July 17th 2017 - Cotehele House

This was Carol's and Stephen's last day so we ventured into Cornwall to see Cotehele House. This house was built in Medieval times but is currently mostly Tudor. Cotehele House was home to the Edgcumbe family since 1353 for nearly 6 centuries until 1947 it was passed to the National Trust. It contains original furniture, armour and original tapestries.

This is the Tudor Hall where you can see arms and armour on whitewashed walls beneath a high arched timber roof.

A pair of whale jawbones flank the doorway. According to recent DNA research it has been established that these are the jawbones of a baleen whale specifically the Rorqual Whale.

The Chapel is late 15th century with alterations from the 18th and 19th centuries. There are 3 peepholes which allowed private viewing of the services.

The tapestries were fascinating. The Edgcumbes cut and pasted tapestries to suit their purposes. Some are patched and some are cut to allow a door to open and some are cut around fireplaces. You can see this one cut around the door.

In one of the bedrooms the volunteer showed us how one tapestry was well preserved because it was not often exposed to the light. The colours were certainly much sharper. He also directed us to a small doorway obscured by a tapestry where children, like Stephen, are allowed to enter a small room. The volunteer was in full flight because he also told us about a ghost in one of the bedrooms that we had visited but where the attending volunteer had not revealed the information.

We made our way downhill on a long walk over, at times, precarious ground to Cotehele Quay from which there was supposed to be a shuttle service back to the house. We had lunch in very hot sun in the Tea Room. When it was time to return to the house there was no shuttle - it was Monday! I refused to walk back and my lovely family went and got the car and collected me. Lucky me!

This is The Shamrock - a Victorian Tamar sailing barge. Carol and Stephen had a good look round in it.
















Back in the car we continued round the coast to Looe, a busy fishing port with a popular beach. We had a bit of a walk around and Carol and Stephen bought some Cornish pasties and had an ice cream.