Never met Rick Sttein but he comes across as an affable chap and his fervour is inspiring.

I remember one “on-the-road” episode where he smuggled Chalky (RIP) into a Travelodge in a holdall. Straight past reception with the dog zipped up!

Ilovemy gears – I suspect you are staying about 3 miles from where I live. I really hope I don’t happen across you. You’re a chump.

go easy on him, hes had a hard life as a young lad

Wonder what would keep the locals busy work wise if indeed everyone did as Mr Gears wishes and stayed away from a traditional holiday area of Gt Britain bringing all that dirty outside money in ???

Excellent rant by the way, nearly choked on my coffee.

Good point. Was going to spend a couple of hard earned and saved for grand there next summer.

Maybe I won’t now.

**** ’em.

go easy on him, hes had a hard life as a young lad

His dad was a manic depressive who committed suicide when he was eighteen.

Widely known as Prick Stein when I was living Cornwall..

Was going to spend a couple of hard earned and saved for grand there next summer.

Were you only planning on staying the one night, then?

My sympathies are entirely with mr gears on this…

The degree of bitterness / anger (even if hammed up for a good troll) should be reflected on, not mocked.

There are very genuine reasons for such feelings. Nothing to do with insecurity, insular communities or having a chip on the shoulder. Lots to do with being fecked over by others – and what makes it worse, is that often those “others” are utterly ignorant or unbothered about the effects they have. Their smug arrogance rubs salt into the wounds

Was going to spend a couple of hard earned and saved for grand there next summer.

But sadly, how much of that goes to the local employee??

Wonder what would keep the locals busy work wise if indeed everyone did as Mr Gears wishes and stayed away from a traditional holiday area of Gt Britain bringing all that dirty outside money in ???

To be honest, a substantial proportion of the community would be absolutely delighted.

You see, Cornwall is more like Manchester, Liverpool or the North East than most folks would ever realise. Cornwall’s problems are down to post industrial decline. Liverpool and Manchester were mere small towns when Camborne and Redruth were at the peak of their industrial output. Cornwall’s heart is as an industrial community – whether that be mining, quarrying, farming or fishing. Tourism has always been very small beer.

It is only the decline of the others that have left tourism as the major industry – and its certainly no money spinner for those who do the work.

For anyone genuinely interested in Cornwall’s real history, I’d recommend this book. Even as a Cornishman I found it to be a real eye opener…

So, in an area where the traditional industries have gone never to return they would want another primary source of income to go as well?

150 years ago where I live was the centre of the textile and manufacturing universe. It isn’t any more. Times change.

Cornwall’s heart is as an industrial community – whether that be mining, quarrying, farming or fishing. Tourism has always been very small beer.

My heart has always been in outdoor sports, unfortunately it doesn’t pay the mortgage or keep an expensive wife…

You see, Cornwall is more like Manchester, Liverpool or the North East than most folks would ever realise. Cornwall’s problems are down to post industrial decline. Liverpool and Manchester were mere small towns when Camborne and Redruth were at the peak of their industrial output

No point living on past glories, at one time Greece was the heart of the modern world with unmatched wonders and antiquities…now they’re skint and selling off their crown jewels (islands) to make ends meet.

So, in an area where the traditional industries have gone never to return they would want another primary source of income to go as well?
150 years ago where I live was the centre of the textile and manufacturing universe. It isn’t any more. Times change.

I’m not disputing that or harking back to byegons… parts of the coalfields would be a more suitable analogy, except that msot folks don’t see Cornwall in that way.

Regarding “another primary source of income” – of course, tht’s vital for the sustainability of any community. However, tourism is a very poor (pun intended) source of primary income. Almost totally seasonal and due to the low skilled jobs available for most employees, far more rewarding for property owners than for those doing the work.

As in very many areas of the UK, replacing skilled highly paid industrial jobs is one hell of a challenge.

My heart has always been in outdoor sports, unfortunately it doesn’t pay the mortgage or keep an expensive wife…

Big difference here though – you are talking as an individual. That’s nowehere near the same as talking about a community or cultural identity.

No point living on past glories, at one time Greece was the heart of the modern world with unmatched wonders and antiquities…now they’re skint and selling off their crown jewels (islands) to make ends meet.

Most / many of us don’t. I live and work elsewhere – where there are both jobs and proprties for sale. It’s an economic necessity. doesn’t mean that people are happy about that. Such circumstances inevitably lead to bitterness towards the likes of Rick Stein…

Locals sell to ’emmets’ then complain that ’emmets’ own all the houses. I don’t understand.
Solution: Locals, don’t sell to ’emmets’. Problem solved.

Locals sell to ’emmets’ then complain that ’emmets’ own all the houses. I don’t understand.
Solution: Locals, don’t sell to ’emmets’. Problem solved.

Correct you don’t understand do you….

Like many areas of the country, the locals never owned the property in the first place.

The London-centric aristocratic families owned the land, up until comparitively recently (I would say the Anglophile aristos, but possibly only the Welsh and Scots would follow…).

Some lands and properties were sold off from the country estates as they fell on harder times between WW1 and WW2, but a lot of this would have gone to smaller landowning farmers, and some tenant farmers.

After WW2 the big estates were forced to sell many more of their properties (and don’t forget, these guys owned almost everything in most villages…… all the houses, vacant plots, fields, chuch, pub, village hall)

They soon cottoned on to the fact that there was better pickings to be had by getting their estate agents (see where the term comes from…?) to advertise in London and the other centres of wealth.

