The chimney beside the track is one of the remnants of the Wheal Pool mine.
Wheal Pool was a lead and silver mine that was worked since at least the 16th Century. Initially, open-cast mining was used to reach the ore close to the surface and this was extended to underground mining at the start of the 19th Century. In order to prevent the Loe Pool from flooding the mine, a drainage adit was bored through the cliffs next to the Loe Bar at the end of the 18th Century so that the water level in the pool could be regulated.
On the hill to the right is the manor of Nansloe, from the Cornish word nans, for valley. The two neighbouring farms also take their name from this (Higher and Lower Nansloe).
Cornwall has at least 8 different words for "valley".
Robins are common enough in Cornwall to be part of the Cornish language.
The Cornish name for the bird is rudhek from rudh = "red" (in Cornish, "dh" is pronounced like the "th" in "with"). Cornish place names like Bedruthan, Ruthern and Redruth are all based on the colour red.
In situations where ducks need to watch out for predators, they can sleep one half of their brain at a time, keeping one eye open for danger. In safer circumstances, ducks will sleep fully.
Minnows are a species of small carp that live in oxygen-rich streams, typically in the upper reaches of rivers where they provide an important food source for trout. Unlike trout, minnows don't need gravel for spawning and their young hatch quickly which allows them to multiply wherever sufficient food is available.
When minnows are injured, special skin cells release a chemical which warns others of the presence of a predator. The evolutionary advantage of this to an individual minnow is not understood as it's already too late for the minnow being eaten and the cells require extra energy to maintain them so are, if anything, a disadvantage to the particular minnow who is carrying them. One possible explanation would be if other minnows in the shoal were relatives and therefore carrying similar genes then the sacrifice would be "worth it" (genetically), but studies have found that other minnows in the shoal are often unrelated. So it appears that minnows are simply nice.
The berries of holly contain a chemical compound very similar to caffeine. Only in very small doses is this a stimulant; in larger doses it is toxic. It is for this reason that you see holly berries on bushes rather than being inside the nearest bird. The birds have learned to wait until after the frosts have reduced the toxicity of the berries before eating them.
Holly has separate male and female plants, so not all holly bushes produce berries - only female plants. In less biologically-enlightened Pagan times, holly was thought to be a male plant (the spikes symbolising aggression) whereas ivy was regarded as a female plant (symbolising attachment). The Christmas Carol "The Holly and the Ivy" is thought originally to derive from Pagan fertility myths onto which Christian symbolism has subsequently been added.
Fungus is the Latin word for mushroom but is derived from the ancient Greek word for sponge since this is what they were thought to resemble. Biologically, this isn't so far off either as fungi are more closely-related to animals than plants.
In 2012, Lieutenant Commander John Peverell Rogers died. His elderly wife continued to live in the house and his son Charles - heir to the estate - lived in a cottage as a recluse, suffering from poor mental health. In 2018, Charles died from a methadone overdose at the age of 62 by which point he was sleeping in his car. Charles died apparently without an heir and his mother died two weeks later.
A local care worker, at the time known as Jordan Adlard, had suspected ever since he was eight that he was the illegitimate son of Charles, but Charles had refused to do a DNA test. After Charles died, the test confirmed what Jordan had suspected and in 2019 the low-paid worker, struggling to pay his bills, became the owner of an estate estimated as worth £50 million. Jordan Adlard-Rogers and his family now live in the house.
Squirrels live in the woods. You're most likely to encounter them at times when there are not many dogs being walked.
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.
Blackthorn is a spiny type of plum which is more broadly a member of the rose family. It is native to the UK and common on old farmland where blackthorn trees were planted as hedges to keep out cattle. It is still common in Cornish hedgerows today and also common on the coast as it's tolerant to salt.
In 1684, the East India Company cargo ship The President was on its way back from India laden with an expensive cargo that included spices, indigo, drugs, pearls and diamonds. The valuable cargo was targeted by pirates but the heavily armed ship was able to see them off, exploding one of the pirate ships with a direct hit on the powder magazine.
As The President approached Cornwall it faced strong winds which prevented docking to re-provision. As food supplies dwindled, the crew became malnourished and too weak to man the ship. In desperation, they ate the ship's dog but this was insufficient and the unguided ship grounded on the Loe Bar in a storm and was smashed into pieces.
Only two crew members survived - narrowly - as after making it to shore after clinging to the cliffs, some not-so-sympathetic locals attempted to club them to death on the off-chance they might have salvaged something valuable!
Divers have located the remains of the ship including cannons and the anchor which is now a protected archaeological site.
