St Hilary Gallery

House above the cliff at the back of Bessies Cove, Prussia Cove, St Hilary, Cornwall. Around 1925

Prussia Cove is named after a smuggler, John Carter, who referred to himself as the King of Prussia'. The house was inhabited for years by smugglers and replaced Kiddlewink on the cliff kept by Bessie Burrow, after whom Bessie's Cove is named. Glass lantern slide from a lecture, entitled Some Historic Cornish Beauty Spots, given by Cornishman and amateur photographer, Major Arthur William Gill, in around 1925. He was well known in Cornwall and elsewhere during the 1920s and 1930s for his presentations of stills and cine film to many groups including The Royal Institution of Cornwall, Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society and the London Cornish Society. The quarter plate slides which he took prolifically with his ordinary camera are, in many cases, colour. These were painted by his own hand to great effect

© From the collection of the RIC