COOMBE FOLK “COOPED UP WORSE THAN THE HEBREWS OF LOWER EGYPT”
This was how the inhabitants of Coombe were described by one of the Councillors, and one who did not live in Coombe, at a meeting of Truro Rural District Council on 26 April 1923.
Coombe was unusual in that despite being a hamlet of over twenty houses it had no road linking it to the local road network until 1925. Footpaths entered the village, there was limited access by horse and cart over the foreshore, but the main access was by boat.
Thomas Martyn produced two maps of Cornwall in 1748 and 1784. This extract is from the 1784 map on which the name of ‘Coomb’ first appeared, but no road reached it. The more important route was to Trelease as a road ran down to the river Fal and the ferry across to ‘Tolvorn’ on the south bank.
Source: Kresen Kernow X43857 Martyn’s Map of 1784
By 1906 visitors walked to Coombe from the highway just east of Lower Lanner farm and down into Coombe across a field named in the 1770s ‘the Great Bounder’ but often referred to as ‘Vounder’ – which in the Cornish language means ‘lane’.
Source: Ordnance Survey Cornwall LXV.5 Revised 1906
Alternatively, they might have walked from Cowlands through Cowlands wood, or down the cart track from Lower Lanner farm, both routes converged near Turnapenny. They then either walked through the orchards to emerge near Bounder Close or on the narrow riverside path below these orchards. Barbara Baker (formerly Gunn) (1919-2015) remembered that when the doctor came to visit anyone sick in the village, he had to leave his horse and trap with the farmer at Lower Lanner farm and walk down across the fields.
The more direct access route from the direction of Cowlands was along the foreshore, this was subject to the tides and even when the tide was out the route was muddy and treacherous. This was the route taken by tradesmen such as the visiting butcher, but it is remembered that his cart occasionally overturned.
No photographs have survived of any of these vehicles but in this photograph c.1906 the tracks of carts can be seen below Bethel near Turnapenny.
Source: Private Collection
Another important track led from Coombe through the fields to Higher Trelease farm and the highway. The Coombe end of this track still exists at the bottom of the gardens of Riverview, built as council houses in the early 1930s. This track was used for funerals as it was the more direct route to the parish church at what is now known as Old Kea.
This track can be glimpsed in this photograph c.1912.
Source: Private Collection
As Coombe lies on one of the creeks of the river Fal the main means of transport was by boat, and many of the local punts can be seen in this photograph. Most households had at least one boat, generally the 15 feet rowing punts which were all locally built and were built for oyster dredging. Boats were rowed up to Truro to go shopping, and they were also rowed to both Truro and Falmouth to deliver the Kea plums and apples which were grown in the village.
Yet it was clear that Coombe was at a disadvantage not having a road. The West Briton reported that at a meeting of Truro Rural District Council in February 1912 two councillors, one of whom was William Hearle who farmed at Trethowell, ‘mentioned that at Coombe, in the parish of Kea, there were 22 houses, with no road leading to them, with the exception of a dirty footpath and a cart road. Mr Trethewey observed that it was a shame people paying so much in rates should have no road.’ Yet another 12 years elapsed before a road was built.
The campaign to build the road included the wishes of those who lived in Coombe, Truro Rural District Council and Lord Falmouth’s Tregothnan Estate which owned all the houses in Coombe together with the farmland over which the road would have to be built.
In September 1912 Mr Hearle gained the Council’s permission to use its surveyor to help produce a scheme. By December 1913 discussions had clearly been held with Mr Gow, for many years the Tregothnan Land Agent or Steward, as he now believed an earlier estimate of £160 would be exceeded. It was agreed that a committee would be formed of councillors together with the surveyor to meet with Mr Gow. The Hearles remained the driving force with William Hearle now being joined by his younger brother John Paul Hearle of Churchtown farm at what is now called Old Kea.
