The title of this blog, Praze-an-Beeble, is the name of a the village which I drove through to get to Godolphin House, a superb grade 1 listed granite built building dating from Tudor and Stuart times where once lived the Godolphin family until the 18th century. It is now owned by the National Trust but currently closed for some urgently needed restoration work. The collonade has some structural problems which the architects, conservation specialists "Architecton", aked me to look at.
Anyway, back to Praze-an-Beeble, which I hazarded a guess at the origin of this peculiar sounding appellation. I enquired of the National Trust buildings man, Malcolm who is a local person and extremely amiable, and confirmed my guess. The inhabitants of the eponomous village were strong Methodists and the adjoining villages referred to them as "all praise and bible people" hence the Cornish vernacular corruption into praze-an-beeble!
The other property which I visited was a fairly remote farm over the moor from the famous Daphne Du Maurier Jamaica Inn. It was a medieval hall house which was greatly changed over the centuries but retains its original "crossing" twixt animal house and human house. There are a number of ancient original features around the building too including granite gate posts, animal water troughs and steps.
The property can only be accessed by a track, which crosses a stream, and is totally unsuitable for any vehicle apart from a 4WD, so on this occasion I excuse the owners for possessing one!!! It is truly a beautiful collection of buildings encompassing a lot of history and set in a wonderful location. Once again I am lucky to see and work on such places.
