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The
Morrab Gardens in Penzance, Cornwall have always been a favourite spot
of mine. I spend a lot of time researching in the reading room of the
Library which is within the garden and nothing is nicer on a warm spring
day than to slip into the garden for a break. Morrab
is derived from the Cornish words mor = sea & app =
shore or coastal land. Until the late 1830s the land after
the chapel of St Mary's was indeed sand dunes. However, Samuel Pidwell,
a local brewer, decided that the sloping site was the ideal place for
his new home and in 1841 he built the house, surrounded by a walled
garden. The Pidwell family did not live here for long. The family
moved to Portugal where an identical house was built, using
the same plans as for the one in Penzance. Morrab
House was bought by Charles Campbell Ross, the local Member of
Parliament and banker, and he moved in with his family. By the late
1880s Penzance was expanding and the Ross family decided to move further
out of town. The house and land were purchased by the Penzance
Corporation for use as a public park. The independent society running
the Penzance Library elsewhere in the town then moved into the house,
renting it from the corporation. The building still houses the library
and the re-formed local authority of Penwith is still their
landlord. It is often confused with the Penzance Free Public
Library built a little later at the top of Morrab Road. With
the purchase of additional land the gardens were turned into
a municipal park in 1889. The corporation commissioned
Reginald Upcher, a landscape gardener from London, to lay out the
new 3.5 acre site. The picture below gives an idea of the layout
of part of these early gardens.
The
1891 Census records the gardener as being a Thomas Dorothy who lived in
Morrab Cottage with his wife and three children. He came originally from
Devon. In
1904 a secluded garden was created in memory of the men of Penzance who
gave their lives in the South African Boer War of 1899 - 1902. At this
time only officers were commemorated on memorials so the record is
incomplete. The
postcard below is by Valentine & Sons and shows the memorial and
surrounding garden as painted by Brian Gerald around 1910. In
2003 the memorial was vandalised for the second time in two years and
stood without its statue for some time. However, the local council
did not give in and it was once again restored to its original state.
On
August 5th 1905 the bandstand, which had been donated by local coal
merchant J. H. Bennett, was opened with a grand concert by
the Penzance Military Band and band concerts continue in the gardens
today, although not so frequently as in former years. Photo
a. below shows the recently renovated fountain . Personally I
preferred it painted silver-white as in b. when you could see the detail
of a seal on a ball balancing a fish spouting water. The lowest basin is supported by four carp spouting water. a. The
Morrab Gardens are home to a range of tender trees and shrubs which have
their origins in the warmer climes of the Mediterranean or
sub-tropic zones. The plants flourish here and are rarely nipped by
frost or damaged by cold winters due to the proximity of the sea and the
southerly aspect. However, as the photo below taken in the winter of
1947 shows it sometimes fails to live up to its reputation. We
have made a web site with lots of photos of the plants in the garden. I
hope you enjoy looking at them, and if you are able to visit the gardens
why not call in to the Library where you will be made welcome. |
b. 
