BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Books about places and events in North Hill. Authors from North Hill who have been inspired whilst living here.
BOOKS

A brand new telling of

The Case Of The Salmon Sandwiches

by noted true crime author

Available from Mango Books
Published in December 2021

Based on true events and extensive research

Sarah Ann Hearn, a widow, lived in Trenhorne, between Lewannick and North Hill. She devoted herself to the care of her sick relatives.

Her sister Minnie was a chronic gastric patient. An aunt had passed away a few years earlier, and Minnie’s own demise, when it came, was not unexpected. But then, in 1930, the painful death of a nearby farmer’s wife, Alice Thomas, apparently after consuming Mrs Hearn’s homemade salmon sandwiches, provoked local suspicion.

What had happened to the lonely widow’s supply of arsenic-based weedkiller? Who was Mrs Hearn, really? The strange truth behind the case of the Salmon Sandwiches has finally been unearthed.

A Breath of Country Air
Available from Lewannick Post Office for £7
or by post (UK) for £8.50
email John on jonbonjava@btinternet.com

The Fallen of North Hill Parish
A Book From The North Hill Local History Group

This book was launched on 3rd August 2014 to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One. It has 36 pages packed with biographical details of the fallen showing you their life stories, images and connections with North Hill, Coad’s Green and other places in and around the parish. It has been researched by and written about local people by local people.

Bathpool - A Lynher Valley Settlement
David Jones
Privately printed and published; February 2023

A collection of historical facts and maps about Bathpool

David introduces his book "As a geographer I am especially interested in the land form and the way in which people have used the land to provide opportunities to live and work over the centuries ... Rather than produce an account which satisfies experts it tries to use imagination in order to recreate the past."

This book is not on general sale. If you would like your own copy, David will be happy to supply one for a contribution to Shelterbox. You can contact him through the NHLHG.
An online version (12mb pdf) is available by clicking on the image above. If you use the online version David would be delighted if you would access Shelterbox and make your own donation. Thank you.

The Cartulary of Launceston Priory
(Lambeth Palace MS. 719)
Edited with an Introduction by P L Hull
Devon & Cornwall Record Society; 1987; ISBN O 901583 30 5

A cartulary is a medieval manuscript volume or roll containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the foundation, privileges, and legal rights of organisations or families. In this case the term is applied to the collection of original documents held by The Priory of St Thomas in Launceston in the fifteenth century.

The documents date from 1050 AD to 1441 AD and an example of the fifteenth century transcript can be seen here (left). Click on this image for more information.

This book is out of print but can occasionally be found in shops selling pre-loved books.

Trebartha
The House By The Stream
Bryan Latham
Hutchinson & Co Ltd; 1971; ISBN 0 09 105390 0

An advertisement in The Times in July 1940 originated this book. It all began with a sale notice for an estate of mature woodlands in Cornwall, stretching in a great arc along the north side of Bodmin Moor. This was wartime and, as sawmillers urged on by the government, the author and his father were searching the country for wood suited to the war effort. For the second time in a generation Britain's forests were to be decimated to supply the nation's needs. Oak woodlands planted by country gentlemen and landowners of Nelson's day were ripe for felling to meet another twentieth-century crisis.

But the first visit to Trebartha transformed a commercial deal into a transaction of a different kind. On that July morning when the author stood on Hawks Tor and viewed the panorama of moors and woodlands Trebartha took possession of him and now, for over thirty years, these 4000 acres of moor, woodland and farmland have been a place of delight - and a rich source of local history which is now presented in this book.

When Bryan Latham signed the contract for Trebartha he and his family took over an estate which in a thousand years had changed hands only three times; once at the Norman Conquest and twice by the wedlock of heiresses. This is the story of Trebartha since its first recording in the Domesday Book.

This book is out of print but can occasionally be found in shops selling pre-loved books.

A Guide to St Torney's
North Hill's Parish Church
post 2004

A guide produced for visitors to the church before it was closed.

