I have photographed various sites, owned by Cornwall Heritage, and this is the smallest site they own.
Trevanion Culverhouse is a well preserved 13th to 14th century dovecote (pigeon house), with its keystone finish roof, and thought to be one of only four surviving examples of its kind in Cornwall. The culverhouse was used to farm the eggs and meat of its inhabitants.
A culverhouse, (also known as the culverhay or culvery), is a dovecote. In Scotland it would be known as a doocot; in Latin as a columbarium; and in French they are known as pigeonnier and sometimes as colombier. This one originally served nearby Trevanion Manor.
For centuries doves and pigeons were a valuable source of meat, eggs and manure as well as feathers for mattresses. In the Middle Ages only manorial lords could keep these birds, so the few remaining medieval dovecotes are connected with manor houses, castles, parsonages or former monastic sites. The laws relaxed after about 1600, so many later farms had dovecotes, until their use declined after the 18th century.
Located on the edge of a modern housing estate in Wadebridge, it’s well hidden away. I certainly hadn’t heard of it before. I was asked to photograph it both from the air, and from the ground – the drone images to show the building in context with it’s surroundings.
A crisp, frosty, February morning presented me with a lovely blue sky – perfect weather, so I travelled up nice and early, as at this time of the year, the sun only shines on the front of the building for a short time.
The drone really captures the building in it’s surroundings, but for me, it’s the interior that I personally found fascinating to photograph. All the alcoves, where the pigeons would have lived, and the way the photo came out, made me think of something from the Middle East, rather than Cornwall.
If you haven’t visited this site before, I thoroughly recommend you put it on your list.
