Gillan memories
Here are memories of Gillan and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Gillan or a Gillan photo.
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.
Memories of Cornwall
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.
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.
15 YEARS AT BARCLAY HOUSE
I remember coming to live at Barclay House in the September with my sister Rachel and my Mum and Dad. We moved from Sutton Coldfield because Dad no longer wanted to work as a garage mechanic for someone else, and he wanted to own his own garage. Mum was not at all keen as she was leaving her friends behind, but as a dutiful wife, she agreed to the move and we settled into village life, albeit in part of the hub of St. Keverne Square.
After Jack Hocking died in 1963, Dad demolished the corner cottage and had a 4,000 gallon tank hoisted into place, then had the corner shop built over it that stands to this day.
We all used to take turns serving petrol, checking oil, blowing up tyres, or later on, sweets, to those socialising in the bus shelter opposite. It was an idyllic life, Rachel and I had ponies, friends and loved to participate in the Annual Carnival, Ox Roast and Gymkhana. That we... Read more
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