The Ship Inn - Porthleven Since there has been a Ship Inn overlooking Porthleven cove and harbour the tides have ebbed and flowed roughly (sometimes very roughly) a quarter-of-a-million times. Tradition dates the inn to the seventeenth century; documentary evidence takes its history back to the turn of the eighteenth. The land on which the house stands - along with much of that to...
The St. Ives & Queen's Hotels The coupling of these two hotels is the result of a study of the Index of Cornish Inns collated by the late Mr. H.L. Douch, author of the book Old Cornish Inns, and now held by the Courtney Library at the Royal Cornwall Institution, Truro, of which Mr. Douch was sometime-Secretary. In the relevant Index entry the two hotels...
The Cornish Hotels of New York City Part Two Research into the later life of the last two West Twenty-third Street incarnations of the Cornish Arms Hotel from 1914 until c.1973 yields evidence of the decline and the ultimate end of its distinctively Cornish character. From the opening of its final home at 311-315 West Twenty-third Street in 1926 the Cornish Arms, both under the...
THE NEW INNChurch Street - HelstonCirca 1750 - c. late 1920s "There are two main reasons for a pub to have this name. First, because it is a new pub, newer than others nearby. The other and more interesting source dates to the time of Queen Elizabeth I. That monarch travelled the land to demonstrate that peace and prosperity had arrived...
The Rodney Inn is named for George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney of Rodney Stoke, Somerset. Rodney was perhaps the most celebrated naval hero of the mid-18th century. Born in 1718 and baptised at Walton-on-Thames in February of that year, his family were well-connected but became comparatively impoverished following his father’s loss of a substantial portion of his wealth through...
Paul Corballis in his book Pub Signs (Lennard Publishing 1988) writes “…if you see a pub with this sign look around for a church. This ancient sign originated with pubs attached to or near early churches.” It is possible that there was in pre-Reformation times an ecclesiastical establishment of some kind on or adjacent to the present Meneage Street site of the Bell...
“After God, Shakespeare has created most” - Alexander Dumas Bristol boasts four inns named in honour of the Swan of Avon. The one now at 68 Prince Street owes its name to the proximity of the Theatre Royal, Britain’s oldest purpose-built playhouse, in more or less continuous use since 1766. The present Shakespeare Tavern comprises half of a double-fronted, stone-built house dating from...
THE CORNISH HOTELS OF NEW YORK CITY PART ONE Some time ago, while researching in the Cornish Studies Library at Redruth into the history of an old Cornish public house, I encountered on microfilm copies of the West Briton newspaper’s shipping columns dating from the 1890s a series of advertisements connecting the area of Lower Manhattan where I spent my childhood and...
The Seven Stars Inn – AKA Fitzsimmons Arms From its inception until c.1982 the house was known as the Seven Stars Inn. For a 25 year period during the 1980s, ‘90s and into the present century the house was known by the sign of the Fitzsimmons Arms. In the middle ages the Seven Stars was a religious sign, representing the seven...
I have been unable to find any documentation that would date this house precisely. However, a comparative examination of their respective frontages leads me to believe that the building is contemporaneous with the Andrew Hall, the former Helston Church of England National School that is dated 1828. In fact the similarities in architectural style and materials lead me to think...