What's in a postcode?
The answer is quite a lot. Most of us can remember our postcodes, but what exactly do the letters and numbers mean and why does St Teath confusingly have a postal address of Bodmin?
The Post Office introduced postcodes between 1959 and 1974 to enable mail to be sorted more efficiently, but they have since been used for many other purposes, including public services, some of which have been described as a 'postcode lottery'.
The postcode of The Square, St Teath, is PL30 3JT, which can be broken down as shown.
When the code was devised, St Teath was allocated to Bodmin area PL30 as a post town. Postcodes are not coincident with Parish or Electoral Ward boundaries, so Delabole, in the same Parish, was allocated PL33. The Camelot Electoral Ward extends from Michaelstow through St Teath and Delabole to Tintagel.
Take a look at the map of PL30 below and you will see that St Teath is in the most northerly part of the PL30 area which extends almost to St Austell. No wonder people have been known to look for St Teath in Bodmin. By contrast, Delabole was allocated a post town status, PL33, presumably because of its larger population. PL30 is one of the largest postcode areas in Cornwall.
It is the last two letters of the postcode which define the area of a group of houses in St Teath. The number of houses varies, but it is generally between 1 and 15 - very few houses have a unique postcode, and none in St Teath. Postcodes are copyright of the Post Office and a set of UK codes is very expensive; a complete edition and three quarterly updates costs £1,700 plus a licence fee, see here. Contrast this with the United States where the use of US zipcodes is free. However, given the address of a house, you can look up 15 UK postcodes/day free of charge on the Post Office website.
We cannot list all the St Teath postcodes here, but you can get a good idea of how they are distributed - see coded map of St Teath below.
It is the precise geographical location of these postcodes which proves so useful in the provision of services, both public and private. The Post Office data file referred to above contains a list of postcodes along with their latitudes and longitudes. Examples of usage include:
- Allocation of areas to health provision by Primary Care Trusts
- Census enumeration. 2001 census returns are postcoded and would provide an accurate picture of the population of St Teath.
- Identification of areas of deprivation from census data
- Delivery of post and parcels by carriers other than the Post Office
- Educational provision - choice of school
- Route information for use in satellite navigation.
Widely available satellite navigation devices can provide accurate latitudes and longitudes to position a postcode and provide a way of duplicating data in the postcode file, see here.
St Teath Property Review
The cost of housing is a particular problem for many people in communities like St Teath where wages and salaries are relatively low, but the cost of housing is high. To address this problem, several new 'affordable housing' developments are underway in North Cornwall and that at Bruallen, North Road, St Teath has just welcomed its first occupants.
The entrance from North Road is on the far right.
These properties cost over £100,000 and a mortgage for just this sum would perhaps cost £650 per month* - difficult to service, but perhaps manageable by comparison with an older terrace house in the village. Bruallen houses are subject to a series of conditions which favour the needs of local people.
Sale prices for properties in general, including those in St Teath, are available on several websites which use information from the Land Registry. The table below shows how average sale prices have changed over the past three years. While they suggest that prices are about the UK average, changes over the last three years are not based on enough properties to be significant. This is quite marked in the case of St Tudy where prices are subject to even wider variation - the price of one or two expensive or cheap properties can have a large effect on the average.
All Houses| Year | St Teath | St Tudy | Delabole | Av. UK† |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 222,200(16) | 337,056(9) | 210,273(43) | £230,474 |
| 2006 | 229,426(19) | 222,217(9) | 175,708(43) | |
| 2005 | 225,423(20) | 268,583(6) | 157,034(24) |
All prices in £. Figures in brackets indicate the number of sales. † End of year, see here.
In St Teath Parish year on year price changes are more significant for Delabole, with a larger number of sales, many of these new builds. By comparing prices for one category, terraced houses, we can perhaps get a more reliable indication of price trends. In both villages prices appear to have risen.
Terraced houses| Year | St Teath | Delabole | Av. UK† |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 208,179 | 148,650 | 183,410 |
| 2006 | 174,950 | 138,026 |
There has been a lot of speculation in the press about the possibility of a recession and what it means for the housing market. Nobody is sure how 2008 will develop, but we can be sure that more 'affordable housing' schemes will be proposed for St Teath.
You can find properties currently for sale in St Teath here.
∗A rough idea of the monthly costs on a straight repayment mortgage
can be obtained from the BBC calculator here.
January 2008
St Teath Clock
The clock, a memorial to the dead of St Teath in wars, is an enduring feature of the village. It was unveiled in December 18, 1920 by Mrs J C Williams of Caerhays and stands prominently in The Square. The stone was from a local quarry and given by Mr A Beer, and the slate was given by the Old Delabole Slate Co. It cost £390 and was constructed by voluntary labour, from a design by Mr Oswald Swete, manager of Treburgett Mine. Everyone in the village will be familiar with the outside, but not many have seen the inside. Click on the pictures to expand them.
The Clock from South West
Lives commemorated
The clock is driven by clockwork. The mechanism relies on a large weight which descends from near the top of the clock tower to a basement about 6 feet below road level over a period of 6 days. The bell is similarly driven. The clock currently loses about 1 minute over the 6 day period. Some 50 turns of a large handle will bring weights to the top of the tower again. Click arrow to hear clock strike and mechanism run (you must have sound enabled and Flash player installed).
