Monday 21 March 2016

Cornwall: Polkerris, Menabilly and Fowey; Daphne du Maurier Country








The old pilchard factory, Polkerris

On pilchard fishing: "The next procedure was to get them, in carts and barrows, from the beach to the salting-house, where the women were waiting to pile them up on layers of salt. They would remain in salt, or 'in bulk', as it used to be called, for some five or six weeks, during which time the residue of oil, salt and water that dripped into the stone wells below would serve a local purpose, the salt, water and offal turned into manure, the oil clarified and sold".

 Daphne du Maurier, Ports and Pilchards, "Vanishing Cornwall", 1967.




Menabilly


Growing up in the house that inspired 'Rebecca' - Flavia Leng remembers life at Menabilly with her mother, Daphne du Maurier, in 1944 - The Telegraph

A Tale of Three Houses, Prague Review

Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca taught me how to love literature, John Crace

Daphne du Maurier talks about Menabilly (video, 1946)

Rebecca (pdf)

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. There was a padlock and chain upon the gate. I called in my dream to the lodge-keeper, and had no answer, and peering closer through the rusted spokes of the gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited. No smoke came from the chimney, and the little lattice windows gaped forlorn. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me".

Rebecca, the 1940 movie

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