John Betjeman

The poet John Betjeman left an indelible mark on this stretch of North Cornwall, and if you're staying near Polzeath, it's worth understanding why. Betjeman was obsessed with this coastline - the Victorian terraces, the tin mines, the slow creep of development that horrified and fascinated him in equal measure. You won't find a museum or visitor centre dedicated to him here; instead, his legacy is woven into the landscape itself. Walk along the cliffs near Polzeath and you're treading ground he wrote about with real affection and anxiety. His poem 'Trebetherick' captures the exact mood of these golden sands and the melancholy of knowing places change. For literary types or anyone interested in mid-twentieth-century conservation battles, this matters. Families might get less from it unless you're willing to read passages aloud on the beach - which, frankly, is rather lovely. The best approach is to grab a Betjeman collection before your holiday and revisit his verses while standing where he stood. It costs nothing and takes as long as you want. If you're based at Porthilly Beach Holiday Park or St Minver Holiday Park, you're ideally positioned. October and April are perfect - quieter, more reflective, more Betjeman somehow. The man died in 1984, but his words still make you see this corner of Cornwall through genuinely different eyes. That's rare.