So here goes with a slightly different blog, and with acknowledgements to John Marquis for the title, having got me to launch a column under this name when he was editor of the Falmouth Packet back in 1986. No promises, but I’ll do my best to make it a weekly thing – so do check in!
FLUSHED WITH SUCCESS? DEFINITELY NOT!
When the time comes to replace the hand-wash facilities in Falmouth’s public conveniences (and elsewhere in Cornwall for all I know), dare we hope they will be a big improvement on the present lot?
They’ve been there for fully six or seven years now, maybe longer, and they don’t get any better.
They’ve always been the same, right from the start. You get your soap foam okay, but then the water runs for ages . . . only for the drying bit to finish almost instantly (no exaggeration) if you don’t keep your hands almost touching the hot air outlet and pretty much stationary.
Even if you manage that feat, and no matter how long you keep your hands there, the drier simply doesn’t do the job properly anyway and either you’re left with wet hands or you head for the toilet rolls.
You could say these driers are a right shower. And definitely all very INconvenient!!
YOU KNOW YOU’RE GETTING OLDER WHEN . . .
. . . a pal from your childhood days tells you his SON is a police chief superintendent contemplating retirement!
MAKING A BIG SPLASH – AGAIN AND AGAIN
There’s an old song by Gloria Gaynor titled “Never Can Say Goodbye.” The Falmouth Packet this week couldn’t STOP saying it!
That was all thanks to the departing Falmouth lifeboat, which had the grandest of send-offs afloat and ashore.
For the latter, that was not least down to the Packet, which certainly could not be accused of inadequate coverage of the big event.
First, it was the front page picture splash. Then it dominated pages 2 and 3, along with ten photos.
The page 2 piece began with “it was an emotional day for many as crowds gathered to say a final farewell to . . . “
Then, not to be outdone, David Barnicoat had his say on his In Port page, kicking off with: “Hundreds of people around the harbour witnessed the departure of . . . “
Oh, and complete with five more pics!
All thoroughly deserved, of course, in view of the 23 years’ sterling Falmouth service clocked up by the Richard Cox Scott.
And I’ll tell you one thing: AI and robots may be trying to take over the world, but I don’t see them replacing our wonderful human lifeboat crews any time soon, do you?
THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Has Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou EVER been spotted smiling?
PENMERE PLAN STEAMS AHEAD
Plans for Falmouth’s Penmere Halt Centenary Celebration Day later this year are shaping up nicely.
The big date has been confirmed as Saturday, July 26, with the station’s car park taken over for this purpose from 10am to 5pm.
Confirmed attractions include two steam traction engines, Helston Railway sales and information tent, Skinners Brewery beer stall, Mission To Seafarers and Falmouth Model Railway Club, who will display their model of Penmere Platform as it was in the 1950s.
The day will also feature the Friends of Penmere's history, with Station and group display.
As bonus, it is hoped to have the unveiling of a plaque supplied by GWR commemorating the actual date of opening, on July 1, 1925.
Visitors will be welcome to bring along their own memories – and old photographs – for sharing on the day.
GRAND REBIRTH – AGAIN – OF A GRAND HOTEL
Great to see the ongoing dramatic resurrection of the Falmouth Hotel (although I’m not sure its current residents will appreciate the builders’ noise at dawn!).
For too many years, this grand old lady of the seafront left so much to be desired, and it was assuredly not earning high marks among the locals at least.
But now – from my own morning coffee and lunch experience and first-hand reports from overnighters – the Falmouth is once more ticking every conceivable good-news box and is resoundingly BACK!
All of which marks another big, big milestone in its history, which, by my arithmetic, dates back 160 years now.
And it’s even more noteworthy when you consider that its Mark 1 version lasted all of 16 years . . .
Cue one more from my archive* . . .
. . . It was the town’s very first hotel and was the first building to materialise on the previously unspoilt and undeveloped seafront.
Its creamy, elegant form is an imposing reminder of the heyday of the Victorian train-to-seaside holiday.
As the railway line extended westward and the balmy delights of the Cornish Riviera became better known, the hotel ran a fleet of stage coaches (and later buses) to ferry its guests to and from the nearby station.
What was upstairs-downstairs back home became inside-outside on holiday as lords and ladies took their places in hotel suites while their butlers, servants and maids set up in a separate building within the hotel’s five acres.
Following its grand inaugural dinner for 70 distinguished guests in 1865, the prospects for Falmouth’s only purpose-built hotel looked rosy indeed.
Trading difficulties increased, however, the more so after the Public Health Act in 1875 codified the sanitary laws with the introduction of rigorous rules and regulations.
The construction of Truro Cathedral in 1878 brought more visitors to the area and for a while it looked as if the company’s problems might have been overcome.
But debts incurred during the initial building of the hotel proved too much and towards the end of 1881 an official winding-up notice was served. The original hotel company was liquidated.
Happily, the company was re-registered under the same name in the following year, with a capital of £20,000 in £5 shares, and business notably improved.
Among the many significant developments since then, the area between the hotel and the sea below was opened up in 1908 for public use.
Until then, the Marine Walk, as it was known, had taken a detour around the rear of the hotel from the seafront. The opening-up ceremony is recorded as “something of a grand occasion.”
During the Second World War, the Falmouth’s corridors bustled with top brass of the British and American services, particularly the navies.
Its creamy white exterior was painted an austere grey to camouflage the building from enemy bombers.
All its windows were shattered one night when a bomb hit the cliffs, but the hotel escaped major damage throughout the six-year conflict.
And today it is still surviving – albeit as something of a threatened species.
With the Falmouth having shown the way, the seafront gradually developed into an almost unbroken row of hotels, but now it is one of just four left there.
* See blog post 31 December 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment