Local History
were still the widow Ann Richards aged 72 innkeeper and farmer, her son Baldwin B.S. Richards aged 46 copper mine surveyor, her daughter Bessie A. aged 41 and two female domestic servants. Ann Richards died aged 78 on the 20th January 1898 having out-lived her husband by thirty-six years. She had been the landlady for over 50 years and during the whole of that time there was not a single newspaper report of disturbances or irregular opening.
Baldwin Richards, took on the tenancy of the Ship Inn from his mother. By this time Morwellham was on the point of closure as a port and the Bedford Estate had reduced the annual rent of the inn to just £19. In the 1901 census the occupants were listed as Baldwin B.S. Richards aged 55 mine surveyor and licensed vitualler, his sister Bessie A. Richards aged 51 housekeeper (domestic), and a general servant.
Baldwin
Barton Symons Richards died aged 66 in July 1912. The Tavistock Gazette of 12th July 1912 contained a brief report which barely does justice to his mining career:
‘On Sunday last Mr. Barton Richards, of the Ship Inn while in conversation with some people at one of the windows dropped down and died suddenly
from heart disease. He was an elderly man, and at one time was a dialler at Devon Great Consols Mines. At that time Morwellham was a centre of activity. Here most of the copper ore from the neighbouring mines were brought to be sampled, and afterwards weighed and carried down in barges to the smelting houses in Cornwall or Wales. Sometimes there would be thousands of tons of copper ore carted down to the Quays per month. Mr. Richard’s father was then the landlord of the Ship Inn, where the business was carried on. The funeral took place at Tavistock on Wednesday afternoon.’
His younger sister, Bessie A. Richards, became the licensee and kept the inn until 1920. Afterwards there was a short final tenancy at the Ship Inn by Christopher Francis Hutchinson but in 1924 the licence was not renewed. Bessie Ann Richards died aged 92 at Poole, Dorset in 1942.
In the 1970s the quay and adjoining buildings including the Ship Inn were re-opened as a heritage centre.
I have been unable to find a photograph of Richard Doble or his chemist’s shop. If anyone has any photographs I would very much like to borrow and scan them.
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