Trebartha Newsletters give everyone detailed updates, with photos, on which is happening at Trebartha - everything from strategic issues, to properties the estate owns, to the gardens. Autumn newsletters are intended to give detailed reports to shareholders before the AGM, which is usually in November. Newsletters are emailed to shareholders and anyone else in the family who would like to receive them. To add anyone to the circulation list, email Robert at lathamrobertj@gmail.com. To access pdf files of all Trebartha Newsletters, please use this link: Newsletters.
There are a number of documents referred to in the January 2026 Newsletter. Here are links to these:
Paper about Metrics to measure TEL’s outcomes - proposals to be discussed at the 2026 AGM
TEL’s Statement of Case and supporting documents in ‘Wasteland of a Manor’ Case about land at Trevague. The case was heard in Truro on 11 December 2025; a decision is expected later in January 2026. The documents include:
TEL’s Statement of Case and Supporting Documents.
There is also the 1941 Deed of Conveyance when TEL acquired Trebartha: the main text of the 1941 Conveyance (29 pages), Annex 1 Plan, and Annex 2 Plan.
Article about the Liskeard and Caradon Railway by Greg Martin which was published in Cornwall Live.
There are a number of documents referred to in the August 2023 Newsletter. These are:
Trebartha Hall Buildings: Scoping Document on recommended repairs and possible improvements (1.6.23)
Laundry building, etc: Specifications of Works for repairs to Laundry and Shippon and preservation of ruined buildings (17.07.23)
Woodland Management Plan (1.8.23) and, in a separate file, the Appendices
Nodmans Bowda (270723): report on woodland extension, including commercial value, biodiversity and landscape enhancement
Trebartha Barton: Drawings of the New Farm House (July 2023)
The Turbine House and the Trebartha Hydro Power Project
James Willder has given us some general information and results for the 22-23 financial year:
Since 2015 the American Garden plays host to the Trebartha hydro power plant; the most visible part of which is the turbine house standing just inside the entrance to the garden. The building is clad in cedar with a Cornish slate roof and blends into the landscape under the Douglas fir, spruce and oak.
The new intake lies on the Withey Brook at Bryce’s Crossing just below Hawks Tor, replacing the old weir which used to divert water into the leat which runs around the side of the hill to above Stonaford. This is a “run of river” hydro scheme so the amount of water abstracted follows the river level throughout the year. Water abstracted from the intake reaches the turbine, 90 metres below, through 1.2 kilometres of pipe. The turbine is a 4 jet vertical shafted Pelton wheel generating a maximum of 350kW (175 kettles boiling continuously). The power is fed to a high voltage transformer in the adjoining upslope grey enclosure before being exported into the local WPD grid. Based on a forty year data set from the waterworks at Bastreet the scheme estimated to average 1,000MWhs of energy a year (+/- 30%, depending on rainfall) - enough for about 330 homes (electricity only based on 0.3MWhs a year per 3 bed home).
For the year 2022 – 2023 the weather has been very variable. The five summer months from May through September were extremely dry, with no more than 0.15MWh being generated one wet Saturday afternoon in September. It was then very wet until February. February was the driest for 30 years and March was then the wettest in 40 years. Overall, the power generation for the year was 910MWhs, which although lower than the modelled average was a good result when it turned out that 2022 was the sixth warmest year on record and 2023 is predicted to be one degree warmer than average (Met Office 2023 forecast).
Parkland Management Plan
The Board has commissioned a Parkland Management Plan from Land & Heritage. This LINK is to the (almost) final version of the report, dated January 2023. The report is intended to inform grant applications which the Board will be making to fund the recommendations. The report identifies and discusses the nationally and regional significant features at Trebartha. These are discussed at Section 4 of the Report (at p.115). Some elements of the upland oakwood habitat areas are identified as having a very high international significance. The Report considers the archaeology, history and the historic landscape. It discusses the impact of the Lewis Kennedy proposals in his Green Book, extracts from which can also be found on the website. Section 3.6 on “Ecology and Veteran Trees” is of particular interest.
Trebartha’s Wayside Crosses in Lawn Field
Ann Preston-Jones (Historic England) has provided an interesting description of the three medieval Wayside Crosses. This will inform a grant application to for the restoration and maintenance of these schedule monuments.
