Today we got to visit a small part of the Tregothnan Estate. Only a small piece because this estate, belonging to Viscount Falmouth, covers some 25,000 acres or 5% of Cornwall. It has been held by the Boscowan family since the 14th Century. They also, thanks to a favourable marriage some generations back, own 5000 acres of Kent. This guy in fact owns more of Cornwall than the Duke of Cornwall.
Our trip in took us down some of the narrowest back roads we have struck, to the banks of the river Fal. You can gauge that this is a sizeable tidal river by the fact that the other side of the river from the spot where we got to was an embarkation point for an American division during the D-Day landings They also use this section of the river to lay up medium size freighters during economic downturns.
But today the scene was very peaceful, green and idyllic. We checked out a small tea plantation. The estate has a number much larger than this one and produces Tregothnan tea which is exported around the world.
The estate was largely let out to tenant farmers who would hold their plots over generations but today many of the newer generations don’t want a life on the land so these farms are being handed back and now run directly by the landowner with his estate staff of some 75 people. Tea is one crop, they also grow a variety of other crops such as flowers, including, would you believe, fields of daffodils which we did not see but I am sure are located beside the lakes beneath the trees fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
The vacated tenant cottages get interior renovations and are let out for holiday and permanent rentals. The next place we got to on the Estate, after transiting even more narrower and impossible roads, was the pretty little village of Coombe. This amazing little place was on the edge of a tributary of the river Fal and when the tide comes in what passes for the town square, car park and the road through to the other half of the village, goes under a couple of feet of water. Cottages here are let out under the name of “Tregothnan Wild Escapes” and it would be a fabulous getaway.
We had a long wander along the river bank here till we finally came to the home of a tenant farmer who does morning teas and there under the shade of a tree we ate scones and jam and cream and chatted and life was rather good. Just a plug, I tried the Tregothnan tea and it was fabulous and not at all bitter. If you ever get a chance, try some.
Our next stop was the port of Charlestown. Originally set up to handle tin exports it became the main hub for exporting China Clay till that operation ceased in the 1990s. The port was bought by the Square Ships Association to park their square riggers and is now often used for movie sets.
Finally we headed onto our home for the next two nights, the little seaside village of Fowey. I would just hate to be our bus driver. Here the roads just seem to get narrower and narrower. Our hotel was a grand old Victorian one perched on the side of a very steep hill at the mouth of the port. I just could not believe he could get the bus down to the hotel but somehow he pulled it off.
The views from our room here are amazing.
Hardys’ Travels 