Liz and Frank: We're in England

Saturday, 21st April, 2012

Approaching Bristol, Somerset - mid afternoon

it's fields are in full spring colour

and after much hassle picking up our Hertz car, we eventually found our charming hotel in Henbury on the outskirts of Bristol at around 7pm - had a lovely dinner and early to bed.

Sunday morning, we head south to Penzance the roads were damp but quite clear

Arrived in Penzance around lunch time, did some "Tesco" shopping and found our great little apartment overlooking Penzance Harbour

and St. Michael's Mount - and the sun did shine.

Sue the owner of the apartment had put the heating on and left all kinds of extras which included some cornish scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream - this all went down very well on our first evening, heated the scones and loaded them up with the jam and cream, so tasty.

******

The next morning we had an early walk, and studied the map on how to get to some of my genealogy villages - to do this we drove through the charming village of Marazion where one can access to the medieval (some say 5th Century) St. Michael's Mount by foot in low tide or small boat in high tide.

Historically St. Michael's Mount was a Cornish counterpart of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy.

It shares the same tidal island characteristics and is the same conical shape.

*****

Our first stop was in the pretty village of Breage, all of the following is from my Father's mothers side, Sarah Ann Marie EADE.

and it's 15th century church - built of granite

it has numerous stained glass windows

with 2 aisles and I just love it's ceiling

This church has been a major part of our "EADE" side of the family - starting from the marriage and burial records of my great x 7 grandparents (James who married Mary Burgan here on 13th January, 1693) both being buried here in 1723 and 1724. And so it went on in Breage down through the generations. Note: rather than repeat the word "Great" on numerous occasions have just put "x and the number of greats - e.g. great x 7".

One really needed to be donning gum boots to search, and many of the headstones were now obviously very weathered and unreadable.

However, it was wonderful to be able to find the headstone for both my great x 4 grandparents (William (died June 1818) and Mary (died 1843), and two of their sons Richard and William)

and a few more of the Eade family's headstones.

*****

The next Village was Sithney and it's 15th century church

with another delightful interior.

My great x 3 grandfather - Theophilus Eade married my great x 3 grandmother - Jane Russell here on 26th May, 1821. Jane was born in Sithney in 1802.

And we found some graves from Jane Eade, (nee Russell's) immediate family

******

Our next visit was to the 12th Century Church in Germoe

The grounds in the cemetery were charming

spent some time wandering around here

above is St. Germoe's throne

Great x 3 grandfather - Theophilus was born in Germoe in May 1796, and buried here in April, 1856, two weeks before his son - Joseph ( my great x 2 grandfather) and his wife Evalena and their children immigrated to Australia. Couldn't find a headstone for "Theo", though the engraving on some are impossible to read now.

Though I did find a few gravestones from my great x 5 grandmother's - Margaret Laity's family.

My great x 4 grandfather - William Eade married his wife - Mary Pope here on 1st May 1784 and both are buried in Breage.

Another charming ceiling inside Germoe's Church.

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Our last Church for the day was 13th Century - St. Hilary

Spent some time in this delightful church and its grounds

as this is St. Hilary where my great x 3 Grandfather Theophilus and great x 3 grandmother Jane spent the last year's of their lives.

Another charming wooden ceiling.

*****

Then back to Penzance, to the Bay Hotel - 100 footsteps up the street from the apartment - they are open all day, had a great late lunch at 4pm, with the company of our super young waiter - Giles from Newlyn (where the great crabs are caught).

Downhill to the apartment

to check out the movement in the Bay

And to watch the ferry from the Scilly Isles weave her way through the sailboats to Penzance's Port.

*****

The next day we decide to drive via St. Ives down to Lands End

St. Ives beach on a very windy morning - didn't find parking - full up even at this time of year.

Remnants of one of Cornwall's many famous tin mines

As my "Eade" relos here were Tin Miners here, we visited the Geevor Tin Mine Museum to find our more

My great great grandfather was a "Cousin Jack" immigrating with his family in May 1856 on the ship "Phoebe Dunbar" to Australia.

As things faded in the Cornish mines, over 130,000 miners packed up, and shipped out, and they were definitely not "cruise" like conditions in 19th century.

Next to Lands End

The tourist side of it has certainly changed since I was last there in the early 70's.

The rocky outcrop called Wolf Rock with the "Longships" Lighthouse 1.25 miles off Lands End.

Played darts in the Pub below in the early 70's.

Wound our way down to the little port of Mousehole

We then drove on to Marazion for lunch at the Godolphin Arms

for a Newlyn crab bisque for moi, and the Brig had the best whitebait ever, whilst watching the walkers and their canines wander back from the Mount.

There were 8 houses built at the entry to the Mount in 19th Century - named Elizabeth Terrace.

The Doberman above had amused us for some time with her antics.

*****

There are some charming Pubs in Penzance

We opted for the oldest - 13th Century for a "rest".

The Turk's Head - just charming.

A statue of Sir Humphrey Davy (born in Penzance in 1776) stands high overlooking the main street in Penzance. Sir Humphrey invented many things, but one of the most appreciated local achievements was "after receiving a letter from Miners about the dangers with lit candles in the mines" he invented a safety lamp (the Davy Lamp) that emitted enough light for them to work through - without the danger of the explosion from methane gas, a constant threat for these underground workers.

Ah, another plaque outside the Penzance Post Office, the Publican at the Turk's Head had told us about this one - "we Cornish are close to you Aussies" were his words.