Category Archives: Cornwall

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Solving A Mystery; Finding Another Story In The Stones

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After I published this post this morning, I found more information from 1861 through the Cornwall Online Census Project which lists, Thomas as age 33, a Tailor and Grocer, and his wife Sophia age 29. What is especially interesting to me as a Harper, is that Mary Harper, age 49 and a Dressmaker, is a boarder in their home.

Church Village Grocer's Shop,1,Thomas Olver Rich,Head,M,33,,Tailor & Grocer,Cornwall,,
,,,Sophia Rich,Wife,M,,29,,Ladock Cornwall,,
,,,Thomas Olver Rich,Son,U,3,,,Cornwall,,
,,,Mary Sophia Rich,Dau,U,,1,,Cornwall,,
,,,Elizabeth Jane Rich,Dau,U,,1,, Cornwall,,
,,,George Green,Ap,U,18,,Appren.To Tailor,St Breward Cornwall,,
,,,Ellen Pengelly,Serv,U,,16,House Serv,Blisland Cornwall,,
,,,Mary Harper,Boardr,U,,49,Dressmaker,St Cleer Cornwall,,

Sophia died in 1865 and by the 1871 census, Thomas, age 42 was married to Ellen age 26, listed below along with some children from his first marriage and Headly, his 9 month old child with Ellen.

Grocers Shop,1,Thomas Olver Rich,Head,M,42,,Mercer/grocer/frmr 100acr 1man,Cornwall,,
,,,Ellen Rich,Wife,M,,26,Farmers Wife,Cornwall,,
,,,Thomas Olver Rich,Son,S,13,,Farmers Son,Cornwall,,
,,,Mary Sophia Rich,Dau,S,,11,Scholar, Cornwall,,
,,,Elizabeth Jane Rich,Dau,S,,11,Scholar, Cornwall,,
,,,Matthew John Rich,Son,S,9,,Scholar,Cornwall,,
,,,Nehemiah Rich,Son,S,7,,Scholar,Cornwall,,
,,,Headly Rich,Son,S,9m,,,Cornwall,,
,,,John Reynolds,Servnt,S,29,,Tailor,Redruth Cornwall,,
,,,Susanna Sleeman,Servnt,S,,18,Dom Srvnt,St Kew Cornwall,,

The most interesting part of this story is that Thomas did marry a Pengelly, but it was not his first wife as the ancestry sites imply. If you check the listing for 1861 and 1871, in 1861 there was a 16 year servant, Ellen Pengelly living in the house and by 1871 ten years later there was a Ellen (now Rich) age 26 living in the house. Unless I am mistaken, it appears Thomas married his house servant, Ellen sometime after his first wife died.

Doing a bit more research on different ancestry sites, it looks as if people researching their family history from this line will be led to believe that they are related to the Pengelly side which is only true for the children who came later and not the first six children that Thomas had with Sophia. Since the only information I have found for wife and mother is listed as, unknown: PENGELLY, there may be some confusion cleared up today.

UPDATE: I had to come back and share this once I discovered it. It looks from the census data below as if Thomas fathered two sets of twin girls, one with each wife. Also interesting to note is the Rich family lived in the house which stands next to the pub and dates from the seventeenth century. The Rich family used to own the pub and I wonder if Harold Rich is descended from Thomas Olver Rich.

What do you think?

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Written In Stone; Stories From The Churchyard

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I find a story almost every time I look around our village churchyard and recently, I noticed two gravestones that made me think about the lives of the three people buried there.

Look at the gravestone to the left.

Now look at the gravestone to the right.

The gravestone in front of the window is connected to the one you are looking past from behind. The two stones face each other directly divided only by the path that runs between them.

Sophia Rich, was the first wife of Thomas Olver Rich. You would not know this if searching online as a popular ancestry site has her listed as unknown, but notes her maiden name may have been Pengelly, a name you see a lot in Cornwall. As you can see from her gravestone, she was not a Pengelly, but the daughter of John and Elizabeth Crowle.

Sophia died at 34 in 1865. She left Thomas with the six children I mentioned earlier, with the youngest being born only six months before her death. There was a sweet inscription on her gravestone.

A virtuous Wife in prime of life,

By death is snatched away;

Her soul is blest, and gone to rest,

Her flesh is gone to clay.

