6/27: RETURN TO THE HARBOR BUT THIS TIME WITH WATER

Started out usual at the Cornishman https://www.facebook.com/search/str/Cornishman%2BInn/keywords_top where my stay is down to a few days—one more bus trip and then only one day left….I think I’m gonna cry.

Anyway decided on one more bus trip and this time back to Boscastle as it is close an I like it—just a break from Tintagel.

Ran into my Tintagel Dog of the Day on the way to the bus.

I have so fallen in love with all this stone, both natural (the cliffs above) to the arranged–the fences below.

Boscastle Dog of the Day Hurray

The main harbour area is thronging with tourists; pub beer gardens are full, and hoteliers and shopkeepers are resuming their busy lives. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/content/articles/2005/08/16/boscastle_year_on_feature.shtml

You’ve seen this harbor before–difference, the tide is up and there’s actually water and the boats are floating instead of just laying around. Cool

BOSCASTLE, a village and a subdistrict in Camelford district, Cornwall. The village is in the parishes of Minster and Forrabury; stands ½ a mile from the coast, 5½ miles N of Camelford; occupies a romantic site on the sides of hills, overhanging two deep vales; and has a post office‡ under Camelford, a ruined-ancient chapel, and a Methodist chapel. http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/20193

Friendliest dog of the day

View as I started up the hill where I got the featured picture of the harbor.

It was once a market-town, and still has fairs on the first Thursday of May, 5 Aug., and 27 Nov. Its name is a corruption of Bottreaux-Castle; and was taken from a baronial mansion, the seat of the Norman family of De Bottreaux, which stood on what is now a green mound. …

The stark beauty of Cornwall takes my breath away…

The quay was built in the Elizabethan period and has hardly been altered since. It helps protect the harbour, once one of the busiest in north Cornwall. Because the Cornish coast was such a dangerous place until the 19th century, boats would put in to Boscastle rather than attempt a dangerous landing elsewhere. http://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=2325

And all along both sides are those walking paths….I’m not that good climbing up and down hills anymore, but when I was younger this former West Virginia girl could do that.

Check this one out and you can see the paths (enlarge it up a bit and you can see the pictures better).

Long Distance doggie.

But even at Boscastle entering the harbour could be fraught with peril, so every ship was towed into the harbour by a ‘hobbler’ boat, rowed by 8 men, while more men on shore used ropes to keep the ship in the centre of the channel. Once ships were safely at anchor, goods were offloaded and put on carts. Strong teams of horses pulled the carts up the steep slope out of Boscastle. The horses were often kept at the Palace Stables, which is now the youth hostel. http://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=2325

Walking back down to the village….looks so pretty.

The building in the foreground on the left is the Youth Hostel that use to be the stables—most of the towns around here have hostels and several of the villages.

The heyday of shipping and trade in Boscastle came to an end when the railway reached north Cornwall in 1893. Trade declined, and Boscastle dwindled in importance to become a base for pleasure craft.

My favorite café in Boscastle. https://www.facebook.com/boscastleharbourlight/

Cornwall Dog of the Day

Beside the harbour is one of the most unusual museums in England, the Witchcraft Museum, a fascinating look at witchcraft in world culture, with a collection of objects associated to various forms of witchraft around the world, from crystal balls and broomsticks to paraphernalia used for divination and spells.

There is so much here to attract the eye and delight the senses.

Much of Boscastle and the surrounding area of coastline is owned by the National Trust. Part of the estate is Valency Valley, where novelist Thomas Hardy came as a young architect to restore the medieval church of St Juliot in 1870.

I spent time checking out the shops and admiring the constant in Cornwall, the ever blooming flowers.

The earliest development in the area centres on the Iron Age fort on Willapark head land to the west of Boscastle harbour. Other early development included a number of rounds in the surrounding countryside. There is no evidence of Roman occupation, but the sheltered harbor and location near a possible Roman land route make this possible. Many surrounding place names incorporate ‘tre’ meaning a small farm estate indicating occupation in the post-Roman period. https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/3638371/Boscastle-CAA-endorsed-2008.pdf

It’s a wonderful town with lots of photo ops and places to visit or just look at and enjoy.

Although contemporary references were not favourable and refer to a poor market town, this was probably only in contrast to larger urban centres such as Bodmin and Truro .A significant number of late medieval and sixteenth century town houses, which still survive in the market settlement area, attest to the town’s continuing prosperity.

The Cobweb Inn seems to have a good reputation with locals in Tintagel….It’s an old building that was not a pub to more recent year.

The manor was boughtby John Hender in 1575 and he went on to build a market house and a manor house in the south-east corner of the castle site. In addition to development in the market area in the sixteenth century there was the first definite reference to the port at Boscastle with mention of the quay in the 1540s, which was subsequently rebuilt in 1584. At this time Boscastle was one of the few ports and trading places on the north coast of Cornwall.