No Liquorice Allsorts

Friday 20th May 2016 - Hayle.

We decided we should have a longer cycle ride and see some of the local area.  We cycled along the coast eastwards past the village of Portreath, which was rather down at heel compared with the other coastal ports.  We then turned inland and visited Redruth.  The town and environs are actually a World Heritage Site for its Tin Mining history.

Here is Janice carrying a miner on her shoulders in Redruth shopping street.  Despite being a Heritage site we didn't have any high expectations of the place.  I do like some industrial heritage but the town didn't have much for the tourist.  We carried on cycling towards Cambourne.....again we had low expectations (you can tell this was a well planned cycle route).

However, in between Redruth and Cambourne we passed Carn Brea which is a hill, see below....

The ruin on the left is Carn Brea Castle, which was built by Baron Bassett, a local mine owner, nominally as a hunting lodge but it was probably a folly.  The location was used in a Harry Potter film when the stolen Ford Anglia car was found here (I have to include these facts because my daughter is a Harry Potter fan).  The monument on the right is a Celtic cross and is called the Bassett monument.  Lord Bassett helped to quell the Miners Food Riots of 1785 and petitioned against slavery in the House of Lords in 1828.  The monument was built by local subscription in 1838.  I was disappointed to find out that his first name was Francis, as I was hoping it was Bertie!  I still like to think the family went on to make Liquorice Allsorts but I can't find any connection.

There were other ruins of tin mining locations too.

Cambourne town was even worse than Redruth.  Whilst walking down the shopping street it dawned upon us that the town must have a very small gene pool.  There were a lot of people who looked scruffy and had rather strange expressions or peculiar gaits.  I know that sounds horrible but it wasn't just a case of poverty, something else was going on...I'm sure!  We must have stood out because a man came up to me and asked me if I had 20p.....times must be hard.  I refused to give him anything on principle that I don't give to beggars and then I realised that I couldn't have given him anything anyway because I hadn't brought any money and we couldn't even get ourselves a coffee anywhere.

Back to the site for our own coffee.  The cycle route hadn't been particularly inspiring but it had been a good 3 hours cycling with those two little stops in towns.  It had included quite a few challenging hills and it will have been good exercise.

After lunch we had a beach and dunes walk.....

You can't get fed up of a beach so good.

We had a little drink in the pub at Gwythian (the nearest village) before settling into the van for the evening.  We watched a DVD of Ashes to Ashes (the retro police drama that followed Life on Mars).  For those who know of the programme DCI Gene Hunt has a particular way with words, many of which I could probably put in the blog....believe me he is funny and it reminds Janice and me of our early time in the Police.  I can't resist mentioning a couple of quotes.... "Bolly Knickers" and "Fire up the Quattro".