A History of Lanreath and The Old Rectory - for those with a little time to spare!
The village of Lanreath is ancient. The name
itself derives from the 11th century name of Lanredoch (Lan
meaning the site of an ancient Church so the name literally meant
Redoc’s Church site). In the 16th Century the name was
softened to Lanreatha and the final ‘a’ was dropped sometime after that.
It is pronounced Lan~reth.
More than two
thousand years ago, Cornwall was as much a Celtic nation as Wales and
Scotland. Iron Age Celts spread all over England, down through northern
France, into Middle and Eastern Europe. These peoples shaped the hill
fort that still dominates nearby Bury Down (approximately half a mile to
the north-east) and it is likely that the area sheltered at least one
settled community.
In
AD 43 the Romans invaded, and though their initial arrival may not have
touched what they called Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall) they did slowly
come nearer, travelling down the ancient tracks that still run along the
spine of Cornwall, constructing a camp near the spot now occupied by
Bodmin town. After an occupation lasting four centuries the invaders
retreated and in the vacuum left by their departure tribal warfare broke
out once again. In addition, along the southern and eastern coasts of
Britain hordes of Angles and Saxons were beginning to swarm ashore.
The end of Celtic
Britain was in sight, but it was not something that was going to happen
over night. For fifty years a ferocious struggle raged across the
breadth of what is now England. Gradually the British leaders fell back
towards Wales and the South West. The legend of King Arthur belongs to
this period and if Arthur did exist, in some form at least (and many
modern historians believe he did) it’s certainly possible that his final
stronghold was to be found in Cornwall. King Mark, often associated
with the Arthurian stories, is said to have ruled the area around
Lanreath and a few miles away, on the other side of the Fowey River, an ancient memorial stone
commemorates the existence of Mark’s nephew, the even more celebrated
Tristan.
Mystery surrounds
the wars and the rulers that shaped Dumnonia during this period, but one
powerful influence of the time is fairly well documented - Christianity.
It
is through this early Celtic Church that the prefix ‘’Lan’ was used to
describe a monastic settlement, often set within a circular enclosure.
It is reasonable to suppose that here in this valley, perhaps on the
very spot where the parish church now stands, there dwelt a small
community of Celtic monks. Saint Marnarch (pronounced in the same way
as Monarch), patron of the church, was probably their founder, but like
many Cornish saints he is an obscure figure and though he is thought to
have spent some time on the north coast nothing at all is known about
the origins of his connection with Lanreath.
Several centuries
were to elapse before the Anglo-Saxons’ final conquest of Dumnonia. Eastern Cornwall and
the area around Lanreath, would have been one of the first to come under
direct Anglo-Saxon influence and in 1066, when Norman William invaded,
the village was held by a Saxon known as Aelfric. Saxon dominance was
short-lived and by 1087, when William’s clerks compiled the Domesday
Book, the whole of Cornwall had been handed over to Richard, Count of
Mortain, half-brother of the Conqueror and one of the most powerful men
in England. The parish, at that time,
extended to an area of something like one hundred and forty acres.
There were forty acres of woodland (in which pigs would have routed for
acorns); thirty acres of pasture supporting three head of cattle and
sixty sheep, and enough arable land, according to Domesday Book, to
provide work for eight ploughs, though there were only three ploughs in
the village. It is likely that these ploughs were shared between the
fifteen or so resident families. The Count of
Mortain built a stone castle at Launceston and soon there were others,
at Restormel near Lostwithiel, at Trematon by the River Lynher, and at
Tintagel. Celtic monasteries and narrow Saxon churches were being pulled
down to make way for sturdy Norman structures. There is no doubt that
the present day parish church of St. Marnarch was
originally a fairly typical example of Norman workmanship. A large part
of that building still stands to-day, though during the fifteenth and
nineteenth centuries there were to be a number of alterations and
additions.
The coming of the
Spanish Armada, in 1588, caused a stir all along the southern coast of
Cornwall; but it was not until the seventeenth century that Lanreath
itself came into direct contact with great events. At that time the
area belonged to the Grylls family, and in 1609 Charles Grylls,
counsellor-at-law (who with his wife and eight children is commemorated
by a remarkable monument in St. Marnarch’s chancel) decided to build
himself a new house. The lovely Jacobean manor he created, now known as
Court Barton, is not open to the public, but its mellow north front may
be seen from the centre of the village. The Grylls family must have
been pleased when their fine house was completed, and no doubt Charles’s
nephew Francis, who was soon to become Rector of the parish, joined in
the celebrations. Meanwhile, across the country storm clouds were
gathering and in 1642 the Civil war began.
