow leaves then they are likely to be three-cornered leeks. Once you're familiar with their narrow, ridged leaves, you'll be able to spot these emerging from late October onwards.
Three-cornered leeks are native to the Mediterranean and are first recorded as being introduced to the UK in 1759. By Victorian times, they had become well-established in the wild. They thrive in the moist, mild climate in Cornwall and are salt-tolerant so will grow almost anywhere, even on the coast.
An axe head from the late Bronze Age was found at Newlyn. The seam along the cutting edge remains from the original casting which implies the axe head was never used. It's thought that it might have been used as currency. It is on display in the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro.
Red campion is also known as "red catchfly". The flowers are an important nectar source for larger pollinating insects including butterflies, bees and hoverflies. Much smaller flies drawn to the nectar can become stuck in the froth on the stigmas of the female flowers but this is not intentional by the plant (it doesn't eat them).
Two settlements in Cornwall were both known locally as Newlyn which wasn't too much of a problem when travel involved a horse or a boat. To disambiguate, the one near Newquay became known as (St) Newlyn East whilst the one next to Penzance is sometimes referred to as Newlyn West or Newlyn-by-Penzance but generally still just "Newlyn". Despite this, there was a period where Wetherspoons proudly displayed that their fish was caught locally in the land-locked location of the former.
Jackdaws are able to recognise eye gestures from humans (e.g. if someone looks at where a food item is hidden). It has been suggested that jackdaws may use this with other birds too and this may be the reason that they have a striking blue eye colour that is easily seen from a distance.
The quarry began as a relatively small operation known as Gwavas Quarry. It was reopened in 1890 as Penlee (Roadstone) Quarry and worked throughout the 20th Century on a larger scale. The quarry extracted a rock known as dolerite which is very tough. However, in more recent times, this was deemed unsuitable for surfacing roads as its can eventually become highly polished by car tyres making skidding more likely. Together with the awkwardness of transport at the site, this led to the quarry closing in the 1990s.
Extracts from ivy were used in herbal remedies and still form the basis of some modern-day cough medicines. It is said to have both antibacterial and antiviral properties. A study for English Heritage also found that roadside ivy absorbed particulates from the atmosphere which may lead to its use in improving air quality.
Penwith is thought to be the last part of Cornwall where the Cornish language was spoken. The language was still in common use in this part of Cornwall at the start of the 18th Century and Dolly Pentreath claimed it was the only language that she spoke until the age of 20. By the end of the 18th Century, it had pretty much died out. Dolly Pentreath was the last recorded speaker and she died in 1777 but it's likely that other less famous speakers outlived her. In 1778, a letter written in Cornish with an English translation was received from a fishermen in Mousehole. The letter stated that he knew of five people who could speak Cornish within Mousehole. There are also accounts of a man from Marazion who spoke Cornish and survived into the 1790s.
The first record of settlement of Paul is from 1259 as "St Paulus". The name is derived from the Breton saint, Paul de Leon.
The church is associated with Paul Aurelian - a Welsh saint from the 5th Century. The building is medieval but was largely destroyed in a raid by the Spanish in 1595 and had been rebuilt by 1600. One of the vicars of the church in the 19th Century was Louis Lucien Bonaparte - a relative of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Before the Reformation, many pub names had a religious theme (e.g. The Bell). During King Henry VIII's rule, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, many publicans hastily adopted royal-loyal names such as the Kings Head or Kings Arms to distance themselves from the (previously Catholic) church. The "arms" is in the sense of "coat of arms".
The association of good luck with four-leafed clover was first recorded in Victorian times (1860s-1870s) so may be a relatively recent invention. Perhaps something that occupied children for hours was seen as good luck in Victorian times!
Swallows can sometimes be seen catching insects above the fields during summer.
Based on the long distances covered by swallows, a swallow tattoo was popular with sailors to show off their sailing experience. One tradition is that a sailor would gain one swallow tattoo for each 5,000 nautical miles sailed, so a sailor with two swallows had travelled over 10,000 nautical miles.
