Midcornwall.com is slowing down for three weeks.

We are very busy with various things and projects and trips over the next three weeks so there may be fewer posts. Unless anyone else wants to write a post, just email it to me using the link on the left, underneath the heart. I'll put anything up me.

If anyone is interested in optimizing their website I'm writing a series of easy-to-follow posts on Search Engine Optimsation (SEO) over here.

Get The Black Panthers Out Of St Austell Now!

There are not enough black people in St Austell. Its not that black people are better or worse but rather that in this age there is something amiss with communities that are whiter than your average Caucasian. I think they call it parochial?




I have wanted St Austell to have more black people fore a long while but not like the recent influx of militant "Black Panthers", as this article alerts. I dont wnat the BNP here and I dont want the Black panthers. Cant we have some balance!

Review: St Austell Brewery Tribute Beer Battered Chips

You know how it is, you have had a hard week playing Xbox 360 and getting your keys sticky when that 16.30 time comes and you need to head to the pub for a bit of reality and second-hand smoke.

And so, there we were. Seven of us, drinking beer, talking about the chicks, well, hens and that kind of thing.

Then the impasse comes..... we play the quiz machine.. twiddle our thumbs... and we all start feeling hungry. So we order some chips.

But not just any chips. These babies are new and these babies are special. The pub has the big-mini-billboards on every table:




We order two lots. They arrive. Shalom Pomme Frites!

When you expect something extraordinary and it comes and you realize that its not what you expected, there is a sinking feeling in your soul. Marriage, anal sex, holidays, freinds, fun, they all let you down when it comes to expectations. And with the St Austell Brewery Tribute Beer Battered Chips we all felt this.

Where is the batter?

Where is the beer?

Here are the chips!

And what chips they are! It dawned on us, as we munched our pint glasses full of chips, that they were exceptionally good chips. They might not be as distinct as the concept would suggest but they rock when it comes to the ranking of chips. Dont get waylaid by some traditional beer battering going on, these things are made with the help of the oven chip mafia, McCains.... but made so well....

Sensing we were munching something that was in the higher echelons of the chip fraternity we decided that these chips needed a good, hard, impartial review. We voted. We commented and this was our verdict:

8,7,9,8.5,8,8,7

Whats that on average? 8 out of 10?

If any pub in the country has better chips than these, make me a hat out of them and I'll eat it.

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This post has been brought to you by Eden Taxis: quality and reliable Taxis for the St Austell and Mid Cornwall area: Call 01726 66600 or Book Online at www.edentaxis.com

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Ryan, I'm going to take you down to China Town.

Ryan, I'm going to take you down to China Town.

How many cocks are there in Cornwall!!!

Three weeks ago we decided to get rid of our chickens... I put this advert in the blog and at about the same time my domestic assistant put an advert in the Cornish Guardian.

A day or so later I advertised the chickens in the COAST email newsletter and, as this post notes, I was inundated.

Last Thursday Pete’s dog, or maybe a fox, ate one of the chickens, leaving one to a good home.

On Sunday we gave the last of its kind to Paul. A good home, in the country, where a loved hen should be.

My lasting memory of owning chickens isn’t waving good by to the little lady in it’s rustic idyll, it will be the blitzkrieg of phone calls I have had today about the fricking chickens. The Cornish Guardian went live and dropped a hen-bomb on my telephone. By 8.00 am when the first call came in, I thought the impact would be minor: a small crater in my day’s time, of an equivalent magnitude to say, a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses turning up at your door, or a kettle breaking. But no, this was a big one.

I started off all nice, but as the dawn grew into the morning my mood with these… these… these lunatics changed. I became colder and shorter until, by midday, I was answering the phone, “Hello the chickens are gone!” in one prolonged breath.

It gets worse. By the late afternoon I was a zen-like automaton. Almost composed…Until I went through the answer machine. It was full to its digital brim.

I started deleting messages laboriously. Press 1 press 3. Press 1 press…..

And as I was this zombie, I thought, “But they will keep calling. And this will get full again….”

And so I stopped.

I left a silly message for the callers,

And left the phone off the hook.

Be very very careful selling hens in Cornwall.

Great Restormel Roast Review: The Hewas Inn: GRRR#9

As pub names go the Hewas Inn is up there with the best. Most people think that it is called the Hewas Inn because of its original owner. He was so used to explaining to mining wives about their errant husbands, ergo, "He was in," that to save time and boost productivity the pub became known as the "He was inn." This was supposedly shortened, in 1932, to "The Hewas Inn".