Cornwall was
staunchly loyal to the Royalist cause and for several years Cromwell’s
Army found it impossible to gain any sort of foothold west of the
Tamar. The County gentlemen fought with conspicuous gallantry and when,
in the summer of 1644, the Parliamentarian Lord Essex attempted to seize
Launceston and Bodmin the King himself led an army into
Cornwall. A second Royalist
force, under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, advanced from the
west and after a battle at Braddock Down, just south of Middle Taphouse,
Essex found himself cornered with what was left of his troops, in the
town of Lostwithiel and the triangle of land just west of the Fowey River. The King, accompanied by
his fourteen-year-old son (the future Charles II), his entourage and his
Generals, stayed first in Liskeard and then at the great mansion of Boconnoc, four miles north of
Lanreath. As the siege went on the area between the Fowey and Looe
Rivers must have teemed with Royalists troops. Some were definitely
quartered in Lanreath, and there is a tradition that on one occasion at
least King Charles himself visited the village, spending an hour or so
at the courthouse, now the Punch Bowl Inn. The whole Grylls family are
thought to have been ardent Royalists and Francis, who by this time had
been Rector for nearly thirty years, was no exception.
Lord Essex’s army
was worn down and scattered but the power of Parliament could not be
held at bay for ever and on August 17th, 1647, the last
Cornish fortress to hold out (Pendennis Castle, near Falmouth)
reluctantly surrendered to General Fairfax. Eighteen months later
King Charles I was executed. The ensuing decade of Parliamentarian rule
was not popular in Cornwall, but it had to be endured. It is not known
whether the Grylls family were at any time involved in helping Royalist
fugitives to escape but it has been suggested that the underground
tunnel, entrances to which can still be seen beneath the Old Rectory,
may date from this period. Soon, in any case, Francis was replaced as
Rector by a man whose views were more in tune with those of the
Government and in order to avoid sequestration of their estates his
relations were ordered to pay crippling fines.
By 1660 the
Commonwealth was running out of steam and with the Restoration came
almost immediate relief. Barely six months after the King’s return
another Francis Grylls was instituted as Rector of Lanreath. In this
same year we find the first written reference to his parsonage house.
Listed on the new Hearth Tax Rolls, Lanreath Rectory is described as
having eleven hearths. Whether this second Francis altered or improved
the property in any way we don’t know but nineteen years after his
institution in 1679, in the Ecclesiastical Records for that year, is a
detailed description of the Rectory. The building contained a hall, a
‘parlour with boarded floor’, a kitchen ‘with great range and two
ovens’ - and an amazing number of rooms devoted to the pursuit of
self-sufficiency, among them a bread house, bake house, brew house,
buttery, pantry and dairy. Outside there was a barn, a stable, a
calves’ house ‘with hay store above’, an ox house, a malt house, ‘four
small rooms for hogs and a dove house of stone’. The gardens included
‘the Pigeon House garden’, two kitchen gardens and a place for ‘flowers
and sweet herbs’.
The second Francis
Grylls survived until 1691, out-living Charles II by six years.
One after the other,
three more members of the Grylls family (William, Nicholas and Richard)
were to become Rectors of Lanreath. Richard, the last of this clerical
dynasty, was presented to the living in 1719. In 1726, during Richard’s
incumbency, there appears in the Ecclesiastical Records another
description of the Rectory, and this time there is greater emphasis on
living accommodation. In addition to the ‘parlour with boarded floor’;
there are said to be six rooms with plastered or partly plastered walls
(one ‘handsomely plastered’), and the hall is now described as ‘a great
hall, open to the roof’. The hall may have been much the same fifty
years earlier, but by 1726 a ‘great hall open to the roof’ was becoming
more of a rarity and consequently would have been more likely to get a
mention. Richard Grylls seems to have taken a great interest in his
garden and glebe land, planting numbers of ash and sycamore saplings
(perhaps explaining the large number of these trees in and around the
garden of the current building), putting new apple trees in the Pigeon
House Garden and building a high wall round the vegetable garden, which
lay on the western side of the house, bordering the main village
street. The southern part of this wall is still standing, and though
its no longer within the Rectory grounds it can be seen by anyone
standing in the street, some fifty yards or so above the Punch Bowl
Inn.
