Padstow, Cornwall
Padstow is an extremely old and important Cornish port situated on the edge of the River Camel estuary sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean. Padstow reputedly dates back to pre Roman times but it was not until 518 AD, when the monk St Petroc arrived on the shores from Ireland bringing with him his missionary work and to start a Celtic Illan. St Petroc stayed in Padstow for almost 30 years before moving to Bodmin until 564 AD when he died. St Petroc was buried in Padstow’s monastery but when the town was ransacked in 981 AD by the Vikings, the monks took his remains to Bodmin which became a shrine to his memory and even today his remains can be seen in an ivory casket at St Petroc’s Church.
Today, Padstow is an incredibly popular resort for tourists and has become even more famous thanks to celebrity chef Rick Stein, who seems to own almost half the town shops. Indeed in the last few years it has been given the rather cruel nickname of ‘Padstein’ especially given all the hard work and investment the chef has ploughed back into the town.
Up until the late sixties it was possible to travel on the Great Western Railway which first arrived in Padstow on the 27th March 1899. Sadly the line was forced to close as part of the Beeching Report even though it was still financially viable at the time but GWR had to close some lines and unfortunately the Padstow branch line was one of them. Fortunately the line has now been converted into a cycle track which passes through Wadebridge to Bodmin and follows the extremely picturesque River Camel inland. The Cornwall Camel Trail is extremely popular with tourists and there are many places in Padstow or Wadebridge to hire bicycles for the day.
This entry was posted on Monday March 24th, 2008 at 6:27 PM and is filed under Places to Visit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.
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