The War Years
This is what I have gained knowledge of from speaking to Bert and his older sister Joan.
Bert's family moved from Bristol to Lanoy in 1939. His dad worked for calor gas, and was way ahead of him time in modernity and innovation. He was the first to install gas lamps in the house. I now have a photo of the drawing room with the gas laps lit. Later in 49 he installed a generator for electricity. Then a wind turbine, the base of which we think is the big slab outside the little barn doorway.
They kept goats for their milk on the lawn and housed them in our big barn. Our neighbour told me our barn is known to her family as the goat shed although she had never known goats to be kept in there, but that was before her time. It was Bert's family of goats that the barn was named after. His dad kept 2 cars in the barn. Bert made dens and tree houses and went fishing in the river at the bottom of the steep field to the front of our house. The farmer had old cars and machinery stored in the Yard at the rear and Bert loved to play on them. At the top of out drive was a thatched summer house and huge rhododendron trees and bushes that went all along the far side of the garden . Our big double drive gates were white and very decorative with spindles
Joan told me a story about our stained glass window. We noticed soon after moving in that 2 panes of the glass weren't the original Victorian etched glass as the rest of the window was. When I spoke to Joan she said' is the big coloured window still on the stairwell? yes i replied. she asked me if the glass in the middle was odd. Yes i replied..'that was my fault' she told me. she had been practising her tennis serve, hitting her ball up against the wall of the house when suddenly whoosh..the ball went right through the middle of the window !!
They had a piano in the drawing room, and they were the first people in the village to purchase a television in time to watch the Queens coronation. The farmer next door and another gentleman from the village would come down to Lanoy and together all 3 men would go into the front room, draw the curtains and watch the cricket on the television.
Our main kitchen was dads workshop, he had lathes and workbenches in there. Our boot room was the generator room. our little kitchen was the scullery. our sitting room was the kitchen with a big Cornish range in the inglenook. our pantry was dads dark room for photography. the drawing room was called the front room and had a wooden floor which has now gone. I told Joan it was probably become rotten and was replaced with concrete fairly recently. 'Im not surprised it was rotten' she said, I was up a ladder putting up Christmas decorations and the foot of the ladder went through the floorboard. Dad had to move the piano to the other corner of the room.
They had a maid called Dorothy. Joan remembers dad pushing the bell call located on the wall to the side of the fireplace, the house bells would ring at the other end of the house, and Dorothy would come through to see what she was required for. Sadly the house bells no longer exist, but they were located at the bottom of the second staircase. My builders found the bell wires up in the roof and under the floor boards, these were the wires that were connecting the bell push to the bell board.
There was marble fireplaces in most rooms. The only one which still remains is the black marble one in the drawing room. Its made of Ashburton marble. Joan said the only other one she has ever seen similar to it is in a place called Kingston Manor. I was only there a few weeks ago, on work business, and I commented at the time to the owner that his fireplace looked very similar to mine !
They had a bathroom installed upstairs. In the same room where we are currently fitting a new bathroom. It was painted royal blue. The paint is still there on the chimney breast wall ! We have covered it over now.. but i saw it myself. The floor was blue and white check vinyl. The bath was between the 2 doorways with a basin in the corner by the window, which is exactly the same position as when we bought the house. Dad devised an ingenious contraption to heat the bathroom by opening up a hole in the floor, to take the heat from the fire in the room below. I wondered why there was a 6 inch square cut in the floor boards, it was hinged and can be flapped up like a little trap door and below that was a metal cover with a hole below. That was what Bert's dad had fitted as an early form of warm air heating system.
The biggest bedroom was used for storage, that was until elderly evacuees came to live with Bert's family. A doctor and his wife from London came to live here during the war. Joan can remember him walking on sticks along the driveway to get his daily exercise. Also, during the war, they had 2 sets of grand parents and an elderly aunt come to stay. So that would have been 9 adults, 3 children and the maid living here.
In the cubby hole off the bathroom was the ladder to the loft and on the right a doorway into the servants side of the house. The door was covered in green baize (felt) Joan told me..Yes I know I replied. I'm stood here looking at it !... Never!! she exclaimed. The green baize door is still there? YES i said. its still here. With the brass studs in it? she asked.. Yes i replied..still here ...just like you remember it. Well...she said that was there when we moved into the house in 1939. Its been there since the house was built! ( we must save the green baize door)
The gardens were always beautiful. Apparently, Squire Pethick who built the house in the 1800s was an avid Victorian plant collector. In those days the gentry would show their wealth by their exotic gardens. The Kalmia plants were exceptional species and our garden was reputed to be one of only 2 in the whole of Cornwall which had such plants.Squire Pethick built the school and chapel in the village and there is a big memorial to him up there.
The war came and as part of the war effort many trees were cut down, and the orchard was replanted with fir trees. Those fir trees are now huge ! they are just a little way along the lane from our gate. Down in the woods there is a big pond, where they would picnic. I haven't seen that yet. Joan thought it was originally built as a swimming pool as it was stream fed, and the Victorians were into their healthy lifestyles.
When Plymouth was blitzed the distant horizon was glowing red and they saw it from the front bedroom windows. It was the city burning and the flames were reflecting up into the cloudy sky. Some planes flew over and bombed 2 of the larges houses in the next village over from us.
