Gonomena, Caradon Hill and Minions

A walk we've done several times before but this time we did it in the reverse direction to normal - anticlockwise rather than clockwise. It's a route for lovers of industrial archaeology and wide ranging views.

We started and ended the walk in Minions, just on the edge of Bodmin moor. The 4 mile route took us down through  the Gonomena Valley and then around Caradon Hill following the old mineral railway track. A relatively easy walk, with lots to see on the way round.

We started off walking along the track of the Liskeard and Caradon Railway which was a mineral railway built to transport granite, copper and tin ore from around Minions to Looe Harbour. The journey from Moorswater to Looe was initially on the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal and later on the Liskeard and Looe Railway which was built alongside the canal. The railway opened in 1844 and was powered initially by gravity and horses. The full wagons ran downhill under gravity with brakes to control their speed. Each wagon was individually piloted by a brakesman. The empty wagons were then hauled uphill the next day by horses. It was later superseded by a steam railway which used an incline around the other side of Caradon Hill.

We have watched the decline of this old house over the years. It was originally associated with the mineral railway and has an impressive number of stables around the back. How much longer will the building survive?

Although each of these mines would have had individual names, latterly they were all subsumed into the South Caradon complex.  Copper and tin were the main ores they mined. All is quiet now and it's quite difficult to reconcile their present appearance with this contemporary description 'On Saturday nights after pay-day, the populous villages of Caradon Town, Pensilva, Minions and Crows Nest were crowded with men, and resembled in character the mining camps of Colorado and the Far West'.

Rarely do we come across a bull on our walks and when we do, we are appropriately cautious. Luckily this Belted Galloway bull was meekness itself and ambled away without paying us too much attention.

I'm not one for anthropomorphising animal expressions but this cow seems to be acting coy to me. Is there a touch of Princess Di in this look? Head held slightly to one side and with fluttering eyelashes?

The remains of Holman's engine house, part of the South Caradon mine complex. I am always aware that, in walking this part of the Caradon mines, we are walking in the footsteps of one of Mrs P's forebears, one of her great great uncles, John Henry Cook, eldest brother of her great grandmother, Ellen Lavinia Cook. Given his very humble origins, it was remarkable what John Henry Cook achieved.

John Henry Cook was born in Doddycross, just outside of Menheniot, in 1858. He started work aged nine in the old Wheal Mary Ann and Trelawny lead Mines. He moved to Pensilva and worked at South and East Caradon mines before he emigrated to Queensland. He moved on to Ballarat Diggings in Victoria and joined the Salvation Army where he eventually rose to rank of Sergeant.Major and Treasurer at Charters Towers. He then moved to the New England district working at the Dorrington Mine near Vegetable Creek before arriving at Cobar copperfields where he married Annie.They travelled to and stayed at Ravenswood for a few months before he became Captain of the New Queen Mine after arriving in Charters Towers finally becoming Manager there. When he became ill, he travelled back to UK to visit his aged mother who was then living in Newport, Wales, with her daughter. It was hoped the sea voyage would help him recover health but it was to no avail and he died Oct. 1910, soon after his arrival home in Charters Towers. His cause of death was given as 'miner's phthisis', a form of silicosis which he must have contracted whilst working down the mines, possibly from his earliest days in the lead mines at Menheniot.

Looking eastwards with the stack of Kit Hill clearly visible. We can see where we are standing now from our back garden.

Not 'Where's Wally?' but 'Spot the Church Tower'. There are two church towers in this panorama - St Melor at Linkinhorne and St Sampson at South Hill.

Walking up the mineral railway in an appropriate social distance. This track took the produce of the nearby mines and quarries down off the moor  and eventually to the port of Looe, about 20 miles away.

And this is where my natural pedantry kicks in...…..Given the proximity of the site of this house to the various industrial activities in Minions, I'd be very surprised if there hadn't been something happening there on September 5th 1782, most probably something to do with mining. I did not have the courage to approach the house-owners to ask them to correct their sign.

Same house, different sign. No quibbles from me on this one. It seems about right.

I've got no idea what the function of this was, neither can I anything about it from Mr Google. I'm assuming that it is something to do with the mineral railway which ran right next to it.

Lots of these Stonechats around. A resident that spends its time flitting from bush to bush.

This was the only Redstart that I saw. A summer migrant from April to September or thereabouts.