Myth or Legend?

This is a myth that doesn't seem to be able to be laid to rest. Regular readers of this blog will know to expect top-notch investigative local journalism and, yes, we have done it again in this case. Abandon your falsehoods, here is the truth: near to Sticker, where the Hewas Inn is located, is a small hamlet/car dealership called "Hewaswater" and the name of the Hewas Inn comes from that. You heard it here first.

But enough of this pub etymology, the question on everyone's lips, the buzz on the streets of Sticker is "Just how good are the roasts at the Hewas Inn?"

The Roasts

Asking around, as so often we do before donning our "we are just a bunch of folk out for a casual Sunday lunch" disguises, the consensus is that the Hewas Inn is a good pub that serves good food. Nonetheless, we needed to infiltrate.

Six adults, 5 kids and one imaginary friend went. We booked in the morning and arrived for 12. The initial welcome was great and the service remained really good and prompt throughout the luncheon experience.

Pros:

• Roasts with the Most - When historians come to right about the best pub roast potatoes in Restormel and its environs, the Hewas Inn should get at least a paragraph, perhaps even an entire section
• Beef - the beef was good. Perhaps a tad dry but very tasty.
• The Gravy - Since starting these reviews we have all gone through a transcendental, nay, ephiphanic, metamorphosis when it comes to our understanding of gravy. To most people gravy is a brown meaty liquid of a certain viscosity. But to us, to those who have wandered in the wilderness of roasts, gravy is more, so much more. It is the unifying substrate that gels that which was sentient with that which was vegetable. And the gravy at the Hewas Inn, was super-double-duper.
• Mushy peas - a true outsider in the GRRR field, but the inclusion of mushy peas that were really yummy was a winner all round.
  

Cons:

• The Pork consumers felt that thought delightful, the crackling was not as crackling it could be.
  

Conclusion and Scores


All of us eating there had eaten at the current best roast pub, The Western Inn, as well as a number of other GRRR pubs. While the kids were playing the fruit machines we did have a discussion about what was best between the two pubs. There was no point of unanimous agreement and, at the end of the day, its a close close call, but on the scores alone the Hewas comes out second to The Western.


The Hewas Inn is a very friendly pub with great service and great roasts. Respect.



GRRR Score: 7.9/10 (7,7.5,7,8,7.5)

1^st The Western Inn, St Austell – 8/10

2^nd The Hewas Inn, Sticker – 7.9/10

3^rd The Dolphin, St Austell – 7.5/10

4^th The Britannia Inn, St Austell – 7/10

5^th The Polgooth Inn, Polgooth – 6/10

6^th The Royal Oak, Lostwithiel - 5.5/10

7^th The Ship Inn, Pentewan - 5/10

8^th The White Pyramid, Trewoon - 4.5/10

9^th The Ship Inn, Leryn – 4/10

Hewas In, .Sticker - 01726 73497

St Austell Woolworths in Racist Packing Tape Fiasco.

I was just in St Austell. I purchased a delightfully tasty coronation chicken sandwich from Smorger's and then proceeded to Woolworths where I knew I could find some packing tape.

£2.50 for a roll.

I checked to see if it was the diamantee packing tape, but it wasn't, it was bog standard. I decided not to purchase it until I had checked out "Ye Old" Evans Home Hardware at the top of the market house.

The same size roll, 99p!

In some posts on midcornwall.com there is a message, in others, there is not. In this one there is this message: Don't shop at local shops because you feel that you are helping the little guy fight off the corporate juggernaut, shop local because its cheaper - at least for packing tape.

Evanas Home Hardware, "We salute you". 01726 73777

If you think that the St Austell Town redevelopment is going bad, spare a thought for our brethren...

From www.boingboing.net

Free. Awesome. Try Desktop Earth

I don't normally blog about tech things on this blog, but this one deserves a special mention methinks. Its called Desktop Earth: you download it, install it and it puts a real time image of the entire earth on your Windows desktop. You can see whats night and whats day and whats cloudy all as a lifelike image that changes.

Its totally free and well worth a try.You can download here.

St Austell's Most Interesting Company Pull a Mooner

Way back when people were still driving cars that ran on petrol and getting high on mellow yellow the United Nations decided it might be nice to get some kind of grip on the cosmos. So they signed a treaty, and the treaty has a name, and like space, the name of this treaty is big. In fact its so BIG that I wasn't initially going to publish it due to bandwidth considerations... But here goes, its called the :

"Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies".

