Cornwall gazetteer "G"

Gerran's Bay

Set between the Roseland Peninsula and Nare Head, the area is believed to have been the home of a King of Cornwall - Gerannius. When he died, his body was carried away across the bay on agolden boat with silver oars, to be buried at Carne Beacon on the other side of the bay. One notes that archeolgical digs have failed to find any evidence of Gerannius.

 

The area is a pleasant toutist area today with beaches and small villages

Godrevy

Godrevy Island, NE of Hayle, hasbeen the site of many shipwrecks. The most famous being after Charles I's execution a ship[ carrying much of his property was wrecked here, and the royal belongings scattered along the coast.

 

The lighthouse dates from 1857, and was the inspiration for Virginia Woolf's book "To the Lighthouse"

 

Godrevy Headland is owned by the National Trust, and has a long history of human settlement right back to the middle Stone Age. If you watch the sea today, you will sea a reddening of the sea from the Red River, which carries with it washings from inland mine workings.

 

The name Godrevy comes from the plural of "godref", which means hut or homestead

Grampound

The name comes from "Grand Pont", as the village was the lowest crossing point on the River Fal. Before the voting reforms of 1820, Grampound was a classic rotten borough, returning two MPs and only having two voters!

 

It is now a small village on the busy main road from St Austell to Truro. It has a very good smoked food outlet - Atlantis Smokery. There is a toll house on the bridge, a guildhall, clock tower and tannery, all showing its importance in the past.

Gulval

A quiet village of Victorian houses and cottages round a 15th century church.

 

A few miles from Gulval is Chysauster, a late Iron Age village. It has nine courtuard houses, grouped on either side of the village street. It was inhabited from the first century BC , for the following four hundred years.

 

Gunnislake

The seven arched New Bridge built at Gunnislake in 120, made it the lowest crossing point on the Rivewr Tamar right up to modern times. There was a Civil War battle at the bridge, when the Royalist Sir Richard Grenville defended the bridge against the Parliamentarians under Lord Essex. The pareliamentarian army took the bridge for the loss of 40 men, with the Royalists losing 200 men killed. . As with many places in Cornwall, mining took place here for copper, tin, wolfram and arsenic. The narrow streets of miners cottages still exist today, as do the numerous ruins of mines and mine chimneys

Gunwalloe

A fishing cove with a scattering of fishermen's cottages at the eastern tip of Mounts bay. In a separate cove just to the south at Gunwalloe Church Cove is the parish church of St Winwalloe in the sand dunes beside the beach. The bell tower is separated from the church, and the whole edifice is surounded by a tamarisk hedge. The St Anthony, the King of Portugal's treasure ship was wrecked in the cove in 1527.

 

Another wreck, in Dollar Cove, just north of Church Cove, took place in 1780. A Spanish ship, laden with silver dollars, came to grief here, and even today silver dollars are said to be washed ashore after storms

 

Marconi transmitted the first trans Atlanic radio signals from Podhu Head to the south of Gunwalloe in 1901.

Gweek

Once a busy port at the hed of the Helford River, it is now a peaceful litle village. As the river gradually silted up, the last cargoes left Gweek's wharves in 1880. Popular with tourists today because of its charm and beauty.

 

Close to Gweek is the Seal Sanctuary, where you can see the efforts being made to rehabilitate seals injured along the Cornish coast.

Gwennap

A small village SE of Redruth, best known for Gwennap Pit. Mining subsidence caused the creation of a circular natural ampitheatre. John Wesley came here regularly to preach to the inhabitants of the surrounding mining communities. . The ampitheatre is now terraced, and Methodists still use it every year for meetings.

Gwithian

A village at the northern end of a three mile sandy beach. The beach is a popular surfing venue. The village has some charming thatched cottages, a small Methodist chapel and an inn. The church is dedicated to St Gothian. He was an Irish missionary whose monastic cell was excavated from under the sand in the last century, but has now been allowed to return to the sands.

 

You can see Godrevy Lighthouse standing off shore.

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