She’s left behind a Husband kind,

Three daughter’s and three sons;

May they prepare to meet her where,

True joys are to be won.

 

Across the path next to the window, Thomas shares a grave with wife number two. Thomas lived another fifty years without Sophia and later remarried a woman listed simply as Ellen on the gravestone they share. The ancestry site lists the names of his six children with Sophia along with the names of the children he had with his second wife, Ellen. It looks as if he fathered a total of ten or eleven children. (one of his later children with Ellen is missing a name) Ellen has little listed other than her age and the date of her death which tells me that there was at least a 17 year age difference between Thomas and Ellen. Her name is not on the ancestry site either even though you can see the names of her children.

A final interesting note, the house we live in sits on land that was purchased by a local builder in 1993 from a woman who had bought it with her first husband when her last name was Rich.

(Remember you can double-click on any of these photos to enlarge)

 

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A Dewdrop Hammock & A Snowdrop Day

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Today began with clouds so thick I could not see beyond the roof of the houses across from us. After a night of fierce sounding wind and rain, I was ready to wake to something more welcoming than another grey day. John said the morning mist was a good sign and usually meant that blue skies were there waiting for it to burn off.

He’s usually right about these things and today was no exception. After a late breakfast, we headed out with our cameras searching for snowdrops. John took me to this hill a few years ago which is always covered with them when they’re in season.

You have to get low to the ground to get them from this angle which can be a bit funny when the ground is damp and the slope makes you slide.

The churchyard had patches of snowdrops in places too, but only in a few spots.

Snowdrops grow wild here. Google sent me to a link that said they grow in America, but I’ve never seen them there before.

How about you … are snowdrops a part of your landscape?

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Field Trip Friday – Eden Project Cleans Up

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Eden Project, A Different Look

 

Since it’s Friday, I thought we would take a little field trip. We’re going to the Eden Project, an educational charity. Educational might give you pause if you are trying to decide where to spend your time when coming to Cornwall, but only if you think learning something new won’t be fun.

The photo above was taken yesterday and gives you a glimpse of how things are beginning to flower as we move towards warmer weather.

The folks at Eden Project like to say that every day at Eden Project is different and I would agree with them. We go all year round and it feels like both a familiar and a new experience each time. Right now they are dealing with the after-effects of flooding in the eating areas in the Link location, but other sections seem to be undergoing a big spruce up as well.

This is part of the area affected by the flood as it looked yesterday. I need to add that this lower level is the part of the ‘ Food at Eden ‘ section which has been moved to other places temporarily so you won’t starve, you just won’t be lunching in a space that looks like the photo below until they finish the big clean up.

 

Mediterranean Kitchen Before The Flooding

Eden Project was built on an old clay pit and what they’ve created in what was a deep dirt hole, is both inspirational, and a lesson in how dreaming big and working together can heal some of the devastation caused by taking too much from the environment. They like to blog over there as well and you might find it interesting to have a look around some of their posts even if you don’t live close enough to visit.

While I tend to take loads of pretty pictures when I’m at Eden Project, there’s a lot happening now that you may not notice if you are focused on capturing images like the colorful plant life everywhere.

I’m not sure exactly what these guys were doing, but it looks like fun job to me.

 

This guy was very pleasant when I asked him about the mixture he was using on the rock border and how the flood cleanup was going.

This man kindly answered all of my questions too and I felt as if I’d had a mini lesson in out to lay out a stone patio after our chat.

 

I passed a couple of women working outside, but both had their heads down in concentration so I snapped a couple of quick photos while walking past and kept my questions to myself.

Notice how the photographer has a camera taped to the metal fence … it was focused in the direction of the pink-haired woman above.

After a quick look at the big bee, ( notice the rock climbing wall behind the bee ) we headed for the car.

I never thought of beetles as pollinators before yesterday.

That’s it for your Friday field trip, it’s time to get back on your bus and go home. Have a nice weekend and don’t forget your homework on Monday.

 

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Bedruthan Steps, A Valentine’s Day Destination

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Bedruthan Steps – Valentine’s Day 2011

I feel as if people must get tired of reading our story especially during the months of January and February when I refer to the many meaningful ‘first’ events that occurred in the early days of our relationship. So for you, I experimented with the shorter version of our story below.

