Looe

Low cloud hangs over the steep valley sides above what was one of Cornwall's busiest ports.
Separating the twin towns of Looe - 'The River Looe'
nearly at it's end 
is spanned by a small grade II
listed bridge
built replacing an ancient 15th century structure.

Once both angry and fast 
tributaries,
the two main rivers
with identical names to the two towns - are joined as one
in a confluence north of the towns
they become a calm 
tidal harbour 
where for many centuries
shipwrights made the ships which set sail
to fish
and to sell
exporting all that Cornwall could produce.

Nowadays it's quays produce
beds for the night
and lunches
coffees and teas for tourists
who
in the summer months
flood in; in their thousands
by train
by boat
or by car 
down the narrow winding lanes that feed the two towns. 

The single river having become a slow 
calm
harbour
provdes shelter for a small fishing fleet
a mere fraction of what it was -
the pleasure crafts and weekend sailors making up the numbers
then
finally 
the river becomes an estuary 
and passes 'Banjo Pier'
when this former gateway to a wider 
waiting world

...becomes the sea.



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