Swans can often be seen on the lake. Some of the shallower areas contain weed which swans can reach with their long necks.
Swans usually mate for life, although "divorce" can sometimes occur if there is a nesting failure. The birds can live for over 20 years but in the 20th Century many swans were found to be suffering from lead poisoning. This was tracked down to the tiny "lead shot" weights used for fishing that swans would hoover up with weed and roots from the bottom of rivers and lakes. Since the introduction of non-toxic metals for making fishing weights, incidents of poisoning have disappeared and the swan population is now even growing very slightly.
The Loe provides an ideal habitat for herons, which can sometimes be seen flying over the lake.
Herons nest in tree-top colonies known as "heronries" where they make a large nest from twigs. It is not unusual for a single tree to contain as many as 10 nests and the overall colony can reach over a hundred nests. The herons re-use their nest for as many years as possible until it gets blown away by a storm. It is unwise to stand beneath a heronry as the birds defend their nests by regurgitating half-digested fish on those below!
In December 1807, the Navy frigate HMS Anson hit bad weather off Mount's Bay. They attempted to head into Falmouth harbour but realised they were trapped by the wind on the wrong side of the Lizard. The captain anchored the ship but the anchor rope snapped. A second anchor was deployed and held fast but this also snapped. As a last resort, the captain attempted to sail the ship onto the beach at the centre of the Loe Bar, but hit an uncharted reef just 100 metres off the beach. The force of the collision caused the main mast to topple onto the beach. Some of the crew were able to escape across it but around 100 drowned in the huge breakers. One of the witnesses was Henry Trengrouse who was so moved by the helplessness of the onlookers that he spent much of his life and personal savings developing the rocket lifesaving apparatus which went on to save many thousands of lives. A canon salvaged from the wreck in 1964 is on display outside the Helston museum and a cross overlooks the beach, commemorating both the disaster and the life work of Henry Trengrouse. Gold coins are occasionally found which are thought to be from pockets of the officers aboard.
The Loe Bar is composed mainly of shingle that is not of local origin: it is mostly chalk flint. It is thought that this was washed down from the terraces of the river which the English Channel once was, when sea levels rose after the last Ice Age. It is also thought that the bar of shingle initially formed offshore and then slowly moved towards the shore so that the bar across The Loe may not have been in place until early mediaeval times or at most a few thousand years ago. The bar was originally porous, allowing seawater into the lake but fine silt released by mining activity upriver has caused it to seal so that it is now freshwater. To prevent flooding in parts of Helston, a disused mine adit has been repurposed as an overflow from the Loe Pool into the sea. On occasions this has blocked and so the Bar has been intentionally breached to release the build-up of water, but the Bar has always resealed itself. It is thought that Longshore Drift plays an important part in the maintenance of the Bar and causes it to gradually accumulate more sediment over time.
During violent winter storms, waves have been known to break all the way over the bar into the Loe Pool. Even under normal conditions, the sea off the beach is extremely dangerous and a number of people have been drowned, some just from paddling. It is notorious for its massive unexpected shore dumps which can appear out of nowhere even in calm weather and suck people under the water as the shingle caves in beneath their feet. Some locals have called for a skull-and-crossbones to be added to signs on the "killer beach" which is reputed to take one soul every seven years.
In December 1912 the Italian cargo ship, the Tripolitania, was driven ashore on the Loe Bar in a gale. When the tide went out, the huge ship was parked upright at the top of the beach. A great effort was made to refloat her with many tons of sand and shingle being dug out by hand before the next spring tide. Tugs stood by to pull her off the bar, but another storm rose and embedded the ship even more firmly in the bar. This put an end to any chance of refloating her so she was broken up for scrap.
Amongst the species of tree growing around the Loe Pool are sweet chestnuts.
The chestnut tree originated in Sardinia and there is evidence of its cultivation by humans from around 2000 BC. It was introduced into Britain by the Romans who planted chestnut trees on their campaigns to provide an easily stored and transported source of food for their troops.
The Penrose family owned a large estate to the south of Helston since mediaeval times which eventually extended from Gunwalloe to one side of Porthleven Harbour. In 1771, it was sold to John Rogers, who became the new squire of the estate and it remained in the Rogers family for another two centuries. In 1974, a large part of it, covering 1,500 acres, was gifted to the National Trust. Penrose House remains as a private family home. This was originally a U-shaped building created in the 17th Century by the Penrose family and remodelled a number of times in the 18th and 19th Centuries by the Rogers family.