So a huge Thank You to Bert and Joan
we spoke on the phone for hours, you told me so much information.
I was totally enthralled by your memories.
xxx
Jo
Bert's family moved from Bristol to Lanoy in 1939. His dad worked for calor gas, and was way ahead of him time in modernity and innovation. He was the first to install gas lamps in the house. I now have a photo of the drawing room with the gas laps lit. Later in 49 he installed a generator for electricity. Then a wind turbine, the base of which we think is the big slab outside the little barn doorway.
They kept goats for their milk on the lawn and housed them in our big barn. Our neighbour told me our barn is known to her family as the goat shed although she had never known goats to be kept in there, but that was before her time. It was Bert's family of goats that the barn was named after. His dad kept 2 cars in the barn. Bert made dens and tree houses and went fishing in the river at the bottom of the steep field to the front of our house. The farmer had old cars and machinery stored in the Yard at the rear and Bert loved to play on them. At the top of out drive was a thatched summer house and huge rhododendron trees and bushes that went all along the far side of the garden . Our big double drive gates were white and very decorative with spindles
Joan told me a story about our stained glass window. We noticed soon after moving in that 2 panes of the glass weren't the original Victorian etched glass as the rest of the window was. When I spoke to Joan she said' is the big coloured window still on the stairwell? yes i replied. she asked me if the glass in the middle was odd. Yes i replied..'that was my fault' she told me. she had been practising her tennis serve, hitting her ball up against the wall of the house when suddenly whoosh..the ball went right through the middle of the window !!
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| Lanoy 1940 with goats in the garden |
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| The Drawing Room 1938 |
Our main kitchen was dads workshop, he had lathes and workbenches in there. Our boot room was the generator room. our little kitchen was the scullery. our sitting room was the kitchen with a big Cornish range in the inglenook. our pantry was dads dark room for photography. the drawing room was called the front room and had a wooden floor which has now gone. I told Joan it was probably become rotten and was replaced with concrete fairly recently. 'Im not surprised it was rotten' she said, I was up a ladder putting up Christmas decorations and the foot of the ladder went through the floorboard. Dad had to move the piano to the other corner of the room.
They had a maid called Dorothy. Joan remembers dad pushing the bell call located on the wall to the side of the fireplace, the house bells would ring at the other end of the house, and Dorothy would come through to see what she was required for. Sadly the house bells no longer exist, but they were located at the bottom of the second staircase. My builders found the bell wires up in the roof and under the floor boards, these were the wires that were connecting the bell push to the bell board.
There was marble fireplaces in most rooms. The only one which still remains is the black marble one in the drawing room. Its made of Ashburton marble. Joan said the only other one she has ever seen similar to it is in a place called Kingston Manor. I was only there a few weeks ago, on work business, and I commented at the time to the owner that his fireplace looked very similar to mine !
They had a bathroom installed upstairs. In the same room where we are currently fitting a new bathroom. It was painted royal blue. The paint is still there on the chimney breast wall ! We have covered it over now.. but i saw it myself. The floor was blue and white check vinyl. The bath was between the 2 doorways with a basin in the corner by the window, which is exactly the same position as when we bought the house. Dad devised an ingenious contraption to heat the bathroom by opening up a hole in the floor, to take the heat from the fire in the room below. I wondered why there was a 6 inch square cut in the floor boards, it was hinged and can be flapped up like a little trap door and below that was a metal cover with a hole below. That was what Bert's dad had fitted as an early form of warm air heating system.
The biggest bedroom was used for storage, that was until elderly evacuees came to live with Bert's family. A doctor and his wife from London came to live here during the war. Joan can remember him walking on sticks along the driveway to get his daily exercise. Also, during the war, they had 2 sets of grand parents and an elderly aunt come to stay. So that would have been 9 adults, 3 children and the maid living here.
In the cubby hole off the bathroom was the ladder to the loft and on the right a doorway into the servants side of the house. The door was covered in green baize (felt) Joan told me..Yes I know I replied. I'm stood here looking at it !... Never!! she exclaimed. The green baize door is still there? YES i said. its still here. With the brass studs in it? she asked.. Yes i replied..still here ...just like you remember it. Well...she said that was there when we moved into the house in 1939. Its been there since the house was built! ( we must save the green baize door)
The gardens were always beautiful. Apparently, Squire Pethick who built the house in the 1800s was an avid Victorian plant collector. In those days the gentry would show their wealth by their exotic gardens. The Kalmia plants were exceptional species and our garden was reputed to be one of only 2 in the whole of Cornwall which had such plants.Squire Pethick built the school and chapel in the village and there is a big memorial to him up there.
The war came and as part of the war effort many trees were cut down, and the orchard was replanted with fir trees. Those fir trees are now huge ! they are just a little way along the lane from our gate. Down in the woods there is a big pond, where they would picnic. I haven't seen that yet. Joan thought it was originally built as a swimming pool as it was stream fed, and the Victorians were into their healthy lifestyles.
When Plymouth was blitzed the distant horizon was glowing red and they saw it from the front bedroom windows. It was the city burning and the flames were reflecting up into the cloudy sky. Some planes flew over and bombed 2 of the larges houses in the next village over from us.
So a huge Thank You to Bert and Joan
we spoke on the phone for hours, you told me so much information.
I was totally enthralled by your memories.
xxx
Jo
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