During Victorian times there were two Methodist chapels in St Erth.
The Weslyan one at the bottom of the hill remains, which had an attached Sunday School.
The other, now demolished, was behind the row of houses on Church Street and belonged to the Primitive Methodists.
St Erth Bridge is a 17th Century rebuild of a 14th Century bridge. It was the main river crossing until the Hayle Causeway was built in 1825.
In 1538, the bridge was recorded as "made 200 yeres syns and hath a 3 arches. Afor ther was a fery".
The Hayle River is 12 miles long and has its source near Crowan. The river's course initially runs west for 5 miles into what was once the lagoon separating Penwith from the mainland when sea levels were higher. The river then follows this valley north for the remainder of its course. The river flows through a number of old mining sites and consequently there are quite high concentrations of metals in the water. The river and the settlement near its mouth get their name from the Cornish word for estuary.
You may see some small trout as you walk along the river.
Dissolved metals are normally toxic to trout but there is evidence that the brown trout population in the Hayle river has evolved to be able to cope with the high mineral levels in the water. A gene responsible for the production of a protein which detoxifies metals was found to be highly expressed in the Hayle river population and other proteins were found that bind and transport iron (one of the most common metals leeching from the mines).
The fishing lakes along the Hayle river, known as "The Dixies", were once opencast mines and were worked during the Second World War by Prisoners of War, based at a camp in St Erth. They also built the pump house, next to the church, to feed water into their camp and the rest of the village.
Since its reintroduction, sycamore has spread widely as the seeds are extremely fertile and able to grow just about anywhere where the ground is sufficiently wet. In particular they can grow within the shade of the parent tree, creating dense cover that crowds-out other species. In some areas it is regarded as an invasive weed.
Fleabane grows in the field margins next to the track.
Common fleabane grows in damp areas and produces shin-height flowers resembling a large yellow daisy during July and August.
The leaves have a scent reminiscent of carbolic acid (phenol). The plant was therefore thought to be an insect repellent without too much thought given to what pollinates it. It was kept in houses in the hope of driving away fleas, hence the name. The genus name also derives from the Latin word for flea.
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.
Continue ahead to another waymark and walk a couple more paces to enter the field.
Turn left in the field to follow the path along the edge.
When you reach the corner, bear right to keep the field on your right and follow the path to a stile.
Barley was one of the first domesticated crops and has been dated back over 10,000 years. Consequently beer made from barley is likely to have been one of the first alcoholic drinks consumed by the Neolithic tribes.
The mixture of farmland and woodland in this area supports a population of stoats.
Stoats and weasels are related to badgers and to otters, which they more closely resemble. The stoat is roughly twice the size of a weasel but can be distinguished without the need to measure it by its black-tipped tail. The weasel preys mostly on voles, but the stoat will take on prey much larger than itself including birds and even full-grown rabbits. During the winter, the coat of the stoat (and also some populations of weasel) changes colour from brown to white to camouflage it in the snow.
The soft, silky winter fur of the stoat is known as ermine and garments made from this were a luxury associated with royalty and high status. Given that stoats mark their territory using pungent anal scent glands, it’s likely a fair amount of washing of the furs occurred before being draped over royalty.
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.
All members of the carrot family have the potential to cause a blistering rash if touched. This caused by chemicals in the plant's sap which are made more reactive by sunlight. Cow parsnip seems to be worse for this than the other common ones such as cow parsley but nowhere near as bad as giant hogweed.
Giant hogweed is regarded by some as the most dangerous plant in the UK (although hemlock is also a good contender). If you encounter giant hogweed, avoid touching it and children and dogs should be kept away from it as the sap contains a chemical which is extremely phototoxic. When activated by sunlight, this binds to the DNA in skin cells and kills them. Skin reaction starts as an itchy rash and can develop into third degree burns and scarring. It also makes the affected areas susceptible to severe sunburn for several years.
