Smale and other family history: August 2011

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Cornish Inn, Gunnislake

My parents Jack and Dorothy Smale bought The Cornish Inn, Gunnislake, in the middle of 1971. At that time it was sadly run-down and needed updating. They set to and modernised the bar and, whilst building up the trade, my father, together with David Cutts the builder next door, did up the bedrooms and made the large function room, over the original stables, into four bedrooms with private bathrooms. This was long before anywhere in the area was able to offer ensuite facilities. They made part of the back garden into an overspill car park as parking in The Square at the front was limited.

But to delve into the past, The Cornish Inn has a long history, being well over 200 years old, I've been investigating it's history and give some details below:

Links found which mention The Cornish Inn:
1856 Cornish Inn - John Sanders (http://www.calstock.info/census/kellys_1856.htm#1856)
1883: Cornish Inn: George Adamson (http://www.calstock.info/census/kellys_intro.htm#1883

I've had this photo for years, showing that long ago the Cornish Inn was known at the Commercial Hotel. From the name written on the front of this postcard and links below the photo was taken in about 1923.

Links re Commercial Hotel:

1893 Commercial Hotel and Posting House: Abraham Bond (http://www.calstock.info/census/kellys_1893.htm#1893)

1902 Commercial Hotel, Samuel Nile: (http://www.calstock.info/census/kellys_1902.htm#1902)

1910 Commercial Hotel, Bedford Brewery Co: (http://www.calstock.info/census/kellys_1910.htm#1910) This ties in with the document reproduced below (copy of a document found at the Cornish Inn):

Cornish Inn in about 1980.

The Cornish Inn, mid 1970s - showing Dorothy, Jack and Margaret

Copy of Menu at Cornish Inn about 1978 - 1980
(note prices - and VAT at 15%)

Taken from the Gunnislake Festival - Scarecrow Map

Years ago someone told me that at one time Gunnislake was a boom town Williamstown. The site below bears this out and gives background history of Gunnislake: http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/cisi/gunnislake/CISI_Gunnislake_report.pdf.

From the site above:

"In 1901 Venning’s Directory described Gunnislake as a settlement which ‘seems to have grown up rapidly without any well-defined plan; with no architectural pretensions it seems to have been designed in a nightmare, built in a whirlwind, and is capable of being made orderly only by a succession of rythmic [sic] earthquakes’. This very astute observation helps to explain the difficulty in pinning down the centre of Gunnislake, and defining its character; this arises as much from its setting and topography as from any distinctiveness in its built fabric or townscape"

Trenython

Extract from my father's memoirs:

In 1925 we moved to Cornwall where Dad was to take a new job as general maintenance handyman at Trenython, which was a convalescent home owned by the Great Western Railway. The mansion house had been built by a Col Peard - one time A D C to General Garibaldi. On his death the Bishop of Truro bought it and made it his Bishop’s Palace, adding even more treasures to its opulent furnishings and fittings.

With Frank and me in the sidecar Dad drove the motor bike combination to Dawlish where we stayed the night with Aunty Dorothy and family. She gave us a wonderful welcome and we had a boiled egg apiece - with soldiers of course (at that time Jack was 6 and Frank 3).

Mum came down by train with Vera (baby) and we moved into a small country cottage - damp, primitive and with no running water indoors and no gas or electricity. A chemical toilet in a privy outside and a black coal cooker completed the inventory.

It was about 700 metres to the main road - the bus route from Tywardreath to Fowey. If we were going in either direction and Mum was under pressure she would ask me to go ahead and ask the bus conductor to wait - and the bus would wait – the conductor saying from time to time 'where are they to’ and I would peer up the drive and reassure him they were on the way - and eventually Mum would come scurrying down the drive with Frank and Vera in tow. This happened many times.

Items from the Internet of interest:

It was originally built for Colonel Peard as a thank-you from Garibaldi for support during his Italian struggle. In 1891 it became the Bishop's Palace for the Diocese of Truro and lasted in this role for 15 years. For half of the 20th century it was a railway convalescent home and is now an hotel.

View of the Hall and Staircase at Trenython

History of Trenython Bell

The bell, cast at the world's most famous foundry, London's Whitechapel (famous for Big Ben and Philadelphia's Liberty Bell and still in operation today), is believed to have been purchased by Trenython's original owner, Colonel John Peard. It dates back to 1868, two years before the house was actually built. The colonel was a man of discerning tastes who had travelled extensively and fought with Giuseppe Garibaldi in the liberation of Italy. In honour to this partnership, Peard - 'Garibaldi's Englishman' - ordered the house built in Italian style.

In its nearly 140 years of history, Trenython has been owned by Peard, the Rev. John Gott, Bishop of Truro, and eventually became a convalescent home run by the Great Western Railway before it was purchased by Club La Costa Resorts & Hotels in 2006.