From 1870 to 1970, Porthcurno valley was a hub of international communications and, for a time between the First and Second World Wars, was the largest submarine cable station in the world. Up to two million words per day could be transmitted using up to 14 cables. It was chosen over Falmouth to reduce the risk of damage to cables by shipping. Even today, fibre-optic cables land at Porthcurno, connecting the UK to the internet backbone.
In common with most of the other beaches around Penwith, the sand at Porthcurno is composed of fragments of seashell. Larger pieces of shell, and some intact shells, are usually washed up along the high-tide line. These mostly seem to be venus clams which are very pale in colour and may explain the particularly white sand around this coast. Another factor is that, unlike the slate in much of the rest of Cornwall, the granite here does not weather into minute flakes which mix into the sand and darken the colour.
In November 1895, the Granite State arrived in Falmouth with a cargo of wheat from the USA. The captain was told to unload the cargo at Swansea so turned around and headed back down the channel. Despite having navigated it once successfully, the mate made a navigation error and the ship struck the Runnel Stone. A tugboat towed the ship to the nearest beach - Porthcurno - but the vessel was taking on water and soon settled on the sandbanks. As water entered the hold, it soaked the wheat grains causing them to swell. The crew abandoned ship via the lifeboats before the hatches burst under the pressure and the vessel broke up.
The name Minnack is from the Cornish word meynek.
In English we often add a -y ending to a noun to turn it into an adjective; for example "rock" becomes "rocky". For many of the nouns imported from French, we add "-ic" (acidic, magnetic, artistic...). The equivalent in Cornish is to add -ack or -ek to the end of the word. Thus meynek is "stony" (men is stone), stennack means "tinny" (sten is tin).
The Minack open-air theatre was created by one remarkable woman - Rowena Cade - who financed, planned and physically built the theatre. Initially she worked as apprentice to two Cornish craftsmen to cut stone for the stage and seating, with one wheelbarrow lost over the edge of the cliff in the process. The first performance was "The Tempest" in 1932 which was lit by car batteries and headlights. From this point until her death, Rowena worked relentlessly on improving the theatre, which included carrying sand on her back from Porthcurno beach to make concrete.
When wreckage from a Spanish Freighter washed onto Porthcurno beach, Rowena single-handedly carried twelve 15ft beams up to Minack. When Customs officers on the beach enquired as to whether she had seen the timber, Rowena admitted that she had collected some wood that morning. Concluding that such a frail-looking woman could not have lifted what they were looking for, they went on their way. "I didn't tell them a lie now did I?" Rowena remarked as she built the new dressing rooms from the beams.
At the junction, a path leads to the left onto Rospletha Cliff.
The headland of Pedn-men-an-Mere is known locally as "Wireless Point" as a 170ft mast with a large antenna was erected here in 1902 by the Eastern Telegraph Company to monitor the early activities of the potential competitor, Marconi. The antenna base and tether points are still visible on the headland. The conclusion from the monitoring was that Marconi's newfangled wireless technology was no threat to the cable telegraph companies. In fact, Marconi's shortwave wireless system turned out to be so successful that it almost bankrupted the cable companies in the 1920s.
The smaller of the two boulders on the end of the headland is what is known locally as a "logan stone". The weight of a teenager or adult on the edge closest to the land is sufficient to make the huge boulder rock back and forth.
The Runnel Stone is a pinnacle reef situated roughly a mile south of Gwennap Head which is a notorious shipping hazard and was responsible for the grounding of at least 30 steamships between 1880 and 1923 alone. The reef used to break the surface at low water until 1923 when a 6,000 ton steamship called The City of Westminster, which was laden with maize from South Africa, ploughed into the reef with such force that the top 20 feet of the reef was broken off. The ship didn't fare too well either and sank, but fortunately all aboard were saved by the Sennen and Penlee lifeboats. The bow and stern of the wreck are still identifiable by divers but there is so much wreckage from other ships that it's hard to tell which is which.