From now on we will just see the far shorter version, the TOPGTAOSITEAUOOSITMAOCB. You can read the full text of the treaty here. As space treaties go, its a cracker - print of the PDF and take it on holiday.

"He could sell the moon to an astronaut."

Anyway, the TOPGTAOSITEAUOOSITMAOCB had a loop hole in that it didn't initially prohibit individuals making claim to parts of outer space... so in 1980 an American by the name of Denis Hope decided he would claim the moon and elsewhere. He sent a letter to the UN, USA and the USSR and said he was claiming all non-Terran surfaces in the solar system. He gave them the chance to respond, they didn't. Its a moot point to say that he really does own the moon, but its never been challenged. Even if it was , in the UK at least, there isn't the legal framework to accommodate the challenge. (It reminds me very much of Sealand which I blogged about a while back on salted.net )

Slice of Venus

Moonestates.com are based in lil' ol' snozzle but most people don't know they are there, I didn't until last week. In 2000 this local company purchases the exclusive rights from Denis Hope to sell in plots on the moon the UK. So if you were to try to sell the Moon yourself , you would get a pretty heavy weight Cease and Desist, by all accounts.

If its legal or not nobody can really say, but I have been thinking about the more important moral question:

Are they ripping you off?


Its true that they are selling you something that, in the clear bounds of sense, they don't really own. But equally you know that when you buy it unless your really quite distant from reality (they do offer a 30 day refund). Moonestates.com been written about in the press, on Watchdog, interviewed by Patrick Moor and on and on... and it seems the most of the world gets the concept and its nebulousness. There is always an exception, however and its often the same trouble makers: that's right, the Astronomer Royal is back to his old tricks; kicking up fuss and stirring the moon-soup. He pressured the Office of Fair trading to investigate and they did, but couldn't find that Moon Estates were doing anything illegal etc.

My Concerns are Universal

It might seem all good... but... I'm a little bit troubled about their claims as to the location, location, location of the plots they sell, and the quality. When buying from Moon Estates you're at a purchase disadvantage. If they are advertising "wonderful crater-side location with astounding view of Sinus Roris," you cannot really know if you're being sold some craggy escarpment on the Dark Side of The Moon. I'm not saying they are unscrupulous, but as with any property deal, take the steps and do your searches.

Oh Lairrd, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz

As well as the Moon, Venus, Mercury, (ED - Try to come up with a gag here, this part of the post is not so funny) and Pluto, the Moon Estates people also sell a very small patch of the Scottish Highlands for a very small amount of money. Once you own this you can naturally call yourself Laird or Lady of Kincavel. The legal plausibility of this is far stronger than the moon but again, has never been tested in court, as far as I am aware. They also sell shares in other things like singles shares in football clubs or Caburies chocolates.

You could make a million arguments supporting the ridiculousness of what Moon Estates does, and they would probably all be valid. But isn't it all pointless? Isn't every purchase, every claim to property, every spec of ownership that dots humanities meaningless meandering through the futile corridors of history just like buying a slice of the moon?

Take Away Menus For St Austell

In this post a couple of nights ago I said how frustrating it is to get a Take Away in St Austell. I went around to the take aways yesterday, got their menus and their permission to put them up on Midcornwall.com. So you need never be caught in a maelstrom of takeaway confusion again:

St Austell Take Away Menus Online and 5% Discount

The page is very rough right now. Also I think it would be great if we could have for Truro, so if anyone wants to help out with that please drop me an email.

Update: If when you ring up to order from the stated Take Aways you mention "midcornwall.com" you will get 5% discount:)

Investigating Mebyon Kernow: Part Three - In Looe with no payment, Part Two

"Been galavantin' down west, 'av he?"

"I've been doing some research, yes." I sat in the darkness, my eyes flicking between him and the "muscle" he had brought with him. I had been waiting there, on the bench, for an hour. Drizzling. Cold. The Meber and his monkey were later than I would normally wait. I stood up from the bench and offered my hand to the contact. He turned, I think just to check that his security was there, and he held out his hand to shake mine. His fingers had the cold dampness of a man who has killed more than once.

The monkey stood beside me.

