Lanivet, Cornwall

Lockengate of the ''40s

I  lived in St Austell as a child but my Uncle Ewart and Aunt Ruby farmed at Trescoll Farm, Lockengate. From a very early age I spent every holiday with them and although only four or five years old at the time, I remember well and fondly those wartime years, the Land Army girls and the two shire horses. (The first Fordson Major tractor didn't arrive here until the early '50's.)   Trescoll was up a long lane from Lockengate and each morning Uncle would harness up one of the horses and after hand milking his twenty or so South Devon breed cows would  load the churns into the cart and take them down to Lockengate where there was a concrete block stand onto which they were loaded ready for the Milk Board lorry to collect.
  Lockengate was at the junction of the Bugle-Lanivet road (the A391) and the road to Bodwen and on the corner opposite the farm lane was Mrs Grose's shop.
One of my occasional chores was to walk down to her shop to buy baccy for Uncle. Probably one of my earlier brand-awareness examples would be St Bruno tobacco, in those days only available as a 1oz hard block wrapped in foil. The main road saw only two or three vehicles an hour so it was quite safe for this young lad to go alone. The shop consisted of one small room entered by a "stable door" and wartime rationing being still very much in force there was only a limited variety of goods for sale. Brands I well remember are Reckitts Blueing for whitening(yes, really!) the laundry; Woodbine cigarettes, Swan Vesta matches, Birds custard powder, Typhoo tea, bottles of Camp coffee, Hp sauce, Colemans mustard and Cherry boot polish, which apart from black was also available in a dark brown that was described by the "N word" which political correctness no longer permits us to use.  
On the diagonally opposite corner to the shop was a single story house belonging to the Hambly family. This house was somewhat of a curiosity as it was constructed entirely of corrugated iron, both roof and side walls. It no longer exists but its uniquness remains clear in my mind.    I have only happy memories of Trescoll and Lockengate.     

HALLOWEEN 2007

Ok, on Halloween night 2007 some friends and myself wanted to do something different for our Halloween night, so where better to do it than at the old Bodmin prison.

So off we set at 9 o'clock taking track to the prison. It was a great evening. We spent some hours in the darkest depths of the prison and we are convinced we did see a ghost of a man in the Naval Wing, and we did some filming and we got some pictures of what looked like 'orbs', it was a very interesting evening.

We would like to point out that this is not the place to visit if you are shocked easily, as the prison has an odd smell to it and you hear a lot of strange noises and see a number of shadows that are not there when you turn around. It would be worth a visit if you are interested in ghost hunting.

Staff at the Asylum

I found when researching the 1901 census that members of my husband's family worked at the Asylum. My husband's grandfather,  Alfred Charles (Charlie) Southern worked there until his death in 1944.  His job was described as "Mental Nurse".  Charles' sister Glen Dora also worked there as did his mother Anne and other relatives.  Some were described as laundresses.  I wondered whether they actually worked in a laundry at the asylum or whether they did laundry for the asylum at home.