Cornwall gazetteer "F"

Falmouth

 

The Carrick Roads make one of the largest narural harbours in the world, and Falmouth is the major port for this natural harbour. The narrow entrance make it easily defensible even with cannon. In late Elizabethean times Pendennis Castle at Falmouth and its smaller sister at St mawes on the othewr side, were constructed to defend the port, and deny invaders the opportunity of using the sheltered waters.

 

Being the most westerly of suitable ports, Falmouth prospered as the base for the Empire "packet service". Between 1688 and 1852 there were 40 packet ships based in Falmouth delivering mail to every country in the British Empire. But the age of the steam ship meant that a port nearer London could be used more easily, and Falmouth eventually lost out to Southhampton.

 

However the railway came in 1863, and brought a new era of prosperity as the area became a holiday resort.

 

Various things to see in Falmouth today are the Prince of Wales Pier (where pleasure boats to Flushing and St Mawes dock), an art gallery in the town hall, a precipitous flight of 111 steps known as Jacobs ladder, the "Queen's Pipe" beside the old Customs House ( a chimney where contraband was burnt) the Maritime Museum in Bell's Court and Arwenack, the 17th century manor house of the Killigrew family who developed the port.

 

Feock

An amalgam of whitewashed cottages plus some modern properties, clustered on the banks of a creek overlooking the Carrick Roads. the village has a small church with a separate 13th century tower and an unusual lych gate with an upper slate hung storey.

 

A lane runs down to the shingley Loe Beach. To the south there is a ferry from Restronguet point to Restronguet Passage on the other side. The well known Pandora Inn is on the Mylor side of the creek. The ferry was on the main post road from Falmouth to truro in the 19th century.

 

Flushing

Flushing claims to have the mildest climate in Britain. Strangely the name comes from the builders from that part of Holland who settled here in the 17th century. The village still has a very Dutch atmosphere.

 

There is a passenger ferry to Falmouth across the narrow Penryn river.. Also ayt Little Falmouth is the site of the ship yard where many of the Falmouth packets were built

Fowey

Pronounced "Foy", it is a very picturesque little town. Ransacked by the French in 1457, blockhouses were built to defend it, with a castle being built by Henry VIII at Readymoney Cove. the town developed with a nice range of architecturall styles from Elizabethan to Edwardian.

 

The author Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, "Q", lived here on the Esplanade. Fowey was thinly disguised as Troy Town in his writings.

 

The deep water harbour and the railway have combined to make Fowey a major china clay exporting port, as 10,000 ton ships can reach the wharfs to the north of the town.

There are a number of things to see: the Noahs Ark Museum in Fore Street, the Town Hall Museum in Trafalgar Square, the Ship Inn (once the home of the Rashleigh family) has foine Elizabethan plaster ceilings and panelling.There is a neo-Gothic building above the town called Placve House, seat of the Treffry family - it dates fropom the 15th century, but was largely rebuilt in the 1840's, it is sometimes open to the public.

 

The car ferry to Bodinnick on the other side of the river is a convenient short cut to Looe or Polperro.

 

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