A-Z Challenge 2017 - Houses, some real, some not - 'M'

M - Menabilly

Menabilly, The Seat of Rashleigh, Esq. Cornwall
(Antique print - in public domain)

I first went to Fowey in Cornwall in 2007. By chance our visit coincided with the Daphne du Maurier Festival celebrating her centenary.

The opening of Rebecca, possibly Daphne's most famous novel begins - 

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. There was a padlock and chain upon the gate. I called in my dream to the lodge keeper, and had no answer, and peering closer through the rusted spokes of the gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited."

That opening introduced Manderley, a forbidding house with an equally forbidding, black-clad Mrs Danvers as its housekeeper. The fictional Manderley was modelled on Milton House, near Peterborough the ancestral home of the Fitzwilliam family and the house and gardens of the Cornish Menabilly. 

Menabilly House, Fowey, Cornwall
(Created Jan 1, 1920 - in public domain)

Belonging to the Rashleigh family, Menabilly, became the home for Daphne and her husband from 1943 to 1969, its history and grounds also provided input to novels later than Rebecca.

The first novel she wrote at Menabilly was The King's General. Set during the English Civil war, it was prompted by the discovery, during alterations to Menabilly in the 1820s, of a walled-up skeleton thought to have been a Cavalier. It tells the story of the love between Richard Grenville, The King's General and Royalist Honor Harris, one of du Maurier's strongest heroines.

in 1969 the year she was made a DBE, the Rashleighs wanted to return to Menabilly; despite all the money she had spent on its restoration Daphne was forced to accept a move to its dower house, Kilmarth, where she was to live until her death.

A-Z Challenge 2017 - Houses, some real, some not - 'F'

F - Ferryside

In 1926, when she was 19, Daphne du Maurier's family found Swiss Cottage, a house on the bank of the River Fowey in Cornwall.

Swiss Cottage

Daphne later described that discovery in Vanishing Cornwall:

"There was a smell in the air of tar and rope and rusted chain, a smell of tidal water. Down harbour, round the point, was the open sea. Here was the freedom I desired, long sought-for, not yet known. Freedom to write, to walk, to wander, freedom to climb hills, to pull a boat, to be alone. It could not be mere chance that brought us to the ferry, and the bottom of Bodinnick hill, and so to the board upon the gate beyond that said For Sale. I remembered a line from a forgotten book, where a lover looks for the first time upon his chosen one – ‘I for this, and this for me."  

The house subsequently renamed Ferryside is inhabited today by Daphne’s son, Christopher (Kits).

It was at Ferryside in 1929 that she wrote her first novel, The Loving Spirit, the title taken from a poem by Emily Bronte:

Alas! the countless links are strong
That bind us to our clay;
The loving spirit lingers long,
And would not pass away!

The discovery of the wreck of the schooner Jane Slade in Pont Creek inspired Daphne. The Slade family were shipbuilders in the nearby village of Polruan on the same side of the Fowey estuary as Ferryside. Daphne researched the family and visited their graves at the local church of Lanteglos. In the book, Polruan became Plyn, Lanteglos became Lanoc and Jane Slade became Janet Coombe. The Loving Spirit is a family saga spanning four generations of the Coombe family, shipbuilders and mariners in and around the Cornish village of Plyn. The figurehead from the Jane Slade was later added to the front of Ferryside.

Ferryside

If you look closely you can see the figurehead on the right hand corner of the house, next to the tree.

Sky - Thematic Photography

Having waited all week to have a sky worth photographing I've given up and gone back to shots from my archives.

Traverse City, Michigan - 22 July 2007 

From a shot exactly eight years ago to one slightly earlier in Cornwall.

Readymoney Cove, Fowey - May 2007

The elevated house in the centre of the picture was then the home of Dawn French and Lennie Henry. The house obscured by the rock on the right of the beach was occupied by author Daphne du Maurier in 1943.

I shown shots of Stockton's Infinity Bridge before where the sky has enhanced the photo significantly. Here's another one.

Infinity Bridge, Stockton-on-Tees - May 2009

Finally one taken from our front garden.

Can you see the second rainbow?

