Cornwall

Product Description

Cornwall is a land apart, one which has had a strong sense of its separate identity throughout history. Here are some of the richest & best preserved prehistoric & medieval landscapes in Britain, medieval castles & later coastal defences, & a land of inscribed stones, holy wells, wayside crosses & small churchtowns, scattered throughout its diverse countryside & along its beautiful coastline. Its medieval churches show monumental Norman fonts, accomplished C14 sculpture, striking C15 west towers & generously proportioned C15 & C16 aisles, with a wealth of medieval & Renaissance bench ends. Major houses can be found from all periods ranging from the spectacular mansions of the mining magnates like Tregothnan & Lanhydrock, through the supremely picturesque as at St Michael`s Mount, to the exquisite Elizabethan of Trerice. The smaller houses of the Cornish gentry survive in significant numbers from the medieval period, many refashioned in the C18 & C19. Threaded through almost every landscape is evidence of Cornwall`s distinguished mining history, & its towns, remarkably well preserved, offer fine public buildings of the C18 & C19, & at Truro the greatest English cathedral of the Victorian age. Among the architectural highlights of the last century are Lutyen`s dramatic extension to Penheale, Modernist seaside houses, Barbara Hepworth`s sculpture garden & the vast biomes of the Eden Project.