Monday 22 April

 

Monday 22 April

Fowey has a special significance for me.  My mother’s family came from Fowey.  We go to the museum to see what we can find out about the Brokenshaws – my mother’s maiden name was Brokenshaw.  There is a very helpful volunteer curator in the museum.  The Brokenshaws were ship builders.  There is a model of one of their ships on display – The Ann Beer. 

                                                        The 'Ann Beer'

My grandfather’s name was George Beer Brokenshaw.  The curator unearths the will of William Brokenshaw my great (great?) grandfather.  Ann was his wife.  My grandfather – whom I never met – married Norah Grigg, my grandmother whom I knew well. Her family came from St Austell.  I decide to pop over and look at the St Austell museum.  This proved to be a waste of time.  There is nothing there – and a clueless person in charge.  I notice that St Austell has a fine modern library.  Somewhere to try on another occasion.

Later, we walked to Readymoney cove where I had a nostalgic ice cream remembering a family holiday here as a teenager. 

We walked past 80 The Esplanade where we stayed with an elderly aunt – and St Catherine’s, the grand  Brokenshaw residence – now flats. My mother always said she should have inherited number 80 if her mother had not left my grandfather.  It’s a substantial terraced house with gardens across the road overlooking the river. Aunt Carrie was a naval widow and the garden was known as The Quarterdeck.

                                                                 80 The Esplanade

We do some light shopping and cook omelettes in our flat.  We watch ‘Magpie Murders’. We have both seen the series before, but it makes for a relaxing evening.