Tolverne Cottage, also known as Smugglers Cottage, is a small

Grade II-listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager ...

in south

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England. It is situated within the civil parish of

Philleigh Philleigh ( kw, Eglosros) is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom; one of the four in the Roseland Peninsula. Philleigh lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Almost a third of Co ...

, on the

Roseland Peninsula The Roseland Peninsula, or just Roseland, ( kw, Ros, meaning ''promontory'') is a district of west Cornwall, England. Roseland is located in the south of the county and contains the town of St Mawes and villages such as St Just and Gerrans. ...

on the

River Fal The River Fal ( kw, Dowr Fala) flows through Cornwall, England, rising at Pentevale on Goss Moor (between St. Columb and Roche) and reaching the English Channel at Falmouth. On or near the banks of the Fal are the castles of Pendennis and ...

, between

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

and St Mawes, north of the

King Harry Ferry The King Harry Ferry Bridge is a vehicular chain ferry which crosses the Carrick Roads reach of the estuary of the River Fal in Cornwall, England, UK. The ferry crosses between the parishes of Feock and Philleigh, roughly halfway between the c ...

. Made from slatestone rubble, the building probably dates from the 17th century, but was extended in the 19th century. It was designated Grade II

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

status on 25 June 1985. The area was used as the assembly point for American troops before the

D-Day landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

and

General Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

stayed at the cottage during preparations for the landing. His chair was amongst memorabilia at the cottage which was auctioned off in 2012. The cottage was also frequented by members of the SS Uganda society while the ship was laid up nearby in the Fal.

History

On the opposite side of the

to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

property, Trelissick, stands Tolverne Cottage. The cottage was run for many years as a tea room, which sold tea grown on the

Tregothnan Tregothnan is a country house and estate near the village of St Michael Penkivel, southeast of Truro, Cornwall, England, which has for many centuries been a possession of the Boscawens. Geography Location Tregothnan is located on a hill overl ...

estate, the first tea plantation in the UK. There is a regular ferry which connects the cottage to Falmouth during the summer. In preparation for the

, some 27,000 American troops gathered in the Fal Estuary, and

stayed at Smugglers Cottage. A granite memorial stone was placed outside the cottage to commemorate the D-Day landings. The building contained a collection of memorabilia related to the landings, including Eisenhower's chair preserved in one of the rooms but the collection was put up for auction in 2012. The auction raised a total of £10,000, including a

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

from the

Torpoint ferry The Torpoint Ferry is a car and pedestrian chain ferry connecting the A374 which crosses the Hamoaze, a stretch of water at the mouth of the River Tamar, between Devonport in Plymouth and Torpoint in Cornwall. The service was established in 17 ...

which sold for £1,700. Eisenhower's chair sold for £480. On return to the UK, the SS Uganda was laid up in the Fal near Smugglers Cottage, so the society of devotees of the ship frequented the cottage.

Architecture

The two-storey cottage was probably built for fishermen in the 17th or 18th century and enlarged in the 19th. Its walls are slatestone rubble and the roof is wheat reed thatched. It is hipped to the left with a rubble chimney on the right gable end and another gable at the end of the rear wing with a brick chimney. The original cottage had two rooms, with another two rooms added at the rear that formed an L shape that is slightly set back. The angle was later filled in. There is one window in the south front that may have been the original rear of the cottage. There is a nearly central doorway with a two-casement window to the right with eighteen panes. The cottage was listed on 25 June 1985 by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

References

{{Cornwall, state=collapsed Battles and operations of World War II involving the United States Grade II listed buildings in Cornwall Houses in Cornwall