The Camel Trail is a recreational walking and cycling track along the track bed of an old railway running from Wenfordbridge to Padstow. The railway, where the Camel Trail now runs, was originally built in 1831 by local landowner, Sir William Molesworth of Pencarrow. The line from Wadebridge to Wenfordbridge, with a branch to Bodmin, was intended to carry sand from the Camel estuary to inland farms for use as fertiliser. Later, the railway was used to ship slate and china clay from inland quarries to ships in Padstow and also transport fish, landed in Padstow, to London and other cities. The last passenger train was in 1967 and freight finally ceased in 1983, when a need to invest in new track forced closure of the line.
The muddy area along the opposite bank of the river is known as the "Amble Marshes".
The Amble Marshes are located in the Camel Estuary in the area where the River Amble joins the River Camel, downriver from the town of Wadebridge. The large areas of salt marsh encourage diverse bird life including winter waders and wildfowl. Part of the salt marsh is designated as a nature reserve known as the Walmsley Sanctuary and is not open to the general public. However, the Tregunna bird hide (which lies about a mile along the Camel Trail towards Padstow from Wadebridge) situated opposite the Amble marshes is open to the public.
The River Amble is a tributary of the River Camel, rising close to the Iron Age hillfort of Tregeare Rounds near Pendoggett, and runs approximately parallel to the larger river Allen. Where it joins the Camel in the estuary, near Wadebridge, the marshes are designated an SSSI for the rich bird life they support. The name "Amble" is derived from the Cornish An-heyl (meaning "on the estuary") and its use for the name of the river is a later development. The Environment Agency has been working with landowners to improve the water quality in the Amble (by minimising run-off from roads and farmland) and restore an area of marshland in the SSSI which was partially drained in the 1960s.
The small streams along this walk are all minor tributaries of the River Camel.
The River Camel runs for 30 miles from Bodmin Moor to Padstow Bay, making it the longest river in Cornwall after the Tamar.
The name "Cam-El" is from the Cornish meaning "crooked one". It is documented that only the upper reaches of the river, above Boscarne, were originally known as the "Camel". The section from Boscarne to Egloshayle was known as the "Allen" and below this, it was known as "Heyl".
The settlement of Roskear was recorded in 1277 as Rosker and is formed from the Cornish words ker for fort and ros for promontory, or moor. It's possible this may refer to a fortified prehistoric settlement nearby; the remains of what might be a Bronze-Age enclosure have been found towards the top of the hill.
Spring is the best time to harvest nettles. They should not be harvested when flowering (the flowers look like small catkins hanging down from the stems), as during flowering they produce microscopic rods of calcium carbonate (limestone) which can interfere with kidney function.
To prepare them, wearing gloves, strip off the young tender leaves, discarding any large coarse leaves and stems. Use lightly boiled, steamed or wilted as if it were spinach (though not raw unless you want to live dangerously!). All the usual spinach flavour combinations apply (e.g. with ricotta).
Nettles are often found near human habitation, much to the displeasure of many humans. Humans generally remove dense vegetation such as tree cover, leaving open ground that fast-growing nettles can rapidly colonise. Food waste from humans and droppings from livestock boost phosphate levels in the soil which nettles require to thrive. Grazing animals also leave nettles alone, munching away competing vegetation instead.
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
Black and white Fresian-Holstein cattle were not common until the second half of the 20th Century, following a post-war programme to replenish cattle stocks. This included importing a couple of hundred cattle from areas of northern Germany and Holland which are on a similar latitude to northern England. Due to their high dairy yields, these breeds exploded in popularity in the 1970s and now make up over 90% of the dairy cattle in Britain.
The farm is now known as Perlees but was originally known as Penles which was recorded in 1208. The name is from the Cornish word pen, meaning "top","head" or "end". The other word is less certain, possibly les, meaning "plant", but quite what the gist of this would be is not clear.
The streamers on swallows tails serve an aerodynamic function, assisting tight turns to catch insects. Experiments with sand martins found that they could be "pimped-up" by adding artificial streamers to their tails which afforded them increased manoeuvrability in a flight maze. The suggestion for why swallows have evolved streamers and not sand martins is partly the speedier insects that swallows need to catch and also that sand martins live in burrows and this would risk breaking off one streamer, leading to unbalanced flight.
Whilst the global human population is around 8 billion, the insect population is estimated at around 10 quintillion. In other words, there are in the order of a billion insects for every human.