Large amounts of calcium are needed when birds lay eggs to create the eggshells. Female birds store calcium by growing a special type of leg bone which has a high density of calcium. Similar calcium storage leg bones have been found in female dinosaur species only distantly related to birds which indicates this was a general approach used by dinosaurs.
All parts of the alexanders plant can be eaten and it is a good source of iron and vitamins A and C. The flavour has been described as somewhere between parsley and angelica. However, foraging alexanders is not recommended unless you are experienced at identifying it because novices can confuse it with hemlock (the most poisonous plant in the UK - just a few leaves from this can kill you).
Today, more than 11,000 species of grass exist around the world. In the UK, around 160 species occur. The most widely sown grasses by farmers are ryegrasses (recognisable by the alternating spaced-out "ears of corn" pattern of seeds along the stem) as these are able to take up nitrogen fertiliser efficiently and also generate high levels of sugars. On dry land, cocksfoot (recognisable from distinct tufts of seeds) is often sown as this is the most deep-rooted of the grass species.
The settlement of Trevithal is first recorded in 1315 as "Trevethegal". Other than the "Tre" (meaning farmstead), it is thought to be based on a personal name.
Crop rotation within one field prevents the accumulation of pests and diseases specific to certain plants by creating a break in the lifecycle of pests between years. Also by staggering the crop rotation in adjacent fields, the spread of pests and diseases can be reduced.
The Ramblers Association and National Farmers Union suggest some "dos and don'ts" for walkers which we've collated with some info from the local Countryside Access Team.
Do
Don't
Unlike wheat, where the grains pop out fairly easily from their husks and simple threshing will release them, the husks of barley are firmly stuck to the grain. A mechanical dehulling process is used to free the grain which is then known as pot barley. This is often then steam-processed to remove the bran to create a polished form of barley grains known as pearl barley which contain less of the fibre. Despite being more expensive to produce, pearl barley seems to be sold at cheaper prices for human consumption than pot barley presumably due to higher levels of demand.
The word "crow" is sometimes used to refer to the whole crow family (including jackdaws, rooks and ravens) and sometimes specifically to the common (carrion) crow. Carrion crows can be distinguished from their cousins by being totally black (jackdaws have grey heads, rooks have pale beaks) and having a slender and fairly straight beak (i.e. not the broad beak with a hooked top that a raven has). Biologists use the word "corvids" for "crow family" to avoid ambiguity, or to show off.
As you approach the telegraph pole, there is a view across Mount's Bay to St Michael's Mount.
After the Norman conquest in 1066, St Michael's Mount became the possession of the monks of Mont St Michel in Normandy. In the 12th Century they built the church and priory on the island. The original building was destroyed in an earthquake in 1275 and rebuilt in the 14th Century. When Henry V went to war with France, the priory was seized and the French monks evicted, ending the connection with Mont St Michel. After improvements to the harbour in 1727, the mount flourished as a sea port with 53 houses and 3 pubs recorded in 1811. The mount was given to the National Trust in 1954 but the St Aubyn family retained a 999 year lease to inhabit the castle.
95% of all plant life on Earth, including trees, relies on a symbiotic relationship with fungi. It is thought that without fungi, land plants could not have developed at all. Fungal mycelium often grows around or actually within the roots of plants and give the plant access to water and nutrients it couldn't otherwise obtain easily from the soil. In return, the plants provide the fungi with sugars produced through photosynthesis.
Gunnera looks like giant rhubarb but the leaves stems are spiky. It tends to favour damp places as quite a lot of water is needed to supply its huge leaves.
The plant has a symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria which live between its cells. The cyanobacteria, also known as "blue-green algae", are photosynthetic and also supply the host plant with nitrogen which allows it to colonise poor soils.
