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complete that between 1816 and 1821 the alternative name for Gunnislake was Williams
Town.'
The family of Will and Anne Honeycombe may well have lived in one of those miners' cottages.
Interestingly, her maiden name was Williams and she was born in St Agnes, three miles from
Scorrier Was there a connection between her family and that of the mining magnate?
A different family connection arose in due course when Edward Williams rebuilt Honeycombe
House, bought by his grandfather in 1806. His brother, Michael Williams, MP had bought
Caerhays Castle in 1855. Edward Williams put his initials and the date on the front-door porch
- 'EW 1856' - and when he died, aged 73, a stained glass window was installed in Calstock
Church bearing the legend: 'In Loving Memory of Edward Williams of Honicombe House Esq...
March 1892'.
There is no memorial to any Honeycombe in the church, nor any to the many Honeycombes
buried there - except for one slate gravestone to William Honeycombe, who was buried in the
churchyard in February 1830, aged 41.
One wonders whether Edward Williams ever came across Will Honeycombe the miner or any
of his children, and on learning their surname inquired: 'Honeycombe? How quaint. That's the
name of my house. Did you ever live there? No? It must have been a very long time ago...1
In 1841, Will the miner was 42 and his wife Anne 35. The Census recorded they had four
surviving children: Elizabeth, William, Ann and Hannah. Another boy, born in 1832, had died
two years later. Their eldest daughter, Elizabeth, was 14. There is no mention, however, in the
Census, of their second daughter, Mary Jane, who was 12 in March, 1841. Presumably she
was away on a visit, or working (as a servant?) in another parish. Three other children are
recorded: William (8), Ann (4), and Hannah (2).
Two other Honeycombes lived nearby: Deborah and her widowed mother, Elizabeth. Her
husband, Richard, another copper miner, had died in 1838. And in Calstock itself, there was
old Jane Honeycombe, aged 81 and widow of Matthew. She was living near her bachelor sons,
John and Matthew, aged 49 and 46, and both stonemasons. All three were dead within six
years, John and Matthew dying within a month of each other.
Next door to them was the family of their eldest sister, Ann, born in 1786, who had married
Moses Williams. At the time of the next Census, in 1851, she was on her own, aged 65 (not 63
as the Census says) and is described as a 'nurse'.
By this time, Will and Anne Honeycombe, now 52 and 45, were at Middle Dimson, a collection
of cottages near Gunnislake.
They had now had five more children, four of whom survived: Eliza, Louisa, Samuel and
Harriet. Their two eldest daughters, Elizabeth and Mary Jane had married copper-miners and
were living nearby, if not actually next door. Their husbands were Charles Glasson and John
Ennor. The tetter's father, James Ennor, also a copper-miner, was born in St Agnes, as was
Anne
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Honeycombe, wife of William. Their eldest son, William, was now 17 and labouring in a copper
mine like his father, as was his sister, Ann, aged 14.
Turner's romantic vision of the Tamar Valley was by now only true of its scenery, best seen
from the little paddle-steamers that surged up and down the river on regular trips and
excursions. The urban sprawl around Plymouth had topped 100,000 by 1850 and the excursion
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