The first record of the settlement of Trevanson is from 1259 when it was spelt "Travansun". Other than the obvious tre indicating a farmstead from early mediaeval times, the origin of the rest of the name is not known.
In the UK, Cordyline australis can often reach around five metres high. In New Zealand it normally reaches around 8 metres. The largest specimen of the plant is thought to be around 500 years old, is 17 metres tall and has a circumference of nine metres at the base!
The A39 (also known as the Atlantic Highway) is the main road through North Cornwall to North Devon, and this used to pass directly through the centre of Wadebridge, over the old bridge. Wadebridge, which had been designed for horses and boats rather than cars, became congested with traffic until in 1993 the Wadebridge bypass was opened, re-routing the A39 trunk road over the new bridge spanning the estuary. Since then, the removal of through traffic has allowed Wadebridge to develop a pedestrian shopping area and is regaining its charm as a market town.
The route between Launceston and Truro on the A30, A395 (through Davidstow), A39 (through Camelford and Wadebridge) and A30 again (through St Columb and Mitchell) is the remains of a mediaeval cart track known as the Royal Cornish Way. It entered Cornwall via Polston Bridge which is thought to have been built soon after the Norman conquerors had built a castle at Launceston.
Despite its grand title, the Royal Cornish Way was a notoriously bad road not only for its still-famous potholes but in some places no road surface at all (just mud). Provided the sea was calm, it was generally thought preferable to transport cargo by boat.
To your right is the Royal Cornwall showground.
The Royal Cornwall Agricultural Show began in 1793 and for most of the intervening period, moved locations each year until 1960, when the Royal Cornwall Showground was created, near Wadebridge, to give it a permanent home. Given its Royal status, it is not unusual for a senior member of the Royal Family to attend the Show. Over 100,000 non-Royal visitors also attend each year.
The large fields here are suitable for arable crops such as cereals.
Cereal crops such as wheat and barley grow by using the energy obtained by photosynthesis to produce a chemical that reacts with carbon dioxide from the air. A problem for these plants is that as the temperature increases, this chemical is more prone to react with oxygen in the air instead of carbon dioxide. This is the main reason that these crops don't do well in tropical climates and are farmed at temperate latitudes such as in Britain. Maize uses a different chemical reaction to extract carbon dioxide from the air which is more resilient to higher temperatures and also allows these plants to lose less water through their leaves. This allows them to grow in hotter, drier climates such as the southern United States.
In Ireland where the damp climate meant that only low-gluten cereal crops could be grown, bread was risen with soda rather than yeast as this suited both the low-gluten flour and the hearth-based cooking method. Given the similar climate and also migration and trade between Ireland and Cornwall in Celtic times, it's very possible this method was also used here too.
In early spring, crocuses flower at the end of the driveway. The stamens of the crocus flowers (although not these particular ones) are what is dried to produce saffron.
You might have noticed saffron features quite heavily in Cornish baking and it's been posited that the Cornish, who were trading tin with foreign merchants - possibly Phoenicians - as early as 400 BC, bought saffron at the time and retained it in their cooking. If this is true, Britain is almost unique in Europe, having cooked with saffron for more than two millennia.
90% of the world's saffron comes from Iran but saffron was also grown in Cornwall at some point in history - the last records of a saffron field being sold are from Penryn in the early 19th Century. In the last few years, a family business has been growing saffron crocuses on the Roseland Peninsula at Rosevine and producing their own Cornish saffron. It is incredibly labour intensive to produce and consequently more expensive by weight than platinum.
If you're planning to grow your own, the stamens from around 75 saffron crocus flowers are needed to make one batch of saffron buns.
The church building at St Breock dates back to the 13th century although it was extensively rebuilt in 1677. The church, of St Briocus, is dedicated to St Brioc - an early 6th century monk from Wales who is thought to have built a small chapel here.
After founding the church at St Breock in Cornwall, he became the first Abbot of Saint-Brieuc in Brittany, which was also initially a small chapel but is now a Cathedral. In 2009, Saint-Brieuc suffered an unfortunate incident where very large amounts of sea lettuce washed onto the beach. The rotting algae produced so much hydrogen sulphide that it killed a horse, several dogs and a council worker who was clearing it from the beach.
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.
To support their massive weight, trees produce a biochemical compound called lignin which has a cross-linked polymer structure that makes it very rigid. Because it's so tough, most fungi and bacteria are unable to break it down. The main fungus that has worked out a way to do it is known as white rot.
