A Victorian Railway Journey from Plymouth to Padstow

In the late 19th century, Cornwall was a popular tourist destination. The Great Western Railway brought visitors to places in Devon and Cornwall that had previously been remote and difficult to access and the growing prosperity of the middle classes meant that people had more leisure time and disposable income to devote to travel and holidays. Detailed guide books were available to help visitors make the most of their stay, often with sections on history, geology, climate, folklore, hotels and places of interest, in fact, just about everything they could want or need to know.This 38 page booklet combines text from ‘Black’s Guide to Cornwall’, published in 1898, with photographs owned by the Keasbury-Gordon Photograph Archive. It is in three parts. The first is fourteen photographs taken between the 1880s and the 1920s of some of the places mentioned in the text; the second, a history and general description of Cornwall and the third, a narration of the train journeys, information about the towns and villages visited and walks to places of interest. The booklet starts with the train leaving Plymouth (which is, of course, in Devon) and crossing the Royal Albert Bridge into Cornwall.The photographs and text complement each other and enable us to travel back in time to experience Cornwall as our Victorian ancestors did, well over one hundred years ago.