Friday, 14 February 2014
Ann E Brockbank Novelist : Poldhu Cove, Cornwall -The perfect beach side offi...
Ann E Brockbank Novelist : Poldhu Cove, Cornwall -The perfect beach side offi...: Poldhu Cove Beach Café, where better to sit and enjoy the wonderful view, good food and lovely staff. A perfect place to find ins...
Poldhu Cove, Cornwall -The perfect beach side office
Poldhu Cove Beach Café, where better to sit and enjoy the wonderful view, good food and lovely staff. A perfect place to find inspiration for my second novel.
Poldhu Cove Beach is a small, west-facing beach on the Lizard Peninsula in south west Cornwall and one of my favourite. Nestling in a sheltered cove, protected by cliffs, this National Trust owned beach is a popular family beach, offering everything you could need for a wonderful day out. The beach is well used both in the summer and winter months, providing good waves for surfing and body boarding all year round.
On the 12th December 1901, Italian
physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in sending the first
radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean ,
disproving detractors who told him that the curvature of the earth would limit
transmission to 200 miles or less. The message, simply the Morse-code signal
for the letter "s", travelled more than 2,000 miles from Poldhu in Cornwall , England ,
to Newfoundland , Canada .
From that pioneering first
transatlantic radio signal we now benefit from broadcasting to
satellite communications, mobile phones, broadband, and of
course the World Wide Web. We have a lot to thank Guglielmo and of
course Poldhu for being at the forefront of it all.
~~~~~~~~~~
Poldhu Cove has been a haven for holidaymakers, and at one time cars were even allowed on the beach. Fortunately this practice was banned in 1987.
This photo is courtesy of the National Trust, though no one knows of the approximate date this photo was taken.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At one time it was a common practice
for local farmers to quite legally remove sand from the beach. This
ancient right ‘for the betterment of the land’ was probably sustainable when
all they had was a bucket, shovel and horse and cart. But by the 1990s,
there were regularly fleets of trucks on the foreshore being loaded up by JCB,
this unsustainable practice was fortunately stamped out in
2007.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1987 when the cars were banned
from the beach the National Trust embarked on a ‘Dune stabilisation project’. Marram grass was planted, which
is tolerant of salt, wind and drought, binds the dunes together with a network
of tough exploratory roots, and timber posts were installed, helping the dunes
to form naturally. This enabled windblown sand, to be trapped amongst the
vegetation, making the dunes grow. This also encourages rare and unusual
plants such as sea knot grass and sea holly to grow amongst the grasses.
Not only do the dunes look
lovely but they have an amazing ecosystem, rich in wildlife and provide a
natural defence against the ravages of storms and high winds.
When huge waves, breached the dunes in early February, it washed a good deal of the beach onto the seating area of Poldhu Café, but, the National Trust have been working swiftly to redistribute the sand back to where it came from.
So, all will be well again soon, the beach will recover, though it may take some time, but Cornwall is wild and wonderful, and I hope someday everyone comes down to Poldhu Cove and enjoy the view whilst sipping a cappuccino. Nothing, not wind, rain, hail or storm, would stop me from visiting this inspirational place. Besides I have another book to finish writing, and you can't write books without coffee and inspiration.
Read my first novel Mr de Sousa's Legacy - A Cornish Love Story which is available from
Poldhu Beach Café
Also available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle form
From Waterstones Truro, Cornwall and all UK Waterstones by Stock Transfer.
Take a look at the Webcam of Poldhu for your daily fix of a Cornish beach
www.seasidecottagescornwall.co.uk/webcam.html
www.seasidecottagescornwall.co.uk/webcam.html
Ann E Brockbank is currently writing her second novel, follow her on
Twitter @AnnEBrockbank1
And Facebook
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)