Tamar Valley

Neil Dickinson [14.01.09]

I fell in love with the Tamar valley as a mine exploring teenager from Yorkshire well almost 40 years ago and was delighted to see Pentillie on TV last night (13/1/09). What you are trying to achieve is very commendable. This is mentioned on your attractive website, but I thought it worth saying (as an outsider, so to speak) that the gardens would be the ideal place to celebrate and highlight the unique history of fruit and flower growing in the Tamar valley. Heligan has a wonderful story, but it does not quite have that "real" historical connection with commercial horticulture that the Victorians found so fascinating on their boat trips up the Tamar. I was very moved and influenced in this respect by Frank Booker's "The Industrial Archaeology of the Tamar Valley" book many years ago. It is almost written with the love of a poet. Pentillie is very well placed to exploit river and rail links with tourism. How very up-to-date and "green" to leave the car behind for a while! The local tourist organisation seem to emphasise this aspect of access and it's interesting to see how the National Trust similarly promote Greenway (Agatha Christie's place by the river Dart). Anyway, rambling email over!

With Best Wishes for the future