By December 1914 some progress had been made. The surveyor reported the committee had met with Mr Gow and several routes had been discussed. ‘It was decided that the Surveyor be asked to prepare an estimate for making a new road commencing at the junction with the Porth Kea – Tolverne road near Trevean Cottage and terminating at high water mark near the Institute, about 630 yards in length. Mr Gow estimated that Lord Falmouth would probably give all the land required and a substantial contribution towards the cost of construction provided the residents of Coombe and the Council also considered a fair share. The Surveyor estimated that a 9-foot road throughout would cost £195. Mr W Hearle reported that the residents of Coombe District would contribute £45. Resolved that the width of the road be amended to 15 feet and that Mr Gow be asked what Lord Falmouth would contribute if the Council agreed to construct the road’.
In January 1915 the Clerk said he had contacted the Government with reference to the proposed new road to Coombe, Kea because ‘in consequence of the Council having increased the width of the road the Surveyor stated that he would have to revise his estimate’. In February 1915 ‘Mr Gilbert, Surveyor, stated that he estimated the cost of the proposed new road at Coombe to be £220. A letter was read from Mr Gow, Lord Falmouth’s agent, stating that he told the Committee that he would require a plan to be submitted showing the proposed road, fences, gates etc.’ Mr Gow also said that he assumed the Council would take the necessary steps to close both the footpath from near Lower Lanner to Coombe and the path from Higher Trelease to Coombe. The Clerk pointed out that this could only be done by order of the Quarter Sessions court which would add to the cost. The Council decided to pass on to Mr Gow a plan showing where fences should be erected, and in order to minimise expenses to see if Lord Falmouth would agree to an informal closure of the two footpaths.
A meeting which was not minuted must have taken place subsequently as in March 1915 it was reported that a letter had been received from Mr Gow reporting that Lord Falmouth was in agreement with the views expressed namely ‘he thought that owing to the state the country was in at present that they might defer the matter while the war was on’. The council agreed the matter of building a road to Coombe should ‘remain in abeyance’.
The council next discussed the Coombe road in August 1919 in response to a petition produced by residents of Coombe asking for a new road, but discussion was postponed until the next meeting. At the next meeting, in September 1919, the Mr William Hearle said that the petition the council had received had also been sent to Lord Falmouth and it was resolved consideration of the matter be adjourned until a reply is received from him. A long delay then occurred,
and the subject was not discussed again until April 1923, and again the driving force on behalf of Coombe residents was William Hearle.
Clearly feeling had been building in Coombe for some while and a deputation sought the help of Truro Rural District Council. On 26 April 1923 The West Briton reported:
Mr W Hearle said ‘there had never been a road to Coombe, there was only a footpath across the middle of two hilly fields. Three attempts had been made to get a road. Before the war the late Lord Falmouth offered the land and a donation of £100 towards the cost of making a road, and the Council agreed to take over the road when it was made. Owing to the war the scheme was dropped.
A few weeks ago, Kea Parish Council inspected the footpath and found it to be in a bad state. The inhabitants were anxious to assist financially in providing the road, and Mr Gunn, a working man, headed the subscription list with a donation of £20. At a meeting of the inhabitants £111 was promised in cash and labour, and since then the subscription had been increased to £150. Lord Falmouth was prepared to make a gift of the land and to give a donation when a definite scheme was put before him. The villagers desired the Council to lend them the services of a surveyor (Mr Gilbert) to prepare plans and estimates, and to make an application to the Unemployment Grants Committee for a grant, and to take over the road when completed’.
Another councillor, Mr A C Pomery, gave Mr Hearle strong support and said, ‘the people at Coombe were “cooped up almost is worse conditions than the Hebrews of old in lower Egypt”. To conduct a funeral from Coombe the conditions were horrible. The stiles through the footpath were so high that it was a mystery any lady ever got over them’.
Source: Private Collection
This photo was taken at some time between the building of the Reading Room (on the left) in 1908 and the building of the road in 1924. The cottage on the left was Moor Close cottage and was a farm cottage which belonged to Higher Trelease farm. The cottage on the right was known as Bunny Thatch. Moor Close cottage was demolished in the late 1920s and Bunny Thatch in the 1930s.
