WE – Rog, Dave, Micky and I – decided a spot of nosh was in order and we magnanimously brought along Geraldine and Rog’s wife, Dawn. Or, to be accurate, Dawn brought them along as she was the driver. We ventured off the moor and had a most pleasant evening in Lanivet, at the pub in the centre of the village.

Now, most people, including me, would immediately associate this village near Bodmin with the recycling centre, but in reality there is an enormous amount of history in the locality.

In the churchyard of the church are ancient stone crosses and a rare example of a hogback grave dating from Viking times, around a millennium ago.

A hogback grave is a stone feature that stands proud of the soil and is curved, to create the hogback. The design was potentially brought to this country, mainly in the north, by Danish settlers in around 870AD. The hogback graves tend to exist largely in Scotland and the north of England.

Meanwhile, there are 13 crosses in total in the churchyard at Lanivet, one being said to mark the exact centre of Cornwall, although goodness knows how that was defined.

And just outside the village are the remains of a Benedictine monastery, St Benets, built in the early 1400s.

After the Reformation, it became a private home and was fully restored in 1878. The property is in a lovely spot and next to what was once the main road through the county.

Intriguingly, right near where we were dining that evening, in a meadow behind the pub, was a site that had been used as a venue for Cornish wrestling for centuries. It just goes to show how steeped in history even a small place can be, as you whizz past at 70mph on the dual carriageway.