Porthleven and the Minack Theatre
This was a holiday which revived memories of earlier times visiting the family in the area. Of note, I think this time, was our visit to the famous Minack Theatre, and Porthleven with all its memories. But of course, Cornwall is a lovely county anyway!
The beach at Porthleven. I don`t remember too much of our previous visits, but perhaps we didn't explore as much then?
At the end of the Porthleven harbour stands the BICKFORD-SMITH SCIENTIFIC & LITERARY INSTITUTE. It was opened on December 17th 1884 as a generous gift to Porthleven from Mr Bickford-Smith of Trevarno, a former Member of Parliament for the old Truro-Helston Division.
It`s most prominent feature is the clock tower which is 70 feet high. Inside, the Reading-Room is 40 feet by 20 feet and was originally fitted with pitch pine `da-doing` and warmed by two stoves. I was so sure it was a church!
Another view of BICKFORD-SMITH SCIENTIFIC & LITERARY INSTITUTE
The Egyptian House, Chapel Street, Penzance, Cornwall. the Egyptian House (Nos 6-7). It's perhaps one of Cornwall's most flamboyant examples of architecture with its ornate facade of lotus columns and stylized cornices. Set in amongst the Egyptian styling and sphinx like adornments is the royal coat of arms of George III/William IV maybe just to remind us we are still firmly in the British Empire.
The building dates back to 1835 and it is thought that the architect was a John Foulston from Plymouth who is credited for the design of the similar Classical and Mathematical School in Devonport, Devon. It has been said that the facade was an exact copy of a museum in Piccadilly, London built in 1812 which was inspired by the Temple of Hathor at Dendera in Egypt. This is not strictly true although it is likely the museum served as the main source of inspiration.
The original owner of the Egyptian house was John Lavin, a mineralogist from Penzance. He lived here for some time and housed his extensive mineral collection in the shop downstairs. This collection was eventually sold by Lavin's son and was later donated to the Oxford University Museum.
The building had fallen into some disrepair by the end of the 1960s but was restored to it's original splendour in 1973 after several years work. Today the upstairs is available to rent as self-catering accommodation whilst downstairs is a shop.
So onto the Minack Theatre of which we had heard so much.
The Minack Theatre (Cornish: Gwaryjy Minack) is an open-air theatre, constructed above a gully with a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea (minack from Cornish meynek means a stony or rocky place). It is at Porthcurno, 4 miles (6.4 km) from Land's End and has appeared in a listing of the world's most spectacular theatres.
The theatre was the brainchild of Rowena Cade, who moved to Cornwall after the First World War and built a house for herself and her mother on land at Minack Point for £100. Her sister was the feminist dystopian author Katharine Burdekin and her partner lived with them from the 1920s.
In 1929, a local village group of players had staged Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in a nearby meadow at Crean, repeating the production the next year. They decided that their next production would be The Tempest and Miss Cade offered the garden of her house as a suitable location, as it was beside the sea. Miss Cade and her gardener, Billy Rawlings, made a terrace and rough seating, hauling materials down from the house or up via the winding path from the beach below. In 1932, The Tempest was performed with the sea as a dramatic backdrop, to great success. Miss Cade resolved to improve the theatre, working over the course of the winter months each year throughout her life (with the help of Billy Rawlings and Charles Angove) so that others might perform each summer.
In 1944, the theatre was used as a location for the Gainsborough Studios film Love Story, starring Stewart Granger and Margaret Lockwood but inclement weather forced them to retreat to a studio mock-up. In 1955, the first dressing rooms were built. In the 1970s, the theatre was managed by Lawrence Shove. Since 1976 the theatre has been registered as a Charitable Trust and is now run by a local management team. Rowena Cade died on 26 March 1983, at the age of 89.
Minack theatre currently is used from Easter to September for a full summer season of 20 plays, produced by companies from all over the UK and visiting companies from the US. The theatre is open for visitors throughout the rest of the year. The 75th anniversary of Minack was celebrated with a production of The Tempest in August 2007, directed by Simon Taylor and performed by the Winchester College Players.
Porthcurno Bay.
Rowena Cade was born in 1893 in Derbyshire. The Cades moved to Cheltenham when Rowena’s father retired in 1906. After the First World War, Rowena’s widowed mother sold their home in Cheltenham and rented a house at Lamorna. Rowena discovered the Minack headland which she bought for £100 (!!!). She built a house there for herself and her mother using granite from St.Levan.
Rowena Cade was already thirty eight when she began her ambitious project. Over the next seven years there were many improvements and extensions. Then, with the coming of the Second World War II, it seemed as though all the back-breaking work might have been wasted. But in 1944 the Minack was chosen as a location for "Love Story" the film starring Stewart Grainger and Margaret Lockwood.
Over the years, Rowena Cade had developed techniques for working with cement. Using the tip of a screwdriver she decorated surfaces with lettering and Celtic designs before they hardened. She fetched the sand from Porthcurno beach and carried huge beams from the shoreline up to the theatre. Even though she looked frail, Rowena Cade continued working on her theatre in all sorts of weather each winter until she was in her mid-eighties. When she died, just before her ninetieth birthday, she left sketches suggesting how the theatre might be covered on rainy days.
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