Note the gate between the Reading Room and the two cottages. Also note how the Reading Room was built on an elevated stone platform, and that its door faced directly out onto the creek.
The deputation from Coombe, aided by the support of some councillors, won the day and the Council agreed to support the scheme as suggested.
The most important person in the campaign to build a road to Coombe was William Hearle (1872-1956). His father William Lovey Hearle (1839-1926) had farmed in Feock but by 1891 had moved to Old Kea Churchtown farm on the Tregothnan Estate, and it was whilst living there that in 1900 William had married Ellen Mary Magor, but always known as Nellie. By 1901 they had moved to Gare farm near Lamorran, also on the Tregothnan Estate, but shortly after 1911 they moved to Trethowell farm near Calenick. This was a freehold farm and had been owned by Nellie’s family for some years. The Magors were a substantial local farming family farming at Tregew in Feock, Benallack near Probus and Trenowth near Grampound. The Magors were also connected by marriage to the Cragoes, another substantial farming family in Kea. William Hearle had been elected to Truro Rural District Council and by 1920 to Cornwall Council.
The council meeting in May reported that William Hearle had been lobbying influential people within Cornwall. He had met with Sir Arthur Carkeek (1861-1933), born into a Redruth building family and who had undertaken major building works in Cornwall – including the railway line to Newquay. He then lived at Penventon House, was a long-standing member of Cornwall Council and had been knighted in 1916 for his work with recruiting. Carkeek had seen Sir Henry Maybury (1864-1943), an eminent surveyor and engineer who during the First World War had been given responsibility for all roads used by Allied forces in France and later knighted. After the war he had become director general of roads for the Ministry of Transport. Maybury thought the case suitable for submission and asked for a plan with description and specification. William Hearle continued lobbying and at the July meeting of the Rural District Council a letter was discussed from William Hearle to Captain Algernon who was the Liberal MP for Camborne in 1922 and 1923.
In early August 1923 Hearle said ‘the cost of the road was estimated to be £660 towards which the following sums would be available: – Ministry of Labour provided the labour was drawn from the Redruth District. Viscount Falmouth £100, donations £130 leaving a balance to pay of £100 which he hoped the council would be prepared to expend in order that the work could be carried out’. This was agreed. Later in August a problem arose. The council believed it had been told that labour would be provided from the Redruth Labour Exchange area but now the Ministry of Labour stipulated that the labour would have to come from residents of the Urban District of Redruth. This was unacceptable as a major element of the work was providing some employment to the residents of Coombe. At this meeting on 22nd August, it was agreed that the scheme would be undertaken by the council alone. On 5th September the recommendation of the Finance Committee was accepted ‘That the council be recommended to carry out the work to the road at Coombe, in the parish of Kea, in accordance with the surveyor’s original estimate (£660) on condition that such amount should not be exceeded and that the application to the Unemployment Grants Committee for financial assistance towards the cost of such work should be withdrawn’. On 23rd November 1923 the final decision was taken to go ahead and build the road to Coombe.
Back Row L- R Fred James, Ken Gunn, Jack Gunn, Will Gunn, Joe Old, John Old, Gerald Gunn
Front Row L-R William Hearle, Fred Gunn, Bert Gunn, Charlie Old, Evelyn Gunn, Samuel John Old
Source: Private Collection
Coombe was then dominated by two families, the Gunns and the Olds. In the posed photograph above, as well as William Hearle and Fred James, his labourer, there are seven members of the Gunn family and four of the Old family. Hugh Gunn and Cyril Old refused to appear in the photograph.
