Introduction

We have often been given snippets of information about how the carriage and guard van arrived in Cadgwith and their history, but never anything complete enough to put up on our site.

Earlier this year however, we had a visit from Roey Jenkins and her family who provided us with the fuller story of the history of the coach and it's transportation to Cadgwith.

Roey's mother's father (Mr Hannington) selected and converted the coach, which is now the "Old Coach", in the 1930s and her family spent many holidays in it in Cadgwith!

As an added bonus, the Hanningtons have kindly provided us with some wonderful photos from the period. We hope you find them interesting!

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The Hannington Family

Rosemary Hannington writes:

A friend in the Lizard sent me a copy of the issue of "Homes and Furnishings in Cornwall" for autumn/winter 1999. I am very interested in the article by Tamsin Smith relating to the Coachhouse built for the Egyptian Railways around 1903.

Lt Col G Hannington writes:

[The Old Coach] was used in Egypt until after the end of WWI and then brought back to Swindon to be sold or scrapped. Our father, R A G Hannington, who was then the Locomotive Works Manager of the GWR, bought it for £25 and arranged for it to be sent by rail to Helston around 1923. There it was lifted from its own chassis and wheels onto a road wagon belonging to a contractor called Chenowith. It then made the slow and difficult journey by road, pulled by 4 or 6 horses to a site near Cadgwith not far from its present position. Our father bought the field in which it still stands and put in concrete block foundations. The Coach was then moved into a position which was selected for two reasons: first it was the only spot which provided a lovely view over part of Cadgwith, Black Head and the sea, and secondly it provided a gravity-feed for our water supply which came from a spring. Had the Coachhouse been sited nearer the gate it would have been necessary to install a pump. There was in the early 1920s when no electricity was available.

To see a selection of photographs from the time (courtesy of the Hannington family) - click here