Early Childhood Memories
"Cornish Family Holidays Ib"
by Christopher (11)

The Applebey family in 1924

Mary Applebey's early childhood memory: My parents, Malcolm and Susannah, decided to seek a safer refuge (see Cornish Family Holidays Ia), and so they came to Mawgan Porth, a little further east along the coast towards Padstow, where three war-time colleagues had already purchased a large tract of land from Trenance Farm and were selling off parcels of land for building purposes. Already they had built a modest red-roofed hotel, the Bedruthan Steps, which one of them - Mr Willans - managed, and opened The Shop just below Trenance Farm, run by Mr Adams. The third member of the trio, Mr Hankey, was an architect and it was he who designed and supervised the building of the new houses.¥My parents bought the plot next to the hotel annexe, in the bed of the old canal which was then clearly visible running round the estate and out to the cliff - where there had been tin mining - towards Bedruthan.¥¥They called the house Mansel Cottage to link it to their Oxford home, Mansel House. The plot cost £40 and it was a condition of the sale that no washing should be hung out.¥I well remember walking round the estate while the decision as to which plot to buy was made. The criteria used were that the house could never have its view obstructed and that it should have the best view of the beach and of the evening sunsets.¥¥When the family took possession of the cottage in 1926, only two houses were to be seen from the terrace. A few shrubs were planted but no suburban gardening was appropriate to the bleakly beautiful conditions.¥¥The cottage was built for a cost of £800 and furnished for a further £100.¥In 1926 there was no electricity. We went to bed by candle-light and in the evening the grown-ups would sit around an Aladdin lamp which threw a pretty light but, with its fragile mantle, required skill and affection to maintain. So did the oil cooking stove and the oil heater for bath-water. This hardly affected the children who washed by bathing in the sea.¥¥Every day one of us would go to The Shop for supplies and to the farm for milk. Very frequently we would call at Mrs Hambley’s cottage below the farm where huge vats of milk produced the best cornish cream.¥Each day the morning bathe (with ginger biscuits after for warmth) would be followed by a wooding expedition along the tide-mark so that the sitting-room fire could be stoked for the evening when, of course, it was the only form of heating. As my father used to say, we were living the simple life but doing so with the minimum of inconvenience.¥¥Mansel Cottage was essentially a holiday home where we spent every Easter and Summer holiday. In winter it was closed, and when we joyfully returned, it must have been horribly damp. But I don’t remember that.¥¥We came from Oxford by car: parents in front, children behind in a snub-nosed Morris, its celluloid side windows letting in penetrating draughts. Every arrival, which sometimes took two days, was an adventure. But once arrived the car was very little used. We walked everywhere, often with the object of cream teas. ¥¥ ¥We made our own entertainment when, in sun and wind-soaked weariness, there was leisure time to spare. We read voraciously. After lunch my father read aloud: Pickwick, David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby are all familiar figures associated with cornish holidays. We learned to play Auction Bridge. Pretty soon the Times Crossword became a daily entertainment. My father got at it first and did it in his head. Thereafter he offered a penny for its completion and would sell clues at one farthing each.¥¥So it was until 1939 when the war came and we were all scattered and did not see Cornwall again until 1946. About Mary Applebey's early childhood memory: This is one of a series of interviews with family members, entitled Cornish Family Holidays. Together, they provide memories from 1921 to the present day. Mary Applebey is 86 years old now