Escape to sunshine
The bitterest cold of a Yorkshire winter rarely visits Cornwall. The flight from Leeds is barely an hour, yet stepping onto the Newquay tarmac, we’re hit with an unseasonable warmth, as though FlyBe has spirited us into spring. Tourism has supplanted mining and quarrying as the county’s prime breadwinner. Holidaymakers are drawn in such numbers by hot summers and stunning beaches that on the busiest days its key routes become gridlocked, a low blow after a five-hour drive from the North.
But Cornwall’s pretty harbours, dramatic cliffs, barrelling waves and interesting bars and restaurants underpin a healthy trade in visitors all year round. Small wonder then, that Christmas here is only briefly celebrated, the festive lights and nativity plays shoehorned as deep into December as the organisers dare, so reluctant are they to admit high season is finally over.
In St Austell, the wonderful Celtic Beer Festival feels like an explosion of noise and fun, alcohol and celebration every bit as potent as the bonfires of Lewes and the longship-burnings of Up Helly Aa. For one day, the town’s brewery clears out a subterranean maze of dusty cellars and throws open the doors to music and beer. It has a pagan feel, like the fertility vibe of the autumn equinox, a final blow-out before the hatches are battened down.
Here, in a bacchanalian orgy of strong ale, hard rock and Cornish pasties, the brewery rewards customers for another year’s thirsty patronage – and opens up 180plus taps to beers and ciders from around the Celtic fringe, many created specially for this alcoholic coda to the year. We try plenty – a gentle Pale Ale from Padstow Brewery, dark and full-bodied Merlin’s Muddle from Tintagel, crisp American pale Redemption from Mumbles in Wales, and a lovely sweet and malty Cherry Stout brewed on the premises. The success of the Festival can be measured in hard cash – around £30,000 raised for local charities.
St Austell grew in importance from Georgian times through vast deposits of china clay, valuable for a host of products from porcelain to paper. Though this industry is in decline, the brewery remains in rude health.
There’s a visitor centre offering brewery tours and the chance to drink real ales brewed on these sprawling premises, while the black and gold castle livery is a familiar sight on the county’s many traditional pubs, inns and hotels.
We’re fortunate enough to be staying in one of them, the sturdy stone-built Rashleigh Arms in Charlestown, recently named the best managed public house in the country.
The town’s steep stone dock was built
Cornwall is one of England’s most popular summer destinations. But it has plenty to offer all year round, as Simon Jenkins discovers over a long weekend which coincided with one of the very best beer festivals in Britain.
by renowned Leeds engineer John Smeaton. It took a turn in the limelight in the Poldark TV series and remains home to the Kajsamoor, a two-masted Norwegian trading ship. Overlooking the harbour, the Shipwreck and Heritage Centre offers a chastening diversion, as a stark reminder of the perils faced by generations of seafaring Cornishmen.
Later, we cross the narrow finger of Cornwall to the north coast, arriving in Padstow at low tide. The sun’s arc is shallow, yet offers warmth enough for children to play on the beach and families to spread out picnic blankets.
It’s a similar story down the coast in St Ives. The town has long been a magnet for artists; the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden features a host of works by the Wakefield-born artist – and tells the story of her life and tragic death. Like nearby Tate St Ives Gallery, it’s open all year round.
Even the county’s famous gardens welcome winter guests. The giant biomes of the Eden Project’s harbour a climate all of their own, but the nearby Lost Gardens of Heligan trade on their stunning beauty and a poignant history stretching back 300 years.
To visit now is to see a garden painstakingly restored. A wild area filled with subtropical tree ferns called “The Jungle” is complete with rope bridge across a steep gorge, and teems with lifer.
There’s plenty more to enjoy on a winter break in this beautiful, rugged landscape.