Trevethoe House - The Historic Home of Tempest Photography
Some businesses work out of towering office buildings in the heart of the sleepless city, others from industrial expanses of warehouses and cabins where wagons roll in day and night. And then we have Tempest Photography, whose own location on the edge of the quiet village of Lelant, West Cornwall, is a little different.
Let me paint you a picture…
Trevethoe House
At the end of a meandering driveway that cuts a route through the lazy greens of an idyllic slice of Cornish countryside, stands a house. A grand building of old stone that watches over the rolling expanse of nature as though it is the guardian of all it surveys. Or perhaps, it is the heartbeat.
This extraordinary place goes by the name Trevethoe House. Its proud exterior speaks in wistful tones of a rich, colourful history that drips like the morning dew from the leaves of the surrounding trees. A fixture of the landscape for centuries past, Trevethoe stands as a testament to the nature of family, belonging, and the unrelenting passage of time.
From whisperings of ghosts wandering the corridors, to its current status as the mothership for Tempest Photography and cornerstone of the local community, Trevethoe House has tales to tell.
A Place of Startling Contrasts
From outside, the house wears its age like a badge of honour. It remains grand but offers little flamboyance. Where the casual observer may envision its innards as being something taken directly from a scene in Downton Abbey, the truth is possibly even stranger than fiction.
The reality is that Trevethoe House is a place of startling contrasts.
A large section of the house and surrounding buildings is home to a bustling hive of workplace activity and cutting-edge photographic technology. It is the epicentre of Tempest Photography and, as an employer for many decades, has played a pivotal role in the livelihoods of the Cornish community.
Wide office spaces adorned with computer monitors, space-age photographic processing and printing equipment, tapping keyboards and busy staff pepper this area of the old house. The smiles of children and class groups decorate the walls, a nod to Tempest’s position at the forefront of the educational photographic industry.
Yet, a stroll through the workspaces of the house will eventually bring you to a particular door. A fairly plain affair of wood and white paint. Innocuous by all accounts. Until you open it.
The Hidden Time Capsule
A turn of the handle, a swing on the hinges, and a couple of steps is all it takes to be whisked back in time.
We enter a place of ornate domed ceilings, where the heady scent of aging paper lingers in the small library, and a row of brass bells hang in anticipation of former lives when, long before the Tempest family made home, they would have beckoned servants to locations known by names such as ‘The Oak Room’ or the ‘Study’. Spirits too are invoked within the wonderful ‘Music Room’ where once upon a time, people would gather to listen to the strings and piano tones of travelling musicians from every corner of the world.
History infuses every corner, and every step seems designed to capture the imagination. It is a staggering experience.
And here too, smiles tumble from portrait-lined walls, but now the images are cast in paint and shrouded in history, offering insight into the many years Trevethoe House has played as a home for the Tempest family and the wonderful cast of characters that have enjoyed its many quirks and comforts.
This is Trevethoe House as it was, and it is a testament to its current guardians that this is how it remains today.
A place of incredible contrasts, but more so, a place of undeniable character.
From Coast to Coast - The Arrival of Tempest Photography
Tempest Photography has called this place home since 1958 when Horace Tempest purchased the property after his original Tempest factory in Nottingham became too small for the increased demands on the business.
For Horace, this signified the final destination of a journey that had taken him from his birthplace in Peterhead, a fishing town on the northeast coast of Scotland, to deepest southwest Cornwall, on the edge of the fishing town of St.Ives.
Initially, the building had dual roles to play. One, as a home for the Tempest family, and secondly, as a new production site for the ever-expanding photography business that was Horace’s bread and butter.
The former servant’s quarters became the industrial core of the blossoming organisation until, as the growth continued unabated, the space became too small, and a purpose-ready wing was built to house a cutting-edge laboratory and ancillary works.
The arrival of the Tempest family and business was widely regarded as one that breathed new life into a building that had long been dormant. It became a cornerstone of the community and a home from home for many of its locally based employees.
It is not uncommon for Tempest Photography to welcome staff through its doors and be a part of the work-life journey until they one day part as old friends. It is an ethos instilled by Horace and his wife, Rose Tempest, that remains as strong today as it ever was. A family-run business that maintains family values.
The Changing Face of Trevethoe House
With the family and the business now firm fixtures in West Cornwall, for the house and grounds, the winds of change were blowing in on the bracing sea air.
Tempest Photography was a business in the ascendency and such a trajectory frequently demands change. A printing works and staff car park became a part of the Trevethoe grounds. And, in a move slightly out of the ordinary for Lelant, an airstrip was created upon the greenery of the approach to the house. With Horace Tempest, a keen and skilful pilot, the new area from which his small aircraft could take off and land quickly became an integral part of Trevethoe and one that perfectly blended into its picturesque Cornish backdrop.
Despite the magnitude of change that the passing years brought to Trevethoe, something that never became lost was its character.
This is no industrialised location scarring the surrounding countryside. But remains a house surrounded by wild nature and wooded dens. It retains all the mystique and charm it has carried throughout its journey.
The interior maintains much of the original layout. Narrow winding labyrinthine corridors open to spaces where high ceilings climb through the house to the balcony and its perch alongside the treetops. And, where once this place was the domain of the few, it is now a space for many.
Today, 100 years since Horace Tempest, armed with a camera and a dream, snapped that first photograph, the Trevethoe home of Tempest Photography stands as a celebration of community.
But You Promised me Ghosts
I did, and let’s face it, a building of the age, size, and historic significance as Trevethoe House is going to come laden with some stories to chill the blood. For Trevethoe, the ghostly goings-on come in the shape of a rumoured, and fairly classic, White Lady apparition who is said to walk the rooms and corridors in the cold dead of night.
Both Horace and Rose Tempest spoke of bumps in the house and doors that would close on their own. On occasion, family members would be woken from sleep by noises and take to searching for the source, expecting perhaps to fend off a burglar or two, only to find nothing but an empty, silent house, sitting in the half-light.
Tempest Photography staff members too, have at times, encountered doors that will close without obvious cause or found their skin suddenly alive with goosebumps for no apparent reason.
Perhaps it is the fabled White Lady, or maybe it is simply a house breathing. The movement in old timber and the cool stone walls, because one thing Trevethoe House has in abundance is the feeling of being a place with a life all of its own.
A Home to All
Trevethoe House stands as something unique in a world of industry determined to follow well-worn routes.
To some, it may appear a mish-mash of workspaces and time-soaked rooms connected by panelled corridors and aching floorboards. A time capsule living alongside the cutting edge of photographic technology and expertise. A place full of contrast and contradiction. Yet the true beauty of the place is that its beating heart has forever been fuelled by the notion of family, and that family can be found anywhere.
This is the ethos that Horace and Rose Tempest brought with them through life. It is the reason that today Tempest stands as a pioneering, global business at the forefront of its sector, yet still manages to maintain a warm, cottage industry feeling.
That sweet contrast of the place, the long-held values that still resonate, and the spirit of life in Cornwall.
And, perhaps above all else, it is the influence of a characterful house that continues its watch over the landscape and position as a home for all who enter.