A PROPERTY developer has asked for help in finding out the old uses of a building he is working on in Truro.

The Old Store can be found on St Clement’s Hill, a stone’s throw from Tregolls Lodge retirement homes and Domino’s Pizza.

Craig Woodman, director of Carlos Construction & Management and a former Truro resident, has invested in the property and hopes to covert it into a potential one-bedroom holiday rental. “I'm a big fan of doing what seem like hard or even impossible tasks, and this ticked that box,” he said.

“I came and saw it once, and took a gamble. It has such character. I have a bit of a thing for seeing something before it's finished - seeing the stars through the clouds, so to speak. I love that it has history and that it's unusual. I’d love to get some photos of it in action through the years, and maybe incorporate it into my refurb.”

Who better to turn to for answers than the oracle of Cornish history, Cllr Bert Biscoe? Bert explained that until Tregolls Road was built by the Truro Turnpike Trust in 1823, St Clement Hill was the main coaching road out of Truro heading north via Tresillian.

Passengers on the coaches paid a penny per mile for the privilege of a three-day journey to London, and as late as 1852, coaching companies such as Quicksilver, Magnet and the North Mail would have used this “quite difficult” route to carry mail from London to be shipped out of Falmouth, including to the Americas, Africa and India.

“I think there is a chance that what is known as The Old Store was part of what was the Toll House,” he said. “The capital to build Tregolls Road will have accrued from tolls charged on this road, the regular income enabling the necessary loans to be obtained by the trust.

“It’s in the right place to be a toll house, what exists looks like the ground floor of a small house, and the configuration of windows and the angled gable ends suggest this. However, the location of the structure would have been cursed by coach drivers, as they would have had to coax their teams with their loads up that hill from a standing start!”

Bert estimates that if it did serve as a toll house, The Old Store would have ceased operation around the 1820s when Tregolls Road came into service, using the toll house at Tresillian Bridge.

He also pointed out that this would have been the historic arterial route through the Manor of Moresk in St Clement, one of the 17 manors by Edward III to the first Duke of Cornwall upon the King's creation of the Duchy. It ran from St Clement across Penair and Tregurra to Nancemere.

“If any Voice readers have knowledge, ideas or yarns to contribute, I’d be keen to hear them,” he added. Please send any correspondence to [email protected]