davidjohnberlin - about Calstock Cornwall

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photography gallery | Britain | Calstock, Cornwall

photos of Calstock

About Calstock, Cornwall

Calstock railway viaduct across the River Tamar, built 1908.

Many thanks to Mr and Mrs Brady for their wonderful hospitality, to Michael Brady and Karen Saunders for providing music, laughter and the names of local plants, and to the people of Calstock for just being there.

Visiting a place for the first time often provides more questions than answers. A brief visit to Calstock is long enough to beguile and short enough to confuse. As I left, I considered many unresolved riddles. For example:

Question: When is a village not a village?
Answer 1: When it's a hamlet.
Answer 2: When it's a town.

A hamlet is usually a small village without a church, whereas a town is larger than a village. But how much larger does a village have to be before it becomes a town, and who decides such things? Presumably the local council.

Whatever the answer, Calstock is referred to as a town, although it has more the feeling of a village. A very pleasant and friendly place it seems too.

Within minutes of arriving, as I stood admiring the view over the Tamar valley, a neighbour of my hosts started a friendly conversation and explained some of the sights. Obviously I was a stranger to those parts, but never once was he intrusive or questioning. He never asked where I came from or what I was doing there. Such things will come out in the course of conversation. If a person wants to tell you about him/her self they will do so. In many cultures it is considered extremely rude to interrogate guests. This does does not signify that they are not interested or curious, rather that they possess patience and respect. I found this noble attitude wherever I roamed in Calstock. Please enjoy and never abuse this welcome.

Set among the green rolling landscape of eastern Cornwall, Calstock sits on the steep east bank of the River Tamar, which winds elegantly 14 miles (23 kilometres) southwards to Plymouth Sound.

Calstock is also the name of the local parish, which includes seven villages and numerous hamlets.

The skyline of the town is dominated by the tall, graceful arched viaduct, built in 1908 (who designed and constructed this structure?), which carries a single track railway from nearby Gunnislake down to Plymouth. It is appropriately known as the Tamar Valley Line, which sounds much more romantic than the original 1859 title "the Tamar Coal, Manure & General Mercantile Company". Just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Anyway, it is a great train ride and excellent service. Everybody riding into Plymouth on the early morning train seems to know each other and have a jolly good time on the journey. A very different type of commuter. The conductress was wonderful. Thanks.

Far below the viaduct, Calstock retains the air of an ancient river port. Agricultural produce and tin from nearby mines have been transported from here since antiquity and it boomed after the industrial revolution. Now it has returned to a more tranquil mode, and most of the boats moored on the river are used for pleasure. Many of the stone houses which line the narrow streets are whitewashed, while some of the more daring local inhabitants have daubed their homes with pink or green. Gasp!

I am at a loss to explain why Calstock has areas called Higher Kelly and Kelly Quay (Calstock's major quay, now bafflingly renamed Kingfisher Quay). the name Kelly has always been thought of as purely Irish. Something to do with Cornwall's Celtic history?

Calstock boasts a couple of excellent hostelries, shops and a real British red telephone box (see photo 11). How did they manage to hold on to that?

Could this be a legendary K9 model? I have no idea. What I do know is that when British Telecom was privatized it made a lot of enemies by deciding to sell off its telephone boxes and replace them with the American-style "telephone on a stick". Obviously none of the BT executives who made this decision was in the habit of using a public telephone, especially in bad weather or on a busy road. While Saudi Arabian millionaires showered in British telephone boxes and Arizona plant lovers used them as mini greenhouses, the great British public shivered wetly in the great British rain and sneezed and screamed into the new, supposedly vandal-proof devices, trying to make themselves heard over the roar of the great British traffic.

The old telephone boxes were by no means perfect, and were often vandalized or used as toilets (wotta stink!), but they were held in great affection by the Brtish - like British Rail sandwiches, bobbies on bicycles and queuing at the post office. Surely somebody could have come up with a better telephone box (or even a better moustrap, a better sandwich or a better post office)? Nowadays, everybody has a mobile phone, so perhaps it's all academic.

Now that I've got that all off my chest, let's continue our view of Calstock.

Erm, actually, I haven't got much more to say about the place at the moment, except that it is very picturesque and charming. It's a great place for a bit of peace and quiet and wonderful for walking. If your life is getting too hectic and you need a break, Calstock will provide a welcome and welcoming refuge. Enjoy.

So, a wee bit of information about Calstock and a lot of questions. If anybody has some answers I would be happy to hear from you. Please get in touch by e-mail at: info(at)davidjohnberlin.de.

And if I think the people of Calstock are so wonderful, why are there no photos of them here? I worked as a journalst for many years, and of course editors always want pictures of people. Sometimes I found myself becoming too intrusive in trying to tell a story about a place through photos. I take many pictures of people, some of which appear on this website. However, mostly it is a very personal thing. Photos of people, which appear mostly by agreement with the subjects, may appear under the people gallery soon.

There are some excellent websites with information about and pictures of Calstock. I hope to include links soon.

If you are the webmaster of one of these sites, please get in touch. Doesn't cost anything. Free service.

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