Exploring

With a somewhat iffy weather forecast we decided to do a little touring. We have never visited the area south of St Mawes, St Anthony. We made our way across country, but as we so often find, there was little to see during the journey as the tiny sunken roads were bounded by high hedges.

We arrived at Portscatho, which was the nearest village to St Anthony. We parked up and went for a coffee. Now concentrate, the Gorse Fox is going to tell you a story.

Years ago, the Gorse Fox used to work with Old Father Time and he would tell stories of holidays that he would take down on the Roseland Peninsula at somewhere called Place Manor. He claimed it wasn’t shown on the maps as it was a haunt of Henry VIII who decreed it should remain secret. He would tell of lots of legends involving the location… but the Gorse Fox never managed to find out more. (Though it didn’t help that he had remembered it as Pace Manor).

Leaping forward to this morning the Gorse Fox asked the lady in the coffee shop if she knew of the place. “Oh yes, dear” but she couldn’t answer any questions. “Hold on, I’ll ask” she said. Off she trotted to an elderly workman at the counter. He strolled back and explained “I used to be the maintenance man at Place Manor” and so we had an intriguing 15 minute chat with him, including a recommendation for a book on the subject. This made the Gorse Fox’s day. Finally, he had some corroboration for some of the story that Old Father Time would tell. Later, back at the hotel he found a 45 page pamphlet on a genealogy site which recounted the history of Place stretching back to the Phoenecian tin trade in about 4000BC. It was riveting… and deserves another read.

We finished our coffee and went for a walk around the village and down to the little harbour.

Leaving Portscatho we set the SatNav for Mevagissey. This is another village that we haven’t visited for about 40 years. We managed to pull into the car park despite the crowds. We then wandered through the village and onto the harbour front. We wandered round taking in the views and stopping for a pasty (it has to be done at least once!). As we walked back the promised rain began to fall as a fine mist. It didn’t last, but we did shelter in the car while eating.

Back the the hotel a wedding is in progress. We are avoiding the melee by sitting at the bar near the spa. The Silver Vixen has become engrossed in the tennis (apparently her sister and Beck have tickets for Centre Court today - Gorse Fox suspects she is actually watching for them rather than the tennis).