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BODMIN 's position on the western edge of Bodmin Moor, equidistant
from the north and south Cornish coasts and the Fowey and Camel rivers,
encouraged its growth as a trading town. It was also an important
ecclesiastical centre after the establishment of a priory by St Petroc,
who moved here from Padstow in the sixth century. Later, the town became
increasingly sidelined after refusing access to the Great Western
Railway in the 1870s, as a result of which much local business
transferred down the road to Truro. Bodmin Parkway station lies three
miles outside town, with a regular bus connection to the centre.
Bodmin's most prominent landmark is the Gilbert Memorial , a 144-foot
obelisk honouring a descendant of Walter Raleigh and occupying a
commanding location on Bodmin Beacon, a high area of moorland near the
centre of town. Below, at the end of Fore Steet, stands St Petroc's ,
built in the fifteenth century and still the largest church in Cornwall;
inside, there's an extravagantly carved twelfth-century font and an
ivory casket that once held the bones of the saint, while the southwest
corner of the churchyard holds a sacred well. Close by, the notorious
Bodmin Jail (Mon-Fri & Sun 10am-5pm, Sat 11am-6pm; £3.50) glowers darkly
on Berrycombe Road, redolent of the public executions that were once
guaranteed crowd-pullers. You can visit part of the original eighteenth-century
structure, including the condemned cell and some grisly exhibits
chronicling the lives of the inmates.
From Parkway it's less than two miles' walk to one of Cornwall's most
celebrated country houses, Lanhydrock (April-Sept Tues-Sun 11am-5.30pm;
Oct Tues-Sun 11am-5pm; £6.80; grounds only £3.70; NT), originally
seventeenth-century but totally rebuilt after a fire in 1881. The
granite exterior remains true to its original form, but the 42 rooms
show a very different style, including a long picture gallery with a
plaster ceiling depicting scenes from the Old Testament, and - most
illuminating of all - servants' quarters that reveal the daily workings
of a Victorian manor house. The grounds have magnificent beds of
magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons, and a huge area of wooded parkland
bordering onto the River Fowey.
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