Padstow

Through the study of archaeological evidence, Padstow can trace its history back almost 5,000 years. In 520AD, St Petroc, according to legend, landed from Ireland on the North Cornish coast and chose a site on a hill to build his monastery. In the medieval period, the port was importing goods from Ireland and the Mediterranean and exporting slate, copper, tin and fish. Shipbuilding was an important industry in the early nineteenth century and, when the railway arrived in 1899, this marked the be