Calstock War Memorial & Cemetery

The lone CWGC headstone (see below) is visible slightly left of centre, middle distance.

PRIVATE F. MARKSROYAL ARMY SERVICE CORPS5219/11/1918

In memory of Private H. J. Warne of the Devonshire Regiment.

This entry was posted in Cornwall, U.K. Churches, Memorials & Cemeteries - Back in Blighty. Bookmark the permalink.

19 Responses to Calstock War Memorial & Cemetery

  1. Richard Roberts says:

    Hello
    I contribute to a website http://www.ww1-yorkshires.org.uk/ which is dedicated to recording something of the men of The Yorkshire Regiment who fought in the First World War. One such man, Pte. Tosti Langsford, is commemorated on the Calstock War Memorial. I was wondering if you would kindly allow your photographs to be reused. I would, of course, ensure that ownership is credited and a link provided to your site.
    Regards
    Richard

  2. Magicfingers says:

    You are more than welcome, Richard. Ownership and link appreciated. Glad you found my site, and glad I can be of help.

  3. Magicfingers says:

    Oh, and I have tweaked the page a tiny bit…it works better now.

  4. Many thanks for allowing use of the photos. A page for Calstock is now up on the Yorkshire Regiment Remembrance website, –
    http://www.ww1-yorkshires.org.uk/html-files/war-memorials-elsewhere-C.htm
    with the one Yorks soldier whose name is found on the Calstock Memorial.

  5. Magicfingers says:

    By the way Edward, I also have two photos that include the headstones of Privates Howlett & Bowden, who are buried in Brookwood Cemetery and, according to a list I found on your site, it appears you don’t have photos of them. Lmk if you want copies.

    • I would be delighted to receive photos of Howlett & Barden in Brookwood Cemetery.
      Also, I have corrected the County for Calstock, – sorry, I should have checked my maps before I ascribed it to Wiltshire. Maybe it’s because I’d just recently been placing for Wiltshire material on the website that I made this “deliberate mistake”!

  6. Magicfingers says:

    Ah, and Calstock is in Cornwall, I promise you, not Wiltshire.

  7. Oliver Crocker says:

    Dear Magicfingers; would you be kind enough to contact me regarding some research I am doing about Private Tosti Langsford? I need some expert local knowledge for a WW1 piece for ITV. oliver DOT crocker AT itv DOT com.

    Many thanks! Oliver

  8. Nick kilner says:

    I was born in Calstock. Interesting looking at the memorial again now to see a few familiar names on it. The Southcotts still lived in the village in the early 70’s (and may still do). At the time they ran the local post office, and Mr Southcott owned a boatyard on the edge of the village along lower Kelly. This particular boatyard, being situation on the Tamar river upstream from Plymouth, was commendeared by the Americans for repairing and maintaining landing craft ahead of the D-Day invasion. The boatshed still had American posters on the walls when my parents moved to the village in the late 60’s. The Danescombe Valley Hotel (now just a private house) at the end of the road was also used as officers quarters.

    • Nick kilner says:

      There’s perhaps one other headstone of note in the churchyard at Calstock. That of Harry & Shadrach Gale. Both died April 14th 1912, victims of the Titanic disaster.

      • Magicfingers says:

        Ah, now that is all good stuff Nick. Thank you. I really appreciate anything that adds to the story. The coastal towns and villages of Cornwall & Devon hold many reminders of D-Day, as you well know I expect. Salcombe and Trebah Gardens (both elsewhere on this site – I revisited Trebah only ten days ago – the beach there still retains plenty of D-Day concrete) immediately come to mind. And I wish I’d known about the Titanic victims when I was there, and a headstone suggests that their bodies were recovered? Or is it a memorial?

        • Nick kilner says:

          Always a pleasure MagicFingers. The headstone reads ‘in rememberance’ so I would assume their bodies were never recovered. We were taken there from primary school to do grave rubbings (and to collect conkers, although I’m not sure that was actually part of the agenda ). From memory there are some exceptionally old headstones in the graveyard there.
          One other war related fact is that in 1944 a German aircraft clipped the mine chimney at Greenhill (near chilsworthy, and the hamlet we moved to up on the top of the valley from Gunnislake), and spun down the valley, crashing into the woods directly opposite Calstock. I have little to no information about this, other than that it happened in 1944. This was born out by the repair to the stack behind our house which had the date painted on it in big white numbers. Unfortunately the stack was all but destroyed by lighting some years ago. If you google Greenhill arsenic works,
          https://www.aditnow.co.uk/Mines/Greenhill-Works-Arsenic-Factory_10601/
          it show the stack in question, but unfortunately only after it was struck by lightening. The derilict mine shown was my playground growing up, which may well explain one or two things . There were still reports of people finding bits of the plane when I was growing up, so presumably it was never properly recovered.

          • Magicfingers says:

            That’s an interesting site you linked to there – has been bookmarked. I’m a Croydon boy though no longer living there, but if you take a trip round the roads surrounding the old site of Croydon Airport, you can still see evidence of either Luftwaffe bombs or stricken planes that failed to find the runway – mainly by studying the roofs of the houses. Those with ‘new’ tiles on their roofs mark the sites.

        • Nick kilner says:

          Trebah is a fantastic place to visit. We often went to the beach there as children. I’m sure you are also aware of the ruins of the National Explosives Factory in the dunes at Upton towens, and the Ruins of Bickfords fuse factory in Camborne. Worth having a poke round if you’ve not visited, something tells me Bickfords in particular won’t be there for too much longer.

          • Magicfingers says:

            You give my knowledge too much credence – I know of neither – I mean, I know of the National Explosives Factory ruins but it never occurred to me where they were. I have now Googled. When we are in Cornwall we stay at Trellowarren, which is, what, twelve miles as the crow flies, from both?! I have already told the missus that we shall be exploring dunes in October when we return. And I see what you mean about Bickfords, by the way. Little time to lose, I agree. I presume it can’t be too difficult to find? Brilliant images here: http://www.cornishmineimages.co.uk/bickfords-fuse-works/

  9. Nick kilner says:

    Well I’m very glad to have been able to have passed something on. Bickfords in right on the main road into Camborne from Redruth (the proper road, not that new fangled A30 bypass thingy), so not difficult to find at all, though I’m not sure what ‘site access’ will be like these days. Why it’s never been listed as a heratige site, I can’t imagine. Perhaps a general lack of knowledge about just how important the safety fuse was, not just for mining, but throughout the course of both the first and second world wars. Given the rate of house building in the uk at the moment, if it’s not protected soon it’s sure to become yet another estate of unaffordable houses (don’t get me started down that road! 😉 ).
    Look for the crocodile shadow on google earth in Tuckingmill (you’ll know it when you see it). If you go up Chapel road and park you should be able to walk across to it from the rear. There’s a layby on the lef5 jus5 before the bridge. You may need to find an ‘improvised’ entrance, but worth a look

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