Cornwall - Pubs and Inns with a literary connection

The future author of ‘The Woman in White’ and ‘The Moonstone’ was 26 when, in 1850, he embarked on a walking tour of Cornwall with his friend Harry Brandling. Collins’s account of this summer expedition was titled ‘Rambles beyond Railways’: or Notes in Cornwall Taken A-foot, to which Brandling contributed the 12 lithographs. The route of 234 miles took them along the south coast to the Lizard and Penzance, returning through northern Cornwall to Tintagel and Launceston. In those days "even the railway stops short at Plymouth" and the travelers had to take a rowboat ferry to their first destination at St Germains before beginning their walk to Looe. Their second overnight stop was here at the Ship where Collins recorded his impression of the little harbour town:
"Looking lower down the hills yet, you see the houses of the town straggling out towards the sea along each bank of the river, in mazes of little narrow streets; curious old quays project over the water at different points… the prospect of hills, harbour, and houses thus quaintly combined together, is beautifully closed by the English Channel... Such is Looe as beheld from a distance; and it loses none of its attractions when you look at it more closely. There is no such thing as a straight street in the place… Sometimes you go down steps into the ground floor, sometimes you mount an outside staircase to get to the bed-rooms. Never were such places devised for hide and seek since that exciting nursery pastime was first invented"
Rambles sold well and a second edition was published to which Collins added an 'advertisement', noting "Since this work first appeared, the all-conquering Railway has invaded Cornwall; and the title of my book has become a misnomer already." The Ship, which Collins described as a ‘jovial inn’, is set in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the main street of Looe, a working fishing harbour which has managed to keep much of its charming old world character. This ‘Harvester type’ pub which now forms part of the St Austell Brewery offers a selection of St Austell Ales as well as a full menu. It is now a typical holiday town centre pub with the obligatory Karaoke, Big Screen Sky TV, Pool and both quiz and fruit machines.

This local village pub stands in a lovely windswept setting near the church and, early in 1916, D.H. Lawrence and his German born wife Frieda came here to stay while they were looking for a cottage to rent locally – he wrote: "At Zennor one sees infinite Atlantic, all peacock-mingled colours, and the gorse is sunshine itself. Zennor is a most beautiful place: a tiny granite village nestling under high shaggy moor-hills and a big sweep of lovely sea beyond, such a lovely sea, lovelier even than the Mediterranean..... It is the best place I have been in, I think".
At the time Lawrence was writing ‘Women in Love’. The couple found Higher Tregerthan, which was one and a half miles North East of the village - one of a pair of small cottages accessed down a stony lane, in farmland near the sea. In 1915 the writer Katherine Mansfield and her publisher husband John Middleton Murray spent some weeks in Zennor, in close and sometimes strained proximity to their friends Lawrence and Frieda. Lawrence, who was unfit for service, was outspoken against the war.
The local people were very suspicious of the Lawrences, believing that they were German spies and they were eventually ordered to leave the area by the local police. Perhaps Lawrence invited this suspicion. When he first went to Cornwall, he was very critical of the Cornish describing them as: "…like insects gone cold, living only for money, for dirt. They are foul in this. They ought all to die. " Yet in the next line he admits: "…Not that I’ve seen much of them – I’ve been laid up in bed. But going out, in the motor and so on, one sees them and feels them and knows what they are like". It’s hardly surprising that the locals didn’t care for the eccentric writer.
The Tinners Arms is the only pub in Zennor and was built in 1271 to accommodate the masons who constructed St. Senara's Church which is famous for its mermaid. This welcoming pub which stands near the coastal path has been gently extended since that time. There are tables in a small suntrap courtyard and fine walks along the nearby coastal path. The flagstones, granite and stripped pine in the bar give it a rather spartan feel which seems somehow right for the miner’s son from Nottingham. It has changed little since Lawrence’s time and still has open log fires, stone floors and low ceilings. Here you will find the traditional pub experience with real Cornish ales and good local food.