For more shots of the sky please visit the links at Carmi's Thematic-Photographic-342.

Cornish Fences - Good Fences 44

My elder son lives in Fowey on the south coast of Cornwall in the south-west of England and I've shown fences from there before.

Mawgan Porth Beach (from a hotel window)

Much older is the view through the window of St Catherine's Castle at Fowey.

The Fowey Estuary 

The author Daphne du Maurier had a long association with the area and in 1929 wrote her first novel, 'The Loving Spirit,' in the house behind the blue fence.

Ferryside

At the right end of the house is the figurehead from the schooner Jane Slade. 

Daphne was inspired to write the book after discovering the wreck of the schooner in Pont Creek. The figurehead was added to the house at a later date.

The Slade family were shipbuilders in the nearby village of Polruan. Their life and history were used by Daphne to create the saga, in The Loving Spirit, of four generations of shipbuilders and mariners in the fictional Cornish village of Plyn.

Daphne du Maurier’s son and his wife live at Ferryside today.

For more fences call in at Good-fences-44.

Flooded Fowey - Good Fences

Scenes from the Cornish town of Fowey in 2008.

King of Prussia

I think I might have stayed inside for a bar meal and a pint.

Other steps were fenced of too.

Entrance or fire escape?

Somehow I don't think the optician on the right would have done much trade.

Any more that anyone sat upon this seat to watch folks or boats go by.

This is a Good-Fences post.

A Step Too Far - Sepia Saturday

A dog, a child and some steps in this week's prompt ought to be easy to match.

Golf used to one of my favourite pastimes and this picture from 1905 has steps aplenty just off the course.

The Royal and Ancient Clubhouse, St Andrews

When I was a student at St Andrews in the 1950s the 18th green looked much better than this.

My grandsons and their dogs found more steps in the woods alongside the River Severn although Alby seems to be wagging his finger at me behind the camera.

Cara, Alby, Milly and Kai (at the back) - 2001

Over the years the steps at my daughter's home in Michigan have been a spot to capture pictures of our grand dogs.

Grandmaw with Sam and Maxie

Cody and Scout

Grandpaw and Scout - 2010

In 2008 when we celebrated our golden wedding at Tresco in the Scilly Isles there were no dogs (or children) in evidence. In Tresco Abbey Gardens there was a shots of steps in the distance.

With a statue at the top of the steps

Statue of the Dorien-Smith children

This statue is said to be symbolic of the freedom of the islands.

Before we travelled to Tresco we stayed in Fowey and my daughter managed to get herself photo bombed by a dog.

King of Prussia, Fowey - 2008

And it's dogs that found a step too far.

Gem and Scout peer down the staircase to the basement - 2012

Now it's time for you to step over to Sepia-Saturday-257. to sample others' posts.

Cloudspotting - Thematic Photography

Leaden, grey skies and rain make cloudspotting a difficult exercise this week; there is little promise of improvement tomorrow either. That's why I have raided my 2007 archive..

OK - so the clouds were in the shots by accident in all but the first.

Storm clouds gathering - Michigan, September 2007

Alnwick Castle in Northumberland is a photogenic subject - the clouds enhance the effect.

Alnwick Castle - Northumberland, July 2007

But does Harry Potter playing quidditch behind its walls add to the magic?

Alnwick Castle walls

Sorry - you have to imagine him.

The next two pictures were taken from a little steam boat on the Fowey estuary in Cornwall. There must be thousands of pictures of the town - these were taken in May 2007 when we were attending the Daphne du Maurier festival in her centenary year,

Fowey - May 2007

To see the results of more cloudspotting check out the links at Carmi's Thematic-photographic-296.

Scarborough to Ferryside _Sepia Saturday

This week's prompt suggests a number of topics to me, but as I have retired I'll ignore working at heights.

Looking down at harbours is a favourite pastime of mine, so where better to start than in North Yorkshire.

Scarborough Harbour

That shot was taken from way up at the Castle.

At Whitby we were up on the 199 steps to the Abbey.

Whitby Harbour (between the houses and the 'pier'.)

Neither are as exotic as the harbour at Monaco.

