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Unknown Cornwall
Tourism and the motorcar have combined to put Cornwall on the map and within the reach of millions. Curiously, though, you can still get off the beaten track and on this journey across Cornwall Michael Williams has done precisely that. Nearly all the photographs and drawings have been especially commissioned for this publication - many of these portraying features and facets of Cornwall rarely seen on the published page.
'At heart Cornwall is a mysterious land', writes Michael Williams, 'not just another English county - and what she has to give must be received individually ... I still maintain parts of her, in a profound sense, remain unknown.'
'At heart Cornwall is a mysterious land', writes Michael Williams, 'not just another English county - and what she has to give must be received individually ... I still maintain parts of her, in a profound sense, remain unknown.'
105 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1983
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May 1, 2023
As a Cornishman, Michael Williams shows his love for the county in a well-written and informative book that looks at the lesser known places in the county. Many of the excellent photographs within its covers are from his own camera and he states in a foreword, 'Nearly all the photographs have been especially commissioned for this book, and many of them portray features and facets of Cornwall I have met in no other Cornish title' so that augers well for the title. And he, quite rightly, writes well of the 'sensitive drawings' of Felicity Young that have also been used; also of two or three reproductions of paintings by Charles Simpson.
He points out that some critics say, 'There are no longer any unknown bits of Cornwall' and accepts that premise to a degree, even suggesting, tongue in cheek I imagine, that a better title may well have been 'Relatively Unknown Cornwall'! But as the book progresses it becomes apparent from his knowledgeable text that there definitely are still some, certainly little known, parts of the county.
He begins with the parish of Advent that John Betjeman called 'a forgotten moorland parish' and proceeds to explain why that is. Betjeman also rote of 'the sad little church' but then goes on to extoll the virtues of this 15th century, with later alterations, building is something a little bit special if for no other reasons than the sex of the saint, St Adwena, is uncertain and that how it got its name is 'something of a Cornish mystery'. The historical detail he recalls is certainly captivating.
And it is the church, or rather an item within it, that, dare I say catches the eye in Blisland's church. It is a reproduction of a painting by the Austrian Gabriel Max which bears an inscription that reads, 'If you watch the eyes closely they will suddenly open.' Of course, on his first visit he was sceptical but confesses, 'in some quite extraordinary fashion the eyes in the painting do open ... the eerie magic does work'!
Bocconoc would certainly appeal to me for the 8,000-acre estate, a few miles above Lostwithiel, has its own cricket ground and the impressive country house also has its own towerless church, deer park and lake. It also has impressive historical credentials as the Royalists camped there in 1644, Charles I slept there and Thomas 'Diamond' Pitt purchased the estate in 1713 with William Pitt, later Prime Minister, spending some of his boyhood there. For my mind this qualifies for the 'Unknown' moniker! The house is not open to the public but once a year in the Spring the gardens are opened for a charity event.
There is Tall trees Riding Centre at Davidstow, the tiny hamlet of Demelza, 'ignore the TV aerials and telephone wires', is 'the Cornwall our grandparents knew', Gurnard's Head boasts 'one of the grandest headlands in the West country and once known as Treryn Dinas was 'one of our famous cliff forts', and the quaintly named Landewednack lies the most southerly church in Britain with the last service delivered in Cornish being preached there in 1678.
Pawton Quoit, sometimes known as the Giant's Quoit has one of the many burial chambers that prompted Barbara Hepworth to liken her adopted Cornwall home to her native West Riding, saying 'The landscape in both places possesses a tremendous power ... both places show the same type of scars in industrial development. The people too have a good deal in common.' And on Trencom Hill, 'the stones are legacies of when the giants of Trencom and St Michael's Mount played "ball" across the Penwith landscape while Trippet Stones may not boast to be Stonehenge or Avebury but it does have its own stone circle.
Finally, apparently DH Lawrence, who lived at Zennor for a while, hated the Cornish people, but did admit that Zennor was 'a most beautiful place ... high shaggy moor hills [with] a big sweep of lovely sea beyond'. Yes, the legends of Cornwall are many and varied and Michael Williams' book reveals that Cornwall is, at heart, a mysterious land - not just another English county.
He points out that some critics say, 'There are no longer any unknown bits of Cornwall' and accepts that premise to a degree, even suggesting, tongue in cheek I imagine, that a better title may well have been 'Relatively Unknown Cornwall'! But as the book progresses it becomes apparent from his knowledgeable text that there definitely are still some, certainly little known, parts of the county.
He begins with the parish of Advent that John Betjeman called 'a forgotten moorland parish' and proceeds to explain why that is. Betjeman also rote of 'the sad little church' but then goes on to extoll the virtues of this 15th century, with later alterations, building is something a little bit special if for no other reasons than the sex of the saint, St Adwena, is uncertain and that how it got its name is 'something of a Cornish mystery'. The historical detail he recalls is certainly captivating.
And it is the church, or rather an item within it, that, dare I say catches the eye in Blisland's church. It is a reproduction of a painting by the Austrian Gabriel Max which bears an inscription that reads, 'If you watch the eyes closely they will suddenly open.' Of course, on his first visit he was sceptical but confesses, 'in some quite extraordinary fashion the eyes in the painting do open ... the eerie magic does work'!
Bocconoc would certainly appeal to me for the 8,000-acre estate, a few miles above Lostwithiel, has its own cricket ground and the impressive country house also has its own towerless church, deer park and lake. It also has impressive historical credentials as the Royalists camped there in 1644, Charles I slept there and Thomas 'Diamond' Pitt purchased the estate in 1713 with William Pitt, later Prime Minister, spending some of his boyhood there. For my mind this qualifies for the 'Unknown' moniker! The house is not open to the public but once a year in the Spring the gardens are opened for a charity event.
There is Tall trees Riding Centre at Davidstow, the tiny hamlet of Demelza, 'ignore the TV aerials and telephone wires', is 'the Cornwall our grandparents knew', Gurnard's Head boasts 'one of the grandest headlands in the West country and once known as Treryn Dinas was 'one of our famous cliff forts', and the quaintly named Landewednack lies the most southerly church in Britain with the last service delivered in Cornish being preached there in 1678.
Pawton Quoit, sometimes known as the Giant's Quoit has one of the many burial chambers that prompted Barbara Hepworth to liken her adopted Cornwall home to her native West Riding, saying 'The landscape in both places possesses a tremendous power ... both places show the same type of scars in industrial development. The people too have a good deal in common.' And on Trencom Hill, 'the stones are legacies of when the giants of Trencom and St Michael's Mount played "ball" across the Penwith landscape while Trippet Stones may not boast to be Stonehenge or Avebury but it does have its own stone circle.
Finally, apparently DH Lawrence, who lived at Zennor for a while, hated the Cornish people, but did admit that Zennor was 'a most beautiful place ... high shaggy moor hills [with] a big sweep of lovely sea beyond'. Yes, the legends of Cornwall are many and varied and Michael Williams' book reveals that Cornwall is, at heart, a mysterious land - not just another English county.
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