The building of the road was a cooperative effort. Lord Falmouth gave the land and a donation of £100. The men of Coombe had raised donations of £130 and a complicated arrangement was made where the men gave their time for the first fortnight and thereafter were paid 5s 6d per day by Truro Rural District Council, but the Council could not afford to pay all the men so the thirteen Coombe men were divided into two groups who would each work for three days in rotation. The group not working on the road was employed weeding out the coppice at Nansavallon wood (in Kea parish but close to the A39 on the outskirts of Truro) at a mere 3s 6d per day. Truro Rural District Council also agreed that it would provide the final surface for the road.
It is unclear exactly when work started but the first payment for ‘Team labour to J Dunstan for Coombe Kea road for £6. 6s’ was made on 16th April 1924. In May a payment of £65.19s to Harvey and Co Ltd for materials was authorised. Other payments for ‘Team Labour’ were frequently made with a more substantial payment of £37 10s being minuted on 9th July.
Souce: Private Collection
One of the dumps of spoil can be seen immediately behind the horseman. Standing sideways to the right is Fred Gunn, known locally as ‘Big Fred’. Immediately behind the cart is Joe Old. In this photo and the one above both Olds wear bowler hats, yet all the other men wear the more traditional flat caps.
The farmer at Higher Trelease, whose fields the road ran through, seems not to have been very cooperative and refused to lend a horse and cart. Thankfully William Hearle also provided practical help in that he loaned a plough team and a horse and cart. Perhaps it was a result of the Trelease farmer’s lack of cooperation for the spoil from the construction was not spread evenly across his land but dumped in two large heaps, one in each field, and there it remained until the 1970s.
The building did not go entirely smoothly. The ballast for the road was brought by barge, hired from Harveys of Truro, from the smelting works at Penpol, and the barge was towed by a motorboat owned by John Old. The barge held 40 tons but on the way to Coombe a wind got up, Carrick Roads became choppy and off Loe Beach the barge almost foundered and was only saved by the men throwing overboard a quantity of the ballast. The ballast was then carried up the hill out of Coombe and spread along the course of the road, but before it could be rolled a thunderstorm brought torrential rain and the majority of the ballast was washed down the hill into the creek. Another barge load had then to be brought up from Penpol. In the Rural District Council minutes for 6th August 1924 there is a reference to a localised rainstorm on 21 July that had done considerable damage to roads in Kea and Feock. At the same meeting it was agreed to pay Joseph Old (the father of John Old) £30.10s for materials, as well as a payment to L Burley for Team Labour £2.15.0
Source: Private Collection
In the photo above the course of the road has been ploughed and is being inspected by William Hearle. In the background can be seen two thatched cottages on the left, Moor Close and the Bunny Thatch, both of which were demolished in the late 1920s and early 1930s. On the right is a shed sited between the present row of garages and the Reading Room – the end of which can just be seen. Yet to be built are the Canning Shed, the Council Houses, now called River View, and The Glen, now called Creek View. The large pine tree was adjacent to Sunnyside.
In July 1924 Edgar Hugh Gunn, who lived at Lyndale in Coombe, was taken seriously ill with peritonitis. The road must have been just passable as an ambulance reached Coombe to take him to hospital, but sadly he died aged 54.
By the late summer much progress must have been made for on 3rd September payment was authorised of £14 for ‘Tar Spraying on Coombe road’, as well as a further payment of £3 15s to Joseph Old for materials.
From October through to March the men of Coombe would have been busy with oyster dredging but some work clearly continued as on 24th December a payment of £18 was authorised to J Dunstan, though it is not specified if this was for labour or materials.
At the meeting of the Rural District Council on 16th April the surveyor reported that he hoped to complete the new road to Coombe, Kea in the course of another fortnight and he understood that Viscount Falmouth had consented to open the road at an early date. On 17th June the surveyor reported that the new road at Coombe Kea had been completed and recommended that application be made to Viscount Falmouth and the local guarantors for their contributions towards the cost. On that date the final payment was authorised ‘Paid to J Old for Coombe road £30.5.0. for materials’.
