Smugglers Cottage

A Memory of Portreath.

This photo was taken the year before my Father and Mother bought Smugglers Cottage guest house. We lived there from 1966-72. We took over from the Teasdales in the April, I recall meeting their daughter Dulcie the day my Mum and I came down from Birmingham, I was 17 at the time, to take over and taking a walk on the beach with her in the evening, a very attractive girl, we got on very well and it was a shame she had to leave the next day.
The whole family was involved including Mum, Dad, Gran, my aunt, and two brothers and sisters
It was extremely hard work, especially for my Mum, the guest house had 12 rooms and she had to cook for 30 people and in those days it was a full cooked breakfast, three course lunch and three course evening meal. We all really did not appreciate how hard she worked. Also we had a small beach shop attached to the house where we served teas, coffees, sandwiches etc.
The second year we only did breakfast and evening meal which was a lot easier for all of us.
Even though my Mum and Gran were Cornish born and bred (in Newlyn) we still encountered a somewhat parochial resistance from the local people and were always considered "outsiders" but we had some very good times during the years we were there.
What a pity the present owners demolished the original cottage to build the souless monstrosity that has now replaced it. A terrible travesty.
For anyone wanting to see what the original Smugglers was like, there is a fifteen minute sequence showing both inside and outside the cottage in the 1945 film "A Rakes Progress" with Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer. A scene from the film shows Lilli Palmer swimming out to sea from the beach, she had a stand in for the sequence, a young girl called Pam Whitely who lived in the village and her daughter Estelle was a girlfriend of mine.