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Durgan
Durgan maps
Historic maps of Durgan and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Durgan maps
Durgan photos
We have no photos of Durgan, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Mawnan Smith| Mawnan| St Anthony| Helford| Port Navas| Maenporth| Manaccan| Constantine| Falmouth| St Keverne| Porthoustock| Gweek| Penryn| Goonhilly Downs| Flushing| Coverack| St Mawes| Mylor| Percuil| St Just In Roseland| Portscatho| Gerrans| Mullion
Durgan area books
Displaying 1 of 16 books about Durgan and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Durgan
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Cornwall memories
Old School
I noticed that 'MACHAN' has been refurbished and on the market for 4 mil. I used to go to a school there called St Gorran School. The school actually started in Gorran Haven but moved to Gillan later. I got to be the oldest boy and lived in the 'Lodge'for a while, also in the flat over the ten car garage. For me it was a bittersweet experience. I remember long rides in the back of a Landrover (tin seats) and various chores I had to do, sometimes before breakfast. I grew to hate porridge (so hard that one used a knife and fork to eat it), I also developed a taste for raw fresh hens' eggs (another one of my chores). There were good times too, going sailing in a clinker-built crabber called 'Dessie', fishing, going into Helston with my mate Pete Farrell for Scout meetings. When I left I joined the RAF and lost touch with everyone. Now I live in Adelaide, Australia.
Ancestors Village Church
I don't have any memories but tracing my family tree I have discovered that a branch of my family came from Manaccan, Bowchers and Urens. So its nice to see what the church was like.
Carol
Ancestors
I do not have any memories of Manaccan, but my gt gt grandmother Mary Glasson was living there when she married my gt gt grandfather in 1825. Sadly I have not been able to trace her parents or their origins. Mary died in 1844 from a cerebal haemorrhage and her husband later married Ursula Kempthorne who also came from Manaccan. I wonder how much the church has changed since those days.
St. Gorran's School
I went to school here at this house, Machan. It was used as a school from the early fifties to the middle sixties. The house itself was built in the art deco style, possibly in the years immediately before the war, or at latest in the late forties. Most of the students were boarders with a few day school pupils. At holiday times other youngsters came and boarded for the summer holidays. For a time I was the oldest boy there and was rewarded with my own room,for a time at the "Lodge" and then at a self contained flat over the ten car garage. I often wonder if there are any old students about who might remember me and those times. I have never been back since leaving, Australia being my home for the past 44 years.
B & B And Evening Meal in A Constantine Home
I believe I was about 12 years old when I stayed with my parents in a bed and breakfast house in Constantine that also did an evening meal. They were a beautiful Cornish couple and had a water pump outside the house that my father accidentaly knocked over when reversing his Humber Hawk car. I vividly remember the lady of the house making traditional Cornish pasties for tea one evening and they were the future blueprint for me for all pasties, consequently I have never tasted anything as good since. I now live in Australia but have recently re-visited the Cornish Riviera and tried without success to taste a pastie as good as the one I had made by a lovely lady in Constantine. I would love to know the name of the couple and their B & B which I'm sure has long been turned into a holiday cottage.
FISH STRAND QUAY
Yes, I 'grew up' on Fish Strand and still use it to this day. My father kept various boats off the quay and we always had a dinghy moored there, and we still do, my father is now in his 90s and I have 2 grandaughters. I remember people like Willie Henderson and Alec Henderson, and Arthur Randall. Chards Ice House stood on one side before they built the car park, it was always a good place to scrounge a fish head to go crabing off the end of the Quay having first purchased your hooks and codline from Boxalls, it was 1/2p a yard Many happy hours were spent learning to swim off the steps and diving for coins thrown by the 'visitors'. Anyone reading this who remembers me please get in touch.
I Lived Here...
The large house to the right of the picture is called Barclay House, it's also St Keverne garage. We moved there in late 1979 and lived there for 3 years, having to leave it behind and move back to the north west due to family problems. We bought the house from Pat Johnson who had lived there with her husband.
Looking back now, it's heart breaking that we had to leave behind this idyllic, beautiful part of the country. I try to go back to visit at least once in every 5 years as a part of my heart will always belong in St Keverne Square.
Nowadays the square has parking lines painted all over it, but the building itself hasn't altered one bit, infact when I look around the pictures on this site I can recognise most of the scenes, so little has changed.