Divorced, 47 year-old American woman meets Englishman by accident and is surprised by love. Marrying after a year of long distance dating, she leaves her country for his, exchanging her big city ways for wellies and quiz nights in a tiny Cornish village. Love grows deeper, life gets sweeter, and happiness is an everyday blessing as consistent as morning coffee.

What do you think? Did I tell the story like you remember it?

For those of you who are new visitors, the longer version is the sweetest and if you want more, you can find it here along with photographs taken at Bedruthan Steps each year since we met. We didn’t snap one when I arrived on Valentine’s Day in 2008, (thank goodness, as I was fresh off an overnight flight from Atlanta) but we’ve had one each year since then.

The photos below were taken two days ago when we returned to Bedruthan Steps to celebrate our first meeting on Valentine’s Day, 2008. With a rainy week expected, I was grateful for a bit of blue sky even if the wind was a bit fierce.

 

Bedruthan Steps

 

A National Trust Land Rover

This is what the area to John’s right looks like. The National Trust folks were out repairing some stone steps a bit farther down the path where the winter weather had made a few crumble.

Distant Lighthouse At Bedruthan Steps

Happily Standing Too Close To The Edge

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Cornish Ghost Tales From New Zealand

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While in New Zealand last year, I went into a bookstore based on the name and the look of it. Wanderlust Books, in Alexandra was just the kind of shop where any book lover would be happy to spend an afternoon searching the shelves with the help of Tim Julien, the proprietor of the quality second-hand book store.

 

Wanderlust Books - Alexandra, New Zealand

Supernatural In Cornwall

I was not inside the store very long before this book caught my eye and when I picked it up for a closer look I saw the image below.

 

According to the publication date, this photo was taken before 1974 and it has someone standing on Rough Tor in the same spot that I am in my header photo at the top of this page.

All of the places mentioned in the chapters are familiar now to me especially the one below.

When I found this book in New Zealand, I couldn’t help think about how it came to be so far from home. John thought fifteen New Zealand dollars was too much to spend, but how could I not buy it and take it back home to Cornwall, especially since I love a good ghost story.

 

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Shades Of Cornish Grey

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This is my third winter in Cornwall and while we get more sun than many places in the UK, some would complain about the amount of grey days during the coldest months. Grey can seem fairly bland when compared to colors like red or yellow, but with shades of blue and lavender like you see below, I believe I can ‘ tolerate ‘ what I like to think of as shades of Cornish grey.

This part of the moor is very close to our house with only a short walk through the lanes before you leave the road to cross on foot. There are roads that go across the moor in places, so you can drive, but not in this spot and it’s one of my favorite places to go locally, second only to the buttercup field and Lavethan Wood.

We’ve got wild moorland ponies here who don’t always act like they’re wild. These three were happy to come closer to say hello to me. I’ve been known to carry sugar cubes in my pocket so perhaps they’ve heard about me through the PNN. (Pony News Network)

I took this from a favorite spot on the moor as the sun was going in for the day. If you click to enlarge it, you can see the wind turbines on the hill. Most people don’t like the way they look, but they are so far from us that I barely notice them. In fact, the telephoto on my Canon G11 had trouble with the distance so it’s not the best image quality. They do give a more modern look to a landscape that most days looks like a movie set from another time period so I can see why people might be put off by them.

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A Day At The Beach Shown In Reverse

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Thanks so much for all of your good wishes and kind thoughts for our anniversary. We had a fun day out despite the weather and the rain held off until we made it home from our beach walk and a special lunch at Fifteen.

Some of you may remember that John took me to Fifteen for our first anniversary (click to see) last year. It can be difficult to get reservations unless you book well in advance especially during the warmer months of the year, but he was able to secure a table with a window view with as late as last week. I’ll say more later since the photos are in reverse today. You can get a glimpse of the building that the restaurant is housed in by looking over the top of John’s head.

John headed down the beach ahead of me after lunch.

I tend to lag behind taking photos and often have to run to catch up like you see in the image above.

Now we’re just trading shots across the beach with John trying to get back to the car because it’s chilly and he did not bring a heavy coat.

The wind was pretty fierce and you can see by double clicking on this photo that the little boy in it is looking up because he’s lost something to the wind. It kind of looks like a baby bib to me … what do you think?

John got this picture of me with Fifteen in the background. Our table was about midway down the upper level of windows. I think I was photographing the family with children in this shot.