The Hut Circles at Nodman’s Bowda
Ann Preston-Jones (Historic England) has provided an interesting description of these two stone circlers and prehistoric boundary wall. Stone hut circles were the dwelling places of prehistoric farmers on the Moor, mostly dating from the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). The stone-based round houses survive as low walls or banks enclosing a circular floor area; remains of a turf or thatch roof are not preserved. The huts occur singly or in small or large groups and may occur in the open or be enclosed by a bank of earth and stone. Although they are common on the Moor, their longevity of use and their relationship with other monument types provides important information on the diversity of social organisation and farming practices among prehistoric communities. Fuller particulars can be found at this link.
Monumental Improvement Project
Bodmin Moor AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) was obtained lottery funding to safeguard a number of historic monuments. The attached links provide details of their proposals for:
The Nine Stone Circle (between the Ridge and Fox Tor), and
The 2021 AGM was on 3 November. Shareholders and partners were invited, either in person or on zoom. (Papers for the AGM were sent to all shareholders. For ease of reference, there are links to the main papers on the TEL - Trebartha Estates Ltd - website page.)
Robert’s review of. the year was supported by lots of photos - link HERE.
Patrick gave an excellent presentation on Forestry. This was emailed to shareholders on 6 November 2021::
Please find copy of presentation made to the Agm on November 3rd - link HERE
The presentation as a written record is a little two dimensional as I talked around the subject on the screen - and as such I have added some notes to add some additional colour.
Slide 4 - there has been some progress towards the conventional forestry ambitions in so much as through Peter’s introduction to colleagues in the Forestry Commission and Forestry England we now have a good understanding of the relative economics of agro forestry in Trebatha vs conventional land use. Should the time come when suitable acreage comes available the Estate should be able to value taking the land back in hand vs alternative rental values. In the current grant environment this is economically quite compelling. Needless to say come the day this would be a pure economic analysis / business case and other factors would be needed to be taken into account to guide the final decision process.
Slides 11 -16
I have added the source maps into a zip file [one example HERE] as as presented the slides were for general example and not for detailed analysis - please note that Ben Norwood only had access to the estate map (the colours being specific tenancies) and due to covid did not have the opportunity to visit (he has been twice since). His work therefore was purely desktop based and he had no prior knowledge as to what the tenants and family may see as "no go” areas. The ideas are just that and not prescriptive but never the less gives us a great glimpse as to the menu of opportunities we have should we go this direction.
Slide 17
This is a copy of the 1881 ordinance survey (attached is the relevant extract) - the 1st edition - of interest is the positioning of the individual trees - these are mapped to great accuracy and therefore provides a formidable resource for the reconstruction any part of our historic landscape. The link attached is for the National Library of Scotlands map data base where historic maps can be compared to current day satellite images so if you wish you can compare changes in the landscape over time.
Once you get to grips with it (its a bit clunky) it is possible to prove that over the last 140 years we have lost at least 140 trees from our landscape from Plusha to Beriow.
Attached at the bottom of this email are two other links for those of you who are interested.
The first is the Forestry Commission’s data base for landscape analysis - its relatively easy to travel around.
https://www.forestergis.com/Apps/MapBrowser/
The second is Cornwall councils own offering which has its own interesting data overlays
I hope that you find what I presented of interest - I would very much appreciate your thoughts as to whether this diversion from the normal forestry mandate and activity is something you would support progressing with and if so what aspects you find important and those you don’t. Even if you are generally negative I would still appreciate your comments.
Finally we had a very interesting meeting with the farmers back in June where I discussed some of the ideas presented - whilst its difficult to gauge enthusiasm in this group and being cognisant that programs such as these won’t pay their bills the best I can say is no one said it was a bad idea to add trees in various forms across the Trebartha landscape and at least a couple said they would be happy for further conversations on the subject.
Patrick
Latest news about the Gardens is on the Gardens page.
A book Vanished Houses of Cornwall by Rosemary Lauder was published in 2021. It has a chapter about Trebartha Hall.
To view the family tree (as at August 2020) please use this link: Family Tree.
To get the latest published news on the North Hill area, visit the North Hill Village News website.
The North Hill Climate Emergency Action Group has its own website.
Our local pub, renamed The Old Schoolhouse (previously the Racehorse) in North HIll, has new owners, Colin and Lizzie Shepheard. It needed a lot of building work, but is occasionally open at weekends, for (cash only) sales to locals.
Earlier landlords, Ray and Flory, now have a restaurant in the centre of Bodmin that is well worth visiting, Flory.
Sadly, the Cheesewring pub at Minions. is also closed, following a fire on Christmas Eve 2021.
You can check the BBC weather forecast for North Hill here
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