Bodmin

Bodmin is one of the oldest towns in Cornwall, and the only large Cornish settlement recorded in the Domesday Book. It is very easy to get to (just 12 miles away from the lodge) but at times a bit of a pain to get into (and through) due to poor traffic management and a lack of a bypass in the Wadebridge/Bodmin direction.

In relatively recent years things like the crown courts and local government moved away, diminishing the town’s status and not helping with its tired appearance.

Still, the town has Morrisons, Lidl, Aldi, Sainsbury and Asda supermarkets with the main high street having shops such as Dorothy Perkins, WH Smiths, Boots, Superdrug etc. Out of town, there are places like Halfords, Homebase and a public swimming pool.

There are no eateries to speak of – the town definitely hasn’t been gentrified but manages to house a Wetherspoons in a former Wesleyan chapel!

But there are interesting things to see. On the way into the town is the old Bodmin Jail. We haven’t been there for 25 years but, what was a pretty much derelict site then, has since had £30 million pumped in to redevelop the site to make a hotel out of a cell wing. For £80 you can book a super scary ‘after dark’ experience or ‘paranormal’ tours for £25. Normal adult admission is £10, under 5’s free. There is also a restaurant and tea room. You can look round the outside for free where there is the only hanging pit in the UK and the site of the last man executed in Cornwall. Which is nice. Update: We revisited in May 2019. The naff tableaux depicting miscellaneous crimes in times past are still there, jazzed up a bit with better graphics. Still, amusing enough for a wet afternoon.

The Bodmin visitor centre is in the Shire Hall, which also houses an art gallery and the ‘Courtroom Experience’ in the old court. Adjacent is the town museum. Just outside of the town centre is the regimental military museum plus the historic steam railway which takes you out to Bodmin Parkway mainline rail station in one direction and the Bodmin end of the Bodmin/Padstow cycle trail in the other direction – a two-hour journey (including stops and engine changing). The friendly railway also has occasional Thomas the Tank engine and Wallace & Gromit days for the youngsters.