Prairie: St. Mawes

August 28, 2011

St. Mawes

I had been reading so many nice things about the little village of St. Mawes recently, that I was anxious to ferry across and explore it for myself. It was one of those grey sky days. A fine and steady mist was coming down and I was glad I remembered my umbrella.

St. Mawes is just one village on The Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall, which is home to some fabulous Cornish villages. This peninsula, is a popular tourist destination attracting holiday visitors from around the UK, Europe and beyond. The Roseland Peninsula is found along the south coast of Cornwall which claims to have a warm climate all year round. This will be my first winter living by the Cornish sea and although it's to be warmer than East Anglia where I moved from - I'm sure it's not going to be anything like Phoenix.

Its scenery and undulating coastline made St Mawes the choice location for ‘Poldark’ a very popular series on television. The Agatha Christie film Murder Ahoy was filmed here, as was the 1964 film Crooks in Cloisters. An episode of the TV series Hornblower was also filmed here. Falmouth Harbour had it's own excitement recently when Brad Pitt arrived to film World War Z.

This natural harbour is rated as the third largest in the world and can be easily navigated from Falmouth to Truro in Cornwall. St Mawes is particulary popular for visiting Yachts and boasts three boatyards, as well as local marine engineers and boat builders within St Mawes. It's one of the most affluent villages along the Roseland with most residences being either retirement properties or holiday homes.

I love this rusty, crusty fishing boat with it's smelly nets, gee gaws and peeling paint.

I stopped to chat with this father and his two young boys for a moment. They were fishing for small crabs, the variety that you don't eat. A fishing line baited with a piece of bacon was let down and the little crab would latch himself onto the meat. The Father would put him in a bucket of water for a few minutes so the boys could have a look and admire their catch. Then back into the water he would go.

After a nice cup of tea and a scone, I headed off in search of the castle. St. Mawes Castle as well as Falmouth's Pendennis Castle were both built by Henry the VIII to defend the coast from French and Spanish invaders in the 1500's. I heard that a few years ago, a gentleman who worked at St. Mawes Castle fell in love and married a woman employee who worked at Pendennis Castle. I searched high and low, as did my friend Paul, who told me the story, for a newspaper article about the romance and wedding but we could not find anything about it. Oh well, it's a lovely story. If anyone claims to know this not to be true.... all I will say is "Paul told me so."

I wasn't sure what was going on here and if I would have known these girls were going to jump, I would've been standing closer. I was a bit distracted by the man with the white beard. He looks like Santy Claus.