Church Cove January 2024: Part 1

Down to the Lizard for a week at Church Cove. Looking forward to getting out and about in this glorious part of Cornwall, which is just 90 minutes from home. And, at this time of the year, there are few tourists around to make the place busy.

Church Cove from the lounge of our rental property.

Our home for the next week - the Winch House. This once housed the winch that pulled boats up and down the steep, steep, steep slipway. It dates from the mid-19th century and has been very comfortably converted. If it was any closer to the sea, it would be in it.

Breakfast at the Polpeor Cafe at Lizard Point, the southernmost cafe at the southernmost point in the UK. Proudly Cornish as well!

The RNLI decided to close the lifeboat station at Polpeor Cove in 1961because of its operating limitations - it was insufficiently protected to allow safe launches in all conditions. Kilcobben Cove has since been the location for The Lizard Lifeboat station.

A wayside bench with a fishy theme - on the Coastal footpath just above Carleon Cove. Perhaps celebrating the local pilchard fishing traditions or possibly as a memorial to a fisherman who had passed away?

The history detailed on the sign is interesting enough but what I found more interesting was the way it seemed to attract so many small snails. Why? Food? Good place to copulate?

LSCL - Lizard Serpentine Company Limited - features at the top of an old storehouse.
Serpentine is not the name of a single mineral. Instead it is a name used for a large group of minerals that fit this generalized formula: (X)_2-3(Y)₂O₅(OH)₄. Interesting stuff, eh? The most obvious physical properties of serpentine are its green color, patterned appearance, and slippery feel. These remind the observer of a snake and that is where the name "serpentine" was derived. It's easily shaped and polished and that's what makes it valuable.

The details are legible so I won't repeat what's written. The incorporation of serpentine mantelpieces and pedestals into Osbourne House, and the associated patronage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, lead to great interest in serpentine products. So much so, that this site had a factory, showroom, warehouse and offices. Stone came from local quarries by cart and then the finished serpentine stoneware was ferried in flat-bottomed barges to schooners offshore. But demand fell and the company was wound up in 1893.

The site is now owned by the National Trust and gives walkers of the coastal footpath an unexpected encounter with a post-industrial landscape. I know it came as a great surprise to ourselves when we first came across it. We had no idea that it was there.

The Coast Path crosses the Poltesco River in Carleon Cove by this impressive footbridge, designed to reflect the curved lines of a boat. Knowing that, I can now say "of course it does".

The church at Ruan Minor was at first probably a parochial chapelry to Ruan Major, but during the bishopric of Bishop Bronescombe (in fact in 1277) the bishop’s register records the presentation of a rector (William de Carnavald) to “Ecclesia de Sancto Rumono parvo”, so that Ruan Minor was a separate parish from that time. And it seems probable that the church building itself dates from the 13th century, since there is no definite evidence of anything earlier. Originally consisting simply of chancel and nave, in about the mid-15th century a north aisle was added, and at the same time the single stage west tower constructed of serpentine and granite ashlar. The church also underwent a “restoration” in 1879 when the chancel was extended and its roof line raised, and the south porch was added.

St Ruan or St Rumon was probably an Irish missionary bishop of the 6th Century, but the nomenclature may also refer to Ruman or Roman, and hence an entirely different saint! So, unknown he may be and merely one of the host of Celtic saints with which Cornwall abounds!

The small size of the church gives it a very welcoming ‘cottagey’ feel. 

This impressive lectern, made of polished serpentine, was presented to the church in 1893 by the then rector John Mallock, in memory of his mother, Maria - or so the inscription says. Apparently, it may well be one of the last artefacts of the Poltesco Serpentine Works which were within the parish of Ruan Minor.

The colours of the eastern window were rather washed out but the red-painted reredos gave a nice splash of contrasting colour.

A detail from a window given in 1926 by Elizabeth Randle in memory of her parents, and her brother and sister. It depicts Saint Luke with 2 shadowy figures behind (the siblings?). It is modern and is an interesting design with very rich colours. I like it.

 The font, which may be pre-Norman, has a symmetrical chevron decoration around the bowl. Its wooden cover is modern and decorated with 4 carved wooden bottle nose dolphins. It was donated in memory of an admiral whose name I did not record.

And then off to Kynance Cove as the light levels are dropping.

And with the sun setting in the West, we head back to Winch House.