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

Grade II-listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

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

in south

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England. It is situated within the civil parish of

Philleigh Philleigh () is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, one of the four civil parishes in the Roseland Peninsula. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Treworlas, Treworthal and a number of smaller settlements. Philleigh lies wit ...

, on the

Roseland Peninsula The Roseland Peninsula, or just Roseland, (, meaning ''the 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 in Roseland, St J ...

on the

River Fal The River Fal () flows through Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordere ...

, between

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

and

St Mawes St Mawes () is a village on the end of the Roseland Peninsula, in the eastern side of Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth harbour, on the south coast of Cornwall, England. The village, formerly two separate hamlets, lies on the east bank of the Carri ...

, north of the King Harry Ferry. 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 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 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. 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 the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

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 () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

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

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 1 ...

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, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

References

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