Continued from Part 4…
Tuesday was our last full day away, so we decided to do some more travelling to see the sights. We first drove out to Marazion and St Michael’s Mount, which was beautiful; the village of Marazion was very quaint (although everyone around referred to it as a town despite it having no more than 1500 residents).
As the tide was in, we had to take the boat out to the island (the causeway was covered). Helen was scared of the boat ride, but braved it to visit the island.
Once we were on the island, we took a little look around, there was a guided tour due to start an hour after we arrived but otherwise the castle itself was closed off for the winter. We decided against the guided tour as it can take up to two hours meaning we wouldn’t have gone anywhere else. Instead, we explored what we could of the island, had some lunch in the café, then took the boat back to the mainland.
From Marazion, we drove to Bodmin to visit the historic Jail. This was by far the most interesting location we visited. The main entrance and wardens area was turned in to a restaurant, but through a door at the back was the jail itself.
Inside the jail were numerous dioramas of various crimes that people had been sentenced for, and dozens of really interesting plaques talking about life in jail and the people that were sentenced to death in particular.
A small 3x2m rooms for example could house up to eight inmates at once, and a quarter of inmates died due to disease. One plaque in particular stated that modern day prisons were like a holiday camp in comparison. The number of women that were arrested and hanged for murdering their children was also very surprising, generally because they were illegitimate, disabled, or poor.
I told Helen the “ONE BATH EVERY THREE MONTHS” and “SOLD WIFE AT CATTLE MARKET” both made me think of her, but she wasn’t best pleased. I also found the story of the riot very interesting.
Out in front of the jail was the execution shed and hanging pit (above image), which was only rediscovered in 2005. The pit is were most of the keys and locks for the prison were found, most likely buried there by the last prison governor, and the pit itself was restored recently to be the only working hanging pit in Britain.
After reading a novel’s worth of stories, we headed back to Exeter (I decided not to leave Helen in one of the cells), and went in search of a restaurant. We found a lovely little place down by the waterfront (funnily enough called the Waterfront), where we each had a very tasty pizza, then shared a massive sundae (aptly named the Waterfront Extravaganza) before retiring for the night.
The restaurant itself was built in to an old warehouse, and was lovely inside as well as outside. This was the first time we’d visited the quayside in Exeter, but it definitely made us want to come back.
What an excellent holiday you’ve had. The cruise across to St Michael’s Mount sounded very exciting – we drove across the causeway when we visited. Merazion sounds like an interesting place to visit. I missed the breakfast entry today, hope they haven’t let their standards drop!