A walk around St Cleer

 Hooray, a day with no forecasted rain - a long awaited first. Our choice of route was one that we last did some 14 years ago. We enjoyed it then and we enjoyed it again. As ever, a short record of a very good day's walking.

I was a little surprised when my GPS told me that I'd walked 7.8 miles on this one. A little longer than anticipated and I can put a little of the extra distance down to a couple of 'navigational mishaps'. A simple route: from the centre of St Cleer up to Common Moor and then back to St Cleer, via King Doniert's Stone and St Cleer Downs. I'd give it a difficulty rating of sub-moderate

About 1/2 mile into the walk and looking back towards St Cleer church. The last time we did this route, about 12 years ago, we saw some deer just about here. None today

This is where we should have walked but, as we didn't fancy getting up to our knees in mud, we made a diversion around this patch. It's always wet so the diversion was well used

This stream doesn't seem to have a name and we walked along various stretches of it. It was obvious that, every now and again, it had been used to power various mills. 

Spot the stile. In this case, we spotted the wrong stile and had to retrace our footsteps to find the one we really wanted, which was to the left and out of shot. But the deviation was worthwhile as it took us through a very attractive stretch of woodland and along a noisy stream

Mossy Tree #1: seemed to be a recurrent theme on this walk

The anonymous stream (again) as it passes through the woods of Bulland Downs

Mossy Tree #2: given the many shoots, I suspect that we are looking at the remnants of past coppicing activities

On the road from Minions, and near Common Moor, are the two granite cross bases that make up King Doniert’s Stone. The Latin inscription is late 9th century style and it is thought that Doniert was Dungarth the King of Cornwall who drowned in the river Fowey and the stone marks his death in AD875. Despite a rumour that I've just started, the stones are not named after the eponymous pub in Liskeard

Mossy Tree #3: the last one in this series. Looks like it was originally part of a traditional Cornish hedge. I'm never less than amazed at how deep the roots go and how precarious seems the link between the tree and the soil. Another example of taking pleasure in whatever you come across?

The track leading downhill from King Doniert's Stone. It's not quite as I remember it. There's something missing............

........and here it is. Water. The path soon turns into a stream as water is channeled off the fields. Nothing quite like sloshing along a watercourse. Dog Dora seems to be enjoying it as well

A wintry landscape, looking west, but with a rather cold wind from the east to keep us moving. Views like this feed the spirits and, as the saying goes, "the best things in life are free". And I never keep forgetting that all of this is within a 20 minute drive from home

Unexpected sightings by the wayside Part 37: A novel bird feeder with a resident audience of onlookers. Whenever I see something like this, my native curiosity kicks in and I wonder what the story behind it is. Despite an albeit cursory search, I can't find any more information.

St Cleer parish church is dedicated to Saint Clarus. First built in 800 but rebuilt in the 13th century, the tower suffered damage and was repaired in the 15th century. 
St Clarus was an Englishman who went to Cornwall to preach to the inhabitants in the 8th century. He founded the church of St Cleer and lived a saintly life nearby. However, he rejected the advances of a local chieftainess who had fallen in love with him and when she continued to pester him he fled to France where he lived in an isolated hermitage. The enraged woman had him pursued and then murdered. The place he had lived was afterwards named Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. 

Looking down the nave towards the rood screen, a late Victorian reintroduction. It has a high church feeling, especially as the chancel is barricaded off from visitors. A very plain wooden table stands at the ‘crossing’.
Notwithstanding this, it is a church with family connections for Mrs P. Several members of her family are buried in the graveyard

Never have we come across a stained glass window made by someone we know. This modern piece was made by Alan Endacott, an acquaintance of ours through our Local History Group. The window is dedicated to '300 years of the Honeycombe family' and was donated by Gordon Honeycombe, the TV news presenter and author

A little sunshine coming through the windows of the south side. Keen eyes will notice that the columns of the north arcade are constructed of separate blocks of stone, whereas those of the south arcade are of one piece. An indication of contruction at different times

This nicely carved pulpit, the work of Harry Hems, dates only from 1895. He was an ecclesiastical sculptor who was particularly inspired by Gothic architecture and a practitioner of Gothic Revival. He founded and ran a large workshop in Exeter, which produced woodwork and sculpture for churches all over the country