Bob Lillie's Travels: Following the Family Trail

For me, the Helston area holds many memories from staying with my Grandmother, Helen, at Bodilly Poultry farm near a hamlet called Wendron close to Helston in Cornwall when my parents were living and working in Nigeria in the 1950s. However, the family connection goes back to the 1930s when Helen became the teacher at Wendron School after the death of her first husband. It was there that she met Glanville Williams who was to become her second husband.

These two google map images show Wendron and it's relationship with Wendron and the relationship with Bodilly

Wendron Parish Church. My parents were married there in 1946, and both myself and my brother John were christened there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendron

The font

A view of the interior of Wendron Church

http://www.cornwall-opc.org/Par_new/t_z/wendron.php

A religious procession at Wendron Church in the 1930's. My mother's older brother Alan would be one of the lads - holding the incense. The vicar of the day would have been Canon GH Doble

The old school in Wendron where my grandmother Helen was schoolteacher in the 1930s

The Bungalow at Wheal Dream near Wendron where my grandmother and her children Alan and Vivien lived. In the 1930s there was a derelict Tin Mine Engine House standing just behind where I took this photo from. Today, nothing remains of it.

The view across the fields showing remaining Engine Houses still standing looking toward the present Poldark Mine which deals with the history of tin mining in Cornwall

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poldark_Mine

Wheal Dream in the 1930s. My mother, Viv with her brother Alan and Phil, whom she married. My grandmother's house would have been to the right of the Picture

And the Wheal Dream Engine House in the 1930s

The view towards the farm at Bodilly from Wendron

The lane leading to Bodilly

The farmhouse

Looking across the farmyard. The barns have all been converted as dwellings. When I lived there, the farmyard was a lot muddier!

The former Wesleyan Chapel at Crelly just next door to Bodilly. It has now been converted to a private residence (like the Bodilly Barns!). I was taken to Sunday school there frequently. Many of the Williams family are buried in the graveyard

The Church of St Winwaloe, a 14th Century Church with a separate 13 century tower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunwalloe

The church is situated right on the beach at Church cove not far from Helston

It was popular with my family both in the 1930s, 40s and 50s

Across the bay the Poldhu hotel stands

The Poldhu hotel across the bay from Gunwallow Church. It was from this spot that Guglielmo Marconi made the first wireless transmission across the Atlantic on 12 December 1901.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poldhu
http://basementgeographer.com/poldhu-wireless-station-and-the-cornish-peninsula-that-helped-give-us-modern-radio/

A photo taken in the 1930s of the transmission towers. It is sobering to think that, had ships like the "Queen Margaret" and the "Queen Elizabeth" that I mentioned earlier been equipped with radio the their losses would have been avoided.

On the way down to Helston we stopped off three times, once at St Allen Church, near the village of Zelah, which was where I prepared to be confirmed, and then at Truro Cathedral where I was confirmed. Later we also called in at Kenwyn Church near Truro, which I visited often during my schooldays.