Week St Mary is a small village in northeast Cornwall. The Anglo-Saxon name for the village was Wyke meaning "dairy farm". "St Mary" was added to distinguish it from more than one or two others in the area.
The lane forms part of National Cycle Route 304.
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.
National Cycle Route 304 provides a more direct and less hilly alternative to the coastal section of National Cycle Route 3 between Marhamchurch and Hallworthy.
National Cycle Route 327 runs from Trelash near Warbstow via Launceston to near Tavistock. It forms a link between cycle routes 3 (Bristol to Lands End) and 27 (Plymouth and Tavistock) hence 327.
Primrose seeds are quite large and therefore, due to their weight, don't travel far from the plant. This causes a clump of primroses to spread out very slowly over time and means it takes a long time for primroses to colonise new areas. This makes large carpets of primroses a very good indicator of ancient woodland where they would have had many hundreds of years to spread out.
According to folklore, it's unlucky to bring bluebells into a house and also unlucky to walk through bluebells as it was thought that the little bells would ring and summon fairies and goblins.
Holly grows beneath the canopy of the trees along the track.
The association of holly with winter celebrations predates Christianity: druids were known to use holly wreaths which, it is likely with some discomfort, they wore on their heads.
Ferns produce 2 different types of leaf (although they often look quite similar). The normal leaves are used for photosynthesis of sugars just like in other plants. Ferns also produce a special kind of spore-bearing leaf which can often be identified from the dots on the underside. In hart's tongue ferns, these are really obvious.
The Saxons had a stronghold in northeastern Cornwall, which is reflected in many of the place names (-stow, -bury, -ton, -worthy, -cott, -ham, -ford etc). As you move further west, the Celtic place names (Tre-, Pen-, Lan-) become more common.
Woods with plenty of undergrowth is the ideal habitat for blackbirds.
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.
Exactly why butterflies were associated with butter is a bit of a mystery. One theory is that they were seen hovering over pails of milk and thought to be stealing or protecting the butter. Another is that the yellow brimstone was the species for which this name was first devised.
Before the Industrial Revolution, gorse was valued as a fuel for bread ovens and kilns as it burns rapidly, very hot and with little ash. It was in such demand that there were quite strict rules about how much gorse could be cut on common land.
In more recent times, due to reliance on fossil fuels, this is now out of balance and gorse has increased in rural areas which have been abandoned agriculturally.
Since the 1960s, consumption of milk in the UK has fallen from around 5 pints per person per week to around 3. The recent rise in popularity of veganism has also contributed to a drop in demand for dairy products. However, these downward trends have been partly offset by milk solids used in processed foods including chocolate and also a growth in cheese consumption in recent years.
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
The summit of the hill is where Ashbury Fort was located.
Ashbury Fort was located on the summit of a hill that forms part of Westwood Common, just west of the village of Week St Mary. Ashbury was an Iron Age (600 BC to AD 43) fort consisting of 2 concentric earth ramparts standing over 3 metres high. Typically, the central area would have contained many houses and, when being used to repel marauders, the space between the ramparts would have been used to graze livestock. Ashbury farm, just to the south-east, takes its name from the fort.
Holly is able to adapt to a range of conditions but prefers moist ground. It is very tolerant of shade and can grow as a thicket of bushes underneath larger trees. However, given the right conditions, holly trees can grow up to 80ft tall!
For such a widespread tree, the oak is surprisingly inefficient at reproducing naturally. It can take 50 years before the tree has its first crop of acorns and even then, the overwhelming majority of the acorns that it drops are eaten by animals or simply rot on the ground. Squirrels play an important part by burying acorns and occasionally forgetting a few which have a much better chance of growing than on the surface.
The stream feeds a major tributary river of the River Neet. A number of streams in the area between the A39 and B3254 all feed into this river, contained by the ridges along which the major roads run.