The plant gets its name as it can grow more than 10 feet tall, topped with white umbrella-shaped flowers. Due to the similar style of flowers, it is also known as giant cow parsley although the giant hogweed leaves are much more solid with a toothed edge, more similar to cow parsnip (normal hogweed). It is typically found near water or on waste ground.
The plant was introduced to Britain by Victorian botanists in the 19th century as an ornamental plant and has escaped from gardens into the wild. It has been spreading across the UK (as one plant produces 50,000 seeds) but is still very rare in Cornwall. A project to eradicate it along the Tamar River system is helping to stop further spread into Cornwall.
If you find giant hogweed in Cornwall (and are sure it's not normal hogweed), take a photo and report it to invasives@cormacltd.co.uk
Wind can cause rape seeds to drift into natural areas such as hedgerows and create a "feral" population. When this happens, it usually declines over time due to competition from tougher native plants which are able to better withstand fungal disease, drought and harsh winters. However, the rape seeds remain viable in the soil for a number of years so a few plants may reappear several years after an initial spread.
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.
Foxgloves are reliant on bumblebees for pollination and bumblebees are much more active when the weather is good. Partly, as an insurance policy against bad weather, foxgloves have evolved to stagger their flowering over several weeks, starting with the flowers at the base of the stalk and working up to the top, where the higher flowers protrude over other vegetation that has grown up in that time.
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.
Alexanders are a member of the carrot family and grow along roadsides in places similar to cow parsley. The leaves are more solid than the lacy cow parsley leaves and the flowers are yellow rather than white. The name arises because the plant was introduced to the UK by the Romans and was known as the "pot herb of Alexandria". It is also sometimes known as horse parsley.
As you reach the second junction, the ruined building on the right was a Bible Christian Chapel, converted in the 1850s from a house that was previously there. By the 1880s, map recordings suggest the chapel had fallen out of use as a religious building.
The mounds in the fields to the left are the waste tips from Wheal Squire.
Wheal Squire was a productive copper mine was in operation between 1805 and 1824, and was worked again in the 1850s, closing in 1866. An engine house was still present in the 1880s but now only spoil heaps and mineshafts remain.
Turn left onto the track and as you approach the gate, make your way to the stile to the left of the gate (might be hidden by vegetation in summer). If the gate is open, going through this and through the gap in the wall on the left reaches the other side of the stile.
Cross the stile and follow along the right hedge to reach a stile in the far hedge of the field.
Meadow buttercups spread across a field relatively slowly as most seeds fall quite close to the parent and although it has a creeping root system capable of propagating new plants, this only extends a fairly short distance from each plant (unlike creeping buttercup which has a much more extensive root system). Because grazing animals avoid buttercups due to their acrid taste, this allows them to accumulate over time. The combination of these factors allows the number of meadow buttercups in a field to be used as an indicator of how long it's been used for grazing.
The castle that appears to be on the hill to the left is actually on St Michael's Mount!
During a period of global warming before the Pliocene period (up to about 3 million years ago), rising sea levels flooded the dunes, turning West Penwith into an island. The Hayle valley was a narrow gulf separating the island from the mainland and the shallow sea depositing a layer of blue clay on top of the sand in the lagoons along the valley. As the climate cooled, sea levels dropped as water was tied up in the polar ice sheets, reuniting the island of West Penwith with the rest of Cornwall.
Since members of the crow family will eat the eggs and chicks of other birds, there has been concern that magpies might have an effect on the songbird population. However, an extensive study by the British Trust for Ornithology using 35 years of data found that the presence of magpies appeared to have no measurable effect on songbird numbers. It is thought that availability of food and suitable nesting sites are probably the main factors limiting songbird populations. Hedgerows are a particularly important habitat.
On the verge on the left, the narrow leaves with black spots are lady's thumb and the similar leaves without black spots are water pepper.
Water pepper, as the name implies, grows on wet ground such as on the margins of lakes (it's also known as marsh pepper). It's relatively late to appear, not really getting going until June.
