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Bodmin
Moor
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Bodmin Moor, a large tract of beautiful
moorland, rich in history and legend, has been the heart of Cornwall
since man made his first primitive home here almost seven thousand
years ago. The rugged boulder strewn Tors have changed little
over the centuries, Stone Age man, Roman trader, Dark Age Saint, Saxon
Chieftain,
Norman Earl, Medieval farmer and even King Arthur himself would feel
at home were they
to return to the heart of the moor today.
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View from the
top of Stowes Hill (behind the farm) across Bodmin Moor |
| The area around Minions,
the highest village in Cornwall, is steeped in mining history. In
1837 James Clymo a mine captain found rich copper ore deep in the rounded
hill
of Caradon. The ore was so rich and plentiful that within a few years
more than twenty mines crowded the moor around Caradon. A railway line was
brought up to the eastern moor extending on granite sleepers (still to be seen
outside the rear entrance to Cheesewring Farm) around the slope of Stowes Hill
to Kilmar Tor. |
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The Cornish miner had a very
hard life, the search for copper took him deep under
the earth. At the end of an exhusting shift many had to climb a thousand
feet of ladders, numbed and tired fingers fumbled the ladder rungs and falls
were
a daily occurrence. At the height of the mining boom the average
age
of those buried in St. Cleer churchyard was no more than 21 years. Thirty
struggling years later it was all over. |
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Stowes Hill, behind
Cheesewring Farm is the site of the Cheesewring Quarry. Stone
taken from here was used to build Westminster Bridge and parts of
the Royal Naval Dockyard in Plymouth and many other projects throughout
the British Isles.
Now silent, the
mines and quarries have been taken back by Mother Nature. Sheep
and cattle graze contentedly on the grassy slopes and buzzards fly
overhead, while climbers from around the world hang off their ropes
on the 100 foot granite
faces. |
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The Cheesewring
above the Quarry |
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Peace has returned. |
Cornwall Holiday Cottages - Cheesewring
Farm
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