Richard Grylls
remained Rector until 1736.
The next Rector was
Hele Trelawny. Hele’s term did not last long, and in 1740 he was
replaced by Joshua Howell, a young man who is said to have been
wealthy. Little else is known about Joshua (apart from the fact that he
had a number of children) but he is supposed to have had building work
done at the Rectory. In 1785 Joshua Howell died and his place was
taken by Edward Pole, an even more shadowy figure than his predecessor.
He was Rector for fifteen years and during his time the Napoleonic Wars
began, bringing with them new fears of invasion. For some years a close
watch was kept upon the coast and naughty children were threatened with
abduction by 'Boney'. While the war was in progress something of a
blind eye was often turned upon the smuggling trade. Throughout the
eighteenth century smuggling had been endemic in Cornwall and many
country gentlemen became involved; among them one of the Rectors of
Lanreath. The Punch Bowl Inn was definitely a centre of activity, and
when this kind of work was in hand the Rectory’s ‘secret passage’,
originally constructed for other purposes, could have come in very
handy. Edward Pole died in 1800, and the
new century brought a new family into the life of Lanreath Rectory.
For several hundred
years the Bullers had been respected landowners. A number of their sons
had gone into the Navy, and during the eighteenth century one had
achieved distinction as an Admiral, adding a good deal to the family’s
prestige - “Bullers Quay” in Looe is named after him. By 1800 their
seat was at Morval, near Looe, and it’s there that Richard Buller,
Rector of Lanreath from 1800-1827, was probably born. He does not
appear to have been a remarkable figure, but his incumbency saw the end
of the Napoleonic Wars and the end (almost) of Georgian England. His
wife probably read the new novels of Jane Austen, provided Richard
didn’t disapprove. He, no doubt, travelled about the parish in a
serviceable dog-cart. His life may have been comfortable but it is
unlikely that he was particularly well-off for when he died, in 1827,
the Rectory seems to have been in a bad state of repair. The next
incumbent, Stephen Worsley, was instructed by his Bishop to put things
right, and it may be for this reason that he chose to reside in
Blackheath, near London, leaving a curate in charge while essential work
was carried out. We don’t know how extensive the repairs were, or
exactly how long they took. Soon after the accession of Queen Victoria
in 1837, another Richard Buller was instituted as Rector, and an
important era had begun.
When he arrived to
take control of his new parish the Reverend Richard Buller, Rector of
Lanreath from 1837-1883, was thirty-three years old. His wife,
Elizabeth, was the same age and they had two children, Rhoda aged five
and Alexander aged three, with a second daughter, Emmeline, soon to be
born. They were wealthy, had excellent connections, and Elizabeth
planned to continue to do a lot of entertaining. The existing Rectory
would not be adequate for their needs and so, they engaged an architect
(probably Thomas Lee, who designed Arlington Court, near Barnstable) and
embarked upon a series of elaborate alterations, finally adding a
southern section which almost doubled the size of the house. This later
extension formed the separate Master and Mistresses Bedrooms, a first
floor Study or Dressing Room (now the Living Rooms of Fowey and the
Living Room and Bedrooms of Daymer) and on the ground floor a large
handsome Drawing Room and Dining Room (these now form a large part of
the owners apartments). The thickness of the walls by the entrance to
each room testifies to the strength of these walls. All this meant that
the building contained something like twenty-five rooms. Although the
Victorian age had begun there was not yet a Victorian style, and in
character the new work was utterly Georgian. Efforts seem to have been
made to create a harmonious whole, and the portico added to the west
front may have been intended to camouflage what might otherwise have
been a noticeable join. (This portico has since been removed and the
entrance hall has become part of the owners kitchen).
The gardens were
also considered to be in need of attention. The Bullers are said to have
planted innumerable trees and shrubs. The magnificent wisteria on the
western side of the house probably dates from this time, though it may
be older. As a finishing touch, they created a circular entrance
driveway that approached the Rectory through the space now occupied by
the bungalow just beyond the current driveway – and when all this was
completed, one can imagine the excitement with which Elizabeth Buller
awaited her first dinner guests. Richard’s cousin Charles, renowned
for his good looks, was Member of Parliament for Liskeard and a friend
of William Makepeace Thackeray, who had once come down to help him with
an election campaign (‘he made the people laugh’); and it may not be too
much to imagine that the famous novelist may sometimes have come to dine
at Lanreath.