Amongst other interesting facts, the guide contains a list of incumbents since 1269 AD.

Truly Rural
North Hill Circuit Cornwall of the Methodist Church 1743-1946
Herbert Bolitho
1947

Lights and Shadows on the
History of North Hill Circuit (Cornwall)
of the Methodist Church

This is a book with a highly detailed account of people and places in and around North Hill. It deals with the period 1743 to 1946. Primarily it is an account of Methodism but it has large numbers of family names and biographies.

This book is out of print but can occasionally be found in shops selling pre-loved books.

 

From Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

"There was a parson at North Hill when I was a boy; he was very short-sighted, and they say one Sunday he mislaid the sacramental wine and gave the parish brandy instead. The village heard in a body what was happening, and, do you know, that church was so packed, there was scarcely room to kneel; there were people standing up against the walls, waiting for their turn. The parson couldn't make it out at all; there'd never been so many in his church before, and he got up in the pulpit with his eyes shining behind his spectacles, and he preached a sermon about the flock returning to the fold. Brother Matthew it was told me the story; he went up twice to the altar-rails and the parson never noticed. It was a great day in North Hill."

 

AUTHORS

KATHLEEN MACKENZIE (1907-c1990)

Mrs Kathleen Mackenzie was a North Hill resident for many years and lived at Stonaford. She wrote books on a variety of subjects but particularly about ponies. She also wrote plays, one of which was performed in Launceston in February 1960. Her interest in the theatre prompted her to write a biography of the famous actress Sarah Siddons.

“Kathleen Mackenzie’s pony books are not generally as dripping with ponies as most books in the genre. She was more interested in families and their relationships than in ponies, not being a rider herself. The pony content of her books is still just about enough to keep the enthusiast interested. Kathleen Mackenzie is also notable for having some of the best and worst dustjackets in the pony book world: Jumping Jan reached the final in a poll on my forum for the best; Nigel Rides Away and the reprint of Prize Pony both did well in the worst dustjacket category." The quote has been taken from the ‘Jane Badger Books’ website.

"I remember Mrs Mackenzie (will always think of her that way!) and I recall that when I discovered she was a published writer I was in absolute awe. She lent me one of her pony books to read, as I was also obsessed with ponies at that age, and gave me lots of encouragement. It's such a honour to find myself on the same page ..." Terri Nixon (see below)

TERRI NIXON

Terri Nixon says "I wasn’t born in [North Hill] village, but I did grow up there, and married in St Torney’s Church; I was a member of the church choir between the ages of 9 and 18, under Father Hugh Fryer ... I lived in South Battens, from 1975 until around 1986 or so, when I married and moved to Callington. I’m a writer now, and set most of my books in a fictional town a little farther down into Cornwall, but I do plan to include my old home village in my new series ..."

To get some insight into Terri's books, which feature the fictitious Lynher Mill and Batten family as well as other local pieces of interest, you can access her website by clicking on https://www.terrinixon.com/
31 October 2022

E V THOMPSON (1931-2012)

Ernest Victor (EV) Thompson MBE, the prolific andf celebrated author of historical Cornish fiction lived at Trevadlock on the boundary between the parishes of North Hill and Lewannick during his later years and some of his novels were written there. For a listing of his works, click on his photo (right).

According to Wikipedia "Thompson served in the Royal Navy for nine years and then joined the Bristol Police. He later became the chief security officer for the Department of Aviation in Rhodesia. In 1970 he moved to Cornwall to concentrate on being an author. Thompson specialised in historical novels mainly based in Cornwall and wrote over 40 books. His novel Chase the Wind [1977] was voted as the best historical novel of the year. Thompson was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to literature and the community in Cornwall. Thompson died on 19 July 2012 at his home in Cornwall aged 81."

M W OLDRIDGE

M W Oldridge is London based with a wide range of interests. He has written extensively on true crime cases and is a leading and active member of Casebook which concentrates largely on Victorian crime. You can access more of his works by clicking on the link above.