Brucefield - Truro


Brucefield

This is linking 2011 with the 1920's to '30's.
I have the good fortune that my father made diaries of the times he spent in Cornwall as a child. His parents died young and he was brought up with his sister Lucy by his two maiden aunts, Edith and Grace Rodgers, known as Tig and T'Edith.  (A page will be dedicated to these two) Both children were sent away to boarding school and spent their summers in Cornwall. Both at "Brucefield" in Truro and then "Sundew Cottage" in St Agnes. I do believe that Bruciefield must have been sold for the Aunts to move to Sundew. I do recall visiting Sundew as a child with my parents in the early 1950's. I do recall eating toast that my father made for me - cut into soldiers. It may have been my first serious encounter with marmalade. We visited for quite a few years after that.

My aunts lived a frugal existence.  Edith loved to paint and I accompanied her on many of her little trips with her water colours about the local countryside. Sadly they both died and a link with Cornwall was broken.

The spirit of Cornwall never left my father and we made several visits back. We shared the driving - the traffic was horrific the, we normally made a stop around Wells. I worked at Lanhydrock House for a summer. I never visited again until my wife and I visited the Eden Project in the early 2000's.

It did seem familiar visiting it this July (2011). I was very hesitant knocking on the door. I knew it was a rented holiday property now. The people could not have been more delightful and after their initial shock and wondering about my story could not have been more charming. The ambience of Brucefield is clearly still there. There is information on the wall about Roberts the next owner. I have the address of the current owner and I intend to write in the near future.

The scanned pictures from the diaries and the photographs are in the Datastore here.  There are more photographs of Sundew to be added as well as St Agnes and the church


The cover to the Diary - I think this is Edith's writing


The entrance to "Brucefield" now

This is the photo from the garden. As you can see there is no balustrade around the porch
There is a photo showing this in the Datastore and below

Quite possibly a similar shot as the previous photo - Showing balustrade Koko clearly in charge

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