National Trust Properties

I was only in Plymouth for two and a half days, but managed to squeeze in three widely spaced and lovely National Trust properties: the world heritage listed mining sites at Camborne in Cornwall, Trelissick Gardens alongside the head of the Fal estuary (on which Falmouth stands), and La Ronde just out of Exeter on the Exe estuary. I attach three pictures, one from each property, an injustice to complex variegated destinations.

During the 18th century, Cornwall was a technological powerhouse (pun intended) where advances in energy technology fuelled the early industrial revolution. We saw, for example steam driven winding gear for raising men and ores from great depth, and steam driven pumps to extract water from very deep (500 m) holes in the ground. Cornwall is littered with sites of industrial archaeology, especially around Camborne and nearby Redruth, and some have been restored to something like working order. The conditions faced by the miners were atrocious by today's standards, even with the availability of steam power refined by people like Richard Trevithick.

A million miles away in refinement are the gardens at Trelissick - the sort of thing the POMS do very well. The gardens surround an impressive mansion closed to the public, but are themselves wonderful to stroll through in peace and tranquillity. Interestingly, the Fal river was hiding a whole of large vessels redundant in recessionary times - vehicle transports and that kind of thing.

Finally, La Ronde was built by two women in the 18th century after they returned from a very long Grand Tour of Europe's greatest cities. The certainly had imagination, because the building is Octagonal! It's also very quirky inside with libraries and storage for all their momentos hidden away in strange hiding places, and often peculiar decorations - many made of sea-shells.

AS