Cornish Rivers 3 : The Inny in Autumn. Part one.

 

The Inny is one of the main tributaries of the Tamar.

Issuing from several springs around Davidstow on the north-eastern edge of Bodmin Moor, the Inny runs for some 30kms through a wide valley until it joins the Tamar in woodland at Inny Foot.

Marshy ground  on the edge of Davidstow airfield hides one place which can be claimed as a source.

 

 

Marsh Woundwort with strongly smelling leaves when crushed,grows prolifically in these marshy areas. It is a very popular plant for insects.

As we drove towards Davidstow where there are  several little springs which give rise to the river, there was a dark pall of low cloud and mizzle. The wartime aerodrome of Davidstow, at 960ft was the highest war-time airfield in Britain but was frequently not operational because of the low cloud.

The low cloud had lifted by the time we got there. One of the old runways disappears into one of the coniferous plantations planted in this area after the war. Bleak, but nevertheless  the place is very popular with dog walkers, overnight campers, and probably most of the local youngsters have learnt to handle a car on these runways before taking to the roads.. Very heavily grazed by sheep and ponies, the turf is close-bitten and a well-known spot for passage  migrants and vagrant birds, and the word soon goes round when something special is seen. Still used at times by a flying club, some of the runways are forbidden to cars, but others, now severely pot-holed are permitted. For years the coniferous plantation was home to a huge winter roost of starlings, giving spectacular aerial displays some evenings as they flew in from all directions. They have decamped now to a couple of plantations a little to the west beyond Crowdy reservoir.

 

 

Crowdy Reservoir, just west of the aerodrome. Dammed in 1973 this is a 170-acre stretch of water worth looking at for water birds from the hide at the edge of the right-hand plantation.

Looking south across the airfield, the square block of the ruined control tower can be seen on the horizon.

Camomile with its feathery fragrant leaves, grows prolifically on the short turf and flowers late in the summer.

 Ruff in winter plumage, visiting Davidstow aerodrome .(photo Sep.2016)

Davidstow's main claim to fame nowadays is the cheese factory, said to be the largest in Britain. It is home to Cathedral City  (odd name!) Cheddar.

Back in the 'fifties before I left college I was offered a laboratory job here. In those days it belonged to Ambrosia and they made tinned rice pudding. I turned that down as I was also offered a job running the Quality Control lab in the Aplin & Barrett creamery at Frome in Somerset. This was more attractive as it was a bigger creamery making a wider variety of dairy products under the name of St Ivel.

The modern cheese factory at Davidstow, now owned by Dairy Crest, is unrecognizably bigger these days.

Near the church is St David's holy well, one of several springs, more sources of the Inny. The cheese factory is said to draw its water from this well.

A little south of Davidstow the streams converge to give a more convincing flow of the Inny.

Another mile downstream, and the river runs more or less south-west in a wide,open valley. This is looking from a little un-named bridge on a lane running north to Hallworthy. There are still remnants of Angelica, Meadowsweet and Marsh Woundwort in flower and the bracken hasn't browned off yet.

Meadowsweet.

 

Soon the river cuts itself a deeper valley and the lane to the next crossing runs steeply downhill among small meadows and woodland.

 

The next crossing is at Treglasta Bridge

 

 

 

 

 

Looking upstream at Treglasta where we watched a pair of grey Wagtails .

 

 The Sycamores by the bridge showed the familiar 'Tar Spot' fungal growth on one tree and the less common pink spots of another fungus on another tree.

 

 

 

 

 

Continuing south-west the river runs under Tregulland Bridge

 

A rushy meadow just beside the bridge with a fringe of beeches on the horizon.

Five different ferns were growing in the stonework of the bridge. Above is the pretty little Wall Rue and to the right, a Hart's Tongue Fern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 There was also Maidenhair Spleenwort (left) and the other two species were Lady Fern and Green Male Fern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just upstream a farm had made a nature trail around a large ornamental lake with cultivated Water Lilies. It was surrounded by an electric fence, maybe to keep Otters from marauding their fish? 

The wide valley continued past rounded sheep pastures on the right and several rocky, scrubby outcrops on the left which shelter a restored Holy Well. I plan to do a future blog about our various Holy Wells so I'll leave this one for the time being and go on to the next crossing just beyond St Clether.   

 It's noticeable along the whole length of this river that the villages are up-slope of the river, which has a reputation for rising very fast following heavy rain, but levels falling again just as rapidly. So we by-passed Hallworthy with its weekly cattle market, St Clether and Laneast with  15th Century churches with pinnacled towers and Polyphant where an unusual Serpentine-like stone has been quarried and used extensively in the past for ornamental details in the local churches.

Instead, at many of the crossing points there are what used to be mills, now either disappeared or 'done up' making attractive (flood-prone?) dwellings . 

 

We followed a riverside footpath for a little way, coming to a big old Beech tree on the bank. You can just see a big clump of fungus just to the left of the fence corner-post.

It's strange that, in a county where Beech isn't a native, that there was such widespread planting of it between one and two hundred years ago. Large trees have grown up in rows, in hedges and as solitary specimens. It is well established now and grows readily from seed.
Alongside the path were clumps of Marsh Woundwort and Devils-bit Scabious which were being visited by numbers of Silver Y moths, and various Bumble Bees and Hoverflies.

The fungus at the base of the big Beech. It is Grifolia frondosa.This clump was growing behind the tree, but penetrating the tree roots.

Looking North across the valley from the low ridge between the Inny valley and that of its main tributary  the Penpont Water which is running parallel behind us.

 

 

The river as it runs south of Laneast. The valley bottom has a mixture of thick woodland and little rushy meadows. Just up the lane there is a large quarry, now hidden and buried among the trees. Greenstone, a hard igneous rock was quarried here for roadstone.

The next bridge downstream, the same design as the previous one upstream. This bridge, at Gimblett's Mill, was completely swept away by 'a great wall of water' in 1847 and was rebuilt. 

The geology within the catchment is mostly slate with  some shales and grit. The soils are shallow with little clay content. The agriculture is not very intensive and the main farming enterprises are sheep or beef and sheep, with a few dairy farms in the lower reaches.

The next two crossings, at Trewen and Hicks Mill are characterized by the causewayed approach roads fenced with these handsome stone and rail fences.The one-time mill stands back from the main river and was served by a leat coming from several hundred yards upstream and rejoining the river off to the right of the photo.

 

Ivy is flowering now and is a rich source of pollen and nectar for insect visitors. The bees were collecting bright orange pollen from this clump.

 

 

 The pretty little Ivy-leaved Toadflax grows between the stones of the bridge and it's still flowering.

 

 

 

I felt bound to put in this picture of the fine arch of Trewen Bridge because Tony scrambled down the bank and waded into the river to get the photo, only to slip on a stone and drench himself. He emerged, dripping as I was looking at the insects on the ivy flowers, but his hat was dry!

 None of the roads follow the course of the river so to get access we repeatedly looped away up the valley sides and then wriggled down narrow, often wooded lanes, to get to the next mill or river crossing.

This fine 17th Century bridge at Hicks Mill  is called Polyphant Bridge. It was partly destroyed in the Great Flood of 1847. It is the last before the Inny is joined by its principal tributary the Penpont Water at a complicated crossing of the confluence by the main A30 trunk road heading west. It's a very busy two -lane road and I opted to forego the exploration and photos in the interests of living to fight another day.

 
 The final stretch of the river will follow in Part 2 when the forecast unsettled weather system has passed.