Remembering two tragedies

After breakfast in my room, I had a leisurely start and left Penzance by foot to Mousehole, not pronounced as it is spelt. I walked through the town, heading to nearby Newlyn, which is a proper fishing village. Along the route was a lovely wide promenade and a Lido, cleverly designed to withstand the force of the sea and heated from a geo thermal spring. It’s called Jubilee Pool because it was built to celebrate George V’s Jubilee in 1935. There was a nice old art deco pub opposite, sadly with the parked cars it was not easy to see its full design.

Along the prom, lots of people were walking, and many of them had black Labradors, which was nice as it got me thinking about the one I know who now lives in Oxfordshire, they contacted me today, I might see them next weekend. I carried on into Newlyn, a smaller conurbation with several buildings with a fish themed rectangular mosaic on their front walls, a nod to its fishing heritage which is ongoing. There was a statue to honour all the fishermen who have lost their lives plying their trade in the seas.

There are lots of quaint houses, some with other plaques on them indicating for example painter who moved to the area or some other local interest. There was always plenty to look it. One house had a telephone box repurposed where recycling donations were accepted, these were turned into objects by the house owner I believe. Leaving Newlyn I followed a quiet road onto Mousehole. There were superb views to Penzance and St Michael’s mount. It wasn’t long before we came across a memorial and then saw the old Penlee Lifeboat station now disused but preserved. I remember the tragedy, there was a national appeal, I did donate some money to my local bank at the time.

Further along there were very small allotments, a lot of them derelict. There  was a protective hedge between them and the sea. One person had built this small greenhouse, inside I could see healthy Tomato plants. We then entered Mousehole. It’s a very pretty village with a harbour, there were some expensive restaurants and I was a bit early for the pubs to open. But I found a Pasty and Ice cream parlour and  ordered a  pasty and coffee. Their internet  was down and it was cash  only. After paying, a young family came in and she was short of £2 to pay for ice creams for all of them. As it happened I had that amount as change from my transaction so I gave the mother my change. I think she was shocked. I sat down and enjoyed my lunch.

As I climbed out of the village there was a plaque indicating Mousehole was twinned with the Grenfell tower, it said children from the tower were given holidays in the village to get away from the tower and the trauma. As I read it, there was a young man who came from the Grenfell area and he liked the idea of the twinning. There was a long old climb out of the village, I expected that, luckily the breeze kept me cool.

There were two small villages my return leg was to take me through, one named “Paul”, which was a nice little place with a huge granite church with a tower. The second was called “Trungle” which I thought was an excellent name. It had its own Vinery. The lane back to Newlyn turned right and became very narrow with no obvious passing places for cars. There was a huge field of brassicas, I went to see what they were, huge Broccoli florets on them. Just where I got into Newlyn, there was a huge Methodist church named “Centenary Primitive Methodist Church”. This might have been so named as nearby was one, now a house with the Centenary bit missing off its name. Outside was a donate your home grown vegetables stand, I liked that. There were some very narrow streets leading down to the coast road with attractive small houses either side. I saw a Seamans mission place, built years ago, with a clock tower on top, with a very ornate boat shaped wind vane on top of that. Back along the prom, there was a very strange sauna for those wanting to have one!

I then returned to my room, I think tonight I might give one of the local Thai places a go, I have booked myself into last nights place EZPZ for my last night here for dinner on Thursday.