Hi Meli, Your trip sounds wonderful, and you'll really enjoy the (long) train journey to Penzance, especially from Exeter onwards. Early April is one of the most wonderful times of the year to see Cornwall, and along the coast you should still find some daffodils blooming, as well as all the spring flowers and fresh green grass in the fields. Gorgeous! Since I live here, I never stay in B&B, but I think you are wise to stay in Penzance itself, because you'll have a good choice of restuarants within walking distance for lunch or evening meal. A couple of nice looking B&Bs are: www.thestanleypenzance.co.uk (this one is near the harbour, and a short walk up into the town centre, my be difficult for parking here). www.glencreehouse.co.uk (this is a slightly longer walk to the town centre, but is close to the promenade, and it is being freshly refurbished so should be good for an April stay). www.estorilhotel.com (in Morrab Road, reasonable walk to town, and very close to the beautiful Morrab Gardens and Penlee Park). But there are lots of others, although it may be difficult to book because your visit is soon after Easter, when Cornwall gets really busy with tourists if the weather is nice. Before you start, buy a good map, the best is the Ordnance Survey 'Explorer' map (coloured orange) for Land's End. This is at 2.5 inches to the mile, so it will have everything you need, is incredibly detailed, and shows all the farms, footpaths that your ancestors would have used, ancient historical remains, churches, etc. You could buy this on the internet before you leave home, so you can plan your days. Bear in mind comments below, and that journey times are endless although distances are short!!! Places to visit connected with family history: Well, I think that this is the most unspoilt and magical part of Cornwall, and in many ways very little in the countryside will have changed since the late 1700's / early 1800's. Most of the churches had some makeovers inside during the middle of the 1800's but they will be unspoilt. Most of the area your folks came from is farmland up on the sort of central plateau, surrounded within just a mile or so by dramatic cliffs, and masses of ancient prehistoric hut circles, stone circles, bronze age burials, ancient celtic stone crosses, Holy wells. You will love it, but please be aware that almost all the roads here are barely more than lanes, with granite walls each side. They are really narrow, so practice using reverse because there is rarely room to pass an oncoming car!!! St Levan is still as isolated as it ever was (almost at Land's End... although I must point out that Land's End itself is a very commercialised tourist attraction). The church still looks as it would several hundred years ago. Sancreed is very pretty, set deep among leafy lanes, again, the church will satisfy every desire! St Buryan is a big, very open village with a wide central street dominated by the church, and lots of pretty cottages. Breage is the other side of Penzance, going towards Helston. A delightful village, set around a sort of loop off the main road, with the church in the middle. There is a brilliant garden centre at the edge of the village that specialises in sub tropical plants (palm trees etc) and has a really nice little cafe where you can get a lunch. I'd strongly recommend carrying on to Helston itself, because it is a really lovely, and incredibly 'Cornish' town, with water running alongside the streets, and impressive granite buildings. Places to visit: If you stay in Penzance, you can have a good stroll round Penlee Gardens, then go to the Penlee House Gallery (at the top of the gardens). They will have an exhibition called 'Summer in February' (in April)! based around the work and lives of the group of artists who settled in the Lamorna Valley from around 1900ish, and then upstairs will be an exhibition of work of the Newlyn School of Artists, who painted incredibly evocative scenes (often very large) of the fishing people and scenery at the end of the 1800's - still living a life little changed from when your folks left Cornwall. I'd say this is a 'must see'. The fishing harbour at Newlyn is fascinating - this is about a mile from Penzance - and you can then drive another few miles to the tourist attraction (but very unspoilt) of Mousehole, with it's cottages surrounding the harbour. On the way to St Levan and Sancreed, drop into Penberth Cove. This is one of the few places that has been totally unspoilt (no cars allowed at the cove, fishing boats pulled up on the shore, no ice cream stalls or gift shops). Tiny, really tiny, little cove and just gorgeous. If you are brave enough, from the Land's End / St Just area, drive back to St Ives along the winding road that follows the North Coast. It isn't very far, but allow an hour for the drive because this road really does wind around, but add a lot more time for getting out of the car and just going 'Ooooh, Aaaah' at the scenery. Along this road is the Wayside Museum, at Zennor, which is a fascinating glimpse into much of the lifestyle of your ancestors... it is not a conventional museum in a big grand building, but i won't spoil it for you! Another 'must see' for background on the life of your folks. Lunch in The Tinners Arms in