It is important that you carefully time this walk with the tide times: the footpath along the edge of the creek is underwater at high tide. You can use the Padstow tide times to plan when you do the walk. Once you reach the slate tips at Sea Mills, there is no time pressure from this point on. The edge of the creek is quite muddy so ensure you have appropriate footwear, taking the season into account.
Crows have a vocabulary of different calls with specific meanings and these can be varied to convey emotion like a human tone of voice.
The sounds that crows make have also been found to vary with location rather like regional accents in humans. When a crow moves into a new area, it mimics the calls of the most dominant flock members to fit in with its peer group.
St Issey is named after Itha or Ida, born in Ireland in AD 480 and recorded as living to an age of 89, to whom the church is dedicated. The church building dates from Norman times and was enlarged in the 15th Century which included the addition of the tower, which was rebuilt around 1680. In 1869, the church tower collapsed after being struck by lightning and the resulting rebuild of 1871 was described as "lamentable". Nevertheless some artefacts survived which may be fragments of a mediaeval monument mentioned in a document of 1399. The church was carefully restored in 1980.
In the 1920s, a stone axe head was found in St Issey which has been dated back to Neolithic times. It is now in the Truro Museum.
The size of a barley grain became part of the British imperial measurement system. The length units were eventually standardised as one inch being equal to 3 barleycorns which in turn were each equal to four poppyseeds. The barleycorn is still in use today as it is the basis of the UK shoe size system. This rises in increments of one barleycorn i.e. a size 9 is one barleycorn longer than a size 8.
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
Navelwort grows along the wall on the right.
Navelwort produces flower spikes with small green bells from June to September. When the flower spike is first forming, it is a rather beautiful structure and is a perfect subject for macro photography.
Wild garlic grows in the shade of the trees along the riverbanks here.
In a small food processor, whizz approx 20g of Italian-style hard cheese (Parmesan or Pecorino). Optionally whizz in about the same amount of any toasted nuts (nice but not vital). Next whizz in 50g of wild garlic leaves. You can also add 10g lemon balm leaves if you have it growing in your garden. Add zest of a lemon, juice of half the lemon and whizz in a couple of glugs of olive oil to the desired consistency. Finally whizz in salt and pepper to taste.
Make your own super-quick fresh pasta with 200g plain flour, 4g salt, 1 egg and enough water to form a smooth dough. Use a good dusting of flour and roll out thin. Dust again, roll up into a Swiss roll and cut across at 1cm intervals to form spirals. Unravel each and drop the squiggles into boiling water. Done when it floats (about 2 min).
The stream collects water from this side of the downs along the A39. The road has evolved from an ancient route along a ridge so the streams on this side are quite short and the streams on the other side flow in the opposite direction, into the middle reaches of the River Camel above Wadebridge.
The lane runs along a promontory between two river valleys. A little way to the left along the lane is the remnant of a fortified settlement known as Trenance Rounds. Little now remains other than an odd-shaped field with a small bank which was once a substantial rampart but has been ploughed away over the centuries.
The mill is now known as Mellingey Mill but the "Mill" in the name is really superfluous as Mellingey comes from the Cornish words melyn chy (often combined as melynjy) meaning "millhouse". There are records of a mill here as far back as 1302.
The Saints' Way runs for 30 miles from Padstow to Fowey, and follows one of the likely routes of early Christian travellers making their way from Wales and Ireland to the Continent during the Dark Ages. Rather than risk a premature martyring on the rocks around Land's End, they would disembark their ships on the North Devon and Cornish coast and cross the peninsula, on foot, to ports on the south coast such as Fowey. The Bush Inn at Morwenstow is thought to be one of the stopovers from the North Devon ports. The route from Padstow to Fowey was in use before the Dark Ages which is evident from Roman coins found along the route. However it is thought that it was likely to have been in use even earlier still, in the Iron Age.
Anyone who has sat on a holly leaf will know how prickly they can be but the leaves particularly on larger holly bushes often vary considerably with less spiky leaves nearer the top.
Holly is able to vary its leaf shape in response to its environment through a chemical process known as DNA methylation which can be used to switch genes on and off. If its leaves are eaten by grazing animals or trampled by walkers, the holly will crank up the methylation level to produce really spiky leaves on these stems. Conversely on the stems where the leaves are able to grow old in peace, the holly will produce versions that are flatter and therefore more efficient at catching the light. An individual leaf can last up to five years.
