Tehidy Country Park - 'Time for Tehidy'

Take a virtual tour of Tehidy's kennels complex to see why we are aiming to restore and repurpose these unique buildings.

The last Basset's of Tehidy were well known for their love of animal sports and the kennels complex speaks of the prestige they afforded their working dogs, whilst also providing insight into the everyday life of the gentry and their estate workers.

A set of Victorian stone and brick built buildings, the kennels complex includes a rooms for cutting up meat and preparing dog-gruel as well as kennels with groves remaining in the walls where slate shelves would have been with beds for the dogs to reduce paw infections. Located at the top of Kennels Hill, which runs between the otter trap and the kennels, the excellent preservation of the buildings provide a snap-shot of the last-years of the Bassets at Tehidy, in the pre-war years, before the nature of the site was irrevocably changed following the Bassets’ sale of Tehidy in 1916.

The buildings have faired remarkably well over the decades, being of a robust design. Nonetheless, the roof in particular has deteriorated rapidly in recent years. Cornwall Council hopes to soon be in a position to restore the kennels through a heritage conservation project and has commissioned a 3D model as a record of what the kennels look like today, ahead of the intended restoration.

The model, produced by Cornish firm 3Deep, shows the original features that have been well preserved, including a brick-work courtyard surrounded by iron railings and remain of a well and associated ironmongery. The buildings showcase a number of unusual elements for the locality, such as clay pan tiles possibly made in Somerset or elsewhere in England, whilst also containing features Cornish-made features such as a iron cauldron reputed to be manufactured at Harvey's foundry, Hayle.

Whilst it's not possible to visit the kennels, yet, due to their state of repair, the 3D model means you can take a virtual tour now at: Tehidy Kennels 3D Model

Eagle-eyed visitors to Tehidy Country park may have noticed the recent work to reveal overgrown part of the old kennels buildings at Kennels Hill. This less-visited corner of the Park is home to a wealth of heritage that helps reveal to story of the everyday life of the estate workers that supported the notoriously lavish lifestyle of Tehidy's Basset family, and a new initiative being explored by Cornwall Council seeks to re-purpose them towards a more sustainable future for the site.

Recently, members of the project team were joined by Council members and Cornwall's Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team see the newly revealed buildings for themselves and to consider the ideas and explore opportunities for future collaboration and seeking funding.

If successful the proposals will see the historic kennels sensitively restored and repurposed as a park facility, for instance including a catering offer, information and displays about the history of Tehidy and resources for volunteers. Alongside the restored kennels it is anticipated that other buildings may be rehabilitated to offer spaces for nature-based counselling, as facilities to support an improved schools activity programme and to host exhibitions and creative workshops.

Cornwall Councillor for Illogan and Portreath, David Crabtree, who visits Tehidy on a regular basis has backed the ideas from an early stage reflected on the visit:

"It was a pleasure to be given a tour of Tehidy Woods by Charlotte and Ann, two ladies who are both passionate about maintaining and sensitively restoring parts of Tehidy Woods for future generations. There are exciting plans for the old kennels and surrounding areas along with the hidden old round and the area where the Temple stood. As a local resident, who frequents the woods a number of times per week, I look forward to watching the progress, which I know will be slow and look forward to more visits as work progresses. One tree not to be missed is the Old Twisted Beech that formed part of the late Queens Green Canopy".

Image below from left: Cllr David Crabtree (Illogan and Portreath) and Cllr Martin Alvey (Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change) visit the historic kennels at Tehidy Country Park to explore proposals for a heritage-led regeneration scheme.

On Saturday 15^th October a tree seed collection event was held at Tehidy Country Park to celebrate recognition of Tehidy’s famous Twisted Beech as part of the Queen’s Ancient Green Canopy. The Queen’s Green Canopy (queensgreencanopy.org)

The Queen’s Green Canopy is an initiative that was initiated to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee, with the aim of creating a living legacy of new trees planted and raising awareness of the role of our trees and woodlands.

Over 30 adults and children attended the event at Tehidy, which was hosted in Partnership between Cornwall Councils’ Countryside Team, the Forest for Cornwall and Cormac. A range of seeds, including Beech, Holm Oak, Holly and Sweet Chestnut, were collected and potted to either take home to grow or leave with the team for future planting either at Tehidy or other Cornwall Council owned sites.

To celebrate the Queen’s Green Canopy, children made crowns from autumn leaves and mini-Twisted Beech trees from sweets.

After a wet morning, the weather had improved before the event and attendees were able to enjoy the amazing seasonal colours of Tehidy Woods in bright autumn sunshine, several taking the opportunity picnic under the canopy of the special ancient tree.

Tips were provided about how to care for a tree sapling, so that those taking home a potted seed could give it the best chance of developing into a an ancient, potentially perhaps another Twisted Beech.