Inside Fifteen - Watergate Beach, Cornwall

John tried to get a photograph of our waiter/server, Nick so I could put it here with my review of his service. He was fabulous and I would recommend if you book a table at Fifteen in Cornwall, ask for Nick. Not only was he fast as you can see by his blurred image above, he was very food knowledgeable and a surf instructor too.

There was someone outside doing something called Kite Surfing(new to me) and Nick took time to discuss the challenges of kite surfing as well answering my questions about the best beaches in Cornwall for a novice like myself to learn to surf.

You might think this strange information for him to be chatting about while taking care of our food needs, but I asked him a few questions as I usually do when meeting new folks and before I had attacked my main course I was thinking about my wet suit and wondering if I might still be able to learn to surf.

You are looking at a yummy dessert John and I ordered. It is chocolate cake obviously, but what it not so obvious is that it has beets in it. See the red layer …  it’s what they call beet root here.

This was our cake before we devoured it. An amazing feat as stuffed as we were by then.’ Stuffed …’ you might ask, then why order dessert? Fifteen has a fixed price lunch option that includes three courses, so full or not, I was not skipping dessert. Plus it’s my favorite part of a meal!

John began his meal with fish before moving on to Cornish pheasant and I had a Tuscan bean soup that was so rich I wanted scoop it up with the thick slices of bread Nick brought to the table. I followed my soup with the lightest, best tasting gnocchi I have ever put in my mouth. I’m afraid I was too busy eating to photograph my food.

Here you can see the kite surfer I mentioned earlier.

Finally, we are back at the beginning where I took a quick photo of John just before we walked down the steps to have lunch.

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A Little Night Entertainment From Our Village Pub

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You never know what you might see on rainy night in Cornwall when you pop down to our village pub for a pint and a bit of conversation. Last night the Trigg Morris Men were in high form showcasing their talents with music, dancing, and a Mummers play. I’d studied Mummers plays also know as Miracle or Mystery plays in Theatre History classes at the University of Georgia, but this was my first time to see one performed live.

This man does a great job so be sure you watch at least a second or two of his clip. The woman you hear commenting is not me. I’m too busy trying to keep the camera steady.  It’s local woman by the name of Jo and she is playing the violin in the next clip.

The history behind this type of performance is fascinating and worth reading more about if you have the time and interest. I hope you’ll take a look here to learn more about the history and origin of the Mummers Play.

In addition to the play, we had music and sing-a-longs and dancing outside as well.

One brave soul joined the Morris dancing (he’s the one not in a costume) and yes, I think that is me you can hear giggling towards the end of the video.

You must forgive my shaky camera work. I’m new to video, but hope to do better next time.

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Taking To The Open Road With Jersey Girl

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When the rain of the last few days eased up yesterday we finally had a chance to do some bike riding and scooting around the village before our visit with Jersey Girl was over. Our little houseguest went home early this morning and John and I will be taking the next few days to pack and get the house in top order for the folks that will be here while we are away.

Before I begin tossing the contents of the frig and emptying dresser drawers for our housesitters, I wanted to share a few pictures from our last day with JG and her mom.

Jersey Girl gave me a brief tutorial before we headed out with our scooters. The most important thing I learned was how to use the brake. I had not even realized these things had brakes, (I think I had the Fred Flintstone foot-dragging approach to stopping in mind) but once we were shooting down a hill I was glad I had mastered slowing down and stopping in the proper way.

Here you see us demonstrating how braking works. See our back feet pressing down on those metal flaps … it’s easy-peasy.

John caught us pausing on the path across the village green.

Earlier in the day we took a ride on the Camel Trail. We all got pretty muddy, but we were determined to have a bike ride together before JG and her mom had to go home.

This is the bridge that leads to the buttercup field and even though the buttercups are long gone for now it is still one of our favorite places to walk. John took this photograph of his daughter Rachel and his granddaughter, JG today. It is difficult to catch her when she’s not pulling a face as they say here.

While reading a book together last night, JG and I were discussing rather sadly how long it may be before we see each other again and together we came up with the bones of a story that may turn into something sweet.

Since it falls to me to write it, I may work on it during the first leg of our journey next week as we will be in the air for 22 hours with one short stop for refueling. (That’s a big hint for those of you still guessing about the trip we begin next month)