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| Bodmin
Moor | | 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. |
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. | | 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. | | 
| 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. | | The Cheesewring
above the Quarry | | |
Peace has returned.
| Cornwall Holiday Cottages - Cheesewring
Farm |
