The first harbour at Portwrinkle was thought to have been built in 1605, just after the end of the Tudor period, to support a pilchard fishery. A few stones from this original structure remain, and can be seen at low tide. The majority dates from 1822 when the quay was rebuilt after being destroyed by a storm. The storms of 2014 also punched a hole through the harbour wall, which has since been repaired. During Victorian times, the village was also known as Portwrickle.
The walls of the 17th Century pilchard cellars still stand above Portwrinkle harbour. Part of the building has been restored and converted into holiday accommodation.
The life-saving rockets were invented at the beginning of the 19th century, by Cornishman Henry Trengrouse, and were also carried aboard larger vessels. They consisted of a solid fuel rocket on a wooden pole with a line attached, and a grapple on the top of the rocket to snag and hold fast onto the target ship or shore. Despite the rockets occasionally exploding, it is recorded that the apparatus saved thousands of lives in the last 2 decades of the 19th century.
In March of 1812 the Susannah of Plymouth was on a voyage to London from Portugal with 400 chests of oranges and lemons. As she travelled along the English Channel, she was driven into Whitsand Bay and ran aground on the rocks near the quay at Portwrinkle. The ship was wrecked and two of the seven crew were lost.
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.
The cross on the corner of Horsepool Lane is known as Stumpy Cross or Stump Cross and is thought to date from either the 14th or 15th Century. It was thought to mark the road to St Germans priory and originally stood closer to the road, but was moved back when the road was widened.
The first record of Sheviock Church is recorded in 1193, after being rebuilt, but it is likely that there was a church here for at least a century before this in 1086 when the manor of Sheviock was owned by Tavistock Abbey. Nothing survives from these, or any earlier churches, but in 1259 the church was once again rebuilt and also rededicated, and the west tower and font date from this period. The remainder of the church dates from the 14th and 15th Centuries and was restored during Victorian times. The church has an eye-catching large and colourful stained-glass window above the altar and there are three mediaeval tombs in the church of the Norman family that were Lords of the Manor of Sheviock.
The settlement of Sheviock dates from mediaeval times and was first recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086 when it was owned by the church of Tavistock. The place name is thought to be from the Cornish word sevi and the ending -ack, and mean "abounding in strawberries".
A spring located above the quarry is known as Lady Well. The name suggests it was regarded as a holy well and there are records of one of the vicars using the water for baptisms in the church.
The stream is a tributary of the St Germans River and the lower part of its river valley (just after the stream crosses under the main road) has been flooded by rising sea levels, creating a tidal creek known as Wacker Lake.
Some of the bluebells in the woodland are Spanish invaders.
Spanish bluebells have been planted in gardens and these have hybridised with native bluebells producing fertile seeds. This has produced hybrid swarms around sites of introductions and, since the hybrids are able to thrive in a wider range of environmental conditions, the hybrids are frequently out-competing the native English bluebells. Sir Francis Drake would not be impressed! The Spanish form can be fairly easily recognised by the flowers on either side of the stem. In the English form, they are all on one side. In general, the English bluebells also have longer, less-flared flowers and are often a deeper colour. However, the easiest way to tell the difference between native and non-native bluebells is to look at the colour of the pollen: if it is creamy-white then the bluebell is native; if it is any other colour such as pale green or blue then it's not native.
Trees need a lot of water. A large oak tree can absorb around 450 litres of water per day, most of which is released into the atmosphere as water vapour through transpiration. Trees therefore help to reduce flooding from heavy rain in low-lying river floodplains and also reduce erosion from runoff.
The early purple orchid gets its common name from its spring flowering time - it appears at a similar time to bluebells although it lasts a bit longer. It has a Latin name meaning "virile" which is in keeping with the word "orchid" coming from the Greek word for testicle (on account of the shape of the tuber).
When a tree is injured, it exudes resin - a thick, sticky liquid which hardens and seals up the wound. The resin also contains anti-fungal and insecticide chemicals to protect it from parasites and pathogens. Frankincense and myrrh are both examples of resins.
The path is lined with wild garlic in spring.
Like its domesticated relatives, wild garlic grows from a bulb. To distinguish it from other wild plants from the onion/garlic family (such as the three-cornered leek), the species sometimes just called "wild garlic" (Allium ursinum) is often known by the name ramsons or broad-leaf garlic. The scientific name (meaning bear leek) is because the bulbs are thought to be a favourite food of brown bears on the European mainland.
Crafthole Reservoir which was dammed in 1900 to provide a water supply to Torpoint (not Crafthole which is uphill of it). It was managed by South West Water and formed part of the public water supply until just after the Second World War. It is now stocked with carp and managed by the South West Lakes Trust for coarse fishing. A number of springs feed both the lake and into the stream that the walk has been following.
The settlement of Crafthole dates from mediaeval times when it was centred around a triangular grassy plot, forming a village green, which has since been built over. A market and fair were granted in 1314 which presumably took place in this area. The name is a mangling of the English word "croft" and possibly either "hill" or "hollow".
The small cross in Crafthole was originally in the middle of the road, but was moved in the 1950s after being hit by a bus. Due to it being positioned both beside the market area and on the road, there is difference of opinion as to which of the two the cross marked.