Ivy is a creeping vine which is well-known for being able to climb up almost anything. With good support, an ivy plant can climb as high as 90ft. A plant can live over 400 years and on mature plants, stems can reach a diameter of over 10cm.
Sorrel is native to the UK and common in fields and hedgerows. It's salt tolerant so it can often be found on the coast in Cornwall. The leaves resemble small, narrow dock leaves. In summer the plant is often evident in abundance in fields by its red seeds at the top of a tall stalk.
Sorrel leaves have a pleasant lemony flavour but before being tempted to try one, it's important first to learn how to avoid one of the most common poisoning mistakes from eating wild plants - how to distinguish sorrel leaves from the poisonous lily Arum maculatum (Lords and Ladies) as the latter causes serious irritation if consumed as it contains needle-like crystals that puncture mucous membranes. There's a video here.
On the opposite side of the bridge is St Petroc's Church.
The church at Little Petherick was built originally in the 14th century and was rebuilt in 1745. Since then it has been restored twice, each time by a famous Gothic architect: initially in the 1850s by William White, and the second time in 1908 by Ninian Comper. The result is impressively ornate.
The church is dedicated to St Petroc who, according to legend, came this way when he fled to Bodmin from Padstow. The parish is known as St Petroc Minor to distinguish it from Padstow (formerly Petrocstow) - "Petherick" is derived from "Petroc".
Originally, the religion of the Cornish Britons was Celtic polytheism - a pagan, animistic faith, assumed to be led by Druids. Celtic Christianity was introduced to Cornwall in the year 520 by Saint Petroc, a Brython from the kingdom of Glywysing, and other missionaries from Wales, as well as by Gaelic monks and holy women from Ireland.
During Victorian times, Little Petherick Creek was used for trading, and along the left-hand side of the creek (looking down the creek from Little Petherick) are remains of quays where grain was loaded and a limekiln was also located. The Old Mill (which is now a bistro) near the bridge was a corn mill dating from before 1840 and still has a waterwheel. The tidal mill at Sea Mills, and Melingey Mill upstream of Little Petherick were both also used to grind corn.
Lichens grow on some of the small trees on the path down and also dead trees at the edge of the creek.
Lichens often grow on sick or dying trees so some gardeners assume that the lichen might be harming the tree. In fact, it's purely because these trees have fewer leaves so there is more light available for the algae inside the fungus to photosynthesise. It's too dark under many healthy trees for the lichen to grow.
The creek provides a habitat for a range of wading birds, the larger of which can often be spotted from the fields alongside the creek.
Although herons primarily eat fish, they will eat frogs, rodents, moles, ducklings and even baby rabbits! They are quite brave birds and will venture into gardens and parks to eat the ornamental fish. They have also been known to visit zoos to steal fish during penguin and seal feeding.
Daisy flowers are not actually a single flower but a composite made of lots of little flowers. Each tiny yellow dot making up the central area is a tubular flower. Similarly each petal is a specially-adapted miniature flower.
The small patches of woodland on the creek edge are good damp spots for fungi.
Fungi are often most noticeable when fruiting, either as mushrooms or as moulds but their main part is a network made up of thin branching threads that can run through soil, leaf litter, wood and even living plant tissue.
Cornwall bounces by around 4 inches every time the tide goes in and out. As the tide rises, the extra weight of water on the continental shelf deforms the Earth's crust; as the tide goes out, it springs back. The tidal range is greatest on the southwestern side of the British Isles and so Cornwall is one of the bounciest places in Britain.
Once you've made your sloe gin, don't throw away your gin-soaked sloes! Instead buy some cheap sweet "cooking" cider (the kind that comes in 2 litre plastic bottles preferably with words like "value", "basic" or "economy"; do not commit heresy and waste good quality drinking cider) and replace the gin with this. Ensure your lid is on tight so your cider doesn't lose its fizz. Leave to infuse for a few more months for your cider to become osmotically fortified. The resulting delightful drink is known as "slider" (after several glasses anyway). Based on "experience", small-sized glasses are recommended.