Penhallam, situated close to Week St Mary is the remains of an 800 year old moated manor house and included a Hall, bakehouse and chapel. It was abandoned in mediaeval times so the rooms were never adapted into later styles and the floor plan is a preserved snapshot of mediaeval design. It was only rediscovered in 1967 when the area was being prepared for forestry planting. Excavations took place between 1968-1973.
In the 11th Century after the Norman Conquest, the castle at Cardinham was held by Richard Fitz Turold - an Anglo-Norman landowner who also owned the manor of Penhallam. His family - known as the de Cardinhams - also owned Restormel Castle in the 12th Century but died out by the mid-13th Century. The estates were divided amongst the female descendants.
There are a few different species of buttercup. One of most common is meadow buttercup (unsurprisingly found in meadows!) which is the tallest member of the family. Another common one is creeping buttercup which as the name suggests spreads through rhizomes so is more likely to be found in dense clumps in damp places. Its leaves are also more golden and glossy.
Conifers can produce an economic yield of timber up to 6 times faster than broadleaf trees. Imported species such as Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce are amongst the more common used for timber production.
The scent of conifer trees mostly comes from volatile organic compounds known as terpenes. Two of the most well-known are limonene (which as its name suggest has a citrus scent) and pinene which advertisers describe as "pine fresh". In fact there are 2 versions of the pinene molecule with the same chemical formula but with a hydrogen atom in a slightly different place. The "alpha" version smells slightly more of pine and is soluble in alcohol and slightly in water. The "beta" version smells more of turpentine and is only soluble in hydrocarbon solvents (e.g. white spirit) so for both reasons is less useful for scented cleaning products and air fresheners than the alpha form.
There is a large elder tree near the gate on the exit from Harris' Wood.
Elderflowers appear in late May and are easily recognisable as large white umbels on the shrubby green trees. If you are harvesting the flowers to make cordial or wine, avoid picking umbels where the flowers are going brown or haven't opened yet; they should be bright white with a yellow centre.
Researchers at the University of Sydney studying influenza found that the pigments in elderberries have antiviral properties. A small effect was found in inhibiting a virus from attacking a cell but a more significant effect was found in preventing viruses from propagating once they had infected a cell. The elderberry chemicals were also found to stimulate the cell's own chemical messaging system used to trigger an immune response.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, there was a surge in demand for elderberry-derived herbal remedies. However, there are concerns that compounds in elderberry could have the potential to trigger an immune over-reaction (known as a "cytokine storm") seen in some severe COVID-19 infections.
A group of grazing animals known as "ruminants" (which includes cows) have evolved a "pre-stomach" called a rumen where microbes break down cellulose into digestible materials. These microbes produce methane as a by-product. Cows emit around 250 to 500 litres of methane per day but contrary to urban myths, the vast majority is by burping rather than from the other end.
If there are sheep in the field and you have a dog, make sure it's securely on its lead (sheep are prone to panic and injuring themselves even if a dog is just being inquisitive). If the sheep start bleating, this means they are scared and they are liable to panic.
If there are pregnant sheep in the field, be particularly sensitive as a scare can cause a miscarriage. If there are sheep in the field with lambs, avoid approaching them closely, making loud noises or walking between a lamb and its mother, as you may provoke the mother to defend her young.
Sheep may look cute but if provoked they can cause serious injury (hence the verb "to ram"). Generally, the best plan is to walk quietly along the hedges and they will move away or ignore you.
The earthwork on your right is the remains of a Norman motte and bailey castle.
A bailey was essentially a fortified settlement, typically on the top of an embankment and surrounded by wooden pallisades (some were later upgraded to stone walls). If breached, the motte (a tower on a conical mound) provided an even more fortified position for retreat and defence during a siege.
On the tower of Week St Mary Church, there are some fine carvings. If you look high up on the west side of the tower you can see hounds chasing a hare. The tall tower has been struck by lightning several times. In 1935, the southwest pinnacle was hit during a hailstorm and fell into the church.
