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Pont Pill Monument

Divers have raised a large monument stone from the riverbed at Pont Pill Creek in Cornwall.

Current affairs 1977 5 mins

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Overview

Divers raise a large monument stone at Pont Pill Creek in Fowey, Cornwall and place it at Caffa Mill. The Albert Quay Memorial commemorated a visit by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of 1846 but the cap was removed from its pedestal to clear the middle of the quay in the 1930s. The recovered capstone is rededicated Queen Elizabeth II for her Silver Jubilee. The pedestal forms part of the wall near the Fowey to Bodinnick ferry. Pont Pill is a tidal river navigable at high water.

Authors Arthur Quiller-Couch known as Q, Kenneth Grahame and Daphne du Maurier resided in the area. Q was known for the anthology The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1910 and wrote many novels with his last, Castle D'Or, a tale of Tristan and Iseult, finished and published posthumously by Daphne du Maurier. Kenneth Grahame used Pont Pill Creek as the inspiration for Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger's adventures in The Wind in the Willows (1908) with the Ratty character based on Q. Du Maurier rented Menabilly from the Rashleigh family and the house is thought to be one of the inspirations for Manderley in her novel Rebecca (1938). She moved to Kilmarth in 1965 and the area in Cornwall that inspired her writing.