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The Hurlers, Minions

Helping to keep Cornwall's stone walling heritage alive

From ancient times to the present day Cornwall has been quarrying stone, largely slate and granite.

'Green stone' and 'blue elvan' (Dolerite, an igneous or volcanic rock) have also been quarried and were mainly found around the Padstow area and helped to form many of the prominent headlands visible today. A large amount of green stone was once shipped to South Wales from a quarry on Stepper Point at the mouth of the Camel Estuary.

Stepper point, Camel Estuary.

As you walk around Cornwall, you can see how stone and the walls that have been built with it have shaped the landscape. The building of various features has always been integrated into walls and hedges with practicality and sustainability in mind from 'bee boles', a row of recesses large enough to place a coiled straw hive called a 'skep' to a 'sheep creep', an underpass in a wall that is large enough to allow sheep into neighboring fields with ease. This kind of ingenuity has been going on for thousands of years. It is very important for further generations to continue the practice of building dry stone walls and Cornish hedges, as the environmental benefits are enormous.

Native orchid on the Camel Trail.

North Cornwall's quarries produce a real variety of slate and granite that is used for either building Cornish hedges, walls, buildings or roofs, from rustic slate to the famous Delabole slate. Hedges, stone boundary walls, traditionally were built with what was cleared out of the fields, whilst buildings were constructed from quarries as local as possible to the work site.   

'Herringbone' is a style of walling known locally as 'Curzy Way' or 'Jack and Jill', and is unique to North Cornwall's heritage.

                            

Old Town Cove, The Camel Trail, North Cornwall

          'Slate' as a word is derived from the middle English word 'sclate' which is believed to be connected to an old French verb 'escalter' which means to splinter or break.

If you would like to know more about North Cornwall's quarrying history, there is a book you can purchase called 'North Cornwall Geology Guide' by Pororiett Tyreth Ughel.

Ancient farm boundary wall, Bodmin Moor

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