Polzeath

Polzeath Cornish: Polsegh
Cornwall
The Beach at Polzeath
Location
Grid reference:	SW937788
Location:	50°34’25"N, 4°54’55"W
Data
Population:	1,449  ((2001, includes Trebetherick))
Post town:	Polzeath
Postcode:	PL27
Dialling code:	01208
Local Government
Council:	Cornwall
Parliamentary constituency:	North Cornwall

Sketch map showing Polzeath and the surrounding area

Polzeath (pəlˈzɛθ) is a small seaside resort in the parish of St Minver in Cornwall. It is approximately six miles northwest of Wadebridge on the Atlantic coast.

The village's name is from the Cornish language: 'Polsegh means dry creek.

Polzeath has a sandy beach and is popular with holiday-makers and surfers. The beach is 1,500 feet wide and extends 1,200 feet from the seafront at low water; however, most of the sand is submerged at high water. At exceptionally high spring tides the sea floods the car park at the top of the beach.

Polzeath beach is patrolled by lifeguards during the summer and is described on the RNLI website as : ... a wide, flat beach with some shelter from winds, it sees good quality surf and is quite often extremely crowded.

Dolphins may sometimes be spotted in the bay and the coastline north of Polzeath is a good area for seeing many types of birds including corn buntings and puffins.

The main street runs along the seafront and has a parade of shops catering for holidaymakers and residents. There are pubs, cafés, restaurants, a caravan site and several camping sites in the immediate area. The road rises up steep hills at both ends of the seafront; towards the village of Trebetherick to the southwest and New Polzeath to the northeast.

History

In 1911 a Methodist chapel was built on the road towards Trebetherick at Chapel Corner. The original building was demolished in 1932 when the village street was widened. A new village hall was opened on 15 April 1933.

A stream rises near St Minver two miles to the south. Before reaching Polzeath, it is joined by a tributary which rises north of Pityme. Shilla Mill at the edge of Polzeath, stands at the confluence of the streams. Built around 1590 it ceased working as a mill in 1885 and was converted into a house.

Until 1934 the main street through the village crossed the stream by means of a ford. A footbridge was provided for pedestrians which was sometimes washed away by winter storms. In 1934 the road bridge was built.

Economy

Tourism developed in the 19th and 20th centuries to be the most significant part of the local economy.

Literary associations

Polzeath was a favourite haunt of the poet laureate, Sir John Betjeman, and is celebrated in some of his verse. He is buried in the churchyard of St Enodoc Church, Trebetherick. Another poet, Laurence Binyon, wrote the Remembrance Day ode For the Fallen in 1914 while sitting on The Rumps at Polzeath or "Polseath" as it was then called, during the First World War.

In the first of Enid Blyton's Famous Five novels, the eponymous children express disappointment that their holiday will not, as usual, be spent at Polzeath. The author Joolz Denby lived in a caravan in Polzeath for a year while researching her novel Borrowed Light, published in 2006. The novel is set in Polzeath, though the village's name is changed to Polwenna.

The cartoonist Posy Simmonds created a fictitious place in Cornwall called "Tresoddit". When the BBC made the short film Tresoddit for Easter in 1991, it was filmed in and around Polzeath.

Gallery of images

• 
  Sunset over the bay towards Pentire Point and Newland, the island
• 
  Surfers at Polzeath
• 
  Another general view of the beach from the north-east side
• 
  View across Polzeath beach from the north-east
• 
  View of Pentire Point from the beach car park
• 
  View of Pentire Point taken from Polzeath
• 
  Polzeath Methodist Church
• 
  Shilla Mill cattle grid stream crossing

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Polzeath)