The Loe was originally the estuary of the River Cober which was flooded after the last Ice Age when sea levels rose. The contours of the original valley can be traced for several miles out to sea. The estuary is now blocked by a bar of sand and shingle which has created the largest freshwater lake in Cornwall. The earliest record of the name was in 1337, when it was called "La Loo", but is now pronounced "low". It is from the Cornish word logh which is equivalent to the Scottish "loch".
There are nearly 400 miles of public bridleway in Cornwall, marked with blue waymarks, which are also open to horses and cyclists, although there is no obligation to make them navigable by any means other than on foot.
During the 1960s, the formerly meandering River Cober was canalised as part of measures to prevent flooding in Helston but this had a detrimental effect on the wetland willow woodland habitat. A series of pipes have now been installed so that when the water level rises, the river can discharge water into the woodland. This is restoring the habitat and also further improves the flood defences by allowing the river to discharge floodwater more quickly. Since the work has been done, there has been a substantial increase in bird life and otters have even been seen recolonising the area.
Up to the end of the 19th Century, the area now occupied by Coronation Park was an area of waste ground that was often flooded and sometimes grazed by donkeys that mischievous children attempted to ride whilst the farmer wasn't looking. To commemorate the coronation of King George V in 1912, it was transformed into a swimming and boating lake.
Sea holly is an unmistakable blue-green spiky plant which seen at the top of some beaches in summer. Despite its appearance, it is unrelated to holly and is actually a member of the carrot family.
Sea holly has a number of adaptations to survive in arid sand dunes. Its waxy leaves minimise water loss, the pale colour reflects sunlight and the root system can extend downwards for two metres to find less salty water. In dry conditions, the level of chlorophyll is reduced and so the bluer the plant becomes.
The plants are also known by the common name eringoes which stems from the Latin name for the Genus Eryngium. In Elizabethan times, they were believed to be a strong aphrodisiac and were mentioned in Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor":
Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green-sleeves, hail kissing-comfits and snow eringoes, let there come a tempest of provocation...
Rhododendron is a member of the Ericaceae family to which heathers also belong and like its cousins, it is tolerant of acid soils. The word rhododendron is from the Ancient Greek for "rose tree" due to their spectacular flowers. As a result of these, rhododendrons have been popular ornamental plants for over two centuries and the species that we now call the common rhododendron was introduced in 1763. The plants thrive in the UK climate and were once native but were wiped out by the last Ice Age. Being a vigorous plant, common rhododendron was often used as a root stock onto which more fragile but exotically-coloured hybrids were grafted.
Azalea is a name given to a sub-group of rhododendron species which typically form a bush rather than a large tree. There is no clear biological distinction but most azalea species are deciduous (whereas rhododendrons are evergreen) and azaleas often have smaller leaves, funnel-shaped flowers and are more tolerant of sunny locations than rhododendrons.
Rhododendrons are so successful in Britain that they have become an invasive species, crowding out other flora in the Atlantic oak woodlands. They are able to spread very quickly both through suckering along the ground and by abundant seed production. Many of the root stocks of ornamental specimens have suckered off some new common rhododendrons which have then out-competed the ornamental tree and killed it off!
Conservation organisations now classify the rhododendron explosion as a severe problem and various strategies have been explored to attempt to stop the spread. So far, the most effective method seems to be injecting herbicide into individual plants which is both more precise and effective than blanket cutting or spraying.
A problem with rhododendrons is that they kill bees. Rhododendron nectar is highly toxic to honeybees, killing them within hours. Some other bee species such as mining bees are also adversely affected. Bumblebees seem to be unaffected though.
Honey made with rhododendron pollen can be poisonous to humans, causing severe low blood pressure and low heart rate if enough is eaten. Rhododendron honey is used in Nepal as a hallucinogenic drug.
Geese migrate to warmer climates for the winter and fly in a V-shaped formation known as a skein or wedge (on the ground, a collection of geese is known as a gaggle). The V-formation allows birds behind the leader to fly more efficiently as the rising air from flapping wings of the bird ahead helps to support the weight of the one behind. This can increase the range that the bird can fly by over 70%. The birds each take it in turns to do the harder job of flying at the front.
The two most common pigeon species are the wood pigeon and feral pigeon (domesticated rock dove). Wood pigeons are larger than rock doves. Rock doves have an iridescent green/purple patch on their necks whereas adult wood pigeons have a white patch on their neck (although this is not present in young birds).
The feral pigeons living in urban areas are descended from rock doves that were originally domesticated as a source of food. Dove cotes were built to house quite a large number as there is not much meat on a pigeon. Later, these domesticated birds were also used as carrier pigeons. Escaped birds have thrived in the food-rich urban landscape where the stone buildings resemble the rock outcrops they have evolved to nest on.