Porthchapel is a small cove between Porthcurno and Porthgwarra, and should not be confused with Chapel Porth which is near St Agnes. Like Porthcurno, Porthchapel is a beach of shell sand, situated between two granite headlands. Porthchapel faces south, making it a sun trap, and is a nice spot for swimming when there isn't a swell running, although it is advisable to stay within the lee of the headlands as exceptionally strong currents run along this area of the coast.
St Levan's chapel was built on platforms cut into the cliff face and could date as far back as the 8th Century, making it one of the oldest, if not the oldest Christian building in Cornwall. It's likely that the spring forming the Holy Well predates the chapel and could have been a sacred spring in pre-Christian times. In the 18th Century, the well building still had a roof but little remained by the end of the 20th Century; the walls were partially reconstructed in 2003. Water from the well is still used for baptisms at Levan's Church. The Holy Water was thought to be a cure for toothache and eye diseases, and sleeping the night by the well was said to increase its powers. Perhaps during a freezing night in a howling gale on a cliff edge, the toothache seemed a less pressing concern!
The Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust gather information about the numbers of seals in each location to study migration behaviour. Each seal has a unique pattern of spots which is like a fingerprint, allowing individuals to be identified so photos are also very useful.
If you see one or more seals, take a photo if possible but never approach the seals to take a photo - use a zoom from a clifftop. Send the location, date, number of seals and photos if you have them to sightings@cornwallsealgroup.co.uk.
In Cornwall, cliffs erode at an average rate of between roughly 3cm - 30cm per year depending on the hardness of the rocks and location. In reality this often happens in infrequent sudden collapses rather than as a steady, gradual process. It was found that one massive storm in 2014 caused around 100 times the average amount of erosion. There are obvious implications from climate change leading to more frequent or more intense storms.
The beach at Porthgwarra is privately-owned but well-behaved members of the public are permitted access. The tunnel to the beach was dug by miners from St Just to provide easier access for fishermen to the beach and so farmers could transport sand and seaweed from the beach by horse and cart to fertilise the fields. The cove is quite sheltered between the headlands, but swimming beyond the headlands is inadvisable as there are extremely strong currents here where the English Channel meets the Atlantic.
As you come out of the tunnel on the beach, on your left is a second tunnel which leads to a neighbouring rocky cove. This provided convenient access to the "hulleys" which were built into the rocks. These were similar in principle to a "keep pot", used to store crabs and lobsters for a few days prior to taking the catch to market. However unlike keep pots which remain offshore below the water, these were tidal and took the form of a cage built from wood with a solid wooden top (which provided shade) containing a trapdoor.
Porthgwarra was developed as a small fishing hamlet during the 18th and 19th Centuries. The slipway was built in 18th century and boats were hauled with a wooden capstan similar to the one that still survives at Penberth Cove. The buildings surrounding the beach date from the 19th Century and were originally fish cellars and net stores.
Keep a look out for choughs which can sometimes be seen along the coast here.
After several decades of extinction, a pair of choughs settled in 2001 on the Lizard Peninsula. Since then, the birds have successfully bred and been joined by a few more incoming birds, and the population has steadily grown and spread further across Cornwall. Each Cornish chough is fitted with one leg ring in the colours of St Piran's flag and two other colours on the opposite leg to identify them.
Gwennap Head is the most southwesterly point (i.e. not the most southerly, or the most westerly, but the most "on the corner") of the British mainland and is effectively where The Channel meets The Atlantic. A wind speed of 118mph was recorded at Gwennap Head in 1979. At the time of writing (2020), this is higher than anything recorded elsewhere in Cornwall, or in England.
The headland has been known as Gwennap Head only since 1888. Before this, the headland was known as Tol-Pedn-Penwith which is Cornish for something along the lines of "Hole Head of Penwith", referring to the blowhole in the cliff leading into a large sea cave.
The pair of cones on Gwennap Head are daytime navigation markers, erected in 1821, indicating the position of the Runnel Stone. The innermost marker is painted black and white and when this is completely obscured by the outer red cone, the observing ship would be directly on top of the Runnel Stone. The objective is therefore always to be able to see the black and white marker.
