History
The History of Martha Ann Cottage
Martha Ann Cottage was built during the 1860’s and around the turn of the Century the Choak family bought the Cottage and lived in it until 1970.
The cottage was originally bought by money left to Mr Choak’s 3rd wife, she was housekeeper to Sir Richard Vivienne of Trelowarran (the large estate opposite) . All the Choak family worked on the Trelowarren estate and were born at Chybilly in the cottages on the estate.
As you can see from the early photo on our website it was a small Cottage, but it had another building behind, which the Choak family used to let. When you walked in the front door there was the kitchen, living room to the right and the sitting room on the left, there was a doorway to upstairs where there was a bedroom either side. No bathroom and the toilet was in the garden. Martha Ann Choak (hence the name) lived in the Cottage most her life until she died around 1969/70 and then it of course was sold.
All the remainder of the Choak family except for one member have now taken up residence in New Zealand, the one that stayed in Cornwall is a local Photographer/Artist and she spent a lot of her childhood in the Cottage whilst visiting her Aunt Mart (Martha Ann).
In 1970 a film producer & this wife Mr & Mrs Robinson moved into the area and bought Martha Ann Cottage from the Choak family. As soon as they moved in they set about modernising the Cottage and extended out the back where the cottage that the Choak family let once stood. Mrs Robinson was a very keen gardener as you can see from the picture of the garden see kept it very well. This Photo was taken during the 1980’s and was found by myself in one of the cupboards in the lounge.
Unfortunately Mr Robinson died just after the millennium and Mrs Robinson died around 2004/5 they both enjoyed a good life during their time in Martha Ann Cottage but they eventually passed away and died of old age.
The Cottage was left to Mr & Mrs Robinson’s immediate family and they maintained & modernised again it until it was eventfully sold around 2006. It has been used as a Holiday Cottage and enjoyed by many families wanting to visit and explore the un-commercialised beauty of the south coast of Cornwall.