Despite their native habitat being woodland, wood pigeons are able to thrive wherever there is food. They have fared better than most birds with intensively-farmed crops and are particularly fond of oil seed rape. They are able to hoover up food quickly (up to 100 pecks per minute) and stuff large amounts into their crop (e.g. around 150 acorns!). They then digest this overnight.
During the 21st Century, wood pigeons have been migrating into urban areas where garden feeding has attracted them. There has also been an exodus from parts of the rural environment where changes to farming practices (e.g. daffodil growing or energy crops) has made fields less attractive.
There is no biological distinction between "pigeon" and "dove" although "dove" seems to now be used for the more elegant species and "pigeon" for the more unexciting ones. Due to the Norman ruling classes, it's relatively unusual in the English language for the French/Latin word to be the vulgar form and the Norse/Germanic word to be the "posh" form. It's is likely that the reverse was true in mediaeval times: pigeon meat was considered super-posh and the French word was used for the young, tender birds of the species that were eaten.
Bracket fungi can be recognised by tough, woody shelf-like growths known as conks. Some species can live for a very long time and are often coloured with annual growth rings.
Bracket fungi are one of the most important groups of fungi responsible for wood decay. This is good for nutrient cycling but less good if you own a forestry plantation. Many bracket fungi begin on living trees and can eventually kill a branch or whole tree by damaging the heartwood and allowing rot to set in. They can continue to live on the dead wood afterwards and a much more diverse range of species of bracket fungi are found in old natural forests with lots of dead wood.
Lichens are a partnership of two different organisms: a fungus providing the "accommodation" and an alga or cyanobacterium providing the "food" through photosynthesis. The fungal partner provides a cosy, sheltered environment for the alga and tends it with mineral nutrients. However, the alga partner is more than simply an imprisoned food-slave: it is such a closely-evolved alliance that the fungus is dependant on the alga for its structure. If the fungal partner is isolated and grown on an agar plate, it forms a shapeless, infertile blob.
One in five of all known fungi form lichens. Studies suggest that many species of fungi that form lichens started out from ancestors that lived on organic waste. Fossils have also revealed that the symbiosis between algae and fungi dates back more than 400 million years roughly to the time when plants first evolved from green algae.
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.
You'll notice that there is lichen growing on many of the headstones in the churchyard. Of the 2,000 British species, over a third have been found in churchyards and more than 600 have been found growing on churchyard stone in lowland England. Almost half the species are rare and some seldom, if ever, occur in other habitats. Many churchyards are found to have well over 100 species.
Lichens obtain nearly all their nutrients from the atmosphere and therefore can be very sensitive to air pollution. As a general rule of thumb, healthy lichens means clean air, but more specifically, different species have been found to be sensitive to different pollutants. By identifying common species that exhibits change for a particular pollutant, lichens can be used as an early warning dashboard showing not only how much air pollution there is but also what kind.
Wood anemones can be recognised by their white star-like flowers growing in shady locations during the spring. Hoverflies are important pollinators of the plant so you may also see these nearby. Avoid touching the plants as they are poisonous to humans and can cause severe skin irritation.
The anemones grow from underground stems (rhizomes) and spread very slowly - to spread by six feet takes about 100 years! This makes it a good indicator of ancient woodland.
During winter, from November to March, winter heliotrope is visible along the edges of roads and paths as carpets of rounded heart-shaped leaves.
Winter heliotrope is native to Sardinia and North Africa. It was introduced to Britain in 1806 but only the male plant. The female plant has subtly different flowers with more rays.
Despite only having the male form in the UK (is and therefore unable to produce seeds), it can spread vegetatively through its network of underground roots. A small fragment of root can give rise to a new plant which allows it to colonise new locations. Within less than 30 years of its introduction it had been recorded in the wild in Middlesex. Roughly a century later it has become one of the most common plants along roads and bridleways in Cornwall.
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).
The name of the plant is Greek for "sun direction" because the flowers turn to follow the winter sun.
The leaf shape of winter heliotrope is similar to its close relative butterbur, but the leaf edges are more rounded than butterbur and the leaves are evergreen whereas butterbur puts up flowers before it has any leaves. Both plants spread via rhizomes (underground stems) and their broad leaves can crowd out other plants making them potentially invasive.
Coots are black with a white beak and head shield. This white patch is the origin of the phrase "bald as a coot". Moorhens look similar but have a red beak.
Coots are extremely aggressive, especially in the breeding season. If their chicks annoy them, the parents will bite them. Consequently quite a few coot chicks starve to death due to mean parents.
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