The coastguard station on Gwennap Head was built at the start of the 20th Century and was in service by 1910. When a French fishing boat was wrecked at the foot of the cliffs, it was realised this was invisible from the one-storey station so the second storey was added. Due to cost-cutting in the Coastguard service, the station was closed in 1994. Shortly after this, it was taken over by the National Coastwatch Institute and reopened in 1996.
In March 1905, the Liverpool ship Khyber had travelled all the way from Melbourne with a cargo of wheat and was heading to Falmouth. It was caught in a severe gale blowing from the southwest and this together with the loss of most of the sails made it impossible to clear the Lizard. The captain therefore anchored off Porthgwarra at 10 pm, waiting for the storm to pass. At 7 am the next morning, the anchor cable snapped and the vessel was driven onto the shore by the wind at Porthloe Cove near Gwennap Head. Within fifteen minutes, it had been reduced to matchwood. Only three of the 26 crew survived.
Wolf Rock is a pinnacle seven miles southwest of Gwennap Head which rises more than 60 metres to break the surface. The rock earned its name from the howling sound caused by gale force winds blowing through fissures in the rock.
In the 1830s, a beacon was built on the rock which has survived into the 21st Century. The beacon consists of a metal cone, just under 5 metres in diameter and height, constructed of iron plates and filled with cement rubble. The difficulties of building this were enormous: during 5 years, there were only 302 hours during which work could be carried out. Work on a 25 metre lighthouse began in 1861 and took 8 years to complete. It is constructed of granite quarried at Lamorna Cove and until 1988, it was manned.
The Isles of Scilly lie 28 miles off Lands End and can be seen with the naked eye on a clear day. Scilly has been inhabited since the Stone Age and the inhabitants originally spoke the Celtic (Cornish) language. It is thought that possibly even as recently as Roman times, the 55 islets were once part of one large single island that has since been flooded by rising sea levels. During low spring tides, it is still possible to wade between some of the islands.
Land's End is the most westerly point on the English mainland and is consequently the last place that the sun sets on mainland England. It is 5.73 degrees west of the Greenwich Meridian and since each 15 degrees is an hour of time difference, Land's End is 22 minutes and 28 seconds behind London. It's therefore possible to drink a couple of glasses of wine watching the sun set whilst all the while it's been dark in London. The official Cornish name Pen an Wlas means "End of the Earth". The earliest record of a name is Penwith Steort from 997 which is Old English for "End of Penwith". As the name was by non-Cornish speakers, they probably didn't realise that Penwith already meant "extreme end".
The Longships Lighthouse is located just over a mile off Land's End on the highest of the islets known as Carn Bras. The original tower built in 1795 was 40ft high, perched on the 39ft high rock but despite the lantern being nearly 80ft above the sea, it was sometimes obscured by the huge waves off Lands End. A new taller tower was therefore constructed starting in 1869 and completed in 1873 and was manned until 1988. The current lantern emits a white flash seaward, but red-tinted glass colours the light for any vessel straying to the headlands to the north or south.
In 1898, the Longships lighthouse was almost obliterated by an off course ship. The SS Bluejacket ran up the reef and its remains now lie in the shallows. The captain left course instructions with the first mate and then retired to his quarters. On passing Wolf Rock, the mate asked the captain for further instruction but the captain was reluctant to return from his quarters. The inexperienced mate decided to steer directly at the Longships lighthouse with predictable consequences. The captain was charged with neglect of his duties. A reason was not stated, but amongst those saved by the Sennen lifeboat was the Captain's wife.
Dragonflies were some of the first winged insects to evolve, around 300 million years ago in the "age of amphibians" before the dinosaurs. Fossils of early dragonflies have been found with wingspans of up to two feet across.
Blackberries are high in vitamin C, K and antioxidants. The seeds, despite being a bit crunchy, contain omega-3 and -6 fatty acids and further enhance blackberries' "superfood" status.
As well as producing seeds both sexually and asexually, brambles can also clone themselves to create daughter plants either via underground stems (rhizomes) or by the over-ground stems rooting where they meet the ground.
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.
