Mawgan Porth

Often featuring in lists of the world's best walks, the South West Coast Path is 630 miles long, and passes through two World Heritage Sites. This guide to the path is a modern take on the traditional (turn right at the stile, and follow the footpath to the bridge) guidebook: instead of telling readers where to go step by step, Stephen gives fantastic ideas for what to do as they travel along the path. There are so many amazing adventures and places to visit (some 'secret' and some well known) and this guide highlights 1,000 of them, all situated along the route. After an Introduction giving a history of the path and the stories of the people who made it (Why is this path the most popular National Trail? Why is it so closely associated with tales of King Arthur? When is the best time to visit?) the bulk of the book focuses on all the amazing things you can do along the path itself. It is divided into regions, with over 70 adventures/highlights per region: West Somerset, North Devon, Torridge, North Cornwall, South Cornwall, South Hams, Torbay, Teignbridge, East Devon, West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland, Purbeck and Poole. Each region is introduced with a 'Best For' section, with the ten best places for secret swims, tidal woods, fossils etc. It then highlights where to go, each place accompanied by basic directions, a short description and postcode/map coordinates. Readers can use this guide whilst walking the path in either direction, and at home when planning – Stephen Neale's engaging writing and beautiful photography make this book a joy to spend time with.

This book offers a new assessment of early Christianity in south-west Britain from the fourth to the tenth centuries, a rich period which includes the transition from Roman to native British to Saxon models of church. The book will be based on evidence from archaeological excavations, early texts and recent critical scholarship and cover Wessex, Devon and Cornwall. In the south-west, Wessex provides the greatest evidence of Roman Christianity. The fifth-century Dorset villas of Frampton and Hinton St Mary, with their complex baptistery mosaics, indicate the presence of sophisticated Christian house churches. The fact that these two Roman villas are only 15 miles apart suggests a network of small Christian communities in this region. The author uses evidence from St Patrick’s fifth-century ‘Confessions’ to describe how members of a villa house church lived. Wessex was slowly Christianised: in Gloucestershire, the pagan healing sanctuary at Chedworth provides evidence of later use as a Christian baptistery; at Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, a baptistery was dug into the mosaic floor of an imposing villa, which may by then have been owned by a bishop. In Somerset a number of recently excavated sites demonstrate the transition from a pagan temple to a Christian church. Beside the pagan temple at Lamyatt, later female burials suggest, unusually, a small monastic group of women. Wells cathedral grew beside the site of a Roman villa’s funeral chapel. In Street, a large oval enclosure indicates the probable site of a ‘Celtic’ monastery. Early Christian cemeteries have been excavated at Shepton Mallet and elsewhere. Lundy Island, off the Devon coast, provides evidence of a Celtic monastery, with its inscribed stones that commemorate early monks. At Exeter, a Saxon anthology includes numerous riddles, one of which describes in detail the production of an illuminated manuscript in a south-western monastery. Oliver Padel’s meticulous documentation of Cornish place-names has demonstrated that, of all the Celtic regions, Cornwall has by far the highest number of dedications to a single, otherwise unknown individual, typically consisting of a small church and a farm by the sea. These small monastic ‘cells’ have hitherto received little attention as a model of church in early British Christianity, and the latter part of the text focuses on various aspects of this model, as lived out in coastal and in upland settlements, on islands, and in relation to larger Breton monasteries. Study of 60 Breton sites has demonstrated possible connections between larger Breton monasteries and smaller Cornish cells.

Originally published in 1956, this collection features chapters by well-known archaeologists on various archaeological sites explored in the previous decade, as examples of the techniques being used and finds being made. Mostly from the lowland zone of Britain, the chapters nonetheless offer a spread of location and site types; while the periods being investigated range from prehistoric to Romano-British to later fields. This detailed work exemplifies the steady progress of study in archaeology and a final chapter on air reconnaissance deals with one of the most revolutionary additions to archaeology in the post-war period. Contributors include: J.G.D. Clark, R. Rainbird Clarke, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, I.A. Richmond, G.W. Meates, W.F. Grimes, C.W. Phillips, J.R.C. Hamilton, Brian Hope-Taylor, J.G. Hurst, J.K.S. St. Joseph.

Britain's most popular holiday destination has been left with no stone unturned in updating the second edition of Footprint's full-colour guide, Cornwall with Kids. This popular guide provides you with the complete low-down on where to go, what to see and how to get the most from your family holiday. Cornwall is everything a family holiday should be - braving surf, building sandcastles and sampling fish and chips. Perfect for any family budget, Cornwall with Kids offers insight into exactly where to pitch the tent, buy local food and plan days out for free, plus reviews of the top hotels along with the must-see attractions like the Eden Project and St Michael's Mount. Whether it's a day trip to the Isles of Scilly or finding the best beaches for rockpooling that takes your fancy, you won't want to leave home without this full-colour guide. - Teach the kids how to surf at one of the many acclaimed North Atlantic surf schools. - Sample the culinary delights, full listings on where to find the best Cornish food, including that perfect pasty. - Great days out, from the Eden Project to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. - Whether the sun is blazing or the rain is pouring, there are tips here for all weather.