Blackthorn stems are often covered in fungi or bacteria and if a thorn punctures skin, these can sometimes cause infection. Any splinters left in the skin can also disintegrate over time and result in an immune response. If a puncture wound becomes infected, it's a good idea to get it checked-out in a minor injuries unit in case antibacterial or anti-fungal treatment is needed to prevent it escalating.
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.
The walled enclosure in the river was for the tidal mill here.
In 1602, tide mills were described by Richard Carew in his Survey of Cornwall:
Amongst other commodities afforded by the sea, the inhabitants make use of divers his creekes for grist mills, by thwarting a banke from side to side, in which a flood-gate is placed, with two leaves; these the flowing tide openeth, and, after full sea, the waight of the ebb closeth fast, which no other force can doe: and so the imprisoned water payeth the ransome of driving an under sheete (i.e. undershot) wheel for his enlargement.
The tidal mill in Little Petherick creek was first recorded in 1675 as "two salt water grist mills". The mill closed in 1899, apparently due to the restriction of the tidal flow in the creek, caused by the construction of the North Cornwall Railway across the mouth of Little Petherick creek. The mill building was demolished in the early 20th Century and the outbuildings have been converted into houses; the garden of one of these is where the mill used to be located. The enclosing wall of the mill pond is still mostly intact, although the interior is now filled with silt. Further along shore, there are slate tips and, behind this, the slate quarries that yielded the stone used to build the mill and retaining wall.
There is a story that a previous owner of Sea Mills near Little Petherick, who was a member of the Total Abstinence Society, tried to persuade the people of Padstow to abandon the drunken revelry of their "Obby Oss" celebrations by offering them a free ox to roast for the next seven years if they would cease the festival. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was not well-received by the Padstow residents, and despite other schemes by the society such as the creation of a rival "Blue Ribbon 'Oss", the ancient festival survived.
Another place that alexanders are commonly found is near the sites of mediaeval settlements, in particular religious settlements where they were cultivated by monks as a vegetable. In mediaeval cuisine they were used as an alternative to celery (which was a more bitter plant back then). It was traditionally one of the "pot herbs" that were added to stews and the dried seeds can also be used as a spice. Alexanders were particularly useful during lean winters as its new growth is available in the late Autumn, before many other spring greens.
A Bible Christian Chapel (now Chapel House) was located just before the grassy triangle outside what is now the pub.
By the time John Wesley died, the majority of Methodists were not attending Anglican church regularly, and following his death a Methodist church was formed, separate from the Anglican church. In the first half of the 19th Century, the Methodist movement fragmented into several different factions, often each with its own chapel in the same town. The Bible Christian movement was one of these, founded in North Cornwall in 1815 by William O'Bryan from Luxulyan. His followers are also known as the Bryonites, although after falling out with most of his ministers, O'Bryan emigrated to America. In 1907, the Bible Christian movement amalgamated with other Methodist groups to form the United Methodist Church.
The settlement of Burgois is first recorded in 1423 when it was spelt "Borguys". The name is also recorded in Tudor times as "Bargus" and this is thought to more closely resemble the original name. It is constructed from the Cornish words bar (meaning summit) and cos (meaning wood) and in Cornish, words starting with a "c" often mutate into "g" when placed after another word.
The name stitchwort dates from mediaeval times when it is likely to have been believed that it had powers to cure an exercise-induced stitch. Other common names for Greater Stitchwort include "star-of-Bethlehem" (due to the shape and perhaps Easter flowering time) and "poor-man's buttonhole" for budget weddings. It is also known as "wedding cakes" but that may be more due to the colour than anticipation of what a buttonhole might lead to. The seed capsules can sometimes be heard bursting open in the late spring sunshine which gives rise to names such as "snapdragon" and "popguns".
The overhead power lines are popular with starlings.
In spring and summer, starling feathers change from brown in winter to a glossy black with iridescent pinks and greens. The males are particularly glossy compared to the females and have fewer white spots. Starlings' beaks also change colour to bright yellow as part of their breeding plumage, which again is more vivid on the males.
Rabbits were originally from the Iberian peninsula and were brought to Britain by the Normans and kept in captivity as a source of meat and fur. Although grass is their principal natural food, rabbits are able to survive on virtually any vegetable matter and with relatively few predators, those that escaped multiplied into a sizeable wild population.
