THE rural 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 from Dorset, had the task of helping to supervise the restoration of the remote hillside church of St Julitta in the parish. Hardy lodged at what is now the Old Rectory near the church, around two miles east of Boscastle, 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 which includes depictions of scenes from two of Hardy’s poems set in the area, Under the Waterfall and On Beeny Cliff. The grade II* listed church, which also has a memorial to Emma erected by Hardy, has become a place to visit for fans of the writer.

Meanwhile, in the churchyard are a number of ancient Cornish crosses which have been moved there over the years to help preserve them.

On the coast to the south of Beeny Cliff is the spectacular Pentargon inlet. The immense cliffs here feature a waterfall fed by a stream, with the cascade usually being at its most powerful after the rains of the winter. There is a wooden bridge on the South West Coast Path to allow walkers to easily cross the stream before it tumbles down towards the sea.

*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