Cathederals creatures and tin mines
Cathederals creatures and tin mines is a light hearted view of our winter visit to that there Cornwall, including a few of the sights and sounds of our favourite country, Just don’t tell them My family are from east of the Tamar.
We have been visiting Cornwall in the winter for a few year now, while it might seam a strange time to visit the windy corner of the UK it has it’s advantages, namely it is less full of bad drivers.
The people of Cornwall call the summer holidays Range Rover mating season and haveing visited in August I know why.
Dartmeet
So of coures I start a blog about Corwall over the boarder in Devon, just to annoy the Cornish, but there is method in my madness lol.
Having driven the whole way from Hampshire to Cornwall more than once I know it is a killer, so we stopped in my old family home town of Newton Abbot.
Nestled in a deep valley high up on Dartmoor, Dartmeet is the point that the East dart and the West dart meet to form the river dart hence the name Dartmeet.
All of these images are of the East Dart as dartmeet its self is in-accessible by wheelchair.
Clapper bridge
One of the features of Dartmeet and indead many river crossings in Dartmoor and beyond is the clapper bridge or the remains of it.
The name comes from Latin claperius, “pile of stones”
There are many of these Bridges dotted around the area some are still in use to this day.
This image looking down stream is shot using a 2 second exposure with around 6 stops of ND filter* and a polarising filter allowing me to blure the waters.
*ND or Nuteral deisity filters allow a photographer to reduce the light the camera sees across all frequancies, this allows low speed photography in normal light levels.
Another view of the clapper bridge this time looking upstream.
in this wider shot you can see the missing sections of the bridge, likely washed away on a flood at some point in its history.
Clapper bridges are ancient bridges used to allow pony trains to pass across the moor well before road transport made it this deep into the wildlands.
Again looking down stream this image shows the road bridge as well as the clapper bridge.
The point the rivers meet is just down bellow the road bridge.
and in accessable by wheelchair so we weren’t able to get to that sadly.
Cornwall
There is one thing to be said about cornwall and that is that it does a good line in weather. Add to that a stinking cold and this may not have been the most productive photography Holiday ever.
We did though find a few new places to visit which always adds to the enjoyment.
Truro Cathedral
Turo Cathedral in Probably one of the younger Cathedrals it opened in 1910 and is built in the Gothic revival style.
sitting right in the middle of Truro unlike many other Cathedrals it does no have extensive grounds infect it has a road running along one side and shops almost touching the found entrance.
Another point of interest is that one Roger Taylor of a small band called Queen was once a choir boy there.
While neither Mrs Catpaw or myself are particularly religious a cathedral or church for that matter has a way of grounding you especially when the world is moving around you.
As a photographer you learn to expect the unexpected. While visiting the Cathedral we even found time for a bit of wildlife photograph.
Yes the at is a white Pidgeon not a spirit, it had like us decide to seek solitude and dryness in the cathedral.
With such a large area to fly in getting a photograph of the pidgeon was not an easy task espeespecially when it is 50feet above you in a dark space but here it is.
We did see it as we were leaving and it seamed quite happy playing tag with some of the Cathederal volunteers.
Tin Mines
Like many counties Cornwall has a proud industrial past and front and center of that are its Tin mines.
Indead the landscape is littered with the remains of engine houses, used to pump water from the mines as well as bring up men an materails from deep under ground.
This year we were staying on the north coast of Cornwall Nr Mrs Catpaws ancesteral stomping ground of St Agnus and Mithiian, this gave us the opportunity to visit Wheal Coates.
Like many industrial areas Wheal Coates is a complex of different ages and there are warning signs for hidden mine shafts. Due to Mrs Catpaws mobility we only visited the upper part of the site.
The lower part of the site is the more often photographed Towanroath shaft, (Chapel Porth Mine) usually know as Wheal Coates but it is down a steep path that even we wouldn’t attempt with a wheelchair.
That said the view from the top looking towards St Ives bay in the setting sun was stunning.
Another view of Whim Engine House part of the upper mine buildings complex.
The mining history of Wheal coates dates back to the 16th century but the building we see today are part of the 18th century development opened in 1802.
The Whim or winding engine house was used to extract men and materails from the mine 600ft below, the later Towanroath shaft was sunk to bring water out of the mine which runs out to sea following the seam of tin and copper.
Too the right of this picture is old whim and to the left is New whim, the stamp house, and furnace used to remove impuraties from the tin such as arsnic and sulpher.
Once processed the tine was taken by tram way down to Portreath for onward shipping.
The Lost Gardens of Heligan
Mrs Catpaw and I have visited The Lost Gardens of Heligan many times over the years both during daylight hours and at night as part of their night garden experience.
Over the years we have always found new things to photograph, that said we always look at some of our favourite areas to see if there are new images to be had.
This view in to the Kitchen Garden through the apple arches was one of a number we both took on the day. The work that goes into maintaining such a massive living structure is immense.
The team at Heligan always do an amazing job of looking after the gardens, but they do so much more, we found this in the Peach house in the flower garden.
Little thing like this make for interesting photographs with the help of natural light from above post production was simple.
I have photographed the gardeners Bothy a number of time over the years, one of the photographs is available to buy from my Shop not less but I keep comcoming back.
So why revisit an image? well like any working envioroment things change, for a start I have upgraded my camera, but of course different times of day bring different lights and the gardeners of Heligan still use the bothy so there are new items to add interest.
Nature at Heligan
The team at Heligan go out of their way to make sure nature has a place in the garden and the wider estate.
This Chaffinch was one of many birds we found when we visited the bird hide near the farm.
This Great tit was another of the birds waiting its turn at the bird feeder again by the bird hide.
What wildlife section would be complete without a Robin? so here is the obligatory Robin image
Not content with photo bombing my cathedral photographs this bulshi white pidgeon or is it a dove? Decided to get in on the act at Heligan too.
To Eden and beyond - the rest of the story
So that my website doesn’t melt I have spit this blog in two.
To continue our Cornish odyssey click To Eden and beyond