Early History of Tehidy Holiday Park in Cornwall

After purchasing Tehidy Holiday Park in Cornwall in 2007 we quickly discovered there was a lot of interesting history attached to the site.

Little Tehidy Cottage

The house (Little Tehidy Cottage) dates back to approx 1650. The name seems to have remained the same and we assume it was connected to the Tehidy Estate in some way. The site obviously gets its name from the cottage. The Cottage has a mixed history having been used for accommodation and ‘stream milling’. Stream Milling is the old term used for sifting through the sand and grit in the stream and finding the tin ore hidden amongst it. The stream originates in a mine at the top of the Tolskithy Valley and an old mining technique commonly used was to tip the mined stone into the stream and allow the stream to wash it down to the milling area to be sorted and sifted. The milling area proper for the mine is further up the valley and can be seen on our ‘Valley Walk’. The milling at the cottage was probably ‘unofficialy’ carried out. The owner grinding the ore to a dust and selling it for a bit extra beer money. Some old ore grinding stones were found under the kitchen floor and are now exibited in the Truro Museum.

The Reception/ Shop

At some stage in the past, probably around the late 1600’s the mines in the upper valley were partly accessed by the now path/ bridle way past reception. The Reception building has been found on a map dating to the 1700’s. It is, like the cottage, old cob built walls, over 1m thick in places. The building marked on the map is shown to be a blacksmiths forge, this is probably linked to the horses used for moving the tin ore to Portreath for shipping.

The Site

Traditionally the site was used as a small holding. Old maps show call it ‘Little Tehidy Farm’.

A rich and varied history but sorry no meerkats.