In mediaeval times, golf balls were made from wood. In the 17th Century, the "featherie" was created, made from leather and stuffed with feathers. In the mid-1800s, balls moulded from sap were the first to be mass-produced. They could also be heated and re-cast if they went out of shape from being hit. However people noticed that battle-scarred balls that had been used a long time seemed to fly more consistently. Golf ball manufacturers began etching different protrusions on the surfaces in attempts to improve the aerodynamics. The potential of a ball of elastic bands was discovered by a bored golfer waiting for a friend to finish work and by the 1890s, these were being coated in sap to make golf balls. In the early 1900s, it was found that indentations (rather than protrusions) on the surface resulted in better aerodynamics.
Thrift is known as a "hyperaccumulator" of copper: it can concentrate copper by over 1000 times more than other neighbouring plants. This makes it potentially useful to clean up contaminated land but this be done over many years. In principle it's even possible to mine for minerals by concentrating them in plants and then extracting them (known as "phytomining"). It's currently far from economical to do so for copper but for rarer high-value metals it may become economical, possibly in conjunction with chemical soil additives to increase bio-availability.
The word "tee" is from the Scottish Gaelic word taigh meaning "house" and is related to the coloured circles known as a house in the sport of curling. Teeing off was originally done within a circle of one gold club length from the hole. A mound of sand would be placed somewhere within this circle and the ball rested on top. In 1892, an Englishman patented a rubber-topped wooden peg which was sold as the "Perfectum". In 1899 an American dentist designed "an improved golf tee" consisting of a wooden cone containing a rubber sleeve to hold the ball but this didn't seem to catch on. Peg-based tees were adopted widely by the 1920s.
Silas Finn, known locally as Finny, was an 18th Century smuggler who used to land contraband on the beaches of Portwrinkle, which were not well-known to the Revenue men. Various accounts of his story exist, but according to one, he was caught red-handed and was offered the choice of the hangman's noose or to assist in catching fellow smugglers. He reluctantly chose the latter and ended up betraying not only his close friends but also his sister. The local legend is that his restless ghost ("gook") still haunts the cliffs between Crafthole and Portwrinkle.
Some of the first documented reports of pirate flags with a skull and crossbones design are from the mid 17th Century and by the 18th Century there are mentions of a pirate's flag (of any design) being known as a Jolly Roger.
Most of the time, pirate ships didn't fly their Jolly Roger but used a variety of false flags to impersonate other shipping. The Jolly Roger with its design symbolising death was reserved as a warning flag. In the 18th Century, piracy etiquette was that the black flag was flown only when the first warning shot was fired. If the warning shot was ignored, the black flag was replaced with a red one indicating that no prisoners would be kept alive.
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.
From geography lessons at secondary school, you'll probably know that wave-cut platforms form where waves hit the cliff face and create a wave-cut notch into which the cliffs above eventually collapse. The reason the cliffs are eroded faster than the platform below them is more in the realms of physics:
Nevertheless, the platform does slowly erode. At Porthleven it is estimated that the platform is eroding at a rate of 1mm every 5 years.
In the 1990s, a process was put in place to transfer the leisure activities managed by South West Water to a new charity. The South West Lakes Trust was formed in 2000 and looks after the following lakes in Cornwall: Argal, College, Crowdy, Porth, Siblyback, Stithians and Tamar. The trust now also includes the Wheal Martin china clay museum.
Tree mallow is a coastal plant noticeable both by its large purple flowers from early summer and because it can grow to around 6ft tall. It has adapted to be able to grow on the coast by excreting salt from its leaves. This even allows it to grow where its only supply of water is pure seawater. The seeds also have a waterproof casing and remain viable even after an extended period in saltwater, allowing it to colonise via the sea rather like coconuts.
Rock samphire has been a popular wild food since Celtic times. It has a strong, characteristic, slightly lemony flavour and recently has become more well-known as a flavouring for gin. It was very popular as a pickle in 16th century Britain until it almost died out from over-picking in the 19th Century. Consequently, it's currently a protected plant but is now making a good comeback. In Shakespeare's time, a rope was tied to a child's ankles and he was dangled over the cliff to pick the rock samphire that grew in crevices and clefts in the rocks.
The completely unrelated but similar-looking golden samphire also grows around the North Cornish coast. The leaves look almost identical, but the daisy-like yellow flowers in summer are a giveaway, as rock samphire has tiny green-white flowers that look more like budding cow parsley. Golden samphire is edible, but is inferior in flavour to rock samphire; it is also nationally quite rare in Britain.
Also completely unrelated is marsh samphire (also known as glasswort) which looks more like micro-asparagus. This is what typically appears on restaurant menus or in supermarkets as "samphire".
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.
Finnygook beach is situated to the left of Portwrinkle harbour, on the other side of a rock platform between the two. There is normally a beach at all states of the tide although it's a fairly narrow strip at high tide. The top of the beach is greyish sand and as the tide goes out, a rock platform is revealed which contains rockpools.
The beach immediately to the right of the harbour walls at Portwrinkle is known as Hoodny Cove. The top of the beach is greyish sand which gives way to a rock platform containing rockpools as the tide goes out. Overall the beach faces south so it gets the sun all year, but is crescent shaped so the two ends get slightly different morning/evening sunlight. The far (western) end of the beach is more sheltered from prevailing southwesterly winds by the headland and faces southeast into the morning sun.
Full page maps cannot be printed due to copyright and terms of use.