Gorse seeds each contain a small body of ant food. The seeds also release a chemical which attracts ants from some distance away. The ants carry the seeds to their nests, eat the ant food and then discard the seeds, helping them to disperse.
The farm at the junction is Higher Bosistow. Further along the lane to the left is Lower Bosistow.
The higher of the two farms is first recorded in the 13th Century as Bodestou. The building has been rebuilt and modified over the years but parts of the current building may date back to the 17th Century. In the 18th Century, the farm was bought by a wealthy landowning family. One of their descendants in the 19th Century decided to build a more elegant residence to reflect his perceived status and this is the Lower Bosistow farmhouse (his parents remained in the upper farmhouse).
The fields here are sometimes used for grazing and sometimes for arable crops such as cereals and brassicas.
The stink from decaying cabbages is due to sulphur compounds which it stores in its leaves, ready for the production of seeds later on. The compounds are also more concentrated in the plant if it has been deprived of water. These compounds are also released from the plant when leaves are boiled - the longer it's cooked, the more cabbage smell. The silver lining is that it's thought that the smelly compounds may possibly have anti-cancer properties. Whilst that's being researched a bit more, blanching or braising cabbage is a less smelly way to cook it.
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 site with the dishes over the hedge to the left is known as Skewjack, after the name of the neighbouring farm.
Skewjack was formerly the RAF Sennen radar site. In the 1970s, the Lands End Radio maritime station moved here and a surf village (self-catering accommodation) was also based here. The site is now used for the British terminus for the Fibre Optic Around the Globe project.
The settlement now called Arden-Sawah was recorded in 1296 as Arganseuwyth. The first part of the name is from the Cornish word for silver (arghans). The second part is less certain but may be from aweth meaning "watercourse".
Both navelwort's Latin name and common name are based on its resemblance to a belly button. Other common names include wall pennywort and penny pies due to the shape and size resembling an (old) penny.
In fields with crops where the footpath doesn't run along the edge, if there is a well-trodden path then follow this to avoid trampling any more of the crops. If there appears to be no path through the crops then you do have a right to walk through the crop but stick as close as possible to the line of the path to avoid damaging any more of the crop than strictly necessary. Alternatively, you can follow around the edges of the field to avoid trudging through the crop.
The granite rocks here result in naturally quite acidic soils.
In the 1800s, using turnips in a crop rotation was a popular means of enriching the nitrogen content of the soil. However, this crop also depletes the lime content of the soil and so the practice was less common in Cornwall than elsewhere in the country. Where turnips were grown, this could well have further fuelled the demand for lime-rich shell sand to be brought inland by horse, the railway along the Camel, or via Bude canal.
A flock of starlings and also the spectacular flight formations of the flock are both known as a "murmuration". The flocks may include other species of starling and sometimes species from other bird families. As with fish shoaling, flying in unison creates safety in numbers. The whirling, almost hypnotic display makes it hard for predators to focus to target one bird. Grouping together also offers a number of other advantages such as keeping warm at night and sharing information e.g. good sources of food.
Researchers have found a recessive gene which appears to turn normal 3-leaf clovers into the 4-leaf version. Normally this is masked by the 3-leaf gene but environmental conditions can promote the 4-leaf form. Some domestic varieties have also been selectively bred to increase the proportion of 4-leaf plants. Genetically-engineered four leaf clovers are now a possibility with some farms in the USA reportedly already using genetic modification to churn-out thousands of plastic-sealed "lucky" charms per day.
Stones with cup-like depressions were found built into some of the farm buildings and walls. These are thought to be the remains of an Iron Age courtyard house. A prehistoric axe was also found in the 1950s.
Whilst moles look a little like mice, they are not rodents and are highly adapted to digging and living in tunnels. Using their curved claws, they can dig 15 feet of tunnel in an hour and typically extend their network by around 60 ft per day. Moles also have twice as much blood as mammals of a similar size and a special form of haemoglobin that allow them to tolerate high levels of carbon dioxide in the low-oxygen environment within their tunnels.
The nutritiousness of nettle leaves makes it a preferred food plant for the caterpillars of many common butterfly species including the red admiral, tortoiseshell, peacock and comma.