Monaco Harbour (from the way up to the Palace)

In our prompt the resting workmen were looking down on a ferry station. From Monaco you can catch boats to Rome, Nice, Barcelona and Corsica but I flew in and out by helicopter.

When in Fowey, Cornwall I have only watched the ferry cross the estuary to Polruan.

Fowey - Polruan Ferry
(Trevor Harris; CC BY-SA 2.0 = Geograph Collection)

In "Vanishing Cornwall" Daphne du Maurier wrote of arriving in a hire car when she was 19 and seeing Fowey harbour for the first time from the Bodinnick side. The car deposited them at the foot of the hill by the ferry (The Bodinnick/Fowey ferry not the one from Polruan). 

'Before climbing the hill to lunch our eyes were caught by a board saying "For Sale" on a gate just above the ferry. Behind the gate was a rough piece of ground and a house by the water's edge, a strange looking house built like a Swiss Chalet.

"Yes," said the ferryman standing near by, "they call it Swiss Cottage." '

Swiss Cottage

The du Mauriers later bought Swiss Cottage and it was there that Daphne wrote her first novel, "The Loving Spirit" which was published in 1929.

Because of its location the du Mauriers renamed the house Ferryside, the name it still bears today.

Ferryside

The road up to Bodinnick is on the left hand side of the photo: that's where the ferry docks.

If you study the next photo taken from a different angle -

you may be able to make out a figure on the right hand corner of the house.

This is the figurehead from the schooner Jane Slade.

Daphne was inspired to write "The Loving Spirit" after discovering the wreck of the schooner in nearby Pont Creek. The figurehead was added to the house at a later date.

The Slade family were shipbuilders in Polruan. Their life and history were used by Daphne to create the saga, in "The Loving Spirit," of four generations if shipbuilders and mariners in the fictional Cornish village of Plyn.

Daphne du Maurier's son and his wife live at Ferryside today.

If you check out the links at Sepia-Saturday-222 you can see where others have been.

Multiples - Thematic Photography

There is a watery connection running through my pictures this week for Carmi's 'multiple' theme.

Multiple boats and masts, and... at Fowey, Cornwall

On the Isles of Scilly my multiples have a maritime connection.

Ship Figureheads at the Valhalla, Maritime Museum in Tresco Abbey Gardens

Nature has multiples too. the first of which you may have seen before.

Ducks on the Clinton River alongside Rochester Park's Paint Creek Trail in Michigan

More bird multiples in Scotland.

Swans and their cygnets

Finally it's the turn of a magic basket.

Basket weave

There is even a water connection with this. Dirty clothes dropped into the magic basket magically reappear clean and bright in wardrobes and drawers after being washed, dried and ironed (where necessary).

For more multiple multiples you need to dash away with a smoothing iron to Carmi's Thematic-photographic-263.

Rain - Sepia Saturday

It's hard to work up enthusiasm for rain in the middle of a heat wave as this week's rainy prompt requires.

 A dip in a swimming pool would be much more enjoyable.

Hartlepool Bathing Pool

The open-air swimming pool was opened in 1923. It was badly damaged during the great storm of January 1953, and was never fully repaired. The surviving remains of the pool itself are mostly obscured by seaweed, and all of the shoreward structures have long gone.

'Bathing Pool' area - 1953

A local beauty spot where children were often taken to paddle was Aysgarth Falls in Wensleydale but not on a day when the river was in flood.

Aysgarth Falls

Aysgarth Falls are a triple flight of waterfalls, surrounded by forest and farmland, carved out by the River Ure over an almost a one-mile stretch on its descent to mid-Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales of England, near the village of Aysgarth.

In Cornwall the River Fowey can flood quite spectacularly as it did in 2008

Somehow I don't think that there would have been many boat trips round the estuary that day. You would also have been struggling to go for a pint at the King of Prussia.

Fowey Parking - 2008.

It may have been OK for The Beatles to sing.

But for me it's Adele who has the right idea.

Meanwhile while you check out other rainy themes at Sepia-Saturday-185. I have to get ready to take my wife out for a birthday meal.