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Cornish Wreckers and cricket in the mud Cornish Wreckers and cricket in the mud
(4 months later)
On the day with the lowest tide of the year, people converge on the river banks just upstream of Halton Quay. Here, on the Cornish side by Chapel Farm (reputed to be the site of a religious settlement founded by the parish’s patron saint and her brother from Ireland), holm oaks overhang the stony beach and derelict lime-kiln.On the day with the lowest tide of the year, people converge on the river banks just upstream of Halton Quay. Here, on the Cornish side by Chapel Farm (reputed to be the site of a religious settlement founded by the parish’s patron saint and her brother from Ireland), holm oaks overhang the stony beach and derelict lime-kiln.
Opposite, by North Hooe, shining mud banks are edged with an expanse of pale reeds. Support boats from the Cargreen Yacht Club ferry participants across the choppy water of the ebbing tide towards a sandbank that is revealed only at extremely low tides. Over there, near to Devon, the Wreckers morris side, in black and gold tatters, dance the length of the expanding bank, like a strange flock of black-feathered waders in the distance.Opposite, by North Hooe, shining mud banks are edged with an expanse of pale reeds. Support boats from the Cargreen Yacht Club ferry participants across the choppy water of the ebbing tide towards a sandbank that is revealed only at extremely low tides. Over there, near to Devon, the Wreckers morris side, in black and gold tatters, dance the length of the expanding bank, like a strange flock of black-feathered waders in the distance.
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Then comes the cricket match between the opposing teams of Cargreen and Weir Quay. Fielders play knee-deep in the shallows, and a special set of rules will allow the winners to impose their choice of Devon-style jam on cream or Cornwall’s preference of cream on jam on the scones, served at a celebratory tea, back on shore. Stumps are drawn as a hail shower and the flooding tide curtail play.Then comes the cricket match between the opposing teams of Cargreen and Weir Quay. Fielders play knee-deep in the shallows, and a special set of rules will allow the winners to impose their choice of Devon-style jam on cream or Cornwall’s preference of cream on jam on the scones, served at a celebratory tea, back on shore. Stumps are drawn as a hail shower and the flooding tide curtail play.
Nearby, the sheltered tributary towards Dairymill would have been a haven for river traffic, centuries before the construction of protective flood banks that cut it off from the main channel and restricted the flow of salty water up the narrow creek. Now, in an adjoining steep field, masses of full-out primroses form yellow drifts; a chiffchaff sings above the sunken lane where bluebells, stitchwort and alkanet bloom between the green of dog’s mercury and wild arum.Nearby, the sheltered tributary towards Dairymill would have been a haven for river traffic, centuries before the construction of protective flood banks that cut it off from the main channel and restricted the flow of salty water up the narrow creek. Now, in an adjoining steep field, masses of full-out primroses form yellow drifts; a chiffchaff sings above the sunken lane where bluebells, stitchwort and alkanet bloom between the green of dog’s mercury and wild arum.
Clumps of old-fashioned Croesus, White Lady, Horace and Bernardino survive from the time when this warm and early land was cultivated with narcissi, picked for market downriver at Devonport, and later, when the railway came to the opposite side of the river, sent further away to London and the north. Up the hill, arable fields and sheep pastures are windswept and exposed, and a rare veteran ash tree was recently toppled by a northerly gale.Clumps of old-fashioned Croesus, White Lady, Horace and Bernardino survive from the time when this warm and early land was cultivated with narcissi, picked for market downriver at Devonport, and later, when the railway came to the opposite side of the river, sent further away to London and the north. Up the hill, arable fields and sheep pastures are windswept and exposed, and a rare veteran ash tree was recently toppled by a northerly gale.
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