1840s – Mills & Mines
Our Penpell title image is taken from the earliest Tithe map, in 1840. This was leading into an era when mills and mines would flourish to the greatest degree they ever achieved in mid Cornwall. Huge profits came from the near-by Fowey Consolidated Copper mines where advanced sustainable energy systems drove the machinery. At the peak of production they used 17 waterwheels, alongside a small number of top rate William West steam engines. Our quote about this says ‘When all around others were using Steam, this mine owner went the other way, he went Green!’.
The site plan shows a very different cluster of barns to those you will see today, and we are guessing that new, bigger and better granite buildings were added, later in the 1840s, as accommodation for both the managers and workers was in short supply locally.
One of our tales describes the system of hot-bedding, as miners divided their days into 8 hour sections:- up to 8 hours free time, 8 hours below ground and then a chilly walk that ended by creeping into a bed here (still warm from a previous incumbent!). This would certainly have been an easier option than walking home to Bodmin, which – it’s hard to believe – some did every day in Victorian times!
Shown on the left in the next photo is a substantial and one imagines originally very elegant new barn built at Penpell, which was probably home to a person with some authority and status – either a mine captain, or the man in charge of that unique system of leats to power all the waterwheels. Today these barns have become 2 comfortable modern homes, with almost no hint of the history left.
Through the field just below our entrance, starting in 1823 until about 1870, water ran around the hill to the mines in a man-made water channel, called Fowey Consols Leat. In recognition of the Outstanding Universal Value of this leat and the more extensive water power system from the Par River valley, in 2006 World Heritage Status was granted to this area of mid Cornwall by UNESCO – putting Penpell on an equal footing with Stonehenge! If you would like to access our extensive set of films about this World Unique water power, you will find some for general viewing on the Meadow Barns Centre You Tube channel, others are restricted to Partners. Please apply by email, using cjs or enquiry @themeadowbarns.co.uk.
Treffry, our Green Hero and his Library
The Industrial Landscape of PL24 is the main resource for learning at our site. Discover how we are building teams to care for it here.
Post War Farm
Arriving into the 20th century, Penpell Farm was one of many holdings that had to be sold from the estate of the Kendall family at Pelyn. We have the 1925 sale particulars book in the library and it makes fascinating reading.
My grandparents, with my Dad and Auntie in tow, moved to the farm in 1944, responding to a government call for a tenant that would produce the highest yields possible of potatoes and corn. Apparently they drove all their stock, plus horses, implements, furniture and chattels across from Prideaux Farm on the other side of Luxulyan Valley, in one morning!
The barns and sheds in this Meadow, which I went on to convert for education purposes, had originally been fully used for storing straw and hay bales, keeping chickens and pigs. The only non farming use, from the late 1960s to mid 70s, was when Dad said I could graze my pony in the Meadow, too!
2017 New Green Build
By this time, when I was retiring from my teaching career and ready to restore the barns and sheds, I knew I wanted to make a result that would be as responsible environmentally as I could achieve on a modest budget. As part of the process we arrived at an early Principle at Penpell – ‘We Worked Wonders with Waste’ and combined those materials with the best new, eco products I could afford.
For Green Energy I installed not one, but two solar arrays and a top-up heating system, fueled by biomass. The cottage construction used maximum insulation of roof and walls, and – once that was finished – we turned attention to creating banks of wildflowers and half a dozen geology garden study areas in the grounds. This all offers a big list of opportunities for learning.
The material I chose for rebuilding the 2 storey cottage was called Nudura, a pale green colour that you can see here. The pieces click together like lego blocks, making most of a house in one day! We still have some chunks left over in ‘The House of Green Play’ and encourage children to use them in designing model houses, with added glass panels, plus small solar and wind or water energy.
Ten years later, I am pleased to make a new offer, to approved local partners, which is that they can use most of the site themselves, without a member of our staff team. We also have extended the Landscape for Learning to include a secret woodland location, with a stream for tin and iron streaming, a firepit, and a short walk to a real iron mine shaft and the historic leat structures.
Please email enquiry@themeadowbarns.co.uk for further details of setting up an introductory site visit for your staff.
