Why the forgotten Corner
Historically the South East Corner of Cornwall and the Rame peninsular was an important area because it had one of the main crossings over the River Tamar near Cremyll. With the advent of roads and motorised traffic, the river ceased to be the main highway and because of its peninsula nature, gradually became a quiet backwater. Known only to those that want to come here, particularly to visit Mount Edgcumbe there is no through traffic and visitors must make an effort to get here.
Why are we doing it
The peninsular is fortunate to have many good pubs, the majority of which supply good beer, but they remain undiscovered by most. We also wanted to raise funds for a local charity, the Rame Conservation Trust that owns a plethora of ruined buildings at Maker Heights that date back to Napoleonic times and before. And this became the catalyst to do something.
We manged to convince a Camra worthy to get his passport out and come and chat to the local wine circle, and the idea formed. A beer fetival seemed a good idea, and one that included the local pubs and a central festival site seemed even better
Why are some pubs not in Cornwall
When we thought about which pubs to include, things became a bit hazy. Where exactly does the Rame peninsular start and finish? So we used our discretion. The closest area of Plymouth is called Stonehouse. It used to be East Stonehouse, and West Stonehouse was what is now Cremyll and Maker in Cornwall. Until 1844 half of the Peninsular was in Devon as you will hopefully notice when you visit the Devon and Cornwall (Millbrook) and the Halfway House (Kingsand). So there is a close affinity to Stonehouse and until the 1900s you could get to East Stonehouse a lot quicker than you could get to Looe or Liskeard. We also hope that many visitors will use public transport and will travel via the ferry at Stonehous, so it is a good opportunity to visit these pubs when travelling as travellers would have done for a thousand years before the car.
Likewise some people will travel from the west and will pass through Polbathic and Crafthole and it would seem churlish to ignore those.