Throughout the Mediaeval period, Mousehole was the major port in Mount's Bay and it had a number of fairs and markets. In the 14th century, its fishing fleet was ten times the size of that of either Penzance or Newlyn. Up until the 12th Century, the village was known as Porth Enys which translates to something along the lines of "Island Port", referring to St Clement's Isle. In the 13th century, the name Mousehole (pronounced "mouzel") began to be used as well - the exact origin is unknown and various theories have been put forward including a possible Cornish name of "Moweshayle". The most well-known candidate is the cave known as "The Mousehole" which does look very much like a mouse hole from a cartoon, but made by a very large mouse! Unsurprisingly, the cave was put to good use by smugglers.
During the Anglo-Spanish War in 1595, five Spanish Galleys carrying several hundred men landed at Point Spaniard, just outside Mousehole. The English Troops stationed there fled leaving the town unprotected. Some of the local people fled up the hill to the church in Paul. The Spaniards killed any men that remained, raped the women, looted the town and then burned it to the ground. The only building left standing which has survived until today is Keigwin House (formerly the Keigwin Arms), named after its owner who was killed there. After burning down Mousehole and Newlyn, the Spaniards followed the locals up the hill and burned Paul too.
Mousehole harbour would have originally been built as a dry-stone granite construction using boulders from the beach or nearby moors stacked on their edges. Letters from the 1760s talk of repairs to the harbour involving floating the boulders into place using casks as buoys. It was rebuilt and extended in the 19th century. During this period, the stone for the quay faces was dressed, creating square blocks which were set in mortar. This was typically backfilled with rubble although older quay structures may sometimes have been incorporated within the backfill.
Mousehole's now world-famous Christmas lights were started in 1963 by a local artist, who put a string of bulbs along the quays to brighten things up for Christmas. This caught the imagination of the village and two local carpenters made frames for increasingly elaborate displays including a serpent protruding from the water in the harbour. Many of their designs are still featured although the physical frames have been replaced a number of times due to the beating they take from the violent winter weather and saltwater. On December 19th each year, Mousehole's Christmas lights are dimmed for an hour in memory of those lost in the Penlee lifeboat tragedy.
In August 1906. the "Primrose" was carrying a cargo of coal to Newlyn but encountered thick fog and ran aground on Low Lee Rock (6ft below the surface at low water) off Penlee Point. The 8 crew escaped in their own lifeboat. A newspaper article from the week after explains a bit more:
When she struck it was low water, and with the rise of the tide, it was found that she would become submerged. The captain then ordered the boats out, and the crew were fortunate in securing and saving their belongings. After they had landed, the Primrose began to fill, and at high water only just the top of her masts could be seen.
It was not possible to salvage the vessel but it was visited by a quite number of small boats which may have involved some of its coal finding its way to nearby cottages.
In December 1981, a new ship - The Union Star - had just been launched in Denmark and was on its way to Ireland, having first made an unauthorised stop on the east coast of England to pick up the captain's wife and her two daughters. Near the south coast of Cornwall, the ship's engines failed and in hurricane-force winds, the ship was blown across Mounts Bay towards the rocks of Boscowen Cove.
Mousehole's Penlee lifeboat was launched with a crew of 8 and in breakers of over 60ft, attempted to pull alongside the coaster, being dropped on top of it by the waves on one occasion. After several attempts, the crew managed to pull alongside the vessel and get the captain's family and one crew member off the ship. As the lifeboat attempted to rescue the remaining crew, it foundered. There were no survivors from either vessel.
Within a day of the disaster, enough people from Mousehole had volunteered to form a new lifeboat crew. The lifeboat now operates out of Newlyn Harbour but is still known as the Penlee lifeboat.
The cycle path along Newlyn sea front is the remains of a tramway that ran from the quarry to the south pier of the harbour. This was replaced in 1972 by a conveyor belt until quarry working ceased.
National Cycle Route 3 runs 338 miles from Bristol to Land's End. The route is a mixture of lanes, byways and some tracks not open to road traffic including the upper section of the Camel Trail from Wenfordbridge to Dunmere.
