Get ready to swoon

It could only happen in Cornwall, and it’s all still there. Away from the various posh, foodie and family-holiday coastal hotspots — all marvellous in their own ways — the place that Graham loved so well exists to this day. Admittedly, Bodmin’s glory days as county town may be over, but it still has handsome Georgian houses at surprisingly low prices: Miller Countrywide estate agency is selling a grade II listed house in the centre of the town, with five bedrooms and an annexe, for £235,000 (millercountrywide.co.uk), and a three-bedroom Georgian house is available for £165,000 with the Property Shop (thepropertyshop.co.uk).

The huge seas, the moors and the romance are never going away — and if you’re happy to drive 1½ miles up a bumpy track, in all weathers, to get home, then a priceless piece of heaven similar to Nampara, Ross Poldark’s moorland cottage, can be surprisingly affordable. Annabel Darrall-Rew, a British dressage judge in her sixties, lives in such a place on Bodmin Moor, and loves Graham’s work. “I have every one of the Poldark series in hardback,” she says. “I started them before it was on television for the first time. Now I’m waiting for the furore to begin again, then I’m going to sell them all.”

She is also selling Priddacombe Farm, her three-bedroom slate-hung home, with a log cabin, for £365,000. “I’d wanted to live on Bodmin Moor since I was three, and I bought this house nine years ago, before they’d even produced the brochure. I can see for three miles in any direction — I get the most fantastic sunrises and sunsets, and amazing night skies with no light pollution. It’s not usually bump-into-stuff dark, because of the stars and the moon.

Mining a familiar seam: much of the series was filmed in Charlestown (Alamy)

“When I am here, I am free and I can breathe. It’s incredibly peaceful, and when I lie in bed at night in spring and summer, I hear cows pulling up grass and chewing.”

Coincidentally, Darrall-Rew knew Angharad Rees before she played Demelza in the original series. “It was a long time ago — I lived in a boat under Chelsea Bridge then — and Angharad, a friend of my brother, was a puppeteer.”

She is looking forward to the new series. “I expect it will be similar to that Martin Clunes thing where they jump all over the place — one minute they’re in Wadebridge, then suddenly they’re in Port Quin — so it makes no sense if you know Cornwall.”

There have been reports of filming across the county. Places with a starring role include St Agnes Head, where Savills is selling four-bedroom Rosemergy Farm, an 18th-century stone farmhouse on 4.75 acres of land above Chapel Porth beach (£1.35m; savills.co.uk). Not far from Perranporth, where Graham lived from 1925 until 1959, St Agnes is known for its old mine chimneys — as is the road south of St Ives towards St Just, which also happens to be one of the most glorious drives in Britain, with extraordinary views out to sea over ancient field structures, granite engine houses and rough moorland.

Near St Just, which has a bakery that claims to have been the first to make a Cornish pasty, there’s a house impressive enough even for George Warleggan, Ross Poldark’s rival. Porthledden is a grand panelled affair on Cape Cornwall, now on the market for £3m . Built by Francis Oats, a local mining captain who went on to become chairman of the jeweller De Beers, it had been uninhabited for 20 years when it was bought by Mark Wilson, 49, and his wife, Tara Physick, in 2003.

“It had holes in the roof and water running down the walls,” Wilson recalls. “It was built for the view and in winter gets all the weather that comes across the Atlantic. It’s wonderful for storm-watching, but we get force 8, 9 and 10 gales, and the build was approached as a marine project.” Bronze was used for the window casements and door furniture, and marine-grade stainless steel for all fixtures.

The house is a mansion, really, with 13 bedrooms, stables, paddocks and a walled garden — seven privately owned acres set within National Trust property. The coastline is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Unesco World Heritage Site, but Wilson has three children, aged between 9 and 17, and they would rather be near competitive horse events and city life than galloping across the cliffs, so they are off.

The family came to Cornwall from Farnham, Surrey, in a lifestyle move with their first-born (then 3) and a fledgling internet business, Hotel Direct. And, in another coincidence, proving that everywhere and everyone in Cornwall has some sort of Poldark connection, the first home they bought was an imposing red-brick house on the outskirts of the hamlet of Demelza, which almost certainly lent its name to the Poldark character.

“I’ve heard that Graham would drive around Cornwall, picking up place names to use for characters in his books,” Wilson says. Similarly, Warleggan is a village on the moor — just as London has “the river”, Cornwall has “the moor”. Not far away, you’ll find East Colliford Farmhouse, a four-bedroom property with a three-bedroom holiday annexe, on the market for £650,000 (webbers. co.uk). It probably dates from 1629, so would certainly have witnessed the comings and goings of the Poldarks, had they been as real as fans tend to think.

Parts of the new adaptation were filmed just round the corner from Porthledden, taking advantage of the fabulous coastline punctuated with silhouettes of old engine houses. Some of the earlier version was filmed at Lavethan, an ancient manor house in Blisland with a secret valley and three holiday cottages. The grade II* listed house is mentioned in the Domesday Book, and its owners, Catherine and Christopher Hartley, have lived there for 20 years. They’re now selling up for £2.75m (johnbraysales.co.uk).

Soon after they moved in, it was hired as the main location for a failed attempt to resurrect Poldark for television. “They only made one episode, and I don’t think it was quite right,” says Catherine, 69. “I had met Winston Graham through friends, and he was very much around when they were trying to make the second attempt, but it didn’t come off. He was a charming old man.”

Tonight’s version promises to be more successful, and at the very least is a chance to ogle Cornwall. You won’t see the little things — the lichen-covered granite, the mossy springs, the pennywort in old stone hedges — but you’ll get the gist of what Graham loved and so many still do, despite the rain. Of which there is lots, particularly on the moor.

“There’s an enormous range of weather,” Darrall-Rew says. “We get horizontal rain and strong winds, but you dress for it. When it’s beautiful, it’s the most fantastic place on earth.”

Poldark is on BBC1 tonight at 9pm

Get your bearings

The first episode of Poldark is set in Cornwall, 1783: Ross Poldark, an army officer, returns to England after fighting abroad to discover that his fiancée, Elizabeth, thought him dead and has married his cousin. Poldark marries his maid, Demelza, on the rebound, but that’s not the end of the story...

Filming took place all over Cornwall, notably in the 18th-century port of Charlestown, where two-bedroom cottages start at about £225,000. Lizard Point, Poldark Mine and Gunwalloe Church Cove, all near Helston, also feature. In Porthcothan Bay, near Padstow, which stands in for Nampara Cove, the average price is about £500,000; in St Breward, on the moor, used for the miners’ homes, a pretty cottage might cost £275,000.

Poldark homes

St Just, £3m
Built in the 1900s by the chairman of De Beers, grade II listed Porthledden is huge — there’s 11,660 sq ft of living space, including 10 bedrooms and a separate three-bedroom flat. In an imposing position on Cape Cornwall, with views over the Atlantic, the newly restored house has superb equestrian facilities and a walled garden. 01872 243200, savills.co.uk

Bodmin Moor, £365,000
Wilderness stretches for miles in all directions from this three-bedroom farmhouse. There’s no light pollution, so the night skies are huge, and you might see dozens of deer before sunrise. There are plenty of wild birds, too. Outbuildings include a stable, a tack room, a log cabin and a garage. 01566 777777, kivells.com