Searle The Boatbuilder

A Memory of Feock.

In the row of cottages on Pill Creek mentioned by Malcolm Macmeikan lived "old Searle" who built small boats in a shed on the quay on the opposite side of the creek. At age 11 or 12, I painted one of them, a rowing boat called Iris, but when painting under the seat got my hair caught in the wet paint. A visit to the barber in Truro put it right. Iris belonged to Mrs Sheers, grandmother of Owen Sheers the poet. I used to stay at an asbestos cottage called Chyloe, Cornish for "house by the lake", which must now be demolished. When I was there, the Old Post Office was actually a post office. I went to church of a Sunday, but the psalms were spoken, and there were no hymns, which damped my church-going in Feock. I used to get up before breakfast and run to Loe beach for a bathe. I am now 94, but my memories of old Feock are keen. It was countrified then, with few road signs, because ordinary people had no cars. The advent of the car was to lead to much house building along the road leading to Restronguet point, along which my parents built a bungalow. Mr Belling (the cooker man) had been one of the first, with a large house in art deco style.

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