Bell - striker at top
Clock mechanism
As the 1930 instructions for the clock show, one old penny added to the weight can compensate for one minute of time. One interesting result of this mechanism is that when the weight descended on the Christmas lighting gear stored in the basement, time stood still and the clock was slow.
Many thanks to Paul Burden, clock winder, for showing us how time passes in St Teath.
Tregardock beach 2007
new update 17 August 2007Tregardock is our nearest beach (about 2 miles) and to those who know it, a wonderfully unspoilt location. It does require a walk of some ½ mile and a descent of about 300 feet which is not for everyone!
Anyone who knows this beach will be surprised by the movement of sand which has occured over winter, presumably because of stormy seas.
Many rocks exposed
March 2007
The sand has been moved back out across the beach - May 2007
mid August 2007
Storm, February 8, 2008
Walk from St Teath to the coast and back
Distance about 6 miles
Steep uphill sections: one - climb about 250 ft
Muddy sections in wet weather
Some gates and stiles which may be difficult for non-spritely large dogs.
On-road walking about 1½ miles
or print map and instructions from pdf file here.
This walk is more demanding than our first - wear sturdy footwear!
Start from the Square in St Teath(1) and follow the path alongside the cemetery through three kissing gates and turn left at Treroosal Road. Go downhill, past Rosewater Caravan site, then uphill past Treroosal farm on the right. Take the roughly surfaced lane on the right (2), marked public footpath. Follow the lane gently uphill to the remains of a railway bridge over what was the line from Waterloo to Padstow, although the cutting under the bridge has been completely filled in (3).
To your right are excellent views of St Teath with Michaelstow Beacon beyond. Now follow the path into a tree covered lane, through a gate at the end and after a few yards over a stile on the right. Turn left after the stile and walk along the edge of three fields to reach the B3314 road. Turn right into the road beware traffic. In about 50 yards turn left into a track alongside Lower Tynes farm (4). Soon there is a fork - take the right-hand track into a lane, which opens out into three gated fields, eventually reaching a large farm building on the right. Carry on by the fence to the end of the field. Bear left here, but you could turn right along a permissive path to avoid the steep descent and climb that follows. Bearing left you soon reach the remains of the hamlet of Dannon Chapel (6), which included a manor house, now on National Trust land. After this, head for the sea to reach the coastal path at (7). To your left are good views of the coast to Pentire Point and the Rumps. Turn right along the coast path with Tregardock beach ahead and then descend a series of 153 steps to the bottom of the valley. Cross the bridge over the stream and climb the steep zig-zag path to the top of the cliff. Turn right here leaving the coastal path to pass through a gate and follow the fields, eventually reaching Tregragon Farm (9)
As an easier alternative you can turn right over the stile at the bottom of the valley and follow the attractive valley path to the top of the hill just short of Tregragon Farm.
Follow the path through the farmyard, (keep dogs under close control) and then take the rough track downhill on the right, 50 yards or so after the farm buildings. This leads to a boggy area (10) at the bottom which you cross, and then go up a bank, then turning left under some trees and along the lower side of the hedge to head uphill. Turn right at the end of the first field and pass through two fields to reach a gated lane on the left. This leads out to the B3314 road again. Cross straight over into a narrow road which is Gypsy Lane. At the end of the lane (11) turn right onto the B3267 to St Teath (1).
Thanks to Gill Jones for this walk. Suggestions for new walks in the St Teath area welcome.
Round walk from St Teath avoiding busy roads
Distance about 3½ miles
Modest uphill sections: 2
Click map opposite to expand
or print map and instructions from pdf file here
There are numerous footpaths surrounding St Teath, some of which are little used and readily become somewhat overgrown, or emerge on to relatively narrow and quite busy roads. With this in mind, here is an easy walk avoiding muddy paths, mostly on quiet roads, starting and ending at the village square.
From the clock head towards the Post Office and almost immediately left into Trevilley Lane. Pass the 19th century Methodist Chapel on your right and soon pass the small cemetery at the village boundary. You will see the slate dumps at Delabole in the distance. After passing under the pylons you should get good views to your right of our route past Trewalder on the other side of the valley, and further in the distance, Roughtor and (partly obscured) Brown Willy on the right. After about 1 mile, turn right at the crossroads and over the bridge to the pretty hamlet of Newhall Green. If you have a dog, it may fancy a paddle in the stream just before the crossroads.
Cottages at Newhall Green
Now head uphill to the hamlet of Trewalder. Turn right at the T junction and pass the old Trewalder Chapel, now private property, on your left and the imposing Trewalder House a few yards further on your right. You are now heading south and soon pass the large Bodulgate dairy farm on your right, with good distant views back towards St Teath. Follow the road over the small bridge to Treforda and further on cross the busy A39 to the wooded road opposite.
Take the first turning on the right towards Knightsmill and pass the attractive old Tregreenwell farmhouse on this twisting road. You soon emerge on to the A39 again. Cross the road and on to the pavement over the bridge at the bottom of the hill. Turn right and walk up the hill back to St Teath. You arrive in Fore Street, passing Greystones, an interesting slate fronted house on the right and originally a village pub. Carry on past the church on the left to the village square, where you will find refreshment at the pub (dogs on leads are welcome).
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