Who was the champion duck?

Most of the stone circles and remains of huts on Bodmin are both awe-inspiring and impressive at the same time.  King Arthur’s Hall, however, is quite different.  You approach the Hall usually from the south up a slight hill on a part of the moor called King Arthur’s Common – there’s a theme there.

The Hall is a megalithic structure probably built in the later Neolithic period, or early Bronze Age, so about 4000 years ago.  This period was as exciting as the best episode of Corrie can offer.  About 12,000 years ago, the last ice sheets left the UK and although they never reached Cornwall, the ice has a profound effect on ourlives today.  As tribes slowly colonised Britain, the Neolithic (“New Stone Age”) represented the first time man came to terms with nature – animals were domesticated, crops grown and rudimentary farming as we know it started.

The population in Britain had been dominated by Mediterranean type people but who appear to have been rapidly replaced by more northern European tribes, termed the Beaker people. It’s at about this time some of Britain’s most important monuments, like Stonehenge were built.  

King Arthur is a well-known legend in these parts, he is reputed to have lived in the 5th and 6th centuries (much later than this construction) and led the locals to repel Saxon invaders.  Sadly, he probably didn’t exist but there may be a grain of truth in all the folklore.  Anyway, he made his mark in north Cornwall, with his links to the spectacular Tintagel Castle, rumoured to be Camelot (I wonder how true the Monty Python and the Holy Grail depiction is?) and the nearby Dozmary Pool, where Arthur’s sword, Excalibur, was returned to the Lady of the Lake.  We’d better explain all that in another blog.

None of this fazed Roy and Napoleon as we trudged up the hill, it was a warm day, Roy was snuffling and grunting under a gorse bush after an unfortunate vole and Napoleon was feeling the heat.

The area around the Hall is now fenced off but there’s a stile to use, Roy was over in a flash to see what excitement lay in the bulrushes on the other side.  

Aerial View of King Arthur’s Hall (From www.cornwall.gov.uk).

The Hall has about 56 upright stones up to 2m high but there probably 140 in total, surrounding an area of lower ground.  In the centre of the south side one of the stones has been set at right angles to the bank, possibly marking some significant feature – the opposite position on the north bank is unfortunately disturbed. There is an entrance through the bank in the south-west corner – it is not stone lined and a rise in ground at this point may indicate that the bank was originally continuous, and the ‘entrance’ is a modern feature. The interior is slightly hollow with traces of rough paving in the north west corner. The interior fills with water during periods of heavy rain, and the contemporary ground level, if any traces survive, has not been identified.

So, we have not real idea what this remarkable feature was used for, the upright stones almost form seat backs, so maybe it was Neolithic Voice competition.  It could have been water filled, we don’t know, so anything from duck racing, Friday evening mead festivals or a mortuary house or some other festival function.  I’m sure the owner of the champion duck would be chuffed to bits, taking home the Golden Egg.  But somehow, it looks a bit unfinished, the earth thrown out to excavate the depression seems rough and unfinished – if you went to all that trouble, why wouldn’t you finish it all off neatly and really impress those annoying cousins from Wiltshire with their fancy Stonehenge.

Napoleon was very warm so he just enjoyed the cool damp area to lie in. Part of the wonder of Bodmin that thousands of people sat here, helped build it, used and, later, wondered what the hell it is and will do so for generations to come.

We walked back off the moor, after I twice had to help Roy over the stile as he went back to deal with a pesky rodent, and visited briefly the nearby clapper bridge.  A Clapper bridge is a Saxon word, cleaca, meaning 'bridging the stepping stones' and is so named because it is formed by using huge altar like slabs of granite supported on stone pillars.

One of the finest examples of clapper bridges to be found in Cornwall is here, over the De Lank river near St Breward.  It is called Delfey or Delphi and spans the De Lank river just outside St. Breward.  Can you imagine the effort and organisation needed to construct these incredible structures.

It was a warm day and I noticed a couple of cars outside the Blyslann Inn, including Piggy’s carefully parked for a strategic exit.  I popped in and in the cool shade immediately went back 100 years, the only camera’s in here are beer certificates on the wall – CAMRA is the Campaign for Real Ale, set up in the 1970’s when beer was like flat dishwater and is one of the most successful consumer campaigns in history.

Buying myself a pint of Buddha, brewed for the pub and the picture on the label on the pump looking startlingly like the landlord, and a snifter for Piggy, I collected the treats each dog gets on entry and took the weight off my pins with Piggy.  We sat outside to watch the world go by - well, a rather fat Dachshund and a Jack Russell with a bit too much attitude.  The local news was that there seem to be more moles this year which were annoying people with pristine lawns and he said he saw a Lynx the other day.  Sorry, a what??  Best have another pint.

There have long been rumours of large cats in various parts of the UK and who knows?  There are lots of individual stories of a Beast of Bodmin, and that doesn’t include Piggy, and he was adamant it was a Lynx.  We’ll have to follow this one up, Sherlock.

A day or two later, I was a world away from the peace of the moor and the pub, in central London.  I was actually in a taxi at about noon on my way to collect my car and hot foot it to Cornwall, driving up the Mall towards Buckingham Palace.

I looked over to my right and, in front of St James’ Palace, a fox was strolling down the Mall, as calm as you like.  I wondered if it had been to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen, maybe to collect a DFC (Distinguished Fox Cross). Or, like me, maybe he was just off for a pint.