Hello, I'm Angie!

[angie]

I wanted to say hello to all you Minack fans - it's been fantastic to discover this website and to know that the spirit of Minack and the memory of Derek and Jeannie is held in such special care by so many. I was a fan of the Minack books for quite a number of years. On holiday in Cornwall - it must be about 30 years ago now - I picked up a copy of 'The Way to Minack' and was soon hooked! Over the years I read all of the Minack Chronicles and have most of them in paperback. The other day clearing out the bookcases I came across 'The Confusion Room', started to re-read it - and was instantly transported back to a world that once meant so much to me. Reading Derek's last book was so poignant. I remembered how much pleasure I had had from the books, how I'd always felt that Derek was something of a kindred spirit, how I'd often resolved that some day I'd go to Minack (though I doubt I would ever have had the courage to turn up on the Tangyes out of the blue!). Like many others I had a dream to live the life that Derek and Jeannie had and indeed I am fortunate enough to be able to say that I did find my rural idyll - for the last 16 years my husband and I have been running a farm in France. We have several hundred sheep, two ponies, dogs though I'm afraid no cats!

Picking up the books again, remembering what an impact they had on me those years ago I decided I MUST discover Minack finally for myself. It is now my firm ambition to do just that as soon as we're able to get away - my husband is just as enthusiastic as I am! A huge thank you to those who have posted photos here. They're just fantastic!

Kindest regards
Angie

[nashie]

Hi Angie,
Great to hear from you and that you like our website. Linda and her husband Jeff up on the Isle of Arran started it for us last year. They do all the hard work running it and I think everyone agrees it's a great site for Minack lovers. I'm the chairman of the Friends of Minack Society and I live at the end of 'The Winding Lane' in what used to be Tregurnow Pottery - it's been especially good for me to see how the website Forum helps us to make contact with people all over the world who are not in a position to actually get here, but love the books. If you are able to visit though, and if you fancy joining FOMS, our annual getogether is in March every year at the Queens hotel and details of this year's events will be posted shortly. Whether or not you can join us, we'd love you to keep in contact via the Forum.
Regards
John Nash

[Kath Mulligan]

Hello Angie

Lovely to meet you through the forum. It is a real pleasure to hear from people around the world, all of whom have been touched in some way by Derek and Jeannie and the Chronicles. If you can manage to get over to Penzance for the AGM in March, it would be lovely to meet you in person. Look forward to chatting with you on the forum.

Kath

[angie]

Thank you, John and Kath, for your kind welcome here. It would be lovely to meet you all sometime - I'm very determined to visit Minack and it would be good to combine the visit with a Society event so shall definitely keep in touch!

Tell me - are the cliff meadows still planted with daffodils? Is there access only by the coastal path or is it possible to get to Minack by an inland route? It seems that only Oliver Land is strictly open to the public. I'd be very disappointed not to have the opportunity to stroll down the Winding Lane! How fantastic to actually live there!Did you, John know the Tangye's as neighbours?

Kind regards
Angie

[Linda]

Hi Angie
Glad you made it on the forum!

Do you remember Drake at the Door and the heroine Jane? well, she applied along with her partner Peter for the tenancy at Minack after Derek's death. There were four of us who did so, Anne and Malcolm Sutton, Jane and Peter , myself (as an individual) and a chap (also as an individual) who had previously lived in Spain, he now lives along the coast at Torquay. Jane and Peter now run ' Dorminack' as West Coast Nurseries, (you will find them on the internet, under a website that deals with seeds, for the moment I cannot remember its name but will find it for you).
Oliverland is maintained under the auspices of the The Minack Chronicles Trust Nature Reserve, and you will find details of them under our website by going to the Minack Chronicles Trust page and clicking on the 'guidestarorguk' link at the bottom of the page.

Daffodils still grow both at Dorminack and Oliverland and along the cliff meadows, but not maintained as such.

You can get to Oliverland by two routes. One is the coastal path, which if you read John's post on his New Year's walk was a little 'scary'! :D
However, you can also come via the inland walk, or the Donkey Walk as its also known. This is a really enjoyable route, although there is one point that can be a 'little' muddy. You reach this via the private road that comes up from Lamorna Cove village, where the Lamorna Cove Hotel used to be. Walk to the very top and turn right by the garage and follow the path, past Carn barges , till you see the sign and entrance to Oliver Land. (You have to sit a while at Carn Barges tho' and just soak up the views and emotions of seeing Minack from the same point as Derek and Jeannie did that first time! (You'll cry I am sure!)

If you can get to the AGM John organises with Jane a trip down the Winding Lane which is intended for disabled visitors, so John over to you..........

I am posting a picture that might be interesting to you and all the other users. I will be putting a new page on the website shortly which is the same image and indicate on it key places and so you will get a better idea where things are in relation to each other.