There are several species of dock but two of the most common found in fields are the broad-leaved and curly dock. Broad-leaved docks are the ones with the big leaves that are usually grabbed after a stinging nettle encounter. They can live for at least 5 years and normally don't produce seeds until their second year. Curled docks have more slender leaves which often have more wavy edges. They are shorter-lived and can flower only 9 weeks after germination but often die after flowering if not cut.
In winter, birds have a tough time finding enough food to sustain themselves and keep warm. Flocking offers a number of advantages that eases this pressure. Roosting as a flock means they can huddle together to keep warm (one big object has a larger heat capacity and smaller surface area than lots of little ones so heat is lost more slowly). A flock can also share the work of looking out for predators and spotting food, allowing more time to be spent on feeding. Birds of different species will sometimes even flock together to cooperate.
If flocking offers so many advantages, you may wonder why birds don't do it all year round. During the spring, breeding is all about competition between the birds for mates and nesting sites and here it pays to split up to reduce competition. Also, summer food sources tend to be more spread out (e.g. insects) rather than the dense clumps of seeds and berries found in winter that are better able to feed a flock.
The small stream is the one you crossed earlier on the walk where it meets Little Petherick Creek just after the water treatment works. Its source is a spring at the far side of the field over the left hedge. Nearby mediaeval settlements such as Trevance had wells to tap into the underground water source before it emerged at the spring.
The interlaced knot patterns that are associated with Celtic decoration had their origins in the Roman Empire and appear in mosaics during late Roman times. Prior to this, simpler patterns such as spirals and steps featured in Celtic art. Together with Christianity, interlaced patterns were enthusiastically adopted by the Celtic people refined into the knotwork that is now so iconic. Nearly all the decorative patterns are composed from a palette of just 8 elementary knots.
Marsh samphire grows on the mudflats next to the slate tips.
Marsh samphire, also, known as glasswort, grows in estuary mud and resembles miniature asparagus. It is not that common in Cornwall but can be found in the muddy saltmarshes of some of the north-coast rivers. In recent years, marsh samphire has been rediscovered as a culinary ingredient and now appears as "samphire" or part of the "sea vegetables" on many menus and is even available in supermarkets. It has a delicate texture and mild but salty flavour which makes it useful to add as a seasoning to a dish.
Despite sharing a name, it is unrelated to rock samphire which is common on the cliffs and has fleshy leaves with a pungent flavour.
Sea purslane (Halimione portulacoides - Americans call a different plant "sea purslane") grows along estuary mudflats and is immediately recognisable by its grey-green leaves forming a large carpet near the high tide line. The greyness of the leaves is partly due to tiny hairs which reflect sunlight to reduce water loss. It's also due to salt expelled through special glands in the leaves drying on the surface.
Sea purslane leaves are edible (and often feature on Masterchef amongst "sea vegetables"). They are very salty when raw, but when cooked this diminishes to more mellow levels. They turn bitter if overcooked, so a short dunk is ideal. The young, green leaves are the most tender which are most abundant in late spring/early summer.
The ferns with solid leaves are appropriately called hart's tongue as the leaf resembles the tongue of a deer. It is the only native species of fern that doesn't have divided leaves. The Latin name for the species means "centipede" as the underside of the leaves have rows of brown spore cases that form a pattern resembling centipede legs.
Hart's tongue ferns thrive in shady places and are tolerant of the lime used in mortar so are sometimes found growing in old walls. It's an evergreen so leaves can be seen all year round but there's usually a flurry of new growth in mid March when new leaves can be seen gradually unfurling over a number of days.
Mulleins are biennial plants of the Verbascum family with fuzzy leaves which produce a massive spike of yellow flowers in their second year. Two species are fairly common: common mullein can reach 6-8ft tall and has all-yellow flowers where as dark mullein is a bit smaller and the flowers have purple stamens.
Common names include "Jacob's staff", "Jupiter's staff" and "Aaron's rod" which all reference the tall flower spike. The plant's soft, fuzzy leaves are featured in names such as "bunny's ears", "flannel leaf", and the delightful "cowboy toilet paper" from the USA.
Other names include "Candlewick plant" which refers to the use of the dried down from the leaves to make wicks for lamps. The use of mullein for torches dates back at least to Roman times. The association of torches with witches also gave rise to another name for the plant: "hag taper".
Full page maps cannot be printed due to copyright and terms of use.