This is the fourth and fifth of the ‘Probus Memories’ articles taken from a small handbook produced by the Probus Old Cornwall Society in 1982.
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Mrs Gertrude Chapman
I’m as Cornish as you make ‘em! I was born at the bakery in Probus and as soon as Irene and I were old enough, we helped with the business. We only had horses and wagons to deliver in Philleigh, Veryan and Ruan, Grampound Road and Coombe and as far as New Mills, Ladock, Merther, St. Erme and St. Michael Penkevil! A hand cart served the village, but later on we had a bright yellow Ford van - a real ‘tin lizzie’. Primes were noted for bread, cakes, real saffron as well as sweet cakes and tea treat buns. We made wedding cakes and besides all this, cooked Sunday dinners at a penny a time, but Christmas turkeys cost 6d to cook. Our customers included Trewithen Estate and Lord Falmouth as well as Probus School and we also made 6 lb loaves for Truro Workhouse. Baking started at four in the morning and the big cake oven baked 300 loaves at one time. The price was 2¼d. or 4¼d. - quite a difference now! We made pasties too and during the war six extra ladies were needed to make four thousand pasties every week! Then there were dances and Sunday school treats. Dad carried on till he was 70 and when the bakery finally closed, it was a great loss to all the district.
Miss Cleave
Yes, I was 93 last April! I dearly love going out with the Sunshine Club. We went to Penzance last week and I found a lot of changes from when I was a girl. A lot of changes in Probus there are too. I came to Probus, now let me think, when I was nine years old and we lived at Carvean until we retired. I’ve been here 26 years now and I love my garden, my greenhouse is full of geraniums - some of them have been kept going for fifty years! I remember going to the Chapel school with Mr. Savage as Headmaster but there was a little private school too. That was Laburnum Villa, kept by the Misses Pascoe. I went there to learn music, but I didn’t like it - I just hated practice as I’d sooner go out and play marbles with my brothers! Children used to come to the schools here from Tresillian, Grampound Road and Grampound. It was a good mile and a half just from Carvean. And Probus Feast started with church on the Sunday, Feast Sports down to Probus School on Monday and something on all week. The old days were happy. It used to be like a family, living in Probus.
Notes: 1. Primes shop was where Trudgian Farm Shop is now, and Primes Bakehouse was in Chapel St opposite the old Methodist Chapel (now Junk and Disorderly). See the ‘The Book of Probus’ (by Alan Kent and Danny Merrifield), pages 118, 119 and 139 for photos of Primes shop and bakery and of Mrs Gertrude Chapman’s father Albert Treleaven Prime. A copy of this can be found in the Hawkins Arms. 2. Carvean Farm, where Miss Cleave lived is just north of the B3275 Ladock Road, near Truck.
Miss Bette
Following last month’s memories from Miss Bette, wartime stationmistress at Probus and Ladock Halt, we were contacted by Mrs Ida Mount-Stephens who lived in Truck as a child and has clear and fond memories of Mrs Bette.
Ida also remembers circus elephants bathing in the Tresillian river opposite where she lived in Truck. We’ve heard about circus elephants bathing in Millpool in Truro but never before in Truck.
It is thought they may have got off the train at Probus to be walked to Truro via Tresillian as a way of ensuring everyone in the area knew that ‘the circus is in town’. We have also been told that at one time a circus would visit Probus and set up the big top adjacent to St Austell Road.
Old Truck from an undated photograph
If this triggers memories from any of our older readers, please do get in touch. Hopefully more on this next month.
