A week in to our Cornish adventure, we were celebrating the hubby’s birthday. Not sure how he, so often, manages to be on holiday for his birthday 🤔. He had hoped to play golf with my Brother, but we had had some rain making the course a bit boggy and more was forecast for today ☔️😢. So lucky man that he is, I took him to another of my to do list places, the Lost Gardens of Heligan.
My Brother and Sister in Law were all gardened out, but fortunately for me, the hubby is quite happy to indulged me and we set off with our wet weather gear in the boot 👍.
Oh my, what a joyous place. The 200-acre Heligan Estate has been owned by the Tremayne Family for over 400 years. It was originally a thriving, almost self-sufficient community. After World War 1, having lost nine staff members in battle, Heligan House was rented out and in the 1970s converted to flats and sold off. It left the remaining Estate and Gardens, separate and somewhat abandoned although still owned by the Tremayne Family.
In 1990, John Willis a descendant of the family, rediscovered the gardens and introduced an archaeologist, Tom Smit to the land. His curiosity helped uncover the “Lost” gardens and restore it to its former glory. It became Europe’s largest garden restoration project.
Twenty to thirty years of overgrowth was cut back uncovering priceless veteran plant species. Traditional gardening practices were re introduced, with out buildings and greenhouses resurrected and put back into use.
Discovered in one collapsed building, was a thunderbox room. (an outdoor toilet used by the gardeners) and on its walls faint pencil signatures, dated August 1914. The team vowed that the restoration would be undertaken as a tribute to these working people. Some of these names were later discovered on the local parish war memorials and in 2013 the Imperial War Museum registered the Thunderbox Room as a “Living Memorial.
The restoration team has done a wonderful job. There is so much to see. We took the woodland walk and discovered the giants head and mud maid sculptures, sisters to the one we’d seen at the Eden Project, but took three attempts to find the grey lady, hiding under one of the trees.
Whilst it was still a little damp it seemed prudent to make our way to the jungle walk. Finding another rope bridge, we crossed and we’re immersed into the deep leafy foliage. The huge plants and boggy pond made for a humid atmosphere.
The paths took us passed pigs snuffling in the ground and up towards the cafe, where inevitably Cornish Pasties were on offer. It would be rude not to 🤷♀️.
The grounds around the cafe were filled with an array of dahlias. Beautiful, so many vibrant colours, lit up the garden against the grey skies. We sat for a while, unsuccessfully bird watching from one of the hides, before continuing our journey through theses gorgeous gardens.
More livestock, woodland pathways and a vast vegetable patch greeted us, before we discovered the infamous “Thunder Box”. An unusual but lovely memorial to the Estate gardeners, who lost their lives in battle.
Having dodged the rain, we had a fabulous afternoon discovering the various gardens within the Estate. The hubby enjoyed his birthday treat 🥳 and he still had a curry to look forward to in the evening 🍺
Cornwall at War Museum: was the final destination on our to do list. Back up North of the county, the sat nav took us through some dodgy winding lanes, but we arrived unscathed.
The gent in the ticket office, greeted us by asking how many old git tickets we required. 🤣🤣 I’m not too proud to admit to being an old git and accept a discount.
Now wandering through war memorabilia is not everyone’s idea of a good day out, but this museum is amazing. From the hilarious greeting at the front desk, the soldier on guard duty, through to the party at the officers mess, it is so much fun.
The vision of one man to turn an old airfield into this amazing store of memories has been an incredible, but successful lifetime journey. A collection of equipment, clothes and musical instruments from all three services fill several warehouses, before you head outside to find a yellow submersible, a tank and an armoured vehicle.
A vast hanger houses restored aircraft, more vehicles and memorabilia. The hubby was taken back to his REME days, as some of the vehicles were still used during his army career. A party was in full swing as we wandered through the officers mess and the hubby recalled having to be a waiter at some of these events.
There was a Nissen hut and an Anderson shelter, where we listened to air raid warnings over the radio. The message and the loud bangs made you understand how terrifying these days would have been. It’s so sad the World hasn’t learned the lessons from these times.
Even without the old gits discount, this is a great afternoon out. Lots to see, for us bringing back some memories, but for everyone keeping the knowledge of war time life alive.
We completed the afternoon with a visit to The Hole In The Wall, an old debtors prison, converted into a small but fascinating pub 🍻
On our final day we were celebrating our sister in laws birthday 🥳. She fancied a solo shopping trip into Falmouth, so we let her wander through the shops for a few hours before meeting her for a scrumptious cream tea in the sunshine. There was of course the usual debate of jam or cream first 🤔 and as always no one won.
To avoid arguments we explored a bit more of Falmouth, enjoyed a pint overlooking the harbour, before heading “home” for a birthday Chinese take away.
What a fantastic 10 days it had been. We had explored, North, South, East and West of this gorgeous County, visiting all the places, and more, on our wish list.
But our adventure wasn’t done. As my brother and sister in law headed home, we took the road North to Bristol, where the Besties were heading West to meet us.