The Old College is a short distance along the road to the left near the Lower Square.
Behind a piece of castellated wall in Week St Mary, hides one of the most historic buildings - The Old College. The Old College was restored by the Landmark Trust who now let it as a holiday cottage. Originally, the house would have been set in a square courtyard, and approached from a courtyard door opposite the front door - where the mainly 19th century house called "New College" now stands (look out for the odd bit of Old College masonry in New College's wall). The windows either side of the door would have been Gothic. If you peek around the back of the Old College, you can see examples of these. The far, west, side of the building would have been much longer, and would have joined to further buildings, filling the west side of the courtyard where there is now just a farm gate.
The story began with the birth of the remarkable Thomasine Bonaventure in Week St Mary in 1450. She married three times, each marriage gaining her more money and status, until she was finally left as the widow of Sir John Percival, the Lord Mayor of London. At this point, Lady Percival returned to Week St Mary and began charity work. In 1506, she founded a school - Week St Mary College, with an endowment to pay for a schoolmaster, graduated from Oxford or Cambridge, who would also pray for her soul in the parish church. 40 years later, it was written about in glowing terms, but then suddenly something mysteriously caused the school's collapse and decay and the children were moved to a school in Launceston.
The Lower Square area was a market place in mediaeval times and a market house was located in the area in front of Red Lion house. Around the edges of the square, houses were built each with a long strip of land of about an acre stretching behind it. These cultivatable back gardens were known as "burgage" plots. Red Lion House and New Inn House were - as the names suggest - formerly pubs associated with the market square.
Squirrels are rodents, closely related to chipmunks and slightly more distantly to dormice. The word "squirrel" originates from an ancient Greek word meaning "shadow-tailed", referring to the bushy tail of a squirrel. A family group of squirrels is known as a "drey" (also the word for a squirrel nest). A group of unrelated squirrels is known as a "scurry", though squirrels tend not to hang out in groups.
Grey squirrels were introduced to the UK from the USA in the late 19th Century and within decades they had replaced the native red squirrel in most parts of the country.
Compared to red squirrels, grey squirrels are able to eat a wider diet (including acorns), are larger so can survive colder winters, and are better able to survive in the fragmented habitats created by urbanisation. They are also thought to be carriers of a squirrel pox virus which they usually recover from but has been fatal to red squirrels, although red squirrels are now also developing some immunity.
To date, culling of grey squirrels has not reversed their domination of woodland habitat and alternative approaches such as planting food with contraceptives are being explored as a means to control the population. The theory is that infertile squirrels can compete for food against fertile squirrels, whereas culling can create a glut of food resulting in a higher number of squirrels surviving which replace those that were exterminated. Natural predators such as goshawks or pine martens also remove more grey squirrels than red squirrels. This is because red squirrels are more savvy having co-evolved with the predators so for example they recognise the scent of pine martens and actively avoid areas with this.
Squirrels assess each of their acorns before burying them. If an acorn is too light (which suggests it might have a hole), the squirrel will eat it immediately rather than risking it going mouldy.
In order to later find the nuts that they've buried, squirrels need to be organised. Some species of squirrel have been studied and found to structure their hoards by type of nut e.g. burying all their acorns under one tree and all their conkers under another. This is equivalent to us organising all the veg onto one shelf of the fridge to make it easier to remember where to look for them.
As well as forgetting where they buried some of them, squirrels may also lose a quarter of their buried food to birds, other rodents and fellow squirrels. Squirrels therefore use dummy tactics to confuse thieves by sometimes just pretending to bury a nut.
Squirrels eyes are positioned on the sides of their head which allows them to spot predators approaching from behind them. When a squirrel spots a predator, its runs away in a zigzag pattern. This confuses many of their predators but unfortunately it doesn't work well for cars.
Young squirrels suffer a high mortality rate in the wild and less than one in three make it to adulthood. The ones that do, live on average for about 6 years, although a lucky one can live to about 12 years old. In captivity, where there are neither predators, cars nor cold winters to contend with, they can reach 20 years old.