The churchyard of St Levan is thought to date back to the 9th or 10th Century and an original church of wood and thatch may have been replaced by one built of stone before the Norman conquest. In the 12th Century, a stone church was built using Norman techniques and elements of this survive today, including a Norman font which dates from the beginning of the 12th Century. In the 15th Century, the building was extended and the tower was added.
In St Levan's churchyard, near the porch, is a large boulder in two pieces known as St Levan's stone. It is thought that the stone was originally associated with Pagan fertility rites before Christianity reached Cornwall. When the Christian church adopted it, a legend was created that St Levan broke it in two with his staff whilst making the prophecy about the end of the world:
When with panniers astride
A pack horse can ride
Through St Levan stone
The world will be done
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.
The stone cross at Rospletha dates from the mediaeval period and seems to be in its original position beside the footpath to the churchyard.
There are over four hundred complete stone crosses in Cornwall and at least another two hundred fragments.
Crosses were sometimes used to mark sites of chapels and holy wells or as a signpost for the tracks that led to them. Often churches were later built at this holy site, resulting in the cross being within the churchyard or close by.
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 magpie is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all animals. The area of its brain used for higher cognitive function is approximately the same in its relative size as in chimpanzees and humans. Magpies can count, imitate human voices, recognise themselves in a mirror and have been observed regularly using tools to keep their cages clean. It has even been suggested that magpies may feel complex emotions, including grief.
During the Second World War, Cornish miners dug a series of tunnels to create an underground bomb-proof and gas-proof building, housing all the telegraph operations at Porthcurno. This also included a secret escape tunnel leading to a concealed entrance in a field. In total, 15,000 tons of rock were excavated and an office space was created in the excavated area complete with a pitched roof to shed seepage, a suspended ceiling and plastered walls. Porthcurno is ranked alongside Bletchley Park as one of the 6 key sites that were instrumental in ending WW2.
Known as "The Tunnels", the dry space at constant temperature proved to be the perfect environment for the sensitive telegraphy equipment and so operations stayed there after the war and the equipment continued to be upgraded until the 1970s. It now forms part of the Porthcurno Museum of Global Communications and houses the main museum displays.
Waves pounding into a cave compress the air inside. This can often be seen venting quite explosively from a cave as a blowhole. Inside the cave, the force from the air being rapidly compressed and decompressed gradually fractures the rock. Eventually this is unable to support the weight of the roof of the cave. Once this collapses, the sea washes away the soil and smaller stones leaving just the largest boulders which are slowly smoothed by the wave action.
Wild Clematis, also known "traveller's joy", produces white silky seeds in autumn which give rise to another name: "old man's beard". These stay on the plant through much of the winter and provide both food for birds and fluff for lining their nests. The tangled structure of their stems also provides cover and nesting sites for birds. During the summer months, their flowers are a good source of nectar for bees.
The French name is "herbe aux gueux" - beggar's herb. It is said to be because the sap was used deliberately to irritate the skin to give it an ulcerated look to induce more sympathy. The sap contains a chemical called protoanemonin which causes blistering.
Ravens are the largest member of the crow family and have a bigger wingspan than a buzzard. They are most easily distinguished from other members of the crow family by their very large black beak which has a hooked top. Other members of the crow family have straighter beaks. Their call is a deep croak.
During Victorian times, ravens were exterminated by farmers and gamekeepers throughout much of the UK but retained a stronghold in the southwest. Their nests, constructed of robust twigs, can be seen along the cliffs in Cornwall.
Researchers have found that ravens use gestures to communicate in a similar way to humans. Obviously ravens don't have hands so instead they point with their beaks to indicate an object to another bird, just as we do with our fingers. They also hold up an object in their beak to get another bird's attention.
Scientists have found that ravens will console a friend after it has had an aggressive encounter with another bird. This is good evidence for empathy i.e. the birds are able to determine emotional needs of other birds and respond to them.