Zennor, enjoy the Mermaid at Zennor Church, and the walk to the sea from Zennor is lovely and fairly level all the way. (You can also get to Zennor by going straight across Cornwall from Penzance, and missing out the most difficult bits of the north coast route). St Ives is a delight, but busy and bustling. If you go, things to see are the harbour, Fore Street, Tate Gallery, Barbara Hepworth house, lots of artists and galleries. On the way back to Penzance, follow the old road via Halsetown and Cripplesease, and if you are feeling incredibly fit and healthy, try and find Trencrom Hill, and scramble to the top... you can see Mount's Bay to the south of you, with St Michael's Mount in the middle of it, and St Ives Bay to the north of you, whilst if you look eastwards you can see the Carn Brea and the mining ladscape around Redruth / Camborne. Magic, but very hard to find, and very hard work climbing to the top!!! If you fancy some technology history, Porthcurno Telegraph Museum (near St Levan) is worth a visit, and it is intriguing to think that many of the undersea fibre optic cables - which may be carrying my internet message to you - come ashore here, in this remote corner of Cornwall. OK, hope that helps (I got a bit carried away there, so I really must go and do some work now)! Very best, John in Launceston, Cornwall. This message and any attachments are confidential and may be legally privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the recipient please email the sender and delete this message and any attachments from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy this message and attachments, or disclose the contents to any other person. Although we have taken steps to ensure that this message and any attachments are virus free, We can take no responsibility if a virus is actually present. We advise you to carry out your own virus check. > From: melibob4@texasbb.com > To: CORNISH@rootsweb.com > Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:01:23 -0600 > Subject: [CORNISH] Help please with planning my trip! > > Hello, one and all! > > Your comments about taking the train from London to Penzance has been wonderfully helpful, as I have been going through fits trying to plan my trip coming up in April. As a result, I will fly from Houston to London and go by train to Penzance. But I will have to get from Heathrow to the Paddington Station. Is it easy to use the Express service? I don’t know how long to plan between arrival of the plane and departure of the train. Or should I get a cab to take me to the train? Also, does anyone have an opinion about United, British Airways or Iberia? They all arrive about 7:00 am and the train leaves at 10:00 am. Is that enough time to transfer? By the way, the fare is $75 going to Penzance, but coming home 3 weeks later from Truro, it is $331.00 Why in the world such a tremendous difference? Yikes. > > Now, when I am in Penzance, I want to see all the important places in the area. I figure on being there from the afternoon of the 9th til the 14th, when I will go on the train to Truro. What should I not miss between Penzance and Land’s End, etc. I will be working on my LADNER line: > > Perhaps John Francis Ladner, b. Sancreed 1703 who married Alice Tonkin in St. Breage in 1732 were the parents of my Edward. Lots of family trees on Ancestry.com show them as parents of a bunch of kids, my Edward among them. But his parents might have been Thomas Ladner and Prudence Harvey, also of Sancreed, so I don’t know about them. > > Edward Ladner 8 Mar 1752, Sancreed m. Jane Roberts b. 1745 ? Cornwall on 28 Oct 1780 in St. Levan. I think they had James, Prudence, Edward and James, all in St. Levan. Edward’s will: He died between 08 Apr and 11 May... He died in St. Levan, proved in St. Buryan. > Will of Edward Ladner proved 11th. May 1815 at Deanery of St. Buryan held by Cornwall Record Office transcribed by Corinne Thompson. > > His son and executor Edward was mine as below: > > West Penwith Resources - Home St. Levan Baptisms (1694-1812) > LADNER Edward 27 Mar 1787 son of Edward and Jane Was he really 3 years old, or is there an error in his birth date or baptism date? From somewhere, I have a birthdate of 27 Mar 1784 in St. Levan. > > This Edward (I call him III) married Sarah Ellis on 19 Jun 1818 in St. Levan. Sarah's birthdate of 14 Mar 1792 is followed by her baptism date of 10 Apr 1792 in St. Levan, daughter of Thomas Ellis and Phyllis Tregear. > > So, my question is, Will there be sites to visit or pictures to take of things in St. Levan that are extant from the late 1700s and early 1800s? Like the church or cemetery or etc? And I wonder the same about Sancreed and St. Breage. > > Thanks for any suggestions. I can rent a car in Penzance. Is there a nice hotel there or a B & B that someone recommends? > > Meli in Texas > > ------------------------------- > Subscribe to digest by sending an email to CORNISH-D-request@rootsweb.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and body text. If you want, MIME digests, email CORNISH-admin@rootsweb.com. > > Unsubscribe from either by sending an email to CORNISH-request@rootsweb.com. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CORNISH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message