Water pepper leaves can be used as a herb and has a lemony flavour similar to sorrel followed by heat which is a little like chilli. Its used in Japanese cuisine, particularly with fish. The young shoots are used to garnish sushi or sashimi.
The spelling of the settlement at the junction (Carnabargas) has drifted around over the centuries (e.g. Carnlugas in 1519 ) but was probably originally from the Cornish for "buzzard rock". During the Iron Age, a farmstead enclosed with an earth bank was located here and the curve in the road has resulted from passing around the outside of the embankment.
Goosegrass gets its name from its attractiveness to poultry as a nutritious food. It contains tannins which make it too bitter for humans. The plant is in the same family as coffee and the seeds have been dried and roasted to make a (lower caffeine) coffee substitute.
The vicarage (which the track on the right leads to) originated as a mediaeval building. It was extensively rebuilt several times in the 16th, 17th the 19th Centuries.
In Elizabethan times, starch made from the bulbs was used to stiffen collars and cuffs in clothing. The ruffs that were highly fashionable at the time would have needed a lot of starch to prevent them flopping. The toxins in bluebell sap might also have had the desirable property of preventing the starch encouraging the formation of mould.
During winter, from November to March, winter heliotrope is visible along the edges of roads and paths as carpets of rounded heart-shaped leaves.
Despite only having the male form in the UK (and therefore is 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 into the UK, it had been recorded growing wild in Middlesex. Roughly a century later it has become one of the most common plants along roads and bridleways in Cornwall.
At this point you can optionally follow the short circular path around the St Erth Pits nature reserve before continuing.
To continue the walk, with the fence on your left, follow the path to emerge on a residential road.
In 1962 one of the old pits along Old Vicarage Gate was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and was Cornwall's first Geological Nature Reserve, now owned and managed by Cornwall Wildlife Trust. Just at the bottom of the steps after the entrance, there is a little loop path that circles the reserve.
The clay pits contain a diverse range of marine fossils from the Pliocene period including sea snails, sponges, corals, jellyfish, worms, sea squirts and fish. A variety of zooplankton known as ostracods are extremely diverse here. Over 350 species have been identified which is the most from any site in the world.
St Erth is named after St Erc who was one of the many Irish who brought Christianity to Cornwall in the Dark Ages. The village is situated on what was the main crossing point on the River Hayle before the causeway was built in 1825. During the mediaeval period, the Star Inn was built as a stopover for horses and coaches and tin mined on the West Penwith peninsula was carted East along the road through St Erth. However the roads in Cornwall were notorious for being so badly potholed that carts or coaches could disappear into them, so long-distance haulage was generally done by ship from the ports along both coasts.
The cross by the Post Office, given to the parish of St Erth by Lord St Levan in 1891 dates from mediaeval times. The shape of the cross head is particularly unusual.
St Erth churchyard is thought to be originally Celtic given its rounded shape, the early mediaeval crosses on the site and its original name containing the word "lan" (meaning religious enclosure in the Cornish language).
A Norman church was built on the site. The only surviving part of this is the font bowl which was discovered beneath the floor during the church restoration.
The tower remains from a 14th Century rebuild and the remainder of the church was built in the 15th Century, and restored in the 19th.
In 1875, two fragments of an early mediaeval cross were found in one of the church walls. In 1998, the fragments were re-assembled and the cross erected inside the church.
The cross head on the outside of the church is also thought to date from the early mediaeval period, probably the 10-11th Century. As the stonework is not as neat as the one in the church, it has been suggested this might have been a replacement head for an original churchyard cross which would have been more finely-carved.
The buzzard family is quite closely related to hawks and consists of a number of different species which occupy different habitat niches (e.g. colder countries further north). The buzzard species we see in the UK is the common buzzard. This is one of the largest birds of prey in Britain with a wingspan of over 4 feet.
The name buzzard is from mediaeval English buisart which itself came from the Old French word buson. It is based on the Latin word for hawk or falcon buteo hence its scientific name is Buteo buteo.
