Bude-Stratton Old Cornwall Society held its March meeting at the Parkhouse Centre on Monday 31st March 2025. The Chairman, Alan McIntosh, introduced the speaker, Carole Wakefield, who gave a broad ranging talk entitled “Bude from backwater to up and coming resort in one century”. There were 35 members and visitors in attendance, and they were treated to a gallop through Bude in the nineteenth century peppered with anecdotes drawn from newspapers of the time.
The talk was a series of snapshots of Bude as a tourist destination across the century. It’s two main premises were: that the scope for tourism increased as Bude became easier and quicker to get to, because of improved roads and the railway network becoming ever closer over time and that the range and volume of visitors increased as legislation gave greater time off to workers and it became more common for them to take holidays.
Sketch maps were used to explain the growth of the town including homes, tourist accommodation and facilities. The types of visitors were examined and their expectations from a resort were compared against the facilities Bude provided. From this the talk described the changes that occurred across the century, highlighting both the structures in place to drive improvement (or in some cases hinder it!) and some of the main characters involved. The sorry state of drainage and its slow and sometimes contentious improvement was used as a case study to explain the transition from the Board of Guardians to the Bude Improvement Committee. John Arscott of Tetcott, the Reverend William Maskell of the Castle, the Acland family, the Thynne family, Nanny Moore and her daughter Harriet Brinton, the Brendon family and Arthur Mills, among others, all featured.
The talk closed by highlighting the major impact the railway arriving in Bude in 1898 had on tourism. It reflected that at the end of the 19th Century there was still a lot more to be done to turn Bude into a holiday resort – there was no running water, the ever expanding town was overloading the sewage system which had been introduced in the late 1870s, there was insufficient reasonably priced short-stay accommodation for visitors and much more was needed to keep visitors entertained.
After the talk there was a lively discussion among the audience helped by long standing Bude family members, including David Thorn, Michael Heard and Mike Keat amongst others. Finally the raffle was drawn by Dennis Balsdon with help from Alan McIntosh, and Rose McIntosh kindly served refreshments. The next talk will be at 7pm on Monday 28th April by Philippa Gerry Fitzpatrick and Val Russell entitled “George Hambly’s Book – The Life and Times of the Master of Bude Hobble Boat”.