Redruth, safe & sound.

After 3-4 days in Sunley Orford house, Truro, as a guest in the guest suite we went to meet young Jennifer who upon signing the contracts handed us the keys to our brand new flat in the shadow of the old mine chimney stack at Pednandrea, Redruth.

The flat, although only a single bedroom is a bit of good news. It allows us to unpack all our stuff in storage and hang shirts and things. Its warm and to begin with devoid of all comforts. We now have new wash/dryer machine, fridge and cooker. Carpets fitted this Friday......just need a bed.

We head back to Canada in May so it will be a comfort to know we have a bolt hole in Redruth for us and the children.

Exploring Redruth, bearing in mind I grew up (?) and occasionally went to school here, is becoming more and more interesting. Because wifi is not available for a few weeks we have to go to Tesco Express in Pool for some tea and free connection to the world. Im actually rather shocked as to how reliant one can become to sending binary code through the airwaves. Anyway, I also discovered the Kernow Research Centre where I can sit in the warm and dry amongst shelves of old books all about everything Cornwall.

Apparently, the Pednandrea stack was built in the late 1800s to service a very large steam pump engine installed to drain Pednandrea tin mine, one of the largest mines in the area, but the stack was the tallest in the county at 145 feet! Half of it remains today.

As a child I would spend a fair bit of my time hanging around the railway station so today I returned for a look about. Nothing much seems to have changed. I saw my first dead body here years ago after a man dropped dead on the platform. As I remember it didn't bother me much at the time and hasn't since, and Ive seen a few in my time.

Today there is a station cat, cant remember his name but he has a kennel on the platform and his own facebook page!