Several species of heather grow in Cornwall and are most easily recognised when they flower from July to September. The one with the most brightly coloured (purple) flowers is known as bell heather due to the bell-shaped flowers. This is the earliest one to start flowering - normally in June. Bell heather is usually interspersed with ling or common heather which has much smaller flowers which are usually paler and pinker and come out at the start of July. A third kind known as cross-leafed heath is less abundant but can be recognised by the pale pink bell-shaped flowers that grow only near the tips of the stems, resembling pink lollipops. A fourth species known as Cornish heath grows only on the Lizard and has more elaborate flowers which are mostly pale with a dark purple crown at the front.
Heathers and heaths are members of the Ericaceae family. The formal definition of a heather is a member of the Calluna genus within this family whereas heaths are members of the Erica genus. Bell heather is actually an Erica and therefore technically not a heather but a heath.
Heather plants have a symbiotic relationship with fungi which grows inside and between some of the plant root cells. Up to 80% of the root structure can be made up of fungi. The fungi are able to extract nutrients from poor, acidic soils that plants struggle with. In return, the plant is able to generate other nutrients (e.g. sugars by photosynthesis) that are useful to the fungi. A similar partnership between plants and fungi occurs in lichens.
Heather can grow in soils which have concentrations of metals normally considered toxic to other plants and they are also tolerant of salty (high sodium) environments on the coast. Their symbiosis with fungi restricts metal uptake through their roots.
Heather plants can live up to 40 years and over time they form woody stems. This provides them with a way of excreting heavy metals that they absorb by locking it up in the layers of dead wood (found by researchers as the areas in the plant with the highest concentrations). Their woody stems have also found many uses over the centuries including fuel, thatch and ropes. One other use has made it into the genus name for heather - kallune is Greek for "to brush".
Tamarisks, also known as salt cedars, are able to withstand drought, soil salinity, and salt-water spray and therefore thrive in mild coastal areas such as the Cornish coastline. Their ability to accumulate salt and then excrete this through glands in their leaves prevents less salt-tolerant plants from growing around their base.
Jackdaws can be distinguished from other members of the crow family by their short black beaks and grey necks. They are smaller than all the other black birds in the crow family and are only slightly larger than jays.
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.
Jackdaws are very adept vocal mimics and have been known to sing virtually anything including opera and Madonna! They can be trained to copy the human voice but only for single words or short phrases.
Jackdaws also use a their calls in a democratic process to make group decisions for a flock such as whether to move location. If enough of the birds "vote" by making their voice heard, the entire flock will respect this and take off, even the birds that didn't vote for it.
Jackdaws have been found to share food and will share more of a preferred food than an unpleasant one. Although the sharing often takes place in courtship and parenting, the behaviour has also been observed in unrelated birds. It is thought that this pro-social behaviour might be a sign of reciprocity ("do unto others...") and possibly empathy.
Stonechats are robin-sized birds with a black head and orange breast that are common along the Cornish coast all year round.
The name "stonechat" comes from the sound of their call which resembles stones being knocked together.
During the summer months, stonechats eat invertebrates. As temperatures drop and there are not so many of these about, they make do with seeds and fruit such as blackberries. Quite a few die in cold winters but this is offset by their fast breeding rate during the warmer months.
A similar-looking bird called the whinchat is also present in the summer but this can be identified by a white stripe across its eye. Both stonechats and whinchats can often be spotted perching on dead sticks or brambles protruding above gorse and heather, and consequently the term "gorse chat" or "furze chat" has been used locally to mean either species. For a long time, stonechats and whinchats were thought to be members of the thrush family but genetic studies have revealed they are actually members of the (Old World) flycatcher family.
Skylarks are the most common member of the lark family in Britain and are often known simply as "larks".
Skylarks are one of the most widely distributed of all British birds, found from coastal dunes to mountain tops. In Cornwall, they can be seen both in coastal fields and on Bodmin Moor. The coastal heath is a particularly good habitat for them, being mild but with fairly short vegetation in which they can hunt for insects.
The phrase "to lark about" may have its origins in the aerobatics of the skylark. At the start of the 19th Century, young boys who played about in the rigging of ships were known as "skylarks". The use of "to lark" as a verb can be traced back as far as the early 19th Century. By the middle of the century, it had reach America where "larking about" is first recorded.
