MORE MUSINGS Cornish Changes
- Simon Eades
- Oct 28
- 6 min read
 | Simon qualified as a chartered surveyor in 1980. He started his career in the commercial field, moving to private practice in 1983. In the mid-1990s he joined Great Yarmouth Borough Council and in 2006 moved to Waveney District Council (now East Suffolk Council). He retired in 2018. |
More recollections and coincidences from Simon. This time, he returns to his favourite holiday haunts. |
In my last article I mentioned that my younger son took me on a distillery tour of Adnams in Southwold. Recollections of the visit came up when I was on holiday with both sons and families in Cornwall in May. My younger son asked me if I had emptied the bottle of gin that I brought on our tour. I said that I had not (!) and it remains in the cupboard at home. He asked why I had not brought it down on holiday and I suggested that there were other suitable gin makers in Cornwall!
He said that this was his fourth visit to Cornwall and asked me when first I came to Cornwall for a holiday. I had to think for a minute or two, then said it was the place we came for family holidays for as long as I could remember. From the late 1950s my family stayed at Treyarnon Bay and over my childhood, I came here most years and developed an attraction and fondness for his part of the North Cornish coast.
It is no family secret that my first summer holidays were to Cornwall. When I was clearing out my parents’ house a few years ago, following my father’s death, I found a box of old photographs including some old black and white photographs confirming my first visits in the late 1950s. For the majority of the next 20 years, the annual holiday was a visit to Treyarnon Bay.
How did this all start………………………….?
My paternal grandparents first visited Cornwall in the mid-1930s and while my understanding of the initial stay may be unclear, I know that with the agreement of the landowner, they pitched a tent on land close to Treyarnon Bay. They went back for several years with their family, with a break in visits after 1939. My paternal grandfather was, by profession, an agricultural consultant and was director of the Norfolk Agricultural station for 35 years. My mother was one of five sisters and in time, the grandparents bought a caravan which they left down on the farm in Cornwall, with the agreement of the farmer, and it was visited each year.
In due course, the landowners discovered that the most profitable crop was not the annual cereals or cattle but caravans, and over some years they developed the two fields that had access or a close proximity to the coastline, with caravans initially in a circle around the perimeter of the fields. As time went on, so the installation of one row in the middle of the field was joined by a second row; the increase in income was clear to see! In retrospect, I suppose that an agricultural consultant would be the most appropriate person to know what the best use was for agricultural land! My paternal grandfather and his family continued to go to Treyarnon Bay every year, and each year the family had great fun in this lovely area of Cornwall.
Evolution
The original caravan was replaced in the late 1960s by a bigger 7-berth caravan, which gave the family the opportunity to sleep inside a caravan, rather than a large tent which was always erected next to the original caravan. At the same time as the caravan changed, my father and his brother-in-law had taken over the responsibility of running it. In the late 1970s/early 1980s the costs were becoming higher and it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the caravan from a distance of 300 miles.
I did return to Cornwall intermittently after I got married but it was only 10 years ago that I returned with my family on a regular basis. While the opportunity to return to Cornwall in the interim was attractive, the prospect of the potential stay in a caravan was not one that excited some of the family!
In the interim period, my brother had decided to take up an agricultural advisory career and over time secured clients in the West Country. He decided to investigate the purchase of a property in Cornwall and eventualy acquired a property in one of the villages close to Treyarnon Bay. This provided me with the chance to return and spend some time in an area of the country which has fond memories. It also gave me the opportunity to take my family to a part of the country that they had not been to.
The latter holidays have been in May, although we have also visited in July and October. My earlier memories include spending an afternoon in the sunshine in October on Treyarnon Bay when a Kelly’s ice cream van came onto the beach to serve customers. When we stayed at the caravan site, all those years ago, the Kelly’s van, normally parked on the headland at the top of the beach, would make a diversion every lunchtime and early evening, into the caravan site!
The stay in July 2019 was particularly memorable. We went to the Farmers’ Arms in St Merryn for a meal on our last night and watched the conclusion of the Cricket World Cup semi–final. England managed to win the match and, as a result, secured a place in the final. The semi-final was not on terrestrial television – hence the reason to go to the pub - but, as England had secured a place in the final, there was an arrangement that the final would be shown on terrestrial television. We returned home the following day and watched the final at home.
We returned yet again in May this year for a two-week holiday. The first week was all beach and grandchildren, allowing me to return to those beaches where I played cricket on the sand and swam with grandchildren in the sea. Over the first week I did many of the things I used to do when I was there: fishing in rock pools, surfboarding, bird watching, and walking.
There were differences between now and then. Surfing was done on wooden surf boards, and the trick was to lie on them as the waves broke and see how far we could go up the beach. The beach at Treyarnon was one of the first to have lifeguards – the majority at the time were Australian and they brought the larger stand-on surfboards and it was fun to watch them. Today, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution provides this valuable service.
The second week was less stressful! No grandchildren, just a dog. This meant a different perspective and, in addition to the beaches, we went to the Eden Project and to a large National Trust Property with superb walks.
The attraction of the North Cornwall coastal area has not changed and, indeed, has grown. I have always enjoyed walking along the coast northwards from Treyarnon to Trevose Head and southwards towards Porthcothan Beach. Over the intervening years, these individual walks have been amalgamated into what has become the South West Coastal Path. There has been some erosion, but the pathways are broadly similar to those I walked first all those years ago.
The changes over time in this particular part of North Cornwall are clearly evident. I am sure that other parts of Cornwall have been similarly affected. There is, and has been, an increase in construction, driven in part, I suspect, by the demand for second home accommodation. It is clear that this is continuing and over the last 10 years I have seen some quite substantial changes. Indeed, there was clear current evidence of work close to the South West Coastal Path when we walked it in May, immediately adjacent to existing long established properties.
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Many years ago my father received a daily copy of the local newspaper sent from home. He wanted to keep up with the news in Norfolk and it was sent to the local post office, which in the 1960s was just at the end of the caravan site and one of the children would be sent to the Post Office every day! In due course the Constantine Bay post office closed and the nearest post office was in St Merryn – a slightly further walk! Today there is no post office in St Merryn! The nearest one is in Padstow, but would anyone want a paper copy of the local Eastern Daily Press today as it is available on line!
Nowhere more are the changes evident than in the town of Padstow. I can remember when it was just a quiet fishing village and we were able to drive right into the centre and park close to the railway station. Today there is a large car park cleverly located just above the town centre, allowing the opportunity to view the town on foot. I told my boys that I have fond memories of old Padstow but have to accept that times have changed. I enjoyed a visit to the Padstow Brewery shop, but was accused of showing my age when I commented that it was in my youth a branch of Barclay’s Bank!
A question about change
I had told both boys that the area has changed. Now, has it changed for the better?
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