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Memories of childhood at a Cornish watermill Memories of childhood at a Cornish watermill
(5 months later)
From the door of the dim church tower, with its window portraying Saint Dominica and her brother Saint Indract, we emerge into the glare of spring sunshine to follow the coffin of our mother who has died, aged 101 years. Overhead, the rooks caw and perch in pairs near refurbished nests; bright celandine and pale primrose gleam around the old slate headstones, and ramsons colonise shade beneath the beech. Towards her burial plot we pass graves of ancestors who were farmers, millers, brewers and market gardeners in this rural parish.From the door of the dim church tower, with its window portraying Saint Dominica and her brother Saint Indract, we emerge into the glare of spring sunshine to follow the coffin of our mother who has died, aged 101 years. Overhead, the rooks caw and perch in pairs near refurbished nests; bright celandine and pale primrose gleam around the old slate headstones, and ramsons colonise shade beneath the beech. Towards her burial plot we pass graves of ancestors who were farmers, millers, brewers and market gardeners in this rural parish.
Marie Lorraine Martin (nee Langsford) was born in 1914 at Cotehele Mill, where her father and his predecessors were millers on the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe’s estate, now owned by the National Trust. In middle age, she painted her memories of childhood, and reproductions of the pictures are displayed at the mill, now a museum.Marie Lorraine Martin (nee Langsford) was born in 1914 at Cotehele Mill, where her father and his predecessors were millers on the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe’s estate, now owned by the National Trust. In middle age, she painted her memories of childhood, and reproductions of the pictures are displayed at the mill, now a museum.
The paintings depict the seasons centred on her birthplace, where the rush of water was channelled to drive the wheel, grindstones and pulleys; millstones were pecked and dressed; and the saw-bench worked in the gloom and icy cold of winter.The paintings depict the seasons centred on her birthplace, where the rush of water was channelled to drive the wheel, grindstones and pulleys; millstones were pecked and dressed; and the saw-bench worked in the gloom and icy cold of winter.
Related: Country diary: Cotehele, Tamar Valley: A walk by the river triggers memories of a bygone age
Her uncle is shown carrying a pair of salmon to be packed in ferns and rushes for dispatch to London, and her father is being rowed across the river to walk uphill and catch the train at Bere Alston, en route to Plymouth corn market to buy foreign grain to be brought upriver in the barge Myrtle, then winched ashore and loaded on the horse-drawn cart for transfer to the mill. White ducks dabble and feed off strewn corn, cats keep the rats at bay and, in adjoining orchards, long ladders are pushed up into the cherry trees for a bountiful harvest. A heron flies above and a moorhen scuttles from its nest; blue butterflies, flag iris, kingfishers and dragonflies mark the start of summer.Her uncle is shown carrying a pair of salmon to be packed in ferns and rushes for dispatch to London, and her father is being rowed across the river to walk uphill and catch the train at Bere Alston, en route to Plymouth corn market to buy foreign grain to be brought upriver in the barge Myrtle, then winched ashore and loaded on the horse-drawn cart for transfer to the mill. White ducks dabble and feed off strewn corn, cats keep the rats at bay and, in adjoining orchards, long ladders are pushed up into the cherry trees for a bountiful harvest. A heron flies above and a moorhen scuttles from its nest; blue butterflies, flag iris, kingfishers and dragonflies mark the start of summer.
Marie, her brother and two sisters are free to play – to float dolls, walk on stilts through the stream, push favourite cats about in the doll’s pram and wheelbarrow, build fires and pick bunches of lady’s smock, all within earshot of the bustle of work, the rumble and clack of milling machinery.Marie, her brother and two sisters are free to play – to float dolls, walk on stilts through the stream, push favourite cats about in the doll’s pram and wheelbarrow, build fires and pick bunches of lady’s smock, all within earshot of the bustle of work, the rumble and clack of milling machinery.
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