"So... what is it you wanna know?" the contact asked. As he waited for my answer, I reached into my jacked to get out my notepad. Ummmph! My face was being pushed up hard against the back of the bench and my arm, close to snapping off, was being compressed into my back. I was suddenly in the middle of a rather impromptu fracas. I thought fast. Should I Tai Chi their asses into oblivion or plead and beg and negotiate. Remembering that I only did Tai Chi for one summer, nearly twenty years ago, I began to beg...

Some moments of begging later...

"Sorry about that Chester; he thought you were going for a gun." The monkey was standing well back now and gave a thuggish shrug. I looked at him with that faux sternness of a man who feels safe, rather than dominant, in a dangerous situation. Regaining some composure and slightly less dignity, I started to take notes.

"Can I ask about how you got into Mebyon Kernow?" I asked.

"No, you cannot."

"Can I ask about the history of MK?"

"The first rule of MK is - you do not talk about MK." His voice was commanding. "The second rule of MK is - you DO NOT talk about MK". His gimp nodded in sage agreement.

"OK."

"So what can we talk about?"

"Anything but MK." He could see I was getting irked at his responses. I didn't know how to play it. What with the Nanpean wookie and my general fear of how tough MK could get, I wasn't holding too many cards to play.

"So... you knew I wanted to talk to you about MK. Don't you think it would have been fair for you to tell me about the first and second rule of MK before I drove thirty miles and waited over an hour for you?"

"You want to know what's not fair, Chester? I'll tell you what's not fair..." He turned to the muscle and nodded that he should go and sit in the car. We waited. When we both heard the car door shut, the MK contact asked me if I was prepared to go off the record. Strictly. I thought for a moment about my responsibility to pass on the truth and weighed this against my life-long curiosity about MK. Truth is a beguiling mistress, but often her perfume stinks of falsehood.

"You can't tell me then, I'm sorry. I cant go off the record on this. " I said, not sure if I made the right choice. He nodded, and I think in his eyes I got a little bit more respect.

"It's time for me to go. But I like you Chester. I'll be in touch."

"Thanks for meeting me," I said, trying not to sound like a pussycat. He started walking and I plucked up the courage to interject into his departure.

"Can I know your name, at least?" I asked. He stopped in his tracks and slowly turned just enough for his head to be facing me.

"I am a friend of Tresozee."

Part Four - Tresozee's Dark Header, will be published shortly.

How hard can it be?

19.17 - My cousin Tom is staying over tonight so we thought we would get a takeaway. We didn't have any menus and I wasn't sure what was available. So, using the full power of the internet, I got some local takeaway numbers, I think I got them all.

Half an hour later...

We are going to wait until my domestic assistant comes home then we are going to ASDA.

Great Restormel Roast Review: The White Pyramid, Trewoon: GRRR#8

It was the White Pyramid, then The Bell and, as of last Monday, it is going back to the White Pyramid. So when we 8 adults and 2 kids ate at it on Sunday for the GRRR it was the Bell but now its the White Pyramid. If that makes sense.


In its time the White Pyramid has had various varied functions. A local pub, a restaurant, I even remember going to a drugless rave there in 1990 (Aciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid!); it ended at 11 with a fight in the carpark. Classy.

Inside the pub is dingy and unwelcoming - its not far from atmospheric but something with the insides isn't quite right. It has that mess hall feeling that wouldn't be too hard to remedy. As a building its fantastic, big spaces and a big space. So much potential. Before we get into the gristle of the review, it should be said that the White Pyramid has only been under management for 3 weeks and, though the review may not be the roseyest, there are caveats at the end that we all felt need mention.

Sunday, Sunday Bloody Sunday


At every stage there was issue. They couldn't give us separate bills. They wern't sure if they could fit us in. We were left waiting at the bar for a long while. We were left waiting at the table even longer. It went on and on. The roast menu looked pretty good. Two courses for £7.95. They brought round some rolls before we ordered, a nice touch at the time - with hindsight essential sustenance. Most of us had starters and they were good, especially the prawn cocktails. But the timing was all wrong and, even after a fair few "where is the food?" requests the wait went on... and on....


When the kids meal eventually came we were all a bit shocked that they thought they could get away with charging £4.50 for it. Thats allot for a kids meal especially when it looks a little something like this:

The veggie burger was so bad it got sent back, and a full refund was given - which is good. There is a huge difference between a pub or restaurant that messes up and accounts for it and one that doesn't

The Roast

We arrived at the pub at 13.00 and by 14.30 the roasts had started arriving. We were on the cusp of a walk out, but, we felt that would be letting your down dear readers. And so, with a stoic resolution, we waited until the end. It doesn't really matter what the roasts were like after such a wait and debacle. They could have been the best roast in the world but they would have been tainted by the bitter bile of tardy service.