Buzzards are not quiet birds! Their long, loud "pieeuuu" call can be often be the first thing to give away their presence and is one of the easiest bird calls to remember. It is thought that the original Latin word for buzzard was probably an onomatopoeia (i.e. an imitation of the bird's call) within the constraints of what was deemed an acceptable Latin word (suggesting "pieeuuu" would probably have resulted in being fed to the lions!).
Buzzards were once thought to be a threat to game birds and were actively shot. During the 1950s-60s, the combination of myxomatosis nearly wiping out one of their main food sources and use of pesticides such as DDT caused further decline in the buzzard population. Since then the population has gradually recovered and buzzards are now the commonest and most widespread bird of prey in the UK.
A large proportion of buzzards diet is earthworms and carrion and consequently they have a reputation for being lazy and scavengers. However, when they need to be, buzzards are formidable predators. Diving on rabbits and small mammals from a slow or hovering flight, or from a perch, they nearly always make the kill on the ground.
In a natural habitat, buzzards perch at the top of trees to survey the surrounding fields. Their brown-and-white pattern camouflages them quite well so it's quite common for walkers to inadvertently disturb what turns out to be a huge flapping monster just feet away. Telegraph poles provide a perfect alternative to trees without any cluttering branches so buzzards can often be seen perched on the top, unfazed by cars passing beneath.
Buzzards breed once they reach 2-3 years old. During their breeding season in spring, male buzzards create spectacular aerial displays to impress females by soaring high into the air and dropping suddenly towards the ground. The birds then pair for life.
A pair of buzzards have a territory which includes a number of possible nesting sites which can be as many as 20. They move nesting site each year which prevents a buildup of nest parasites such as bird fleas. The new nest is decorated with fresh green foliage.
Lady's thumb, also known as "redshank", grows on moist, disturbed ground often along field edges and tracks. It is related to water pepper and has similar long leaves but the lady's thumb leaves have a dark blotch (hence the thumbprint basis of the name). Its flowers are also in bigger clusters of pink rather than the puny white strand that water pepper produces. It is edible but without the chilli-like heat of water pepper (which provides a more memorable way to tell them apart).
The plant has a plethora of local names in different parts of the UK but East Anglia deserves a mention for its baffling "saucy alice" and - an alternative suggestion for how the leaves got their markings - "devil's arse-wipe".
Green woodpeckers are the largest and most colourful of the woodpeckers native to Britain and have a distinctive laughing "yaffle" call. The two species of spotted woodpecker are smaller and usually noticed from the drumming sound they make on trees although they can sometimes be heard making a short "cheep" sound. They are quite shy of humans but can sometimes be seen on garden bird feeders containing fat balls or peanuts.
Of the spotted woodpecker species, the sparrow-sized Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is now not very common. Greater Spotted Woodpeckers are starling-sized and have a white patch at the top of their wings which Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers don't have. Male Greater Spotted Woodpeckers can be recognised from the red patch on the back of the head. Mature female Greater Spotted Woodpeckers don't have a red mark on the head but have the red rump. Juvenile Greater Spotted Woodpeckers have a red mark at the front of their head which can lead to confusion with Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers.
All of the woodpeckers bore holes in trees in which they nest, but only the spotted woodpeckers drill into trees in search of food, spending most of their time perched on a tree. Conversely, green woodpeckers spend most of their time on the ground, hunting for ants. The ants nests are excavated using their strong beak, and then ants are caught on the barbed end of their long tongue. In fact, their tongue is so long that it needs to be curled around their skull to fit inside their head.
Cornwall Wildlife Trust was founded in 1962 as the Cornwall Naturalists' Trust and was run entirely by volunteers until 1974. It was renamed in 1994 as part of a national initiative to unify the names of wildlife trusts across the country. It now manages over 50 nature reserves and has over 17,000 members with over 1,000 active volunteers.
There's a volunteering section on the Cornwall Wildlife Trust website which includes lots of marine activities as well as things in the nature reserves.
Full page maps cannot be printed due to copyright and terms of use.