The Cornish palm is neither originally from Cornwall nor a palm! As its Latin name - Cordyline australis - hints, it is from New Zealand where it is known as the cabbage tree (which is thought may be due to settlers confusing it with a Florida palm where the central shoot's flavour resembles cabbage). It was introduced to Britain after being collected on Captain Cook's first voyage to the Pacific on the Endeavour. It is now one of the most widely cultivated native New Zealand trees.
Red valerian is also known as kiss-me-quick, fox's brush and Devil's or Jupiter's beard and can be seen flowering in early summer in hedgerows near the coast. The plant is originally from the Mediterranean and is thought to have been introduced as a garden plant roughly around the Tudor period. It has since become naturalised and the brightly-coloured flowers provide nectar for bees, butterflies and moths. Over time the base of the stems can get as thick as a small tree trunk which can lever apart the walls in which it can often be seen growing.
Red valerian occurs with three main flower colours: about 50% of plants are deep pink, 40% are red and around 10% have white flowers. Very pale pink also occurs but is much rarer. These distinct forms are an example of flower colour polymorphism. The red pigment within the flowers is an anthrocyanin compound and the different colours are due to different amounts of the pigment.
Harbour walls created from mortared square blocks of granite during the Victorian period very quickly become unstable when the mortar between them is eroded by the sea. The large square blocks are particularly susceptible to the hydraulic lifting effect of the sea and the receding waves can suck loose blocks out of the harbour wall.
The previous old-fashioned way of building drystone harbour walls from unshaped boulders stacked on their edges did not suffer this problem, as the hydraulic pressure would be released through the gaps between the stones and the narrow, rounded bottom of each one did not present the sea much surface area to lift against.
The Red Lion in Newlyn is thought to date from the 18th Century by which time this had become a fashionable name for a pub.
The Red Lion is thought to be the most common name for a pub in the UK and to originate from the Stuart era when James I came to the throne and ordered the heraldic red lion of Scotland to be displayed on all buildings of importance, which naturally included pubs.
The path beside the building with the plaque about the Mayflower leads down onto the old quay if you wish to have a look across the harbour first.
The red-and-white hut next to the lighthouse on the end of the pier at Newlyn is where Britain's Mean Sea Level was measured by Ordnance Survey. A float on a pole moved a pen on a chart plotter (which was originally powered by clockwork and had to be wound up each day). From a long period of recordings, the average value was calculated - the mean sea level. Consequently, all contour lines on OS maps and the height of every mountain in Britain have been calculated relative to the float under the scruffy hut on Newlyn pier.
The blackbird is a species of thrush. The name "blackbird" is mediaeval, first recorded in 1486. Since most of the crow family is also black, plus many seabirds, the choice of this particular species for the name is thought to be due to its size. Up to the 18th Century, larger birds such as crows were referred to as "fowl" and the term "bird" was only used for smaller species.
The Old English name for the blackbird was osle and up to the 17th Century this survived as in alternative names for the blackbird ranging from ouzel to woosel. One of these is used in A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare: "The Woosell cocke, so blacke of hew, With Orenge-tawny bill".
Only male blackbirds are actually black. The females are brown. The difference in appearance between males and females is known as sexual dimorphism and is an evolutionary strategy by the males to get noticed more by females at the cost of decreased chances of survival.
Blackbirds can be found in deciduous woodland, particularly where there is dense undergrowth. In the man-made landscape, hedges provide plenty of dense undergrowth and have consequently become a really important habitat for blackbirds. Moreover, many gardens have such a high density of hedges and bushes that they are able to support ten times the blackbird population versus an equivalent area of their natural woodland habitat.
Blackbirds are one of the most common birds in the UK with a population of somewhere between 10 and 15 million. However, blackbirds were in steady decline from the 1970s through to the mid-1990s. The population has only relatively recently recovered.