The settlement of Polmorla was originally known as Polmorva, which is how it was recorded in 1208. The name is from the Cornish words pol meaning "pool" or "stream" and morva which meant "marsh", the gist being the river floodplain. Polmorla lies on the confluence of two tributary streams of the River Camel tributary known as Treguddick Stream. The area is still susceptible to flooding which is why some of the cottages have flood prevention gates leading onto the lane.
Wild garlic grows alongside the path and is evident in spring and early summer.
Wild garlic is best harvested in early spring before it flowers and the leaves start to die off. Unlike domestic garlic, the leaves are generally used rather than the bulb, which is very small. Note that there are some lilies that look very similar and are poisonous! If it doesn't smell strongly of garlic/onions, then it's not wild garlic and should be avoided. A schoolboy error is to rub the leaves between fingers where the smell lingers so a subsequent poisonous lily leaf could be misidentified.
Young squirrels suffer a high mortality rate in the wild and less than one in three make it to adulthood. The ones that do, live on average for about 6 years, although a lucky one can live to about 12 years old. In captivity, where there are neither predators, cars nor cold winters to contend with, they can reach 20 years old.
Coronation Park, alongside Polmorla Road in Wadebridge, was created for when Edward VII came to the throne in 1902. It has remained largely unchanged for over a century, though gradually fell into disrepair over the decades until it was restored in the early 21st Century. It was re-opened by King Edward's Great Great Grandson - Prince Edward - in May 2007.
The settlement at Wadebridge dates back at least to early Mediaeval times with a licence for a market being recorded in 1312. Originally there was no bridge and thus the settlement was called "Wade" (as this is what you had to do when crossing the ford). This far down the River Camel, numerous tributaries had emptied into the river so the crossing was quite perilous. Chapels were situated either side of the river to pray for a safe crossing, and give thanks should the other side be successfully reached. The death toll, both in human lives and livestock, was the motivation for the building of the bridge.
At the start of the 1880s, the rocks on which the Eddystone Lighthouse was built began to crack due to erosion by the sea. Granite was quarried for a new lighthouse at the De Lank quarry and brought to Wadebridge where stonemasons dovetailed each block to those in all directions for high strength. Once each layer was checked for a fit with the one above, it was shipped from Wadebridge and the completed 49 metre lighthouse was lit in 1882. The road where the masons worked became known as Eddystone Road, which now links Wadebridge to the Camel Trail to Padstow. The lighthouse is still in operation today.
The bridge in Wadebridge dates back to mediaeval times. Distressed at the deaths occurring regularly at the river crossing, the vicar of Egloshayle planned the building of the bridge which was completed in 1468. Tolls were collected and these were used to pay for maintenance of the bridge. The bridge was widened twice from its original 3 metre width: once in Victorian times, and substantially more so in the 1960s - to accommodate motor vehicles, for which this was the main crossing of the River Camel until the bypass was built in the 1990s. The fourteen arch mediaeval bridge was known as the "Bridge on Wool". For a while, this was interpreted literally: that wool bales could have been used as part of the pier foundations, however, it has since been established that the bridge rests on bedrock. The name is more likely to be an allusion to the original source of funding for the bridge.
The bicycle was invented in the 19th Century, initially without any form of propulsion - pushed along with feet and free-wheeled downhill.
By the 1840s, pedals had been fixed to one of the wheels resulting in propulsion albeit difficult to control - in 1842 a gentleman in Scotland "bestride a velocipede... of ingenious design" was fined five shillings for knocking over a young girl.
By 1885, bicycles with a chain drive and pneumatic tyres resembling modern bicycles were being manufactured in England. These were known initially as "safety bicycles".
More than a billion bicycles have since been produced and since the 1970s the production of bicycles has increased substantially above that of cars - there are now more than double the number of bicycles produced than cars each year.
Sea purslane (Halimione portulacoides - Americans call a different plant "sea purslane") grows along estuary mudflats and is immediately recognisable by its grey-green leaves forming a large carpet near the high tide line. The greyness of the leaves is partly due to tiny hairs which reflect sunlight to reduce water loss. It's also due to salt expelled through special glands in the leaves drying on the surface.
Sea purslane leaves are edible (and often feature on Masterchef amongst "sea vegetables"). They are very salty when raw, but when cooked this diminishes to more mellow levels. They turn bitter if overcooked, so a short dunk is ideal. The young, green leaves are the most tender which are most abundant in late spring/early summer.
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