The Spindrift trilogy explores the lives, loves and friendships of a fictional, turn of the 20th century artists’ community. Their imaginary home, Spindrift House, is on a clifftop near Port Isaac on the rugged north Cornish coastal path.
‘Porthysek’ means ‘corn port’ in Cornish. Once a Saxon port, a pier was built out into the sea during the reign of Henry VIII and Delabole slate, timber and corn were exported. Port Isaac has a history of pilchard fishing going back to the 16thcentury but, during the late 19th century, the industry declined. Today, tourism has largely taken over from fishing. Inflated property prices in recent years have forced many villagers to leave but a few fishermen may still be seen unloading their catch of crabs, lobsters and fish onto the Platt, a wide cobbled area sloping down to the beach.
The picturesque village of Port Isaac is reached by steep, narrow streets that wind down towards the sea and most of the whitewashed and slatestone houses clustered around the harbour were built in the 18th and 19thcenturies. Until a hundred years ago, without cars, telephones or internet, the village was remote and life had remained unchanged for generations.
At the time of the Spindrift story, waste from the cottages still went into an open drain running through the village. When a sluice gate was opened, the waste was flushed towards the beach. Housewives would walk down Fore Street with a pail of slops or ashes to dispose of in the chute at Little Hill and these also dropped onto the beach below. There was no electricity and water was collected from pumps in Chapel Street or Mine Pit Corner. The arrival of the railway in the 1895, stopping at Port Isaac Road station, a three mile walk away, opened up new possibilities of sending smoked fish to London and of bringing visitors to the village.
The Spindrift children would have attended the village school on Fore Street, which was built in 1877 on the clifftop overlooking the sea. There were separate entrances for boys and girls. Footballs must have often flown over wall of the boys’ playground, which overlooked the precipitous drop to the harbour.
The villagers made their own entertainment. The Band of Hope built the Temperance Hall in 1895, providing the venue for numerous events and societies. John Wesley visited Port Isaac several times in the 18th century and inspired a strong Methodist tradition in the village. Anglicans worshipped at St Peter’s or the 15th century church of St Endellion outside the village. St Endellion’s tower is made from Isle of Lundy granite and its height made it a useful landmark for sailors navigating the treacherous coastline.
In the past, poverty forged the villagers into a close-knit community. Now, tourists and second-homers have changed the unique character of Port Isaac and, although the locals are financially better off, some say they would prefer to return to those happy times in the past.
1914 Spindrift House, Cornwall
Edith Fairchild’s good-for-nothing husband, Benedict, deserted her when their children were babies. Now the children are almost adult, Edith and Pascal, her faithful lover of two decades, are planning to leave their beloved Spindrift artists’ community in Cornwall and live together in blissful sin in France.
But an explosive encounter between Benedict and Pascal forces old secrets into the light, causing rifts in the happiness and security of the community. Then an assassin’s bullet fired in faraway Sarajevo sets in train a chain of events that changes everything.
The community left in Cornwall struggles to eke out a living, while the younger generation enlist or volunteer to support the war effort, facing dangers that in the golden summer of 1914 would have seemed unimaginable.
When it’s all over, will the Spindrift community survive an unexpected threat and will Edith and Pascal ever be able to fulfil their dream?
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