Fine from a free market capitalism perspective. Not so fine if you are from a rural village (Cornwall or elsewhere) about to see a surge in property sales to wealthy incoming buyers.

From the late 60s onwards, this pattern has been repeated in large parts of the rural UK, but is obviously far worse where
a) There is a ready pool of willing incomers and
b) Local wages are too low to compete for property

Your relations may be ‘insular’ Elfin/Fred, but i’d rather live in Cornwall than anywhere in the Greater London area thats for sure!

Not interested enough to read the 2 preceding pages, I just wanted to add my own 2p.
Can’t stand Rick Stein – his recipe books rely on a collection of stuff that I don’t have at home and can’t find in the shops, and his TV style is utterly grating.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Jamie Pukka Oliver, but as an everyday ‘simple but tasty using things you have in your larder’ kinda cook, you can’t beat him really.
Nigel Slater FTW.

rkk01: Thanks for your considered response to my flippant post – it was more than it deserved 🙂

…..but, a quick scan on Rightmove doesn’t find any properties in Cornwall marked ‘For sale to local families only’, and I can’t believe that none of the houses for sale are owned by Cornish folks, so the problem will keep getting worse.

Bugger me, this thread degenerated to type….

Like you din’t expect that, Lodders… 😉

Your relations may be ‘insular’ Elfin/Fred, but i’d rather live in Cornwall than anywhere in the Greater London area thats for sure!

My relations aren’t particularly insular, well, not as much as some ‘proper’ Cornish folk I’ve encountered, anyway.

I’d rather live in Canning Town than any part of north Cornwall, cos at least I’d have access to some form of civilisation, but there you go…

You stay there, and I’ll go wherever I like, and we’re all happy. 🙂

Stein was mad for my ex-local kebab shop in one of his programmes. http://www.mangal1.com/ MMhmm

Wunundred!

That truly is one of the bestest kebab restaurants you will find in Britain. I was there just a few weeks ago, which is too long really. Kev; did you know they’ve expanded it, and now have a bigger restaurant bit next door, as well as more seating in the original bit? Yet still you get queues out of the door! Best to go early make sure you get to sit down, or you could wait ages.

And I can guarantee you won’t find anything as good as that in flipping Cornwall….

(Thumbs nose at Muddydwarf)

Pitifully hilarious stuff from ilovemygears.

You must be that cockwart who recently went on about buying an Audi TT that ended up being your dad’s.

You give humans a bad name.

Really enjoyed Stein’s latest series.

Methinks i’m never actually going to meet elfin/fred, ‘cos he thinks smog is an integral part of being ‘cultured’ and i actually like being out in the countryside 🙂

I like visiting the countryside now and then. But I prefer living in London. Courses for Horses…

A big city like this offers me far more of what I want from life than the countryside ever could. We’re all different and like different things.

I found North Cornwall to be a very boring and uninspiring place, just never got on with it. I’m sure loads of people love it there.

Truro I loved. Great little city, got real character. Has the aforementioned Poldice Valley nearby which has some great trails, as well as being very interesting geologically and historically. Love all the little tin mine buildings that are still there. And south Cornwall has some lovely little beaches and coves and that, which aren’t anywhere near as bleak and battered as in north Cornwall. I remember being never quite warm enough in Crackington, regardless of the time of year. Winter there is utterly miserable. Bitter, icy salty winds strip your skin raw, it’s too dangerous to go up on cliff top paths, always wet, just horrible.

Oh, and Mangal Ocakbasi is a lot cheaper than Rick’s Plaice. Then I have a veritable cornucopia of interesting lively places to go for a drink after, or go to Dalston Rio watch a fillum in a lovely old Art Deco cinema.

You might see me in Cornwall one of these days, you never know. I’m open minded, see….

After reviewing this thread I’m going to withdraw my application to Dragons Den where I had hoped for substantial funding to support my idea of an upmarket ‘Fish and Thrice Cooked Chips’ diner with a Language and Literacy School upstairs in a building previously occupied by 3 generations of cornish pasty makers that I picked up for a song at a local auction.

I can’t believe we are 3 pages in and no one’s called it “Padstein” yet.

I quite like Padstow fwiw, Stein or no Stein. Plenty of other poncey expensive places in Cornwall, just the owners are less famous than Rick Stein. I would rather stay there than Newquay anyway!

I do feel for the mining families. Galling, considering that the price of Tin went waaaaaay back up about 5 years after the (closed) mines had flooded and deteriorated so badly they were completely uneconomical to re-open. If they had somehow been able to hang on in business, or at least keep the pumps going, Cornwall could be a rather different place for the folk that actually live there. It sure is an odd place these days with a huge rich/poor gap. It takes an awful lot of tourism to plug the gap every time a china clay works or mine closes. 😕

Can’t really comment on Cornwall as my family left there when Cumbrian mine owners poached the best miners in the mid C19th. Enjoyed a week there in May tho’.

Stein tho? He’s made me and my missus enthusiastic about food and recipes that we would never have though of. CHeers Rick Stein.

spent last weekend in Padstow, ate at his cafe & bistro, was a bit underwhelmed by the food, the service was great but I’m not really a fan of unit produced food when the QC isn’t up to scratch.

oh and I also went swimming in the sea at Bedruthen Steps, it was lovely and warm.