THE parish of St Juliot, which takes in some of the rugged coast between Crackington Haven and Boscastle in North Cornwall, has a strong connection to a literary giant. In the early 1870s, Thomas Hardy, at the time an aspiring young architect, had the task of helping to supervise the restoration of the remote hillside church of St Julitta in the parish. Hardy lodged near the church and while there he met and fell in love with his first wife Emma Gifford. The pair explored the wild and romantic area together and Hardy wrote the novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes, at that time. A plaque was placed in the church after the writer’s death in 1928 as a record of his association with the parish. To mark the millennium, the Thomas Hardy Society gave the church an engraved window. Meanwhile, in the churchyard are a number of ancient Cornish crosses. On the coast , the immense Pentargon cliffs feature a waterfall. *Andrew Townsend is a journalist and writer. He further explores the county in the travel book, Cornwall Favourites For One And All!: A Quick Guide To Good Places To Visit Across The County, which is available in print and as an ebook. More details on Andrew’s books and ebooks can be found via this link to his author page on Amazon - https://bit.ly/AndrewTownsendAuthor
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