In August the surveyor reported that the cost of making new road at Coombe Kea amounted to £817.12.8. towards which Mr Hearle had paid to the council a contribution amounting to £87.12.6, also that free labour to the value of £49 and free carting £18 had been given (the free carting was provided by William Hearle and it is likely the free labour refers to his horseman Fred James.
It is not recorded if Lord Falmouth did agree to open the road, or when it was officially open though it was certainly open to traffic by August 1925.
The men of Coombe also installed a fine run of iron railings and three gates. The gates were necessary as the main section of road was unfenced, so the gates were needed to stop livestock straying. One gate, a metal one, was at the then entrance to the village by the Reading Room, A second, also metal, was midway along the road. The final gate was wooden and painted white. The gates were always unpopular as drivers had to open and close each one. In the fruit season, particularly September, when the road was busy children from the village would earn a few pennies by going up to the white gate and opening it for passing traffic. In the mid-1960s the top one was replaced with a cattle grid and a second cattle grid built at the entrance to the village, and the lower gate which had stood by the Reading Room was removed. One iron gate survives and is now used as the entrance gate to the cottage of Roseville in the village (see below). Sections of the iron railings remain but are very overgrown.
Source: Private Collection
On the right is the Canning Shed, built in 1931 by a cooperative of local plum growers on land leased from Lord Falmouth. On the left is the end of the row of council houses built by Truro Rural District Council, probably completed in 1931 or1932 as the council advertised for tenders to build the houses in 1931. It seems as if one of the two thatched cottages, Moor Close, had been demolished. The shed by the Reading Room still existed.
Source : Royal Institution of Cornwall KEAgv011
The Reading Room was built on a substantial stone platform in an attempt to keep it above the high-water mark – though it did occasionally flood. The wooden cladding can be seen.
Source: Private Collection
In this photo taken in the 1930s the stone platform on which the Reading Room was built has been almost entirely hidden by the foundations of the new road.
Part of the gateway structure, has been retained at the end of Bunny Thatch cottage.
The road heralded physical changes to Coombe. As mentioned above a row of council houses was built in 1931 or 1932 and a detached house, The Glen (now known as Creek View) was built to the rear of the Canning Shed in 1935. In 1939 William Gunn and Co, then the largest oyster merchant on the Fal, built a purification and packing plant in an orchard opposite Beach Cottage. William Gunn and Co bought oysters from the local dredgermen and employed many of their wives grading and packing the oysters. Every afternoon from August to April a lorry came into the village to collect the boxes of oysters and to take them to the railway station in Truro destined for London and many other destinations.
Coombe also gained a twice weekly bus service with four buses on Wednesdays and six on Saturday, including a very late one on Saturdays so people could go to the cinema. The frequency declined in the 1960s and eventually stopped in the late 1990s. A County Library van visited every fortnight probably until 2000.
Western National Buses 1980s or 1990s Source: Private Collection
Cornwall Council Travelling Library c.1958
Source: Private Collection
Left to Right: Mrs Barbara Baker, ?, ?, Mrs Ruby Gunn. Mrs Kelly, Mrs Shute with her daughter Petula. The dog, Rip, belonged to Mrs Maggie Gunn.
Various tradesmen also visited Coombe. A lorry from Webbers visited with paraffin, lamp oil and candles. They also sold cleaning materials and general household goods. Before electricity arrived just after the end of the Second World War the van came once a week. It stopped in the late 1950s. The ‘accumulator’ van from Solomons, a radio shop in Calenick street also visited. The radios of the day, complete with headphones so only one person could listen at a time, required an accumulator or battery for power. Each household had two, one would always be with Solomons for charging and they would be swapped each week. Sunnyside was one of the first houses to have a radio. Most villagers kept eggs, so an important weekly visitor was Mr Collins the egg man who came to collect the eggs. He walked round with a yoke over his shoulders and two large baskets suspended from it, but though the baskets would be piled high the eggs never seemed to get broken. Jack Lampier came each week with groceries. Lampiers was a shop in Boscawen street with a small restaurant above. He would deliver groceries and bread to each house. The ash cart also came once a week.
