Tuesday 17th September 2024
Refreshed after a good night’s sleep and a quick breakfast we headed out. Our destination today is “Pendennis Castle” near Falmouth, 18-miles away and another English Heritage site. As all the major routes in this part of the world go east-west, going north-south means country lanes and side roads hence the 18-miles took nearly an hour!!!!
The car park to the castle was a 10 minute walk but fortunately nowhere as steep as the Tintagel walk!!!
The attraction of coming to Pendennis Castle for me is the history and its strategic defence uses over the centuries. The original castle overlooking the mouth of the “River Fal” was an artillery fort built between 1540-1542 by King Henry VIII as part of the “King’s Defence’s ” to protect England against an invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, It was later expanded in the 1590’s to cater from the threat of the Spanish. In 1627 New ramparts and ditch were added during the 30-year war that England was trying to influence!!! During the English civil war it was a Royalist stronghold but fell to Cromwell after a 5-month siege in 1646. The site was further strengthen and modernised between 1732 – 1739 as a part of a strategic review of all coastal defences and when the Napoleonic wars (1793 – 1815) came along, there were additional improvements including a fully manned garrison. At the outbreak of WW1 Pendennis again became an important part of the British defence strategy and was manned accordingly. When the second world was started the extended castle was again part of the strategic defence system but this time it encompassed the entire Falmouth area, as Falmouth was the first and only port accepting ships from neutral countries, the fear was it would be easy for Enemy agents to get into England. I was fascinated by all this so it was my choice to do the visit.
Upon entering the castle over a dry moat and through the entrance with portcullis gate, past the guard house you arrive into an area with a very large, beautifully manicured lawn with buildings surrounding it. The exhibition today is all about the castle during the First World War, shame as I prefer history from by-gone eras, still never mind as we had a very informative and enjoyable time whilst visiting and it was all in glorious sunshine. Though this visit was more for me, Christine enjoyed wandering around the big open spaces, taking in the magnificent views of the river and estuary in the sunshine and where possible letting the dogs of the leads watching them charge about the place. One can easily see why Pendennis castle has been so strategic during the centuries guarding the entrance to the river Fal and the docks in Falmouth.
After a very enjoyable visit with time to see everything and snatch a light lunch, we headed back to the car, and as we had plenty of time left we decided to head to Trelissick House, a national trust place the other side of the estuary. This was Christine’s choice but Originally we were going to go to this house on a different day but having spare time, it made sense to do it whilst in the area.
Arriving at the National Trust, “Trelissick House” set in more than 400 acres, we headed in but o course, no dogs allowed in the house and gardens, so Christine went first whilst I waited “my turn”!!!!
This place is not one of the grand houses of England, no, it started out as a “bog standard” 4-bedroom farm house built in the early 1700’s but it has such a wonderful commanding view over the Fal river and Estuary that a wealthy chap called John Lawrence acquired the building and started to enlarge and upgrade the old house. Several families have owned the house over the years and one Thomas Daniel, who inherited it had the front elevation completely changed by having Greek Porticos built; very impressive and though they face the river, this is not the main entrance, no that still remains at the side of the house.
During WW2, the house was commandeered by the US army 776th anti-aircraft artillery unit protecting Falmouth and also by the British army preparing for D day. The house was gifted to the National Trust in 1955.
The inside of the house wasn’t very grand, but the garden and surrounding area and stunning views more than made up for that. After we had both wandered around the house and gardens, we headed on one of their highlighted walks down to the private beach on the estuary; Christine and the dogs made it all the way where TT & R were soon in the water. I went half-way down the hill but called it a day, the hike back up would have been a struggle at my stage of rehab, but just sitting in the sun, no wind and thinking this is what we missed most about England during nearly 20-years living in Spain, today was “purfect”.
After a thougfhrly enjoyable day, we headed back cross country to our camp site but made a quick stop at Tesco.
Tonight was a beautiful warm evening so a couple of cocktails as we bar-b-queued, the first one of our holidays and we enjoyed it, hence the “triple header”