Before the Railway: How Perran's Iron Ore Reached the Sea
Gravel Hill’s iron mine stood beside the Atlantic. Its ore still travelled about three miles by cart to reach a ship. That awkward journey explains a great deal about this coast.
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From Waterwheel to Railway: The Industrial Landscape Hidden Around Holywell
A wheelpit, a corn mill, coastal mines and competing transport schemes reveal the working landscape behind Holywell’s beach.
Before the Mines: The 10,000-Year History Hidden Between Poly Joke and Holywell
Between Poly Joke and Holywell, flints, burial mounds, imported pottery and cliff castles reveal thousands of years beneath an apparently quiet landscape.
The Holy Well the Cliff Buried: What Was Inside Holywell Cave Before the 2026 Collapse
The August 2026 rockfall hid Holywell’s cave. Its pools, healing traditions and rival inland well tell a history which survives the loss of access.
Seven Bridges, the Smugglers’ Den and the Railway in the Valley
A pub with a tunnel story sits beside a landscape of old mineral routes. The interesting part is working out which connections belong together.
The Railway to Holywell Bay That Never Was
Holywell Bay could have had a railway, pier and harbour. The parliamentary record reveals a serious Victorian proposal—and a coastline that escaped a very different future.
I Went Looking for Cornwall's Smugglers' Tunnels
I remembered a smugglers’ tunnel under a Cornish pub. The records confirmed the building, not the smuggling—and that became the more interesting story.