Falmouth Bay and Helford River
07.05.2005.
Manacle Point is the easternmost part of the Lizard Peninsula. The name 'Manacle' is a corruption of the the Cornish 'Maen Eglos',
meaning Church Rocks - the church spire of St Keverne, a local landmark, is about a mile inland from the Point.
meaning Church Rocks - the church spire of St Keverne, a local landmark, is about a mile inland from the Point.
17.09.2008.
HMCG is a branch of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
28.09.2005. Falmouth's main seafront
There are remains of WWI German submarines below the surface here. The U-boats were originally scuppered at Scapa Flow when the war ended in 1918, but they were salvaged and brought to Falmouth, where a storm blew them ashore. It's still possible to see part of one at Low Water Spring Tides - an offshore wind helps.
The fire almost completely destroyed the building, and the remains had to be demolished. A new hotel wass expected to open in 2014...
07.07.2005. Swanpool Beach
There was a mine where the modern Swanpool car park is, which produced silver, copper and tin. (The road at the north end of Swanpool is called Silverdale Road.) But arsenic is often found with those ores, so the smelter was placed where the poisonous fumes could more easily disperse.
Swanpool itself appears at first sight as a small freshwater lake, a home to numerous waterfowl and fish, with no connection to the sea. But this is not quite true. And anyone looking at a map would guess it was once an arm of the sea that got cut off at some time, although stories vary. Some say this happened after the last Ice Age, but I have a copy of an old print that shows it still connected in 1779!
According to Swanpool Local Nature Reserve, the pool was once much bigger, but in 1826 a culvert was dug through the bar to drain it down. And today water that enters the pool is drained by an outlet near the SE corner, emerging as a stream on the beach at low tide. But on high Spring Tides, the flow reverses, and seawater flows back into the pool, so technically the pool is brackish. High Water Springs occur around 7 to 8 o'clock, morning and evening, not very convenient times for many people, including some locals who have never seen this. (And in winter it could be dark anyway.)
According to Swanpool Local Nature Reserve, the pool was once much bigger, but in 1826 a culvert was dug through the bar to drain it down. And today water that enters the pool is drained by an outlet near the SE corner, emerging as a stream on the beach at low tide. But on high Spring Tides, the flow reverses, and seawater flows back into the pool, so technically the pool is brackish. High Water Springs occur around 7 to 8 o'clock, morning and evening, not very convenient times for many people, including some locals who have never seen this. (And in winter it could be dark anyway.)
But the inflow doesn't last for long, and it only happens on a few days every fortnight, so Swanpool remains mostly freshwater.
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