If he did, it seems
certain that he would have found a happy, lively household. Rhoda,
Alexander and Emmerline were followed, in time, by Jane, Henry, Ann and
Alice. There were usually half a dozen servants, plus, of course, a
nurse for the children and later a governess. The children’s bedrooms
now form the two bedrooms of the apartment called Epphaven and the
nurse/governess would have used what is now the bedroom of Gorran
apartment.
The facsimile of
Richard Buller, displayed inside the Church, reveals the quintessential
Victorian parson. From his comfortable Rectory he must have watched
the spread and development of the British Empire; and when, round about
1850, Alexander followed family tradition by going into the Navy he
probably reflected with satisfaction that little now menaced a Service
which had already subdued the world. The girls all seem to have married
fairly young and their weddings, no doubt, were celebrated by the whole
village. When, at last (an elderly widower with a young curate to help
him and Alexander’s daughter to keep him company) Richard Buller looked
back upon his life, it must have been with a great deal of quiet
gratification.
John Buller-Kitson
became Rector in 1883, and like the Grylls’ of long ago must have felt
the Rectory was almost a family home. His incumbency saw the end of the
Victorian era and the beginning of the First World War.
John Buller-Kitson
was succeeded by Leonard Williams, but Mr. Williams’ term was short, and
four years later his place was taken by Reginald Murley, who was to see
Lanreath through the troubled period of the Twenties and Thirties.
When he died, in 1939, he was succeeded by Charles Girling, the last
Rector (though not the last clergyman) ever to occupy Lanreath Rectory.
Mr. Girling had a
lively young family and was popular in the village. He was instituted
on January 13th, 1940, at a time of desperate national
anxiety, and one of his first acts was to order the digging up of the
west lawn and the creation in its place of a large emergency vegetable
garden. Lanreath Home Guard met regularly in his study and there their
weapons were kept, stored in a cupboard so large that it has since been
turned into the kitchen of Caerhays apartment! Soon Plymouth was being
devastated by enemy action, and from time to time even the little town
of Looe came under attack. Lanreath’s young men were far away and in
danger (the Roll of Honour inside the Church lists those who were
serving at this time) and there was a real fear that the invasion, if it
came, might be launched on the beaches of Cornwall. No-one knew how it
might all be going to end, but like clergymen up and down the country
Charles Girling was an enduring source of strength, and when it ended he
helped to co-ordinate the celebrations.
The Girling family
remained at Lanreath Rectory until 1962, but some time before that date
it had begun to be evident that the Rectory (as a rectory) did not fit
into the modern world. It had been built to house a self-sufficient
community, and such communities were now part of the past. In 1962,
after Charles Girling’s death, the Church Commissioners put the old
house up for sale. The purchaser, a private company, sought and
obtained permission to convert its acquisition into eight flats. The
Church had retained Richard Buller’s orchard and there a new rectory was
being built, but the remaining gardens were still unnecessarily
extensive and several pieces of land - constituting most of the current
village east of the Punch Bowl Inn, were sold off as potential building
sites. The circular drive was grassed over, the tennis courts were
removed and part of the kitchen quarters were demolished), opening up
the eastern side of the stable courtyard (these kitchens were originally
sited adjacent to the wall between the current Courtyard car park and
the garden. Inside the house several large rooms were partitioned and,
finally, the great central staircase was taken away to make room for the
kitchens and bathrooms of Fowey and Daymer apartments.
The house had
changed dramatically; but survived with much of its character intact.
There is every possibility that without this new use, the original
building might have been pulled down to build further modern housing.
Hundreds of families have spent happy holidays in the house, most of
them going home relaxed, many returning again and again.
There is a lot to be
discovered about the long history of the Old Rectory, Lanreath but it is
not a house that now lives only in the past. The current work,
renovating parts of the building and surviving grounds, repairing other
parts of the building that had been neglected, should mean that The Old
Rectory continues to exist as a family home and as a provider of
employment to local people for many more years to come. However, we can
all still listen to the magnificent pealing of the Church bells and for
just a few moments, wonder how life might have been all those years ago........
Old Aerial Photo of The Old Rectory
