With the Christmas and New Year festivities over for another year, it’s time to get back to telling you more about our visit to Cornwall in March 2001.
If you remember, when I broke off my story in late December we were driving around St Ives in the pouring rain and struggling to see very much beyond the car windows. But, as we drove towards the harbour, Mum started to tell us that the sculptor Barbara Hepworth wasn’t the only connection between St Ives and Yorkshire – and the other one was much older.
When I asked her what it was, she said it was the stone pier, which protected the harbour from any rough seas.
And that had me very confused as I thought she meant it was actually connected to Yorkshire and I knew that that would make it very long indeed. But then Mum explained that the connection was because it was built by a Yorkshireman, by the name of John Smeaton and she went on to tell me more about him.
She said he was born at Austhorpe Lodge about five miles/eight kilometres to the east of Leeds in June 1724 and his father was a successful lawyer who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. But the young Smeaton was more interested in science and mechanics and, after a couple of years studying law, he became a scientific instrument maker instead.
By the time he was 18 he had his own workshop and forge, where he concentrated on developing new instruments and improving older ones. He also began researching and designing windmills and waterwheels and improved the efficiency of steam engines, which at that time were largely used for pumping water out of deep mines.
And, if that didn’t keep him busy enough, he became interested in the design and building of bridges, canals, factories and harbours.
One of these was the harbour at St Ives, where the old pier had fallen into disrepair by the 1760s. Smeaton was commissioned to design, and supervise the building of, a new one to protect the fishing fleet which was expanding at that time, and Mum told us that that was part of the pier we were looking at that day through the rain.
Built between 1766 and 1770, it was originally 120 feet/36.5 metres long, but was later extended by another 300 feet/91 metres and a lighthouse was added.
Mum also said that John Smeaton was the first man to describe himself as a civil engineer, to distinguish what he was doing from the engineering that was usually carried out by the army’s Royal Engineers at that time, and in 1771 he founded the Society of Civil Engineers, which was renamed as the Smeatonian Society in his honour after his death in October 1792.
Then, to fill a bit more time while we were waiting for the rain to stop so that we could get out of the car and go for a bite to eat, Mum also told us that John Smeaton’s most famous construction was the Eddystone Lighthouse, built on the Eddystone Rock 13 miles/21kms south-west of Plymouth.
Completed in 1759, it was lit by 24 candles and was the third attempt at building a lighthouse on this rock in the middle of the sea. But while the two previous lighthouses had failed, Smeaton’s design made this one a success and it stood firm until the 1870s when cracks started to appear in the rock it was built on.
In 1882 the top half was dismantled and then re-erected on Plymouth Hoe where it can still be seen today, while the remaining stump is still in place at the side of the lighthouse which replaced it.
By the time Mum had told us all this, I thought the rain would have surely stopped, but we were out of luck. It wasn’t even easing off – and we were getting a bit hungry, even though we’d had a good breakfast at the hotel. So, after a few more minutes, we decided to drive on.
Following the road along the coast, we went past places with lovely Cornish names such as Zennor, Morvah and Pendeen, until we got to St Just, which is part of the UNESCO Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscapes World Heritage Site.
Nearby mining remains include the engine houses in the cliffs at Botallack…
…the museum at the former tin mine at Geevor…
…and the monument at the top of Cape Cornwall, which Mum said was a chimney built in 1864 to serve the Cape Cornwall Mine which worked on and off from 1838 to 1883…
Then with hunger getting the better of us, we turned onto another little road which would eventually take us to Land’s End, but Mum says I’ve written enough for today, so I’ll have to tell you about that in my next post…meanwhile, take care and stay safe and look out for some more tales from me soon!
Follow my next blog: 297. MY MUM THE STORY-TELLER – PART ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE
04/01/2024
Wilf the bear-faced blogger 