Trebiggan

Giant lived down West Penwith, as far west as you could go, down by Sennen. He was big, he was huge, he was Trebiggan.

His moods changed like the sea, sometimes he would roar a storm, other times a mist of despondency would fall, thick as the Hooper. He cast a shoal of a shadow on the sea and his arms were long as a lighthouse, so long that for fun he would pluck sailors from the ships sailing round Lands End, pop them down on Longships Rock. People of Sennen would hear the sailors wails on the wind, but sometimes the sailors were in luck and the giant would scoop them up and put them back on their boats.

His belly was huge as a sea cave, and he craved sheep and cows and cabbages to fill it, but his favourite feast of all was children, and naughty children tasted the best. Yum. He fried them on a rock by the shore, they sizzled and spat. Yum.

Mothers would warn naughty children. 'You go to bed now, you do as you’re told, or Trebiggan will have you for breakfast.’ And sometimes he did. Yum.

Grace was a Sennen maid, a brave beauty. She wasn’t always a good child, and sometimes her mother would warn her, 'You to bed now, you do as you’re told, or Trebiggan will have you for lunch.'

'Trebiggan’s toast,' shouted Grace. 'I’m not scared of a smelly old giant.' She went to bed anyway.

Next day Grace was on her way to the beach when she smelt a terrible smell. It wasn’t seaweed, it wasn’t sardines, it wasn’t giant ... it was sewage. The work men were digging up the road, laying new drains, a long roll of wide pipe coiled beside them.

As Grace neared the shore she smelt a terrible smell. It wasn’t seaweed, it wasn’t sardines, it wasn’t sewage .. it was giant.

'Hello girl, or should I say supper?' roared the giant as he scooped up Grace and held her in the palm of his hand, carefully not to squash her, squashed children do not taste good.

'You don’t want to eat me, I’m a good child. What do I have to do for you to set me free?' Grace shouted loud, the giants ears were a long, long way away.

'Give me gold, lots and lots of gold,' boomed the giant.

For the only thing giants love more than delicious children is treasure.

'Gold is so old school,' shouted Grace. 'You need the new Cornish treasure, lithium. People need it for their batteries for their cars, for their phones, for their homes, companies will pay a fortune for it. We’ve got loads of it here in the mine brine, the mineral rich sea water that fills the mines when the mine engines stop pumping. I know a firm in Redruth that can extract lithium from brine. Put me down and I will take you to it.'

The giant’s eyes lit up like LED torches, excited at the thought of a new kind of treasure, and he completely forgot he was hungry. He gently put Grace on the ground, and she started walking north towards St Just, many mines there, gallons and gallons of mine brine.

'Giant, bring that coil of drain pipe with you, it will be handy for getting the brine out of the mine.'

The giant picked up the workmen's pipe and followed the girl up the road.

Soon they came to a mine. 'Let’s drop the pipe down the mine,' said Grace. 'Careful to keep hold of the end.'

So the giant let the long long pipe down the deep deep mine shaft till SPLASH it reached the mine brine.

'Now what?' asked the giant.

'If you suck on the pipe - it’s clean, new, not used yet - that will start suction to get the brine up,  we can put it in this large tank I have found here. Then we can take it to Redruth to be processed and you will be rich.'

The giant took a deep breath and sucked for all he was worth. When he had a mouthful of brine Grace slapped him on the back and he coughed and spluttered and swallowed the salty liquid, and became calm, his moods still as Stithian’s lake.

Calm he stayed, for Lithium is a mood stabiliser, as well as battery ingredient.

No more terrifying rages, no more children for tea.

Trebiggan crunched cabbages, drank sea kale smoothies, loved lettuce, and the children of Sennen were safe at last.