Cars parked by Reading Room and on foreshore 1967
Source: Charles Woolf Copyright University of Exeter
Clues can still be seen about the building of the road. The photo below shows Betty Gunn and was taken by her future husband Jim Green in 1950 (Courtesy of J Green and Anne Courts) . The gate shown was the first one encountered when driving to Coombe. On the right can be seen the metal railings which were erected when the road was built. In the 1960s the gate was replaced with a cattle grid which was much more convenient for drivers.
The railings have become very overgrown but glimpses of them can still be seen as shown in the above photo. Source: Author
The road passed through a hedge dividing two of the Higher Trelease fields and a metal gate was placed there. Thus, there were three gates – the one shown above, the one at the entrance to Coombe and the one midway along the road – which had to be opened and closed each time a vehicle passed along the road. This was extremely annoying, and Randolph Gunn told the author that as a young man he would get a free bus trip into Truro in return for opening and closing the three gates. The middle gate soon fell into disuse, and it lay in the hedgerow for many years. Shortly after 2000 Graham Brown, who lived in Roseville in Coombe, asked if he could rescue it and he reused it as his entrance gate for many years.
Re-used road gate at Roseville 2021
Source: Author
Due to the danger of the path to Roseville collapsing into the creek the course of the path was changed in 2022, and the gate was removed. Its present location is not known.
The first gate met on the way to Coombe, the white gate in the photo on the previous page, was replaced in 1959 by a cattle grid. In the mid-1960s a cattle grid was built at the entrance to Coombe and then the gate close to the Reading Room was removed.
Lower gateway and cottage (Courtesy of J Green and Anne Courts)
This faded newspaper photo shows the location of the gate. The house on the right was the Bunny Thatch, demolished in the 1930s. The gate itself was on the left, but the closing post and rails are on the right – and survived into more recent times. The men are carrying ‘chip baskets’ used to carry plums. They are very likely to have been walking from the Canning Shed, built for the canning of Kea plums and opened in 1931.
When the road was built it ran down past the Reading Room to the high water marks, as was recorded in the minutes of Truro Rural District Council held in the Town Hall of Truro on 9th December 1914 ‘The Surveyor reported to the Committee and he had met Lord Falmouth’s agent, Mr Gow, with reference to the proposed new road to the village of Coombe. Mr Gow took the committee over different routes and it was decided that the Surveyor be asked to prepare an estimate for making a new road commencing at the junction with the Porth Kea – Tolverne road near Trevean Cottage and terminating at high water mark near the Institute’.
This aerial photo shows the Mean High-Water level.
Source: Tregothnan Estate
The Local Government Act of 1929 passed responsibility for highways from district councils to county councils, and in each area a ‘Handover Map’ was drawn up which showed all highways that ‘were maintained at the public expense’ at that time and thus were given the status of public highways.
‘Handover Map’ 1929 Cornwall Council
This map shows the public highway going as far as the river past Halwyn, a reminder of the importance of this road as a ferry path. The ‘path’ down to the river retains the status of a public highway maintainable at public expense. The route of the path to Coombe is clearly marked, running from the Lower Lanner – Halwyn road and ending in Coombe at Mean High Water.
Evidence of how the road was built.
Source: Author
The photo above shows clearly the various elements which made up the road. At the front, and following the line of Mean High-Water level, are the large lumps of granite which formed the foundation of the road. Scattered on the left are blue stones which would have formed the ballast. Towards the centre, and in front of the Reading Room, is the area of tarmac laid down by Cornwall Council. Both the author and David Gunn, whose family have always lived in Coombe Cottage (the white cottage shown on the left of the aerial photo] can remember as boys the steam roller being used by Cornwall Council to level new tarmac in the 1960s. Sadly this area has not been maintained by Cornwall Council for many years.
The author’s generation still refers to the road as “the new road”.
Nigel Baker
July 2025