Spring brings warmer days, with an abundance of flowers in the Cornish countryside and in Cornish gardens (such as Heligan and Trebah, Trewithen and Caerhays) which are open to the public. On Good Friday, ‘trigging’ (from the Cornish word ‘trig’, an ‘ebbing of the sea’) takes place on the Helford River, when it is the custom to collect small shellfish such as limpets and winkles. Easter itself is an important religious festival, in Cornwall as elsewhere, with many churches and chapels displaying their ‘Easter Gardens’ – Christ’s tomb, surrounded by primroses and moss. On the last Saturday in April, Camborne celebrates its Trevithick Day, a festival dedicated to the commemoration of the famous inventor of the steam locomotive, Richard Trevithick, and Cornwall’s great industrial heritage. Although quite new, Trevithick Day is already an important part of the Cornish calendar, admired especially for its grand parade of traction engines through the town. Not to be outdone, Redruth (Camborne’s great rival) has its Murdoch Day, held on the weekend of the old Redruth Whitsun Fair, which celebrates William Murdoch, the first man to use gas to for house-lighting. Murdoch House, where the experiment was first tried, can still be found in Redruth, now a centre for education and community activities.
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The Lost Gardens of Heligan, near Mevagissey, have been restored in recent years.This is a wonderful example of a Cornish garden, full of exotic plants from Asia, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere which it would be very difficult to grow in most other areas of Britain. Parts of Heligan and other Cornish gardens have an almost ‘tropical” jungle-like atmosphere.
David Hastilow
Feasts & festivals, sports & pastimes
The grand parade of traction engines at Camborne’s Trevithick Day is a stirring reminder of Cornwall’s premier place in the history of steam engineering. People from all over Cornwall and beyond flock to join Camborne’s celebration of Richard Trevithick.