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A Tribute to Trewince

by Don R. Hender


 Trewince Gerrans: 
What was Trewince or has it ever been? My Great Grandmother's entry of birth states that she was born there. So it must have once been. And the evidences of it remains today but certainly not as my Great Grandmother might remember it as having been. Some places in England seem to have always been and that they will never change. Other places that were are as they have never been. Trewince of Gerrans of Roseland appears as one of those places caught up in between. Certainly it must have once been for my Great Grandmother was born there. But she was the daughter of a poor farmer and not of the manor's Lord. Today Trewince is only spoken of in such terms as a Holiday Visitor Lodge, as Trewince Manor, one of many Luxury 2 and 3 bedroomed Roseland Holiday Cottages set in a gated Hamlet, and even such as Tourist Camping Parks. There are locations with 'prestigeous' housing developments with homes costing $$$. But where is little Trewince where my Great Grandmother was born in 1857?

Trewince itself is not even found on many maps of today except as listed under these many commercialized Holiday and Luxury accomodations units. Certainly the farmers way back when they would work their farming closes (marked off fields), and could feel the sea breezes on their skin and smell the salt air and even frequently take in a scenic ocean view; they could gain a since of invigoration and relief that they were not working down in the cold, poluted mines of the Cornwall mine workers. But poor is poor and a farm labourer's work is just as hard as another's. William Chapman/Chipman, Grace's father was born in Veryan, and his baptism was at Cuby with Tregony as William Chapman, not they may have even known how the clerk or clergy of the event was spelling their name. And William's father, William again, had his baptism at Lanlivery, son of George and Charity Chapman. And there William's father William was also married to William's mother Elizabeth Moon as Chapman again. All these names of the past gone and nearly forgotten and lost in places which for a great part no more are.

I wonder what their feelings are concerning perhaps their children's, children's, children or another's as they watch and see them busily about to enjoy a hire of a caravan or a stay at such as Liskey Hill Holiday Park, Looe Bay Holiday Park, Whitsand Bay Fort Holiday Park or even for a stay at a deluxe Corish Cottage or Holiday Lodge? I don't know that Grandma Grace would even recognize the place of her birth? Perhaps she could say that there is still Trewince Manor but what had she to do with that if anything? Perhaps she'd point out someone's old stone cottage which has been added onto and renovated as a deluxe habitation for some visiting guest. She might someone's tent is camped out in one of the closes she use to work as a farm girl, their inhabitants enjoying the sea breeze, the salt air smell and a scenic ocean view as she did, but without the farm labour to accompany it? I wonder if she could even still today point out where her place was or would it be too changed to locate?

Some things seem to be forever, the ocean's there, the peninsula too. Some things as to feel so much at home, yet others there do say you now are a foreigner here. Trewince, where have you gone? Old maps searched but pretty much only on google to be found as a commercial listings for Trewince. Was it a hamlet, village, or even a one road community as Venterdon, which may still be found? A name on an entry of birth no longer recognized or preferred on a Family Search entry? Modernized out of existence in one way and preserved as only the moderization of commercialization can so preserve it on the other?