Ferryside and quay walls, Lanteglos, Cornwall

Summary

A former shipwright's workshop, yard and quay walls of 1830s date, refurbished later in the C19 and converted to the holiday home of the du Maurier family in 1926. It was where Daphne du Maurier became inspired to write her first novel.

Description

A former shipwright’s yard and workshop with accommodation above, built by John Marks in 1830-1838, and converted to a dwelling in 1927 by the Du Maurier family. The adjoining slip and quay wall may predate the building.

MATERIALS: principally built of local rubble stone with oak floor and roof structures. The rear incorporates the killas rock cliff face against which the building is constructed. The first floor of the north end is of brick and there are two brick ridge stacks. The roofs are covered in North American slate* (from Vermont) and the upper storey of the southern half of the building is slate hung/ weatherboarded. The windows are uPVC.* The quay wall is granite.

PLAN: irregular on plan and of three storeys (south) and two storeys plus attic (north). To the ground floor are two principal rooms divided by a spine wall with an arched opening with voussoirs. The main stair is at the north end with accommodation and kitchen above.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation is of four bays with two prominent jettied gables to the right. The left bays are under a pitched roof and the ground floor has a large arched window opening with keystone to the ground floor. The first floor windows are set within brick elevations and have external shutters. The right bays of the façade are rubble stone and the jettied second floor is weatherboarded. The right bay has a segmental-arched window and a door to the left with a FERRYSIDE painted timber sign above. Under the south-west corner of the jetty is a fibreglass replica of the Jane Slade figurehead. The windows in the gable ends have small hoods and external shutters.

The south end elevation has a modern attached timber veranda and stone steps. The elevation is slate hung and to the left is a projecting door under a pitched roof. The right bay of the elevation projects forward slightly. The north end elevation has a central door with shuttered windows above. To the left an external stair leads to a rear kitchen door on the first floor.

INTERIOR: the early-C19 structure is visible in the form of stop chamfered beams of large scantling and joists supporting the first floor. The slate flagstones were re-laid on top for screed in 1993, and may be of C19 date. The majority of historic interior fittings date from the early C20 refurbishment of the building. They include substantial timber stairs to each floor with splat balusters, chimneypieces, a dumb waiter, servant bells in the kitchen, bathroom fittings and joinery including fitted cupboards. To the right of an altered inglenook fireplace towards the south end of the ground floor, the original timber figurehead of Jane Slade is fixed to the wall. The rear of the building is built into the killas rock which is visible in the interior of the south end.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: at the perimeter of the front garden is the rubble stone quay wall which is built on the river edge and curves the corner alongside the ferry slipway. It also incorporated a smaller slipway (possible at one time a sawpit) which was used by the shipyard in the C19.

A late-C19 single-storey building by the entrance gates is rectangular on plan and in the C21 serves as a garage*.

* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

A ferry connecting Bodinnick with Fowey is recorded from the C14, and Bodinnick has remained a relatively small community based around its hillside inn since then. In the C17 a building known as Passage House stood on the land now associated with Ferryside, next to the ferry slipway. Passage House is not marked on an 1813 ‘Chart of Bodinick’ and the land was redeveloped as a shipwright’s yard and quay, with the building that was to become Ferryside, sometime after that. Records show an outlay on a shipwright’s yard in 1830 and indicate that the yard and buildings were finished in 1838. They are recorded on the tithe map and apportionment of 1839 as Shipwright’s yard, house and garden under lessee John Marks, and the landowner being Lady Anne Grenville. John Marks and other shipwrights including Joseph and Nicholas Butson built schooners and other vessels at the yard between 1826 and 1887. The building is shown broadly on its current footprint on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1882, where the outbuilding next to the road is also shown. Photographic evidence shows that the wide arched window below the sail loft (north end of the building) had been infilled and a smaller opening inserted by this time.

In 1921 the trustees of the Boconnoc Estate sold the freehold of the shipwright building and yard to Edwin Jackson of the Old Ferry Inn. The building came to be known as Swiss Cottage and was bought by Sir Gerald and Lady Muriel Du Maurier in December 1926. The building was then substantially renovated and ready for family use, renamed as Ferryside, in May 1927. The ground-floor boat store had been converted to a sitting room and the sail loft adapted to bedrooms and a bathroom. Stairs were also inserted and other alterations made. The wide arched opening was restored and other openings modified with new frames inserted.

It while holidaying at Ferryside that their daughter Daphne Du Maurier became captivated by Cornwall and inspired to write her first novel The Loving Spirit (1931). The story concerns a family of shipwrights and was influenced by the former use of her new lodgings, although it is principally based on the Slade family and their yard at Polruan. The inspiration took shape when Du Maurier came across the wreck of a schooner called Jane Slade in nearby Pont Creek. The figurehead of the ship is a critical element of her novel. Du Maurier was gifted the figurehead by the owner and it was fitted to the jettied façade of Ferryside below her bedroom window, where she wrote The Loving Spirit. While some of her other works were written at Ferryside, Du Maurier also wrote at other locations.

Angela Du Maurier, Daphne’s sister, inherited Ferryside from their mother in 1957 and in 1993 the house was bought and renovated by Daphne’s son Christian Browning. In the early C21 the figurehead of Jane Slade was relocated inside the house for its preservation and a fibreglass replica installed in its place.

Reasons for Listing

Ferryside and quay walls, Bodinnick, Cornwall, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* as the home where Daphne du Maurier wrote her first novel, among other writing. The figurehead of Jane Slade, a key inspiration for the book, remains on site;
* the building and novel jointly represent the birth of du Maurier’s love affair with Cornwall, and the catalyst for a body of work that has celebrated the region so effectively and has had a significant impact on popular culture;
* as an early example of the early-C20 holiday home conversion for the well-to-do on the Cornish coast, in this case for the family of the renowned actor-manager Sir Gerald Du Maurier.

Architectural interest:

* as a legible pre-1840 former shipwright’s workshop, yard and quay, constructed of local granite, it is an important surviving example of Cornish maritime heritage and of some architectural merit;
* the house survives well as redesigned and refurbished by Lady du Maurier in the 1920s for the family’s enjoyment, and includes many quality fittings of the period.

Group value:

* for its contribution to the historic ferry slip at Bodinnick and its cluster of historic buildings. Also for its visual relationship with Fowey and its quayside listed buildings.

External Links

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