Mazey Day Cornishman
23/06/2018
Saturday 23rd June, 2018
IT’S THE MAZEY DAY CELEBRATIONS IN PENZANCE SO JOIN OUR MERRY TRAIN FOR THE ANNUAL MID-SUMMER TRIP TO CORNWALL. THERE ARE OTHER OPTIONS AS WELL!
No one quite knows how long ago it was that the Cornish started to celebrate Midsummer (Golowan in the Cornish language), but it was noted as ‘an antiquity’ in 1754. After the festival was banned on the grounds of ‘health and safety’ in the 1980s(!) it was revived in 1991 and is re-established now as a leading annual event.
To get there is an absorbing journey close to the longest day of the year, being light almost from start to finish, so that you can sit back and enjoy crossing the Somerset Levels to Taunton, over the Blackdown Hills and down to Exeter. At the water’s edge we run along the Exe Estuary and out onto the famed sea-wall, then inland to Newton Abbot and steeply up and down along the edge of Dartmoor to Plymouth before the crossing of the River Tamar using Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge into Cornwall.
There is little straight or level track right through the county to journeys end, but there are deep valleys and lofty viaducts amidst delightful scenery, past Liskeard to Lostwithiel and through St. Austell to Truro, where you may alight for a four hour break. Continuing west we reach St. Erth, where we set down passengers for the branchline train (local return fare around £4) to picturesque St. Ives, a small town that offers something for everyone - beaches, specialist shops, harbour and even a Tate Gallery.
Five miles west is lines end at Penzance, where the Mazey Day festivities will be in full flow, including colourful parades, music, stalls and the like. For something different, the bus station is adjacent to the railway station and offers local journeys to Lands End, Mousehole and Marazion (for St. Michael’s Mount).
MOTIVE POWER IS EXPECTED TO BE A PAIR OF CLASS 50 LOCOMOTIVES WORCESTER TO PENZANCE AND RETURN, WITH A DB CARGO CLASS 66 NORTH OF WORCESTER.
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