I always enjoyed visiting between January and March ~ it was always quieter and clearer to see where the outline of fields had been ~ I would spend literally hours at Carn Barges, the Ambrose Rock and the White Gate. I loved visiting in Summer too when the lushness of everything made you feel like you were hidden away from the world, when foxes would be out and you would come across one without it realising you were there! Oh I cant make my mind up ~ I just love Minack ~ anytime would do for me!!
:lol:

I'll close by just saying Welcome again.....and please don't hesitate to post your thoughts, views and questions and I am sure you will get many responses...all good ones!....Derek was a gadget man and I have a sneaking suspicion that he would have loved this forum(he was talking about buying a lap top in the summer before he died), it would have been wonderful for us all if that had come about. :)

kind regards
Linda

[nashie]

Hi Angie
No, I'm afraid I didn't know Derek & Jeannie as neighbours. My wife Mim and I read the books when we first started coming to Cornwall in the early 70s, and although Lamorna was always then one of our favourite places, I suppose it was our 'English reserve' that prevented us from calling on the Tangyes unannounced. We bought our cottage in 1999 from George and Margaret Smith who ran it as a pottery, which along with painting, is what we do here now. Margaret especially featured in the books - it was her that alerted Derek to the imminent sale of the meadows that eventually became Oliver Land, so I suppose we owe her quite a bit.
There are still plenty of daffodils in the Minack cliff meadows, although I don't think Jane & Peter cultivate them any longer. I see Jane now and again and Peter's giving a talk to our Garden Soc this evening so Jane will probably be there as well.
The best route to Oliver Land is the one described by Linda, taking the lane opposite the Wink, up past the hotel. The Winding Lane is private, and now there is official access from the coastal path, we recognise the fact that if there was public access from the Winding Lane as well, this would create a link that could easily turn into a 'rat run' through our precious Oliver Land for walkers wanting a short cut back to the main road. At the moment, Oliver Land is very much still 'A Place for Solitude' and only those with a genuine interest in keeping it that way tend to go there. It was certainly a Place for Solitude when I went there a few days ago - I was the only one daft enough to be up there in a lashing gale!
At our getogether weekend in March I do run a 'shuttle' service down the lane in my car for anyone that really can't manage the coastal walk - anyone requiring this should contact me as much in advance as possible.
I hope you and any other members of the Forum are able to make it; and - here comes the plug - for any of you that's not already done so - do please join FOMS if you feel able, Patricia Wilnecker will then send you her excellent newsletter 'Wavelength' 3 times a year; you'll be able to join us at our Getogether and AGM and help us to keep spreading the word! Details are on the main website.
Regards
John

[Kath Mulligan]

I can definitely confirm that Wavelength is a fabulous newsletter/magazine. I devour mine from cover to cover as soon as I receive it, then read it again at leisure. Really looking forward to the second instalment of Linda's first visit to Minack in the February edition.
FOMS is well worth joining too - everyone is so friendly. All in all it's a happy place to be.

[Linda]

Just spoke to Patricia on the phone and told her of your praises for the Wavelength, she was chuffed!
Unfortunately the second instalment won't be in this next Wavelength, whilst talking with Patricia she told me she hadn't received my article! So someone somewhere is reading it as I posted it....but I wonder who and will they find their way to Minack?? So I will be posting another to Patricia and it should be in the June issue.

Do any of you watch the property programmes wehre people are changing their lives....'fraid I do, avidly, have never seen anyone change as dramatically as Derek and Jeannie, from glamorous lights with marble floors to paraffin lamps and mud floors!

:D

Angie, Kath is absolutely right about its friendly place to be, you can talk with everyone as though you have known them all your life
~ its so comfortable!

kind regards
Linda

[Kath Mulligan]

Very disappointed I am going to have to wait until June, Linda!

And yes I too am addicted to programmes like Escape to the Country and Relocation, Relocation etc. Especially the ones who want to relocate to Cornwall of course! Only wish it was me!

[gloria townsin]

Hello Angie - here am I just back from Kernow having spent a precious 5 days there. I finally after all these years of reading the Chronicles discovered The Winding Lane and what do you know I met two super people who live in a delightful cottage otherwise known as Mim and John Nash. Not to mention Connor their georgeous Irish Wolfhound - Wednesday was the best weather of the five days and we travelled west to Mousehole, then on to Lamorna and then towards St Buryan where lo and behold that certain Lane appeared!! We were based at Mullion on the Lizard where the wind blew horizontal some of the time......gets harder and harder to leave :?

[Kath Mulligan]

I'm so envious Gloria! Do I take it you got to Oliver Land then since you called to see John and Mim?

Any joy with the house hunting?

[angie]

Reading all your posts has really got me going! I really really do want to do the Minack visit now, though will have to be patient as it's unlikely to be this year. As Linda has said somewhere it's very difficult getting away from a farm! It was very interesting to read that Jane of A Drake at the Door now has the tenancy to Minack. It seems entirely appropriate and I find the notion of continuity it represents very touching somehow. Although I hasten to add here that I'm sure all the applications had great merit!


Derek was a gadget man and I have a sneaking suspicion that he would have loved this forum(he was talking about buying a lap top in the summer before he died), it would have been wonderful for us all if that had come about. Linda, that's fascinating. I'd been wondering what Derek would have made of cyberspace, this forum etc and might have guessed he'd have been rather anti. Glad I'm wrong on that!

Angie

[gloria townsin]

I'm so envious Gloria! Do I take it you got to Oliver Land then since you called to see John and Mim?

Any joy with the house hunting?

Hello Kath - no we didn't get to Oliver Land this time just the beginning of the Winding Lane. My husband stopped the car and I tentatively walked past the first cottage and actually thought the second cottage wasn't the right one either until I spied the name and knew it was it after all which was confirmed when Mim answered the door! The house hunting is a bit of a muddle at the moment - an offer we put in for a property on our Nov. visit was initially rejected but has now been accepted - fine - except we have become involved in another property, not actually at the solicitor stage but non-the-less involved, so at present we are at a make our mind up time......why is nothing ever easy???? :roll:

[Linda]

.......its so we value it all the more!
:lol: