Collection Image Courtesy of Colyn Thomas
Edg-002
In Victorian and Edwardian times Mt Edgcumbe was in its heyday supported by large estates. Beautifully situated it was visited by Royalty and the celebrities of the day and held in veneration by lesser mortals. The Edgcumbe family supported local activities avidly and at the forefront in the giving to local charities, Such an activity is recorded in the January 1878 edition of Maker and Rame Temperance Advocate and Monthly Visitors which quotes: The Mount Edgcumbe Christmas Donations were distributed on Monday December 24th. A tone of beef was divided among about 300 families, of whom 52 lived in Rame, 76 in Maker, about 80 in Millbrook, and the remainder were workmen etc of the estates. This indicates that the number of families who were directly connected by employment to the Mt Edgcumbe Estate at that time was in the region of 92. This very old photograph taken around the turn of the century illustrates the type of artisans employed by the estates, included in the group are Mr Arnold and his father as Blacksmiths, together with the other mean employed as carriage builders, wheelwrights, carpenters, joiners etc all pictured with the tools of their trade outside one of the workshops at Mt Edgcumbe. All this changed on the night of Tuesday 22nd April 1941 when Mt Edgcumbe House was hit by a stick of German incendiary bombs and the building gutted by fire.
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