We didn’t drive into the town itself; rather we stopped on the outskirts at the park and ride and caught a double-decker bus into the town centre. Unfortunately, because it was now out of season, we weren’t able to use the park and ride boat which was a shame as that would have been a fantastic way to see the harbour and enter the town. The bus only dropped off at two places, the top of town and the bottom and believe me there was one hell of a difference in altitude between these two points. As with most Cornish towns Falmouth is nestled at the bottom of a cliff. We opted to remain on said bus until it reached the bottom. We were dropped by the pier which we never actually got to walk out on, next time maybe. We disembarked and immediately our pastie senses, your DNA activates this primitive residual sense as you enter Cornwall, kicked in and we followed them to the nearest pastie shop located less than twenty yards from the bus stop. When we get home I think we need to take Hannah to the doctors to see why her pastie sense doesn’t work as once again she insisted on having a sausage roll (oh the shame of having a damaged child how do we bare it…with incredibly fortitude and a quite dignity that’s admired by all, that’s how. Enough off our nobility lets continue with the day). We began to stroll into town but were diverted to the harbour by Deb who, for reasons unknown, has a phobia about eating in public and wanted to get us off the main drag as we stuffed our faces with pasties. This wasn’t a bad decision as it allowed us both the opportunity to take some photos we might otherwise have missed. Here are those photos along with those of Stumpy the One legged pigeon who I’ll mention later! )
After we’d finished our pasties Deb allowed us to reenter the Town via an ally way next to a Chandler’s store.
We continued to check out the local shops; Cornish towns do not display the uniform ubiquity of most other English town centres and so there was a large and diverse variety of local shops. In a short while we arrived at the museum which is located behind the local shopping mall. Now this mall did contain most of the usual suspects (chain outlets common in every town) but was still unusual in that its front is half-timbered! This was quite a disconcerting sight at first; we soldiered on and entered the museum where they charged us an Arm and a Leg for entry…£26.00 OMG!!!
It was worth every penny; what a fantastic place I’ve never seen so many boats in my entire life. Our first “Port” of call, pardon the pun, was the exhibition on the history of The Corporation of Trinity House and Light Houses they administer. Astonishingly, given the importance of the role played by maritime trade in the growth of the British Empire Trinity House is not a government department but is rather an ancient Royal Corporation!
Trinity House has three main functions:
It is the General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, responsible for a range of general aids to navigation, 'signs of the sea', from lighthouses to radar beacons.
It is a charitable organisation dedicated to the safety, welfare and training of mariners.
It is a Deep Sea Pilotage Authority providing expert navigators for ships trading in Northern European waters.
The Corporation also inspects buoys provided by local harbour authorities.
There were old black and white films, predating the use of helicopters, depicting keepers embarking and disembarking from isolated storm tossed houses; some of these films were positively stomach churning. There were full size mock-ups of the insides of the houses and the cramped conditions had to be seen to be believed.
As I mentioned there were lots of archive pictures, films and recordings that showed and described what life was like for those who manned these remote and inaccessible rocks. In particular, the film clips that showed keepers disembarking from and embarking back onto the supply boats that carried them to and from their 2/3 month assignments were amazing, as much for the fact that someone had been able to film them. There was a mock-up of the accommodation section and it was astonishing how tiny this area was. When you think that three men had to live together in this claustrophobic environment for up to three months at a time it’s surprising they didn’t end up killing each other. Apparently the tiny curved bunks were deliberately designed that way in order to prevent people from snoring; it was impossible to sleep on them laid out flat on your back and this was supposed to prevent you from snoring. If anyone reading this is planning to buy and convert an abandoned light-house into a domestic dwelling I strongly suggest you don’t if you’re at all claustrophobic! Deb and Hannah and Nat and I got separated after this; Nat and I continued to explore whilst Deb and Hannah went to the boat pond and played with the boats. Below are the photos and videos of what we did and saw. We met up again the played in the lifeboats/rafts went down to the part of the building that’s underwater and finally took the lift up to the observation deck over looking the harbour where a knowledgeable old sailor told us all about the harbour and the activity taking place in front of us. All in all an amazing experience, especially if like me you know little or nothing about sailing and the sea; yes I did spend 6 weeks a year at the seaside as a child but the people I stayed with weren’t nautically inclined.
After we’d finished in the museum we mooched about outside, had a look at the boats tied up next to it and started to walk back down into the town. Before we did anything else we bought ourselves some more pasties which we ate at the bus stop (mine was Steak and Stilton but I was unimpressed; the one I’d bought the last time we visited was far tastier). While Deb disappeared into a clothes shop with Hannah Nat and I walked on until we reached a phone shop displaying a Nokia N8 in the window. I’d spotted this on our way to the museum and this was a chance to get my hands on one even if it was a model. Nice size, better for my small hands that the iPhone and the more squarish android phones. I was looking forward, immensely, to playing with Hasmukh’s real one when I got back to work. Finally we were back at the bus stop and we set about consuming our pasties. As is common we were immediately surrounded by birds of all sorts but mainly gulls and pigeons. One of the pigeons appeared a little odd and as you might be able to tell from the photos it was missing one leg entirely and the other was only half there. Whatever it battled valiantly for it’s share of the crumbs we were dropping and Stumpy is obviously a little survivor.
Eventually the bus arrived and on the journey back to the car we discovered that we had missed a huge part of Falmouth so that means there will still be something new to see the next time we visit.
We arrived back at the park and Ride and drove away; I still hadn't been able to buy any cheap cider to add to my TinE’s (I like mixing cheap lager and cider – I like the taste of cider but this way the drink’s not too strong) so when we passed an ASDA we stopped to see about dealing with this problem. But the ASDA had none of it’s own brand on the shelves (apparently its being phased out and replaced by another brand I later discovered); so distracted and upset was I at this turn of events that I omitted to purchase the beers I’d also wanted...what a Twat I
Later we watched the new Guy Richie Sherlock Holmes film, better the second time and afterward
I popped over to the bar to see what the Saxophonist was like. Ok but no cash so didn’t stay. Went back to our rooms and watched TV after Deb and the kids had gone to bed. They really need a channel guide on their TV’s!!!
VIDEOS STILL TO BE ADDED FROM YOU TUBE
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