Alongside the Penpol Creek is Penpol Terrace – a Victorian row of terrace houses with shop fronts built into the front gardens.
Harvey & Co were eventually forced to allow trading to take place outside their Emporium (where workers spent the tokens they were paid in) but the lack of available space meant that shops had to be built in the existing gardens. Now the row consists of many independent shops including my favourite, the Emporium above. I managed to buy a painted nest of tables and a lovely Windsor style chair from here when we first moved to Cornwall, for a very reasonable price. And surely that Pottering Shed sign is destined for my home?
One shop stands out from the rest – Carnsew Gallery which was originally a butcher’s shop and has a lovely mosaic bull floor. There are terracotta panels with sheeps’ heads to the stall riser and a tiled mural on the left wall of the porch depicting a bull.
At the end of the terrace is “Pickle Jar” Corner and where you find Philps the famous pasty company. I confess to having tried one or two and can recommend the chicken ones. Here it was possible to cross to the Lelant Saltings at low tide by five different tracks, each marked with a granite or wooden post to avoid the quicksand.
(“Pickle Jar” Corner got its name from the local practice of putting a wooden plank across pickling barrels to use as seats during Carnival and Feast Day parades).
The Royal Standard Inn marks the boundary between Harvey & Co and the Cornish Copper Company. The inn itself is very early and once called the “Passage House” and before the Hayle Causeway was built or the A30, travellers to St Ives and Penzance would have stopped here for refreshments whilst waiting for safe tidal conditions in which to cross the estuary.
On the creekside the land is laid to garden with many flower beds and benches, often double-sided so you can choose whether to face the creek or the terrace.
A poignant memorial stands at the beginning of the terrace in honour of Cyril Richard Rescorla who was born in Hayle in 1939. He was working for Morgan Stanley in the Trade Centre on September 11, 2001 and helped 2,700 people to safety during the evacuation. He died when the second plane hit the towers. (In 2019 President Trump has awarded Rick Rescorla with the Presidential Citizen’s Medal for his actions while serving as head of security during the 9/11 attacks.)
This is not a long walk by any stretch of the imagination, but full of the history of this once famous little town.
Cornwall in Colours 
What an extraordinary little place. Bordering on scruffy, you might say, especially at low tide and with grey skies, but full of entertainment. I love that you can face into or out of the wind on those benches, and what is that strange chimney in the gardens- for burning rubbish? The pickle jars must have been quite big or you were almost sitting on the ground. What fun, Jude! Thanks a lot 🙂 🙂 Hope all went well yesterday?
It is a bit scruffy, that’s true, but the people I have met here all seem very friendly. It hadn’t occurred to me about the wind! Good thinking Booboo!
I had quite an enjoyable time in Hayle thanks Jude. I would join you on the pickle jar benches 🙂
With a Cornish pastie and a pint of Doom Bar 😉
Yes please. You get this lot in and I’ll do the next round 🙂
I think I would enjoy a poke around in the Emporium. It looks like there would be lots of lovely treasures inside.
There certainly are. I found some lovely Victorian coat hooks.
Great shots, Jude. But now I want a Philps Pastie! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
They are rather nice 🥟
What an interestingly ramshackle looking place, I like it!
It’s a proper town unlike St Ives or Padstow which are much more touristy. And less busy, thank goodness!
Looks like a great place. I mean, pasties, gardens, water and an emporium. What’s not to like.
A wonderful walk with so much history, and beautiful photos.
Thanks Meg, I love those dilapidated sheds, the last of the old stuff to remain.
Thank goodness for Jo’s Monday walks as otherwise I would have missed this . . . .what a fascinating place, and loving the steam engine. Hope it retains its character, and community spirit
It’s a lot more affordable than St Ives – for now.
hmmm might be too west for MrB!
Too west for most people, but there is the estuary to tempt him 🙂
Thanks for my Virtual Walk, Jude, Hayle looks a friendly little place
It is rather Sue.
Teehee!