Padstow

Padstow lies on the Camel Estuary, about 7 miles from Wadebridge. The area is one of considerable natural beauty with beautiful bays, golden beaches and many interesting walks, particularly along the Coastal Footpath. In fact, Padstow is the start of two of the West Country’s most famous long-distance paths: the 17-mile Camel Trail and the 30-mile Saints Way across the peninsula to Fowey.

The site of Padstow was well chosen by its forefathers. For many centuries, Padstow’s sheltered position in a narrow gulley on the western side of the Camel estuary has made it a welcome haven for vessels seeking respite from the perils of the sea. It has the only safe harbour along this stretch of the North Cornwall coast, after the rocks, currents and winds of the river mouth have been negotiated. The town has been settled by many different people over the years including the prehistoric Beaker folk, Romans, Celtic saints and marauding Vikings. However, the silting up of the River Camel in the 19th century created a new hazard for shipping coming in and out of Padstow harbour and the evocatively named Doom Bar, which restricts entry into the estuary mouth, effectively put an end to this ancient settlement continuing as a major port. It is said that the Doom Bar is the result of a mermaid’s curse. The story goes that there was once a merry mermaid who watched over the vessels that went in and out of Padstow. One day, a sailor on a visiting boat shot her. The mermaid’s curse was that the harbour would become desolate from that time on. Shortly after, a great storm came wrecking many of the ships in the harbour and throwing up the sandbank. In 1827 the first lifeboat was stationed at Padstow in an effort to make it safer. However, the silting up also necessitated moving the Padstow lifeboat on to the open sea, at Trevose Head, five miles away. The new RNLI lifeboat station at Padstow was completed in 2006 and the Tamar Lifeboat Spirit of Padstow was placed on service shortly after.

Padstow was originally called Petroc-stow, after the missionary St Petroc. Legend has it that St Petroc, possibly one of the most important of the Cornish saints, arrived from Ireland around AD520 and built a monastery on the hill above the harbour. The son of a Welsh chieftain, St Petroc, like St Francis of Assisi, had a special empathy with animals and according to legend drew the splinter from the eye of a dragon, saved a deer from a hunt and, most spectacularly, rescued a sea monster trapped in a lake. Before moving on to Bodmin Moor to continue his missionary work, St Petroc founded a Celtic monastery here and St Petroc Major Parish Church still bears his name. On his death, St Petroc was buried in Padstow and subsequently, in the 12th century, his bones were transferred to St Petroc’s Church in Bodmin, where they were placed in an ivory casket, which can still be seen today. The present building dates from the 13th and 14th centuries and, as well as the octagonal font of Catacleuse stone carved by the Master of St Endellion, there is a striking Elizabethan pulpit and some rather amusing bench ends, depicting scenes such as a fox preaching to a congregation of geese. The walls are lined with monuments to the local Prideaux family, who still occupy nearby Prideaux Place. Beginning at the door of the church is the Saints Way, a footpath that follows the route taken by travellers and pilgrims crossing Cornwall on their way from Brittany to Ireland.

On the northern outskirts of Padstow (follow the brown signs off the B3276) stands Prideaux Place, a superbly preserved example of an Elizabethan mansion that for over 400 years has been the home of the Prideaux-Brune family. This E-shaped house was completed in 1592, with later additions and alterations in a variety of architectural styles. In the 18th century Edmund Prideaux added the formal Italian gardens, and in 1810 Edmund’s grandson Charles extended and altered the house in the Gothic style, which was fashionable at the time due to the building of Strawberry Hill at Richmond near London. Inside, you’ll find grand staircases and richly furnished rooms full of portraits and with fantastically ornate ceilings, while outside there are the formal gardens, and a deer park affording long views over the Camel estuary. Also in the grounds are a temple, Roman antiquities, a 9th century Cornish cross and the newly restored stables with their plaster coat of arms and two exhibitions - one of old farm equipment, the other of past film location work at the house. Peter O’Toole, Joanna Lumley, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Mel Smith, Ben Kingsley and Richard E Grant have all acted at Prideaux Place.

Tourism arrived in Padstow with the railway in 1899, with the Atlantic Express running a regular service between London and Padstow. Today, Padstow’s harbour and nearby shopping streets throng with visitors throughout the summer who come here to see the narrow alleyways and tightly packed slate hung buildings of the old quarter, which has managed to retain much of its medieval character. There is a regular ferry across the river to Rock (see also Rock), a village that has lately been all but taken over by the young and posh from London. The influence of the sea is never far away in Padstow and, more recently, it has become linked with seafood and the best and most famous of Rick Stein’s gastronomic outlets, well worth the splurge.

Any exploration of Padstow should begin at the town’s focal point, its Harbour, which is now home to a fishing fleet and filled with pleasure boats of all descriptions. Here can be found many of Padstow’s older buildings including, on the South Quay, Raleigh’s Cottage where Sir Walter Raleigh lived when he was Warden of Cornwall, and the minute Harbour Cottage. Raleigh’s Court House, where he collected the taxes and dues, stands close by beside the river. A popular attraction here is the National Lobster Hatchery, a centre filled with information about lobsters; visitors can see lobsters developing from an egg, still attached to a female, into a juvenile ready to be released into the wild. On North Quay is the 15th century Abbey House, now a private residence but once a meeting place for local merchants.

Padstow is famed for its May Day celebrations, the origins of which go back to pagan times. Beginning at midnight on the eve of May Day and lasting throughout May 1, the people of Padstow follow the Obby Oss, - a man in a black frame-hung cape and wearing a groteseque mask - around the streets of the town. It is one of the oldest May Day traditions in Europe and consists of much singing, dancing and general merry making.