As we stroll down the main street — where you can buy pasties the size of handbags — the mayor of Marazion, Derek Laity, says: ‘You can tell which houses are lived in by locals and which are holiday lets. The holiday lets always have key code boxes by the front door.’
However, I have yet to see any of these boxes in homes without traditional Cornish names, such as Cairn and Hendra.
Indeed, I’m impressed by Marazion’s ability to retain its year-round population, just 15 miles from Land’s End.
Coastal splendour: Marazion, pictured above, is home to a population of 1,404 people and is set just 15 miles from Land’s End
Rob calls Marazion “one of England’s prettiest towns.” The row of cottages is shown in this picture.
One pair of choughs. The bird is known as the “crow of Cornwall”, and was nearly extinct for almost three decades.
What’s more, it is applying for city status during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year. Or at least, it was until the rules changed, requiring a ‘primary council’ to lend its support, and the paperwork needed from Cornwall Council wasn’t completed in time. Not that this bothers the choughs, otherwise known as the ‘crows of Cornwall’, with their long beaks and pillar-box red claws.
The chough (pronounced ‘chuff’) was extinct in Cornwall for nearly three decades, partly due to a decline in the grazing grounds that the birds preferred for nesting. One pair of choughlets returned to Cornwall in 2001.
Perhaps they like the idea that only 1,404 people live here and most of the year it’s quiet — although it revs up in the summer with St Michael’s Mount, the famed castle island, connected to the town by a low-tide causeway.
Little Marazion has the famed castle island of St Michael’s Mount, pictured above, on its doorstep
Marazion was granted chartered status by Henry III in 1257, which makes it one of England’s oldest cities. This is also one of the most beautiful towns in England. It is a mix of small cottages, flagstone-floored bars, sweet shops, and a large, granite-built town hall. There are also tiny galleries that sell pottery and watercolours.
You will find a large beach with pale, buttery sands and seaweed strewn throughout. The tropical touch is added by succulents and palm trees. The town’s Copper Spoon café sells ‘pisky-ccino’ coffees named after the ‘pisky’ fairies; diminutive, green creatures with red hair and wrinkled faces who are believed to live on the high moors.
When ordering a pasty in Philps, the bakers, I’m told it will be with me ‘dreckly’, a Cornish phrase that could mean anything from five seconds to the rest of the day. In fact, it arrives almost immediately — golden brown and bursting with beef, potatoes, swede and onion. It is a long walk, so I set out to get it. Just outside of town, Marazion marsh houses reed beds, willow scrubs, and warblers. Mallards can navigate the waterways, and herons make spindly nests.
‘Over a pint in the snug of the Kings Arms (pictured), a friendly local tells me there is talk of some of the area’s ancient tin mines being reopened again for extracting lithium,’ writes Rob
Rob travels ten-miles to the Carn Galver Mine, as pictured. It’s located close to Zennor Parish.
Marazion was once a fishing and mining community. Over a pint in the snug of the Kings Arms, a friendly local tells me there is talk of some of the area’s ancient tin mines being reopened again for extracting lithium.
At sunset, I drive 10 miles to the Carn Galver Mine near Zennor. D.H. Lawrence was wrongly accused, along with his German spouse, of sending light signals, to German U.boats, here during World War II. The chimney and engine house are still standing, more than 100 years later.
The sun sinks beneath the cliffs and shadows cast over ancient walls, fields and fields that exude charm. And may, one day, claim to have England’s smallest city in its midst.