Pros

• Very good value at £7,.95 for two courses.
  
• Nice Baps!

Cons

• There was no beef.
• The roast was late.
• Expensive and scraggy kid's meals.
  

Conclusion and Scores

They weren't the best roasts in the world but with hindsight they weren't THAT bad, so these scores should be taken as lower than if we weren't all so annoyed. I rated mine a 6 and the others:

4,4,5,3,3,6,5,6

1^st The Western Inn, St Austell – 8/10

2^nd The Dolphin, St Austell – 7.5/10

3^rd The Britannia Inn, St Austell – 7/10

4th The Polgooth Inn, Polgooth – 6/10

5th The Royal Oak, Lostwithiel - 5.5/10

6th The Ship Inn, Pentewan - 5/10

7th The White Pyramid, Trewoon - 4.5/10

8th The Ship Inn, Lerynn – 4/10

We got a bum deal, they got a bum deal, everyone got a bum deal. It was a nightmare roast for all concerned. But It wouldn't be fair to leave it at that.

The staff and management really were apologetic and took all effort to explain the mishaps and lateness. I have every confidence that when this pub can get into its own flow - and all that jazz - that it could be a really top pub and restaurant.

These reviews would be meaningless if we weren't as impartial and objective as possible. It is hard to give the White Pyramid 4.5 because I have a hunch that if you eat there your experience and your roast will be much much higher.

So please, ignore this review and check it out yourself - and really do comment on the roast in the post if you do. Click to Add Comment.

Would I eat there again?

Yes, I would love to give them another go. But now I'm paranoid that if you give a bad review you have to be very very careful if you will eat there again: "Waiter... I say old boy... this horseradish is very salty..."

The White Pyramid: 01726 68047

Don't ever sell chickens on the COAST

I am a member of COAST, Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project. I joined COAST for one reason and one reason only: because I liked they way their name wasn't an ACRONYM, but almost was. So anyway, COAST help out with sustaining tourism in the area buy building more parks and boating lakes, with ducks. There is a mailing list in COAST that you can use to mail everyone in the COAST network.

I have used it once or twice before, to punt this blog or something, and never got any real response. Today I used it to try to get rid of the chickens mentioned in this post and I have been inundated, absolutely inundated, by people offering to take me chucks off me. They were gone in like, fifteen minutes, to another man called Paul but not the Paul from Saturday night.

Please, for the mother of god, the chickens are gone!!!

Review: The Taj Mahal Restaurant St Austell

The Taj Mahal, or "Taj" as it is known locally, is an Indian restaurant in Mount Charles. It has been there for nearly two decades, and in those two decades myself and many others I know have eaten there. The consensus has always been, its a good Indian. You don't really hear bad things about it, whereas over a restaurant close by you often hear bad vibes being spoken.

Its Not Cricket

We booked a table for 8.30, and accounting for the time difference we arrived at three in the afternoon. This was a mistake; Indian restaurants all use the same time zone as England. Returning at the 8.30pm GMT we were met by a real energy as we walked in. The restaurant was packed. People were leaving with takeouts. And the waiters were instantly and genuinely, friendly.

The decor of The Taj is the Anglgo-Asian kitsch that's so authentic for British Indian restaurants. The rattan screens and the hand painted murals are right off the cover of a Bollywood Mills and Boon. Class or cack, its the real deal.

Pompadom Pompido

With Kingfisher on tap at a restaurant-reasonable £3.20 a pint, the beer side of the evening was covered. My domestic assistant also joined me with the aforementioned ale. To start the ball rolling we took in some popadom and pickles. These can range from really uninspired to so tasty that they make you not want your starter. Last night the popdoms were good. And for those who don't know: the POLITE way to break the popodoms is for the woman who first sat down to do it, using the back knuckle of her right hand.

The Onion Router

The onion bhaji at the Taj stands out as kings among bhaji. They were light and golden with crispy tendrils of batter that seemed more like tempura than the normal onion stodge in batter that we were expecting. Probably the best bhaji I, or my domestic assistant, have ever had.

