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Greystone Pool Visitor Information Page 2 Bed and Breakfast accommodation between Looe and Polperro, Cornwall. |
Cornwall
A popular tourism county with a population of around 480,000 located in
the extreme South West of England. The county seat is Bodmin. with many popular towns
such as Liskeard, Fowey, St Ives, Redruth, Cambourne, Penzance, Newquay, Helston.
There are a multitude of small hidden away fishing villages such as Looe, Polperro,
Mevagissey, Padstowe, Mousehole just to name a few. We must not of course forget
Cornwall’s only city, that being the cathedral city of Truro.
Geography
Cornwall is a long peninsula bordered by the English Channel and the Atlantic
Ocean and by Devon. It extreme western promontory is known as Land's End, which is
the same name as the extreme west of Brittany, with which people, the Cornish share
many cultural and historic ties. The region is a low-lying plateau of old igneous
rocks, rising to its greatest height at Brown Willy (1,375 ft/419 m) on Bodmin Moor.
The major rivers are the Tamar, which forms most of the border with Devon, the Fowey,
the Fal, and the Camel.
Industry
Dairy farms and vegetables are raised in the river valleys and Cornwall is
famous for its clotted cream. The highlands are mainly used for sheep and cattle
pastures. The climate is mild and moist, with subtropical vegetation along the southern
coast. Fishing is no longer a major industry but was once the major industry. Engineering,
ship repairing, rock quarrying, and tourism are major industries. Tin and copper
mines were exploited for centuries and were traded to the ancient Greek and Mediterranean
traders. Neither mineral is now found in sufficient quantities to make mining a viable
industry. Tourism is now the prime revenue source of the Cornish industry.
History
Cornwall has a very long and ancient past. It was one of the last independent
Celtic Kingdoms of Britain and was finally conquered by the Saxon’s just prior to
the Norman invasion. The Cornish language which is related to the Welsh and Breton
tongues, died out as a major language in the 18th cent but enough of the language
was preserved to allow it to be revived in the 20th century and there are now several
thousand Cornish speakers. In the 14th century, the county was made a duchy for the
monarch's eldest son and Prince Charles is the current Duke.
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