Trewennan’s story begins with the Rev A. A. Wellington, governor of Healdtown, a mission school near Fort Beaufort. He arrived in South Africa in 1900 as a minister and missionary and purchased the property in 1932. It stayed in the family until 1969.
Trewennan and Redwood, and possibly neighbouring Mistlea, were initially owned by Rev Wellington. They were the only dwellings in the lane, which was named by him. It appears that his grandmother’s family, the Hockins, lived on a farm called Trewennan near St Teath, Cornwall. He may have chosen the name for happy memories of that place.
The original Trewennan house was made of an inner corrugated iron shell with wooden cladding outside. It burned down in 1960, possibly after an old gardener broke in and knocked over a candle. The house was never rebuilt. From 1960 to 1969 the land was left unattended, and wattle spread through the former gardens and orchard.
Rev Wellington held church services in the house and in an open-air church, with large logs as seats, in the forest on Trewennan land. In 1940 his daughter Lylie married in the open-air church, and guests walked back to the house for a reception on the lawn. One grandchild, Heather, was christened in the birdbath in the Trewennan garden. The family spent free weekends and holidays there because their home at Healdtown belonged to the church.
Rev Wellington died in 1944, and the property passed to one of his daughters. After the house burned down, it remained a holiday home. The old bread oven in the front garden is all that remains from the Wellington era.
Francis and Violet Hunter, owners of Strand Outfitters in East London, bought the property in 1969. The current Main House and cottage were built between 1969 and 1971. The Main House has changed little; the single garage became the dining room and the bathrooms and kitchen have been upgraded.
After the Hunters, three more owners held the property before John and Susan Davies purchased it in 2013. Susan is one of Francis and Violet Hunter’s grandchildren and remembers visiting her grandparents during school holidays. Trewennan is now used for self-catering accommodation.