@Halfhidden Yes, I'd be very interested in this - I lived in the area for a long time until recently, it's always fascinated me, probably because there is so little left of what was once there.
@Harvey69 It was. The gardens you refer to were the winter gardens I believe. Wherrytown is a fascinating area with little written of it, yet full of history.
I'll make a forum and move all the threads to that. What we'll need to do then is set up threads (discussions) by date and area. That way we can control the information and cross reference it
Cheers, HH... we could get a proper timeline established.
Re: the Serpentine Factory... Duh. It became the Drill Hall / Corn Store!
"This Company, after a few years of single existence, was amalgamated with another and a larger concern, and was then called the London and Penzance Serpentine Company. The Company (1851) was the first to introduce the serpentines of the Lizard into the metropolis, and would, doubtless, have been in a flourishing condition at the present day had they been less ambitious at the outset. A commodious and costly building (now used by Messrs. Branwell as a grain store and an artillery drill room) was erected in the Wherry Town and furnished with abundance of machinery etc., and at one time over 40 men were engaged in the premises. Every description of work was undertaken at these works and large orders were received from London, the continent, and all parts of the civilised world. A few years subsequently this company was wound up and another one took over the business. After many and varied vicissitudes, the whole venture, after an existence of ten or twelve years, expired in this last Company, and the scheme of working up serpentine on this scale was finally abandoned."
I don't know when it was demolished - it must have still stood in 1896, as it served as 'temporary barracks' for 200 men of the Royal Berkshire Regiment when they were called in to deal with the 'Newlyn Riots'.
Edit to add: Nov. 9th 1912: The Serpantine Works (since demolished and renamed Bedford Bolitho Gardens) at Wherrytown presented to the Town by Mr. T.B. Bolitho.
That would be the Brixham Sunday trading riots... I read a bit from a G.W.R. board meeting about this Drill hall... Time to do some research.
I think we will all be pleasantly surprised at the findings of Wherrytown.
@Hedge Slammer that's the guy! He and his wife were born in Derbyshire and some of the older children born in that area as well he came down here as the manager of the serpentine works and stayed other children were born here and some died and are in the town cemetery as are William and his wife
Would be great to get a proper time line going on this area as getting a bit confused as to what was there and when, over the last 150 years this area has been a busy place and not much is known or said about it.
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