The Forest for Cornwall would love to know about your tree planting successes and are happy to provide tips and answer any questions you may have about growing trees. They would like to know if you have planted any trees or if you’d like to get involved in contributing to the massive task of growing a forest for Cornwall. There contact details can be found at: Contact Forest for Cornwall - Cornwall Council

Please continue to look out for future activities events at Tehidy Country Park.

Visitors to Tehidy Country Park may have noticed some changes to a set of derelict buildings hidden away at the top of Kennels Hill in the northwest of the site. The Victorian structures are former dog kennels associated with the Basset family, owners of the Tehidy estate until 1916. Recent clearance work has helped reveal the kennels so they can be surveyed and recorded in detail.

The current buildings probably replaced an older thatched kennels of 1734 and there are records that greyhounds were kept in 1756 and spaniels in 1791, whilst in the last days of the Bassets, retrievers were kept there. The complex is a rare surviving example of kennels of such quality, demonstrating the status which the Basset’s placed on their sport, and telling an important stary about the history and heritage of Tehidy.

We’re aiming to find new uses for the buildings so they can be preserved for you and future generations to enjoy. This may take some time, but the current conservation work is a first step towards a renewal of these buildings.

Some parts of the buildings are unstable at the moment so they have been cordoned off and we must ask everyone to keep out.

We’ll be consulting on the future of these buildings as plans develop, so please do keep and eye out for updates or sign up to follow this page for notifications.

On 15th October Cornwall Council's Tehidy Country Park is running a tree seed hunt/potting event in association with the Forest for Cornwall. The event is free and open to all. Registration is encouraged but not essential.

Come along to have a go at growing your very own Twisted Beech!

To celebrate the recognition of Tehidy’s Ancient Twisted Beech as part of the Queen's Green Canopy attendees will have the chance to take away a Tehidy tree seed planted in a pot as well as contribute to our nature recovery stock that we'll grow on at the Country Park. You will visit the Ancient Twisted Beech, learn how to recognise tree seeds and how to grow saplings. Craft activities will include making a twisted beech from sweets and other tree-themed delights.

Event details:

Date: Saturday 15^th October 2022

Time: 11am – 1pm

Meet at: South Drive entrance (in front of the café)

Postcode: TR14 0AH

Event contact: 07749712452

Cost: Free

Suitable for: Families | All Ages and All Abilities

To register please contact: charlotte.evans@cornwall.gov.uk or 07749 712452

Though iconic in our image of the countryside, wildflower meadows have been lost at a staggering rate – 97% since WW2 – as a result of changing land use and agricultural practice. Recent decades have seen concerted efforts to halt the decline of wildflower meadows in the UK and increased interest in managing lawns, verges and other grasslands for wildflowers. Tehidy Country Park is home not just to the largest area of woodland in west Cornwall (250 acres), but also a thriving species-rich wildflower meadow, seeds from which are helping bring wildflowers back to sites across Cornwall.

Volunteers from the Penwith Landscape Partnership (PLP) joined site managers from CORMAC at Tehidy earlier this month, making the most of perfect dry weather conditions to harvest seed from an area of the meadow, located on the North Cliffs in the northwest of the Country Park. As well as helping increase grassland species diversity in Penwith as part of PLP’s work on the First and Last – Our Living Landscape initiative, some of this year’s seedstock will also be sown in Cornwall Council sites receiving wildlife boosts through the ERDF funded Making Space for Nature (MS4N) project.

Starting from a very low base of available wildflower sites, seed can be in short supply, and having a local site with proven ability to thrive in the Cornish climate is a real benefit. The Tehidy mix includes yellow rattle, a semi-parasitic wildflower, whose roots attach to those of coarse gasses, drawing nutrients from them and thereby reducing the grasses advantage over less aggressive wildflowers, and has been seen to establish well on other Cornish sites, including East Pool Park and Crembling Well in previous years.

Around 50kg of seed were collected using a brush harvester, kindly supplied by the PLP and painstakingly hand sieved by the volunteers.

If you’d like to find out more about meadow regeneration in Cornwall, visit: Wildflower Collective - Rewilding, Wildflower, Pollinators. The collective’s aim is to create 568,210 square metres of new wildflower habitat – that’s 1 square metre for every resident in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly – helping nature to recover, bringing increased beauty, more wildlife and climate resilience back to our landscapes.

Tips for creating a small-scale wildflower patch can be found at: Meadow Creation Guidance (cornwall.gov.uk)

And you can join the volunteers at Tehidy Country Park by contacting: countryside@cormacltd.co.uk

A new podcast is available describing the little-understood 'Round' at North Cliffs, Tehidy Country Park, a Scheduled Monument which has recently been awarded funding via the Heritage Lottery Fund for improved conservation and interpretation.

In this podcast you hear from members of Cornwall's Area of Outstanding Beauty Team who delivering the Monumental Improvement project, a scheme providing urgent care to 40 Scheduled Monuments across Cornwall to protect them for future generations.

The Round is likely to be of the Romano-British period (c800 BC-AD 410), during which a pattern of clusters of farmsteads being enclosed in ‘rounds’ with ramparts and ditches is seen throughout Cornwall. Six sites interpreted as rounds lie in the immediate area of Tehidy. At the Scheduled Round the enclosing earthworks survive quite clearly, having been preserved from cultivation by incorporation in the woodland plantation.

Listen here: Bridges to Heritage - Episode 6 by Cornwall & Isles of Scilly HER | Mixcloud

To find out more about Monumental Improvement see: A Monumental Improvement — The Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (cornwall-aonb.gov.uk)

If this podcast peaks your interest in this, and other hidden heritage features at Tehidy, come along to explore them at this weekend's Art in the Landscape trail: From North Cliffs carpark on 16th and 17th July.

Cornwall Council is delighted to be working in collaboration with Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) to showcase Cornwall's protected landscape through an interactive being launched with immersive activities on 16th and 17th July.

Visitors to the park will enjoy a self-guided image trail celebrating the beauty of nature in the protected landscape. Giant flags will lead you along a trail of discovery as you wind your way along the path through the trees. Through ancient monuments and wildlife corridors the Flag Trail will tell a visual story of the rare and hidden creatures in Cornwall AONB. Take time to marvel at the power of the waves in Porthcurno and feel proud about the return of the Chough in St Agnes, displayed in the dappled light offered by Tehidy's spectacular woods.

There will be free drop-in workshops alongside the self-guided trail. From creative writing inspired by nature, observational drawing for all levels and forest school activities there is plenty for all the family to enjoy on their walk.

Cornwall AONB’s Monumental Improvement project team will be there to tell the story of Tehidy’s fascinating heritage, including the Romano-Anglo Round, now a scheduled monument, helping us learn lessons through connection with the ancient people that once settled there.

Find out more at the AONB website: Celebrating our Protected Landscape — The Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (cornwall-aonb.gov.uk)

The Twisted Beech at Tehidy Country Park is recognised as part of the Ancient Canopy to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Cornwall Council is delighted that that the Queen’s Green Canopy has bestowed this prestigious status on one of the magnificent and perhaps the most mysterious tree at Tehidy Country Park, the largest area of woodland in west Cornwall. The Ancient Twisted Beech has been chosen as part of a nationwide network of 70 Ancient Trees dedicated to The Queen in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee.

The Queen’s Green Canopy recently announced the network of 70 Ancient Woodlands and 70 Ancient Trees across the United Kingdom which will form part of the Ancient Canopy to celebrate Her Majesty’s 70 years of service.

The initiative was launched by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, who is Patron of The Queen’s Green Canopy on Sunday 1^st May 2022.

The Twisted Beech is over 230 years old, having been recorded on a 1788 map of the Basset’s Tehidy Estate. The fact that Tehidy is now a freely accessible Country Park, owned and managed by Cornwall Council, means that anyone can now enjoy visiting the tree, which has a distinctive twisted trunk. “It is a tree of note which one and all can seek out and enjoy – it is well known within the community and holds a special place in the memories of many people that have visited Tehidy through the years. We were absolutely delighted when we found out the tree had been secretly nominated and are very proud that it has made it through to the prestigious list of 70 trees making up the Ancient Canopy.”

Aligning with the aims of the Queen’s Green Canopy to raise awareness of these treasured habitats and the importance of conserving them for future generations, Cornwall Council will use this as an opportunity to inspire others about the benefits of retaining ancient trees in our landscape for wildlife and people and educate people about how to care for older trees.

On Saturday 2nd April, Tehidy Country Park was delighted to welcome a group of youngsters that regularly participant in, Bodmin-based, Curious School of the Wild's, Saturday Adventurers sessions.

For many of them, it was their first visit to Tehidy and through having the opportunity to hear about both the nature and wildlife of the site as well as its heritage, they were able to reflect and share views on future plans for the special People's Park.

The group found out about the historic Otter Trap, and heard stories of the old hunt, inspiring the invention of a new wide-game 'Hunt the Otter', which is played in the same way as the classic It, and can be adapted to have one or many otters.

Later in their exploration they reached snake bridge, the area at the bottom at Oak Woods that leads you over a wooden bridge to rejoin the historic West Drive, taking time here to decorate pebbles to leave as treasures for others to find. Many of them chose to include images of things they had seen on their visit to Tehidy, including squirrels, flowers and sparkling waters.

The story of the Otters so caught the imagination of the group that by the time they reached the old hound kennels, now in urgent need of preservation and repair, they were united in their suggestion that it could be protected, their ideas for how it could be repurposed rangeing from as a library and museum with models of the dogs to holiday lodges.

"It was great to hear the views of young people, who really helped us understand how we can better enable this age group make the most of their time and experience at Tehidy. (Countryside Officer, Cornwall Council).

Why don't you create a drawing of something you see next time you are at Tehidy! And if you have ideas for the future of the site too, please do get in touch or complete our on-line survey: Tehidy Country Park - Understanding how people engage | Let's Talk Cornwall