By using their tail as a parachute, squirrels are able to survive falls from high trees. This allows them to attempt risky jumps between treetops that don't always work out. They are one of the few mammals that can (but not always) survive an impact at their terminal velocity i.e. if a squirrel jumped out of an aeroplane, it may well survive.
In urban areas in cold countries such as Canada, a black form of the grey squirrel is more common which is able to withstand the cold better both by retaining more heat and also having a slower metabolism. In wilderness areas where predators are more common, the black squirrels don't seem to do so well, perhaps because they are less camouflaged against trees than the grey ones.
The yellow water iris (also known as yellow flag) is a native plant but can become invasive and have a negative effect on biodiversity due to its ability to out-compete many other water plants. It is thought by some to be the original plant on which the "fleur-de-lis" heraldic symbol is based.
If heavy metals are present in the soil, the plant is quite effective at absorbing these. This together with its aptitude for growing in pools of shallow water makes it potentially useful for detoxifying mine drainage.
Swallows have evolved a long slender body and pointed wings that makes their flight more than twice as efficient as other birds of a similar size. In flight, swallows can reach 35 mph which is particularly impressive given they weigh only 20 grams.
Swallows forage for insects on the wing, typically around 7-8 metres above the ground, but will skim over the surface of the ground if that's where the insects are. They can sometimes be seen skimming the surface of water either to drink or to bathe which they also do in flight.
The streamers on swallows tails serve an aerodynamic function, assisting tight turns to catch insects. Experiments with sand martins found that they could be "pimped-up" by adding artificial streamers to their tails which afforded them increased manoeuvrability in a flight maze. The suggestion for why swallows have evolved streamers and not sand martins is partly the speedier insects that swallows need to catch and also that sand martins live in burrows and this would risk breaking off one streamer, leading to unbalanced flight.
The length of swallows streamers has been found to be about 20% longer than the aerodynamic optimum, particularly in males which have longer tails than females. This is thought to be runaway sexual selection where a "size matters" preference of females selects for males with the longest streamers. During the period when streamers first evolved, length correlated with fitness of males. Now it has passed the optimum it has become a sexually-selected handicap like a peacock tail.
Swallows migrate to India, Arabia and Africa for the winter. Swallows cover about 200 miles in a day when they are migrating. Journeys of over 7000 miles have been recorded.
Swallows face a major weather forecasting challenge: to know when to migrate, they need to know what the temperature will be like 7,000 miles away. It is thought that swallows solve this problem by choosing locations at each end where the respective dipping and rising temperatures correlate well, so the temperature when leaving is what they can expect when they arrive.
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.
During Mediaeval times, migration wasn't understood so the vanishing of swallows in winter was a bit of a mystery. The accepted theory to explain this was therefore that swallows spent the winter buried beneath the mud of ponds and lakes!
Swallows are often found near herds of livestock where the flies that swallows catch are more numerous. It is thought that swallows were much rarer before humans started keeping animals. Consequently, the rise of veganism is not good news for swallows - a decline in dairy farming and increase in arable will inevitably result in their decline.
Swallows are known by the name "barn swallow" due to their preference for nesting in man-made structures open to the elements such as stables or under bridges. Before these were available, swallows used to nest in caves and on cliff faces but they now nest almost exclusively on man-made structures. In the case of barns, these are conveniently located near insects associated with livestock. They may also be using presence of humans to help keep predators away.
In areas where ospreys are common, swallows will nest below an osprey nest and form a cooperative relationship where the swallows warn the osprey of nest raiders and the ospreys drive away other birds of prey that eat swallows. The osprey became extinct in England and Wales during Victorian times due to egg collecting but through a combination of reintroduction from Scotland and natural recolonisation from Scandinavia, ospreys are gradually returning. They are regular visitors to West Cornwall and are most likely to be seen on big lakes or estuaries in April or September.
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