Coverack, c.1930

Photo ref: C170002

I left the Royal Navy in late 1971 and worked in Zermatt Switzerland for a short time when I applied and got my first head chef position in England I was 21 yrs old, The owners then were MR & Mrs Mullins, Mrs Peggy Mullins was an author, It was a lovely old world hotel and they even filed part of an episode to the TV series The persuaders there, the staff were a mixed but lovely bunch, and ...see more

In 1969 I was 15 and quit school. I was hitch hiking and ended up in Coverack. I was drinking in the local pub, the Paris Hotel I think, when some construction guys offered me a job digging ditches and laying sewer pipes. It was summer, and the foreman had rented a field from a local farmer. He lived in a caravan and the rest of us had tents. The foreman was a six foot seven South African, and his crew were all Irish ...see more

While still at Helston Grammar School, I worked at the Headland Hotel during one summer. Pickles was the manager, he was a tyrant but I seemed to get the better of him. I wrecked the lawn-mower running over a rock while pushing it up and down those front lawns in the picture, he tried to make me pay for it out of my £4 10/- a week pay! I refused. I fell in love with Margaret from Quinton who was ...see more