|
BODMIN 's position on the western edge of Bodmin Moor, equidistant from the north and south Cornish coasts and the Fowey and Camel rivers, encouraged its growth as a trading town. It was also an important ecclesiastical centre after the establishment of a priory by St Petroc, who moved here from Padstow in the sixth century. Later, the town became increasingly sidelined after refusing access to the Great Western Railway in the 1870s, as a result of which much local business transferred down the road to Truro. Bodmin Parkway station lies three miles outside town, with a regular bus connection to the centre. Bodmin's most prominent landmark is the Gilbert Memorial , a 144-foot obelisk honouring a descendant of Walter Raleigh and occupying a commanding location on Bodmin Beacon, a high area of moorland near the centre of town. Below, at the end of Fore Steet, stands St Petroc's , built in the fifteenth century and still the largest church in Cornwall; inside, there's an extravagantly carved twelfth-century font and an ivory casket that once held the bones of the saint, while the southwest corner of the churchyard holds a sacred well. Close by, the notorious Bodmin Jail (Mon-Fri & Sun 10am-5pm, Sat 11am-6pm; GBP3.50) glowers darkly on Berrycombe Road, redolent of the public executions that were once guaranteed crowd-pullers. You can visit part of the original eighteenth-century structure, including the condemned cell and some grisly exhibits chronicling the lives of the inmates. From Parkway it's less than two miles' walk to one of Cornwall's most celebrated country houses, Lanhydrock (April-Sept Tues-Sun 11am-5.30pm; Oct Tues-Sun 11am-5pm; GBP6.80; grounds only GBP3.70; NT), originally seventeenth-c entury but totally rebuilt after a fire in 1881. The granite exterior remains true to its original form, but the 42 rooms show a very different style, including a long picture gallery with a plaster ceiling depicting scenes from the Old Testament, and - most illuminating of all - servants' quarters that reveal the daily workings of a Victorian manor house. The grounds have magnificent beds of magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons, and a huge area of wooded parkland bordering onto the River Fowey.
Your Tip for Bodmin
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Bodmin - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Bodmin - visit the main Bodmin forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Bodmin webguide section below! Thanks.
|
