Good Morning everyone, my name's Liz and I'm your guide for today, and this is John Penlerick's bus, looks abit cranky but we know he'll do the job, we climbed on board the bus at the Falmouth Sea Front and after a brief stop on the Moor for the townies, we're on our way. Later on we may well gather in others. Have you got your a cushion to sit on, sturdy footwear and a coat to keep ee warm, you have good, lets get on to the sights, scoff some ansom food and stroll along the footpaths and through the beautiful gardens of the North Helford.

Ere we go then...we leave town passing close to the Grammar School and the Hospital, arriving at Lamanva Forecross where on a another day, you might like to walk around the Argal and College Reservoirs, beyond the smooth waters of Argal, can you see any signs of the train, the short bursts of smoke from steam engine carrying either passengers or granite from the quarries on the Helston to Penryn branch line. You will get a better view of the train at Retallack hill but for the moment if you look hard you might just see the corner of the great stone itself.

Back to our journey within a few hundred yards of the crossroads is our first stop for refreshment, but I advise you not to sample the home brew of the Oaten Sheaf, "It wyll make one to knack, also to spew It is dyrke and smoky, and also it is dyn It is lyke wash, as pygges had wrestled dryn"

Much better to visit the Military Vehicle Museum, here you can see many WWII American Army vehicles, as kids we used to play in a Dodge Ambulance called Katy, carrying each other on stretchers around the mowhay at Penwarne, we'll pause here briefly, step into the Horsaur glider that was towed over Arnhem, sit in a Willy's jeep, hear the stories of great courage and valour.

The road between Mabe and Mawnan Smith is unusual for the area, it was widened by the County Council in preparation for the D-Day traffic. Thousands of soldiers were hidden in the area, vehicles camouflaged, home guard being trained in readiness.

On we go though the hamlet of Treverva, there's the sound of the anvil, yes the blacksmith is busy, and a couple of folks join us out side the post office, listen can you also hear the wonderful sound of the choir drifting through the air from the Methodist chapel. That Edgar Kessel he got his MBE for all his work with the choir. Just round the corner, Cornish farmhouses cheeses are made and we watch, taste and have home baked bread to go with it.

Leaving Menallack we wind through picturesque country lanes where the granite hedges are covered with the soft purple blue haze of the bluebells. Before we see the poly tunnels of the Fir Tree Farm Nurseries, with their clematis and perennials by the hundred we pass through Eathorne, with its operatic associations.

This is granite country. Everyone look to the right, there it is, the fantastic egg shaped granite boulder, The Tolmen, and its companion, the great Menhir, 24 feet high both standing guard over the quarries. A short walk takes us to the Tolmen itself, so called because there is room to pass under the great stone.

Evidence of prehistoric sites persuade us that their heritage is continued by the 200 men working the quarries, here, drilling and cutting granite to be shipped from Penryn and Port Navas across the oceans of the world, to the new harbours of Buenos Aires, Naples and Malta. Tower Bridge was built on the graft of Constantine men the most famous stone masons in the world.

If you choose the train next time hop off at the little Constantine Station and walk along the well trodden footpaths, used by those going to or from work or church, other stones of interest close by are the Maen Rock, Devils chair and the granite waymaker in the valley at Trewardreva, in the field near Bosahan Quarry the Fogou 'Piskey's Hall' needs a sign duck or grouse, you'll be Piskey mazed if you're not careful.

Now what's that coming out the old garage, the hull of a canal barge beginning its long journey northwards by road.