Blackbirds begin singing from around the end of January but it is normally the overkeen young males initially - the older, wiser males wait until March, pacing themselves for the singing period which continues into the early summer. Blackbirds have been shown to sing more during and after rain but exactly why is not yet known.
Baby blackbirds usually leave the nest before they can actually fly then hop and scramble through the bushes. Their parents watch over them so don't attempt to rescue them.
Blackbirds in the UK are resident all year round but the blackbirds that live further north (e.g. in Norway) migrate south for the winter. To help with migration and also to avoid being eaten by predators, blackbirds can sleep half their brain at a time. This allows them to get some rest whilst still maintaining enough alertness to fly or spot predators.
The reference in the nursery rhyme "sing a song a sixpence" to "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" is thought to be to the 16th Century amusement (though not for the blackbirds) of producing a large pie which included an empty chamber. After the pie had been baked and was ready to be served, a trapdoor would be cut in the empty chamber and live birds were placed inside which would fly out when the pie was cut open. Live frogs were sometimes used as an alternative.
In the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas", the line "four colly birds" is thought to be from 18th Century slang meaning "black as coal" and was a popular nickname for the blackbird. Whilst many people today sing and write "four calling birds", this is thought to be a modern misunderstanding of what was originally written.
The Newlyn Art Gallery was opened in 1895 as an exhibition space for the Newlyn School of Art and was extended in the early 21st Century. The historic works from the Newlyn School have been relocated to the Penlee museum and gallery in Penzance. The Newlyn Gallery displays contemporary artwork, though still with a focus on painting and drawing.
Stargazy pie is a pastry-based fish pie which, by tradition, is filled with whole pilchards. The pilchards are stuffed with a mixture of bacon, parsley, onions, cider and breadcrumbs. Boiled eggs and bacon are used to cover the pilchards, which are cooked with their heads sticking out of the pastry (hence the name). This allows the oils, released during cooking, to flow back into the pie, keeping the pie moist.
According to legend, the first stargazy pie was made one Christmas in the 16th century, when Tom Bawcock saved the starving villagers of Mousehole by taking his boat out in storm-force winds to bring home a huge catch. Where the starving villagers got the eggs, bacon, pastry and other ingredients from isn't explained in legend, but nevertheless, Tom Bawcock's Eve is still celebrated in Mousehole every December 23 with a lantern parade.
On a rough November night in 1907, the Thames barge "Baltic" was on its way to Newlyn with a cargo of cement, but it ran aground on St Clement's Isle on its approach to the harbour. Mousehole fishermen rescued the crew and the captain's wife and daughter by lifting a crabbing boat by hand over the baulks that closed Mousehole harbour to winter seas and then rowing it out to the stranded ship. The ship was later salvaged and one of the crew settled in Mousehole and married the Harbourmaster's daughter.
Granite is the most common igneous rock found at Earth's surface and also the oldest - thought to be formed up to 300 million years ago.
The word granite comes from the Latin granum (a grain), in reference to its coarse-grained structure. Granite forms from a big blob of magma (known as a pluton) which intrudes into the existing rocks. The huge mass of molten rock stores an enormous amount of heat so the magma cools very slowly below the surface of the Earth, allowing plenty of time for large crystals to form.
Granite mostly contains slightly acidic chemical compounds, and consequently there is nothing to neutralise acids arising from plant decay and carbon dioxide dissolved in rainwater, resulting in acidic moorland soils.
Granite is pretty hard stuff. It ranks at 7 out of 10 on the Mohs hardness scale. It's harder than normal steel but not quite as hard as hardened steel (which is 7-8). Cutting on granite worktops is therefore not a good idea as knife blades become blunt quickly.
Mounts Bay is a partially-enclosed body of water which is prone to a phenomenon known as seiching where the tremors from an earthquake form a standing wave which reflects back and forth between the opposite coasts. The seiche from the Lisbon Earthquake in 1755 caused a sudden 8ft rise in sea level which flooded Penzance.
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