history - Camelot Hotel, Bude, North Cornwall

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May 19, 2010

Anthony Payne, the Famous Cornish Giant

HIS EARLY LIFE
Anthony Payne was perhaps the greatest celebrity in the history of Stratton, the older sister town of Bude. He was born in the manor house on Sir Beville Grenville's estate, now known as The Tree Inn.
As a young man he was taken into the establishment at Stowe, the historic abode of Sir Beville Grenville. There the sons of the Cornish gentry were brought up together with Sir Beville's own children. He excelled in academic subjects and showed great strength and skill in games. Unlike many large men his mental and intellectual faculties increased with his amazing growth. By the time he was 21 he was seven feet two inches tall in his stockinged feet, and later added a further two inches in height.

THE ROYALISTS AND THE ROUNDHEADS
For many years Payne was Sir Beville's chief retainer at Stowe. He was the leader and the authority on every masculine sport, disembowelling and skinning the hunted deer, and teaching the boys to shoot, fish and to handle arms.

But then everything was to change. The King and his Parliament became involved in mortal conflict. Throughout the hills and valleys of Cornwall was heard the rallying cry, 'Grenville's up!', and all turned towards old Stowe. Retainers were enrolled day and night. Marshalling all this activity was the bodyguard of his master, the huge figure of Anthony Payne. He handed out arms and rations and established order with the mixed multitude that gathered to fight for King and land.

Then the news arrived that the battalions of the Parliament, led by Lord Stamford were on their way. The motley army set forth from Stowe. The next day, four and a half miles towards the South the battle of Stamford Hill was fought and won by the royalist forces. The Earl of Stamford's army was repulsed and fled. Anthony Payne who had been in the thick of the fighting stayed behind to help bury the dead.

The same year the battle of Lansdown, near Bath, was fought and Sir Beville was mortally wounded. Payne saved the day by taking the horse bearing Beville's young son, John, to the head of his father's army. There was no more giving way after this sight and the Cornish routed the Parliament Horse and won the battle.

LATER LIFE
By the time of the Restoration John Grenville, who had been instrumental in the return of the King, had received from Charles II money, the Earldom of Bath, and other positions including Governor of the Garrison at Plymouth. Grenville appointed Payne as Halberdier of the Guns.

He left Plymouth to retire to Stratton and his old home, now the Tree Inn to comfort himself with his flagon holding his 'daily allowance' of a gallon of wine. When he died in 1681 his coffin was too large to be taken out of the window or down the stairs and they had to cut a hole in the ceiling to lower it to the ground!

Posted by: tim

Tagged in: stratton , payne , history , bude

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Feb 12, 2010

Parson Hawker, a Great Cornish Eccentric

How Hawkers Restaurant was named

In 1999 when the Naylor family purchased The Camelot Hotel they decided to carry out a complete refurbishment including the creation of a new restaurant. A competition was held amongst the Bude craftsmen working on the job as to what the restaurant should be called. The winner was our plumber, Terry Bale, who is a Cornish patriot with a great knowledge of Cornish history who was born in a house at the end of the hotel car park.

His recommendation was the restaurant should be named after Parson Robert Hawker Reverend Hawker

Hawker was born in Plymouth in 1803 and as an undergraduate at Pembroke College, Oxford, aged 19 he married his godmother, Charlotte, aged 41. She had money of her own and the marriage, along with a legacy, helped to finance his studies at university. He graduated in 1827 and won the prestigious Newdigate Prize for poetry. He took Anglican orders in 1831, and became in 1834 vicar of the church at Morwenstow, a scattered and isolated community some 5 miles from Bude. There he remained as Parson Hawker until he died in 1875.

The early years in Morwenstow

When Hawker arrived at Morwenstow there had not been a vicar in residence for over a century and he found his isolated church half in ruins and the vicarage used for contraband storage. Using his wife’s money he repaired the church. He also built himself a remarkable vicarage, with chimneys modelled on the towers of the churches in his life: those where he had been curate, plus that of Magdalen College, Oxford. The vicarage’s kitchen chimney is a replica of Hawker’s mother’s tomb. The tiny hut he built out of driftwood, where he wrote his poetry, still stands on the cliff edge and is now renowned as the National Trust’s smallest property.

The compassionate Parson Hawker

Along the Bude west facing coast line, fierce winter gales drove many a sailing ship onto the rocks below the church. Prior to Hawker’s arrival the bodies and remains of shipwrecked sailors were buried on the beach where they were found or left to the sea. Hawker, however, insisted that his parishioners help him carry the remains of drowned sailors up the steep cliffs and to bury them in designated ground at the entrance to the churchyard. It was a job that only the strong of nerve and stomach could handle. There still stands the figurehead of the ship ‘The Caledonia’ which foundered in September 1842. Nearby stands a granite cross marking the grave of 30 or more seafarers of the ‘Alonzo’, also wrecked in 1842.

The eccentric Parson Hawker

There are many stories of Hawker’s eccentricities and it is difficult to judge which are true and which are false. He is famed as being dressed in a claret coloured coat, blue fisherman’s jersey, long sea boots, a pink brim less hat and a poncho made from a yellow horse blanket, which he claimed was the ancient habit of St Padarn. The only black things he wore were his socks! Other eccentricities included dressing up as a mermaid and excommunicating one of his cats for mousing on Sundays. He talked to the birds, invited his nine cats into church and kept a huge pig as a pet.

Hawkers Restaurant

For more than forty years Parson Hawker admonished and ministered to his flock and waged war against the establishment and the social injustices of the day. The stories about him abound and today he is revered as a great and colourful Cornish personality. Who better to give his name to our restaurant?