Beez Neez now Chy Whella - Bodinnick Ferry Ride

Bodinnick Ferry Ride

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Fri 13 Jul 2018 22:47

Bodinnick Ferry over to Fowey

We drove from Polperro and headed for our beloved Fowey (on the right) via the Bodinnick Ferry.

Chris and I left the boys to walk down the slope as the little ferry approached.

Well colour me happy an information board on the wall.

Situated on the east bank of the Fowey estuary, the name Bodinnick derives from the Cornish for fortified dwelling which suggests that this was a defended iron age settlement. The river Fowey rises on Bodmin Moor and passes Lostwithiel on its way to the sea. Hall, once the local manor house sited at the top of the village, had over thirty rooms. It was inherited from the Fitzwilliam family by the Mohuns, who lived there for some three hundred years. By the sixteenth century the Mohuns were powerful men in the county. The Hall was destroyed in the Civil War and the Mohuns never returned to their home. Later a farmhouse was built on the ruins of the old mansion and the remains of the old private domestic chapel are nearby on private land. After the death of the last Lord Mohun his Cornish estates were sold to Thomas Pitt in 1717. Pitt had been Governor of Madras and had the nickname Diamond Pitt after acquiring a famous diamond.

A ferry crossing was first recorded in 1344 but some sort of river crossing must have existed long before that as it forms part of the important main south trade route through Cornwall to London. The ferry was originally a wooden raft powered by long oars called sweeps. The ferry was affectionately known as the Oss Ferry.

In 1866 a horse with a cart load of oats fell into the river while trying to get on the ferry, it was swept away by the tide before help arrived.

Ferryside was for many years a shipbuilding yard and in 1869 the schooner Rippling Wave, built by Butsons, was the first ship to carry china clay from Fowey Docks. Ferryside was converted to a house and bought by the du Maurier family in 1926. It was here that Daphne du Maurier wrote her first novel The Loving Spirit in 1931. The figurehead on Ferryside is from the schooner, Jane Slade, that inspired Daphne.

In the 1940s a ferry load of Indian Cavalry with their horses narrowly escaped injury when the horses were spooked by the wash of a passing boat which wet their feet. Some of the horses were stranded for a while on the rocks at Bodinnick.

In 1644 King Charles I, who had been visiting his friends the Mohuns after the battle of Castle Dore, narrowly escaped being shot by a sniper on the Fowey side. A fisherman who was standing nearby was killed.

The Old School House was opened in 1873 with 18 pupils but by 1895 this was too small, and a new school was built at Whitecross for 100 children. This is now the village hall. During the summer months boys were often absent from school because they were working in the harvest fields.

In 1510 two women were punished by the courts and given the Scold’s Bridle for being ‘evil gossips and always chiding’. (The stern contraption, easily converted into an instrument of torture, was an iron muzzle in an iron framework that enclosed the head. A bridle-bit (or curb-plate), about two inches long and an inch wide, sat in the mouth and pressed down on top of the tongue. I loved the 1994 book by Minette Walters where the Scold’s Bridle (also the title of the book) was featured at the beginning).

A man was charged with having a putrid stinking drain which polluted a spring and another man with having a dangerous wall.

The writing in the circle to the right of the map: A chapel of ease dedicated to St John the Baptist was licensed in 1406 but by 1771 maps showed it to be a ruin. The present simple church was originally the stables and garage to the inn. Local men completed the conversion and with worshippers bringing their own chairs, the first carol service was held on Christmas Eve 1948, lit by storm lanterns.

Ooo, final clicks of the information board and it was time to board the ferry. The boys drove on as Chris and I bimbled on.

Years since I crossed on the ferry, the Fowey side – unchanged.

Looking right, before the bend in the river.

After the bend in the river we could see the loading dock. I haven’t typed this sort of information for ages and it was such a delight to see a chum in for loading as we crossed on the little ferry. Alfa Twilight, a cargo carrying lady built in 2008, bears the Maltese flag, her home port Valetta. Her vital statistics are:- length 99.89 metres, width 16.6 metres and her draught is 6 metres. Her gross tonnage is 4109 and her summer weight tonnage is 6061. She can rev up to 12.3 knots but bobs along at an average of 11.8 knots.

In its prime, this little port handled over 1.8 millions tonnes, 40% of all cargo shipped from the South West. Changes in operations has affected exports and nowadays about 750,000 tonnes of clay leaves annually.

The same view in 1889 (Picture in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London)

Once off the ferry, we drove up the hill and above Fowey for the view over Polruan on the other side of the river before wiggling through the narrow streets down to explore our beloved Fowey.

ALL IN ALL A LOVELY TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

OH WOW