The Phall of Man

I make no bones about it, I will challenge anyone to a curry eating contest. If there was an Olympic event for it, I'd try for the English team. I have beaten the entire country of Sri Lanka in terms of curry challenges - they are pussies - and I have eaten the world's hottest curry. It is the only achievement I can say I am proud of (thinking about it, that might be my only achievement). So when I order a Phall in an Indian restaurant I generally feel that I will be operating merely in Bombay Bad Boy/ lower-Vindaloo territory.

I told the waiter I wanted a Phall extra hot:

"Make you sweat?"
"Make me cry."

I think the best way to capture the experiences is with this scan of my notebook:

Goodness Gracious Proper Job


This is a romper stomping Indian that, like a good sound system, delivers at the low and high end of the frequency scale. The Phall was godly in taste and fire and we really enjoyed all else too. The buzz in the place lasted all night and we left with real smiles at the end.

We got a taxi home from a man who claimed to be called Paul. I cannot guarantee that that really was his name, but I can guarantee that he enthused with us about how good the Taj is, as do, so he claims, many of his passengers. Can we trust him on this? I'm not sure but I am sure that the Taj is a quality Indian. And its opposite my old school...

Telephone: 01726 73716

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This post has been brought to you by Holly House Bed and Breakfast St Austell, Cornwall.

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Investigating Mebyon Kernow, Part Three - In Looe with no payment, Part One.

Part One of Investigating Mebyon Kernow is published here, Part two here.

My first proper meeting took place two months ago in a lay-by near Grampound Road. I had had some contact with a member of the Laddock Trern - I don't know how high he was in the Trern and it seems they like to keep rank very hidden from outsiders. I took my Dictaphone, camera , note pad and a real keenness to get as much information on MK as possible.

The meeting was set for ten pm. I parked up at ten to, and waited, sitting with the sound of Five Live just louder than the patter of rain on my car. At the exact appointed time, the minibus drove in and parked up. It was old and in need of painting or scraping. I sat, focused. Scared but focused. The lights of the minibus flashed once. It was a small flash, almost like a blink. I reacted instantly and flashed back. Back at me, an infinitesimal blink of light that signalled we were to meet. I got out of my car, pulling my collar around me to shelter from the rain.

Asberger's

As I walked to the other end of the lay-by I could see him leaning over to the passenger door and popping it. I pulled it open enough for me to lean in. He looked at me straight in the face and then scanned me up and down. He spoke, stubbing his rollie into the ashtray.

"You need MK?" he said, his voice muffled. I nodded. "Get in then."

With another nod in the darkness, I entered, sat on the damp PVC seat and closed the door. For a few moments we sat in silence, the only sound the occasional car that went past on the other side of the hedgerow.

“Right, so what do he want?” he asked me, his accent thick and agitated. I thought for a moment and told him, trying to stay relaxed even though I was quite on edge. “I would like to find out about Mebyon Kernow”.

He looked at me quizzically and then looked down at the Dictaphone in my hand.

"Get out of the bus! Go on..." he started swearing at me then and, fearing for my life, I got out of the bus quite quickly. I walked across the car park, and he drove off before I had reached my car. In the moonlight, I could make out "Lords Taverners" displayed on the side of the bus. (Similar to the Freemasons and the Knights Templars, the Lord's Taverner's have occult connections with Mebyon Kernow.)
Part Three - In Looe with no payment, Part Two, will be published shortly.

Chickens and Ark to a good home

Not really sure what this blog is, but right about now its a Poultry Distribution portal. We have 2 chickens and a wooden ark, free to a good home/ farmstead. Drop me a mail if this sounds like the kind fowl play you would like to be involved in. etc etc

Cornwall Factoids: St Piran's Day

Artist's Impression

One of these factoids is wrong. The 5th of March is St Piran's day. The cool thing about St Piran from a Cosmo Cornish point of view is that he wasn't Cornish. St Piran, was Oirish and educated in Rome. When he arrived in Cornwall they couldn't understand him. He couldn't understand them. He founded his first "mini monastry" at Perran. As well of the patron saint of Cornwall he is the Patron Saint of Miners and Tinners. At Saint School in Rome, Pirran was voted "most likely to be cannonised". The black and white St Piran's flag is supposed to represent the veins of tin in the black hearthstone about which St Piran made his metallurgic rediscovery. Tin had been mined in Cornwall since pre-roman times, but the knowledge was lost until St Piran. One of his arms is said to be buried in Exeter Cathedral.

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