In late spring and summer, listen out for the characteristic song of skylarks hovering high above the ground. The rapid song takes place in quite a narrow frequency range but can contain more than 450 syllables used in highly variable patterns. This is the reason it sounds a bit like the "modem" devices used to transfer digital data as an audio signal.
The phrase "up with the lark", used to describe early risers, dates back to at least the 16th century. Skylarks are the first birds to sing in the dawn chorus, often whilst it's still dark.
The collective noun for larks ("an exaltation") dates back to "The Book of Saint Albans" printed in 1486 which provided tips on hunting, hawking, and heraldry. It also included "a murmuration of starlings", "an unkindness of ravens" and "a clattering of choughs".
During mediaeval times, skylarks were eaten and there are records of the food price for larks from the 13th Century onward. Larks were captured by dragging nets across fields at night, not unlike modern commercial fishing techniques.
Almost all European countries have reported a rapid decline in lark numbers over recent years. In Britain, two-thirds of the population has disappeared in 30 years. This is thought mainly to be due to intensive agriculture and particularly the autumn sowing of cereals. When cereals were sown in the spring, the fields of stubble that remained after harvest provided an environment where larks could nest during the winter.
Lark shooting was a popular sport in Victorian times. Revolving mirrors were used to attract the migrating birds, which would hover over the mirror. There are records of over 1,000 birds being shot at a single mirror in a day. Despite being flagged as high conservation concern on the the IUCN Red List, at the time of writing in 2020, skylarks can still be legally shot in France and still are in large numbers.
The Greater Black-backed Gull is the largest member of the gull family and a bird of formidable size, with a wingspan of nearly 6ft. Unlike other gulls, the Greater Black-backed Gull is highly predatory. Young birds are a significant portion of its diet and it tends to live amongst other seabirds where it can eat the neighbours. It has also been known to swallow whole rabbits and even eat young lambs. It often steals food from other seabirds using its large size to intimidate them into dropping it, and consequently it is sometimes referred to as a pirate.
Cockles and clams look fairly similar, but cockles have much thicker shells. There are a few different varieties of various shapes and sizes.
In the cockle department, you're most likely to encounter dog cockles which get their name because they are tough if overcooked; however if cooked correctly they are very good to eat and taste of almond (and are known as Amande de Mer). They have an almost round, slightly ringed shell which is smooth on the outside but has some grooves on the inside edge. The common cockle has a heavily ridged shell, but do not seem to live up to their name in Cornwall.
Clams generally have smoother, more delicate shells. Venus clams have a porcelain-like shell with rings and are about the size of a golf ball. The surf clam is larger, often around the size of your hand and has patterning resembling a mussel.
Cockles and clams can be collected by raking them from the sand at low tide. The Magna Carta grants every English citizen the right to collect up to eight pounds of cockles/clams from the seashore per day.
By September 1901, Marconi was close to being ready to make a long-range test transmission, but a gale in Mount's Bay destroyed the massive Poldhu aerial. A makeshift "fan" aerial was hastily constructed as a replacement.
Marconi then travelled to Newfoundland by steamer and found a site where he could hoist aerials attached to kites and balloons. He then had to wait for a lull in the bad winter weather to get his kite aloft and finally on 12 December 1901, Marconi made history by detecting the Morse code for the letter "S" on his earphone.
The wireless transmission from the makeshift aerial at Poldhu had successfully propagated over 2,000 miles of open ocean by repeatedly bouncing off the electrically charged layer in the upper atmosphere and the reflective surface of the sea.
Marconi later said that "the experiment had involved risking at least £50,000 to achieve a result which had been declared impossible by some of the principal mathematicians of the time".
The facade of a house built into the cliff was created by Rowena Cade in the 1920s as a wendy house for her nieces and nephews. The expression "wendy house" has come from the small house in Peter Pan that the lost boys built for Wendy Darling.
Originally the one at Porthcurno had windows and a door but these were destroyed by vandals and then it was used as a latrine by visitors to the beach. It was eventually blocked-up with concrete to stop it being a public health risk.
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